Los Alamos Ordnance Division
Navy Captain William Parsons arrives at Los Alamos to lead the Ordnance Division and direct gun-assembly development.
Historical biography archive · Updated 2026-11-03
William Sterling Parsons Biography and Timeline
Follow William Sterling Parsons through 6 dated historical records for United States of America.
William Sterling Parsons, historical timeline
A chronological timeline drawn from matching World History Database records.
6Distinct records
1 of 1Page
1943–1945Years on this page
1943
First Gun Assembly Test Shot
The Los Alamos gun-assembly programme fires its first test shot while concentrating on a high-velocity plutonium gun design.
1944
First Fat Man Assembly
The first full Fat Man bomb assembly is completed for handling and airdrop practice, before nuclear material and final explosive lenses are available.
1945
Pacific Atomic Delivery Conference
Parsons meets with Groves and Oppenheimer to finalise arrangements for delivering atomic weapons to the Pacific theatre.
Little Boy Components Shipped on Indianapolis
Little Boy bomb units and the uranium projectile leave San Francisco aboard USS Indianapolis for Tinian.
Little Boy Assembly Completed
Final assembly of Little Boy is completed on Tinian and the weapon is ready for combat use.
Records, sources and methodology
These dates and descriptions come from the historical_events database. Exact duplicate records have been collapsed. Names are grouped by the country, Name 2 and Name 1 fields; records with missing Name 2 cannot be reliably assigned to an individual biography. Check the underlying sources before formal citation.