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	VIDEO INTERVIEWS require RealPlayer G2 Richard Rhodes on the atom bomb Michael Lynch on the oil industry  1910 Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, formed over several years from about 20 electric utilities, became the world's largest utility.  1913 OIL REFINING William M. Burton develops the thermal-cracking technique for refining oil.  1924 Ethyl Gasoline Co. formed by General Motors Co. and Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey to market leaded gasoline.  1930 ACCELERATOR Ernest O. Lawrence proposes smashing atoms together, an idea that leads to the accelerator.  1933 Tennessee Valley Authority created by Congress to control floods and produce power through a system of nine major dams in seven states.  1935 Rural Electrification Administration established to subsidize the adoption of electrical service in rural parts of America.  1936 HOOVER DAM The Boulder Dam, renamed the Hoover Dam, starts sending hydroelectric power to Los Angeles.  1938 Major oil finds made in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.  1942 Manhattan Project, the U.S. government's secret project to develop the atomic bomb, is begun.  1944 V-2 ROCKET Nazi Germany fires V-2 rockets on London.  1945 ATOM BOMB The atom bomb is detonated at the Trinity test site in New Mexico.  1947 OFFSHORE DRILLING Kerr-McGee drills the first major offshore oil wells.  1952 HYDROGEN BOMB Hydrogen bomb exploded in the Pacific, unleashing 700 times the force of the Hiroshima explosion.  1954 SOLAR CELLS The solar cell is developed by Bell Labs researchers.  1960 LASER The first laser beams are generated in Theodore H. Maiman's lab.  1968 Oil discovered in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.  1970s WINDMILLS The old technology of wind power is reborn in modern wind turbines.  1979 THREE MILE ISLAND The Three Mile Island accident deals a severe blow to the nuclear power industry.  1986 Partial meltdown at nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine, accompanied by radioactive emissions.  1989 Supertanker Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of petroleum into Alaska's Prince William Sound.  1993 U.S. Congress cancels the superconducting supercollider project in Texas.  1998 India conducts three underground nuclear explosions.