Question: What was the date of the first atomic bomb explosion?
About the article "Galatea of the Spheres", section "Dalí's motivation".

Candidate passages:
In 1953 Sherman covered the first 12 atomic bomb test series at Yucca Flat, Nev., and was one of six reporters who volunteered to witness a nuclear explosion in an open trench less than two miles from ground zero.
One of the first historic explosions code-named Annie sparked this eyewitness dispatch: "The murky dawn light was suddenly gone from our trench, washed out by the indefinable, unbelievable brilliance of the atomic flash.
Under my nose the dull powdered sand of the trench turned an unworldly white.
Simultaneously, the earth we embraced so dependently convulsed in violent paroxysm.
We were shaken like dice in a cup for brief, fleeting moments of terror.
"Following an earlier, rescheduled explosion, Sherman wrote a long narrative about a bomb test that did not explode as planned.
Dr. John C. Clark, who climbed the 300-foot explosion tower with two other test scientists, disconnected basic detonation wires of what they called "the gadget."
They climbed back down and returned to the "firing" control room 10 miles away.
The bomb was rescheduled to test explode five days later; the flash was seen in Los Angeles 375 miles away.
The public never heard of this heroic, harrowing episode.
When Sherman asked why the first story had been spiked, the editor said, "Because the bomb didn’t go off."
With Gerboise Bleue, France became the fourth nuclear power, after the United States, the USSR, and the United Kingdom.
Gerboise Bleue was by far the largest first test bomb up to that date, larger than the American "Trinity" (20 kt), the Soviet "RDS-1" (22 kt), or the British "Hurricane" (25 kt).
The yield was 70 kilotons, bigger than these three bombs put together.
General De Gaulle stated:In comparison, Fat Man, the Nagasaki bomb, was 22 kilotons, one-third as powerful.
Only two other A-bombs tested in the Sahara facilities were more powerful: "Rubis" (<100 kt, 20 October 1963), and "Saphir" (<150 kt, 25 February 1965).
Both were exploded underground at the Tan Afella facility.
All other French atomic-bomb tests, including Canopus, were done in French Polynesia from 1966 to 1996.
The last bomb, Xouthos (<120 kt), was exploded on 27 January 1996.
As the atomic yield of a new bomb design cannot be precisely predicted, the French army planned an explosion between 60 and 70 kt.
Gerboise Bleue was a total success, yielding the full designed power. 
A second bomb discovered in a car near the site of the first explosion was successfully defused. 
Sir Michael Willcox Perrin (1905–1988) was a scientist who created the first practical polythene, directed the first British atomic bomb programme, and participated in the Allied intelligence of the Nazi atomic bomb. 
Japan was doing basic research on the atomic bomb.
However, according to one Japanese source, Hirohito was opposed to the atomic bomb plan from the beginning.
The Emperor thought that use of an atomic bomb would bring about the extermination of mankind.
The Navy (F-go) and Army (Ni-go) atomic bomb research projects were in operation until the end of World War II.
On August 15, 1945, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he made apparent reference to the atomic bomb in his Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War: "Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.
Should We continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization."
However, in his first ever press conference given in Tokyo in 1975, when he was asked what he thought of the bombing of Hiroshima, the Emperor answered: "It's very regrettable that nuclear bombs were dropped and I feel sorry for the citizens of Hiroshima but it couldn't be helped because that happened in wartime."