| Year | Event |
| 1895 | Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays. |
| 1896 | Henry Becquerel discovers radioactivity |
| 1898 | Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radioactive elements polonium and radium. |
| 1905 | Albert Einstein theorises that matter can convert to energy. |
| 1911 | Ernest Rutherford proposes that atoms have a nucleus with electrons in orbit. |
| 1919 | Ernest Rutherford discovers the proton. |
| 1932 | James Chadwick discovers the neutron, which can penetrate the atom. |
| 1938 | Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman split uranium atoms. Frederick Joliot-Curie shows extra neutrons released when atoms split, making possible a chain reaction. |
| 1941 | Manhattan Project for production of A-bomb started in USA. |
| 1942 | USSR commences its A-bomb development. |
| 1945 | A-bomb Trinity exploded at Alamogordo, USA.
A-bombs Little Boy and Fat Boy destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki (respectively) in Japan. |
| 1949 | A-bomb exploded by USSR. |
| 1950 | Stockholm 'ban the bomb' petition signed by 500 million people all over the world. |
| 1952 | H-bomb exploded by USA on Eniwetak, Marshall Islands. |
| 1953 | USSR explodes H-bomb. |
| 1954 | Nuclear electricity supplied to town in USSR for first time.
Major new phase of uranium mining started in Australia.
The first commercial nuclear power station begins operation at Shippingport in the USA, with a capacity of 60 MW. However, the facility was owned by the US Navy and was from the same design as that for the world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus. |
| 1955 | The nuclear reactor at Calder Hall in the UK was connected to the national electricity grid. |
| 1957 | Major nuclear reactor accident at Windscale, UK.
Catastrophic nuclear waste storage explosion in USSR. |
| 1959 | Early citizens protest on waste dumping in Massachusetts waters. |
| 1963 | Partial Test Ban Treaty banning atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. |
| 1967 | Non-Proliferation Treaty prohibiting transfer of nuclear technology for weapons but encouraging transfer of nuclear power technology.
Treaty of Tlateloco creating a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in South America. |
| 1972 | French atmospheric nuclear explosions in Polynesian islands provoke protest and boycott on French trade in Australia. |
| 1974 | First large citizen occupation by 30,000 people of nuclear reactor site at Whyl, West Germany. |
| 1976 | National one-day trade union strike against Mary Kathleen uranium mine.
Australian anti-nuclear movement begins the first of many demonstrations against uranium mining. |
| 1978 | People's Nuclear-Free Pacific Conference at Panape, Micronesia, adopts a People's Treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, nuclear power and nuclear wastes from the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1979 | Major accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania, USA. |
| 1981 | First new uranium mines for a decade begin operations in Northern Territory.
The new Ranger mine exports its first uranium after a blockade for seven weeks on the Darwin Wharf. |
| 1982 | First occupation of a uranium mine at Honeymoon by Coalition For A Nuclear-Free Australia. |
| 1983 | Labour government swept to power and introduces the Three-Named Mines Uranium Policy.
Major community protest actions and blockades at Roxby Downs. |
| 1984 | Major community protest actions and blockades continue at Roxby Downs. |
| 1986 | Massive reactor explosion at Chernobyl, former USSR, leaving hundreds of thousands exposed to radioactive gases across the European continent. |
| 1988 | Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia begins operation. |
| 1995 | French resume underground nuclear weapons tests at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia, subject to world-wide condemnation. |
| 1996 | Liberal Coalition comes to power and proceeds with a policy of expansion of uranium mining throughout Australia. |
| 1998 | India detonate 5 underground nuclear bombs.
Pakistan, in retaliation to India's tests, detonate 6 nuclear bombs. |
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