Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York City. He grew up in a wealthy family in Manhattan and was surrounded by beautiful artwork of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and Paul Gauguin in his home.

1. OPPENHEIMER
“Father” of the Atomic Bomb
The Man Who Invented Atomic Bomb
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904, in New York City. He grew up in a
wealthy family in Manhattan and was surrounded by the beautiful artwork of Vincent van Gogh,
Paul Cézanne, and Paul Gauguin in his home.

2. He Was The ​
First To Claim That Blackholes Existed
Oppenheimer suggested in a 1939 paper that dying stars with stronger gravitational pull than
energy production could be found in outer space.
He may have tried to poison his professor with an apple
Oppenheimer's claim of a poisoned apple incident is not supported by evidence.
Charles Oppenheimer, the grandson of Fergusson, disputes the incident. There is no
confirmation that Blackett ate a poisoned apple. Oppenheimer faced the possibility of

3. being expelled from school and facing criminal charges. However, his father intervened
and negotiated that he be placed on academic probation instead.
A True Polyglot
Oppenheimer was a polyglot and could speak several languages fluently,
including French, German, and Sanskrit. He was interested in a wide range of
scientific topics beyond physics, including biology, geology, and astrophysics. He
even wrote a book on quantum mechanics for a general audience.
The Romantic Rationalist

4. Oppenheimer had a vibrant love life, despite being shy and focused on science.
He married Kitty Harrison while she was still married to someone else. They
eloped and remained together. Oppenheimer also had affairs with other women,
including Jean Tatlock, Ruth Sherman Tolman, and a professor.
Oppenheimer's Inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita
Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.’ The Story of Oppenheimer’s
Infamous Quote
The line, from the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita, has come to define
Robert Oppenheimer, but its meaning is more complex than many realize.
He code-named the first atomic bomb test in honor of his dead
mistress
At a nuclear test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, atomic bomb scientists
measure radioactivity in seared sand particles 2 months after the explosion when

5. newsmen saw bomb effects for the first time. Standing left to right: Dr. Kenneth.T.
Bainbridge (Harvard University); Joseph G. Hoffman, (Buffalo, NY); Dr. J.R.
Oppenheimer, Director of Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project; Dr. L.H.
Hempelman, (Washington University in St. Louis); Dr. R.F. Bacher (Cornell
University); Dr. V.W. Weisskopf, (University of Rochester); and Dr. Richard W.
Dodson (California).
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds
He wrote: "through discipline, though not through discipline alone, we can
achieve serenity, and a certain small but precious measure of freedom from the
accidents of incarnation… and that detachment which preserves the world it
renounces". Only through discipline, he added, is it possible to "see the world
without the gross distraction of personal desire, and in seeing so, accept more
easily our earthly privation and its earthly horror".
A photograph on display at The Bradbury Science Museum shows the
first thermonuclear test on October 31, 1952

6. As he witnessed the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, a
piece of Hindu scripture ran through the mind of J. Robert Oppenheimer: “Now I
am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” It is, perhaps, the most well-known
line from the Bhagavad Gita, but also the most misunderstood.
President Truman called him a crybaby
U.S. military commander General Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964) and U.S.
President Harry S. Truman (1884 - 1972) as they talk in the back seat of a car in
Wake Island, October 18, 1950.
He Never Won The Nobel Prize
Despite inventing the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer failed to bag the prestigious
Nobel Prize as military technological breakthroughs are not recognized by the
committee.

7. Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Prize for physics three times, in
1945, 1951, and 1967, but it eluded him, each time
How did Oppenheimer die?
Oppenheimer died rather early in life, from throat cancer, at the age of 62. He
passed on February 18, 1967, in Princeton, New Jersey
Here are also a large number of books on Oppenheimer and his life,
including most recently, J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Brain Behind the
Bomb (Inventors Who Changed the World) by Glenn Scherer and Marty
Fletcher (Myreportlinks.com, 2007) and Oppenheimer and the Manhattan
Project: Insights into J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Father of the Atomic Bomb,”
by Cynthia C. Kelly (World Scientific Publishing Company, 2006).