Now I Am Become Death The

J. Robert Oppenheimer recited this line from the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32) in a 1965 NBC News documentary, recalling his thoughts after the Trinity test on 16 July 1945 — the first detonation of a nuclear device at the Alamogordo test site in New Mexico. The words are spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna, who is overwhelmed by Krishna's cosmic form. Oppenheimer had taught himself Sanskrit and kept a copy of the Gita; his brother Frank, who was present at Trinity, recalled that in the immediate aftermath Robert's actual words were simply "I guess it worked."