Summary and Key Points: On November 6, 1971, the U.S. conducted its largest underground nuclear test, the five-megaton Cannikin shot, on Amchitka Island, Alaska. The test was for a warhead intended ...

Amchitka Island sits at the midway point on the great arc of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, less than 900 miles across the Bering Sea from the coast of Russia. Amchitka, a spongy landscape of maritime ...

Here’s What You Need to Remember: The test led to the establishment of Greenpeace, whose first major action was to protest the Cannikin nuclear test. On Nov. 6, 1971, the United States conducted its ...