Starfish Prime, a nuclear detonation 250 miles above the Pacific in 1962
SMRTR summary
On July 9, 1962, the U.S. detonated a 1.4-megaton nuclear warhead 250 miles above the Pacific, and the electromagnetic pulse traveled nearly 900 miles to Hawaii, knocking out streetlights, triggering burglar alarms, and damaging telephone equipment. The blast also injected radiation into Earth's magnetosphere, permanently damaging several early satellites, including Telstar 1, and helped push the U.S. and Soviet Union toward the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty.
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