The main purpose of the Manhattan Project during World War II was to develop the first nuclear weapons. Initiated in response to fears that Nazi Germany was working on similar technology, the project brought together some of the brightest scientific minds in the United States, including Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi. The project culminated in the successful test of the atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico, ahead of its deployment on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The project not only changed the course of the war but also ushered in the nuclear age.