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From today's featured article James Chadwick British scientists were crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs during World War II. After Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch at the University of Birmingham calculated that a small sphere of pure uranium-235 could explode with the power of thousands of tons of dynamite, their memorandum led to Britain's own atomic bomb project. This project shared research with the US, but was eventually subsumed by the Manhattan Project under the 1943 Quebec Agreement. A British mission led by the Australian physicist Mark Oliphant assisted in the development of electromagnetic separation processes for enriching uranium; Wallace Akers led a similar mission assisting with gaseous diffusion. James Chadwick (pictured) was the head of a British team of distinguished scientists working on bomb design at the Los Alamos Laboratory that included Niels Bohr, Peierls, Frisch, Geoffrey Taylor, and James Tuck, as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was later revealed to be a Soviet atomic spy. American and British cooperation ended with the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. In October 1952, Britain became the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon. (Full article...) Recently featured: Assassination of Spencer Perceval How a Mosquito Operates 2007 Atlantic hurricane season Did you know... Model of a mastodon ... that the domed wooden Dorkovo Museum displays fossils from the Pliocene era, including a life-size model of a mastodon (pictured)? ... that Max Reger regarded his composition Der Einsiedler, a setting of a poem by Eichendorff for baritone, choir and orchestra, as "among the most beautiful things I've ever written"? ... that the 13 member countries of OPEC account for 40 percent of worldwide oil production and 73 percent of proven oil reserves? ... that Cerys Hale was selected for the Wales women's national rugby union team squad for the 2014 World Cup, while still at university? ... that the upcoming film Rebel in the Rye is based on a non-fiction book about the life of author J. D. Salinger during World War II? ... that Aled Roberts was disqualified from the Welsh Assembly because of incorrect guidance given in a Welsh-language document? ... that the new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge is the fourth floating bridge to connect Seattle with its Eastside suburbs, and the world's longest? ... that the Cheltenham Town footballer Daniel Wright gave his son the number 9 as a middle name?

In the news Werner Faymann Werner Faymann (pictured) resigns as Chancellor of Austria and leader of the Social Democratic Party. In horse racing, Nyquist, ridden by Mario Gutierrez, wins the Kentucky Derby. Enda Kenny of Fine Gael is re-elected Taoiseach of Ireland and forms a minority coalition government. A wildfire in Canada displaces 88,000 people and destroys more than 2,400 buildings in Fort McMurray, Alberta. In association football, Leicester City win the English Premier League for the first time. Mark Selby defeats Ding Junhui to win the World Snooker Championship. Ongoing events Recent deaths: John Warr Walther Leisler Kiep John Young Margot Honecker On this day... May 12: International Nurses Day; Yom Ha'atzmaut in Israel (2016) The Duke of Guise during the Day of the Barricades 1588 – An apparently spontaneous public uprising (pictured) arose in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate policies of Henry III. 1846 – Led by George Donner, the American pioneer group known as the Donner Party, which became known for resorting to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Sierra Nevadas, left Independence, Missouri, for California. 1926 – The Trades Union Congress, a federation of British trade unions, announced that it would end its week-long general strike "in defence of [coal] miners' wages and hours". 1968 – The 1st Australian Task Force began the defence of Fire Support Base Coral in the largest unit-level action of the Vietnam War for the Australian Army. 2006 – A cartoon that allegedly compared Iranian Azeris to cockroaches was published in an Iranian magazine, sparking riots throughout the country. More anniversaries: May 11 May 12 May 13

Today's featured picture The Art of Painting is a 17th-century oil painting on canvas by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. The painting, often held to be an allegory of the art, has a composition and iconography that make it the most complex of Vermeer's works. Walter Liedtke describes it "as a virtuoso display of the artist's power of invention and execution, staged in an imaginary version of his studio", and Albert Blankert writes that "no other painting so flawlessly integrates naturalistic technique, brightly illuminated space, and a complexly integrated composition". The Art of Painting is owned by the Austrian Republic and is on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Painting: Johannes Vermeer Recently featured: Alaskan parchment scrip Louis XVI of France El Atazar Dam

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