America had a lot going for it in the 1950s — economic prosperity, technological innovation, military might, a baby boom — but in the current times of nuclear non-proliferation, it’s easy to forget it also had nuclear bomb tests in the Nevada desert whose glow could be seen from Los Angeles.

 

These photos, taken in L.A. at that time, show the pre-dawn luminescence caused by A-bomb tests carried out at the vast Nevada Test Site, northwest of Las Vegas.