International Day against Nuclear Tests is organized every year on 29 August to create awareness about the harmful effects of nuclear weapons testing and to strengthen public sentiment against such tests.
The 'International Day Against Nuclear Tests' was established on 2 December 2009 by the United Nations General Assembly during its 64th session.
In 1991, Kazakhstan proposed to organize the day to mark the 18th anniversary of the closure of the USSR-controlled Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. The first nuclear test (called 'Trinity') was carried out by the United States military in a desert in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. After this, America used it for the first time in August 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
The attack caused an estimated 200,000 deaths and survivors contracted radiation-induced cancer. Despite this disastrous event, a total of 2000 nuclear tests were conducted between 1945 and 1996. Apart from this, '26 September' was declared as 'International Day for the Complete Abolition of Nuclear Weapons' by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the year 2013.
