For further information, Wikipedia includes two relevant lists, one on films about nuclear issues and another on nuclear weapons testing. Although it does not mention bomb films, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) provides a more complete official chronology of atomic bomb related events. You also can view a partial playlist of atomic bomb films, with clips and trailers and including some documentaries, on the TV Multiversity YouTube channel.
Part One of the timeline covers a few pre-Hiroshima events leading to the development of nuclear weapons, and then moves to initial responses to the bomb, with a focus on American and Japanese films. It then covers the first decade or so of the Cold War up until the release of Dr. Strangelove in the early-mid 1960s. Part Two will pick up films and events from there and take us through proliferation and toward the present.
1895
November: Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays, earning him a Nobel Prize in physics.
1896
May: Henri Bequerel discovers radioactive properties of uranium.
1898
December: Marie Curie discovers the radioactive elements radium and polonium and coins the term “radioactivity,” but later dies from radiation poisoning.
H.G. Wells, an avid reader of science who kept up to date with the latest discoveries in nuclear physics, publishes the sci-fi novel The world set free, which includes the first usage of the term "atomic bomb."
1922
Frederick Soddy publishes The interpretation of radium, suggesting that immense energy can be released from radioactive elements.
1931
Yoshio Nishina, a leading figure in Japan's nuclear physics program and an associate of Albert Einstein, establishes a nuclear research laboratory. The lab would have over 100 researchers by 1941.
1934
Hikosaka Tadayoshi, a professor of physics at Tohoku University, publishes "atomic physics theory."
1936
March: Leo Szilard patents his method of bringing about a chain reaction, an eventual essential feature of nuclear weapons.
1938
December: Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann demonstrate that the uranium atom can be split through neutron bombardment.
1939
August: Albert Einstein suggests in a letter to US President Roosevelt that Germany may be developing nuclear weapons.
September: World War II begins.
1941
October: Roosevelt approves the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb.
December: Japan attacks the USA military base at Pearl Harbor.
1942
July: First meeting of the Japanese Navy's Committee on Research in the Application of Nuclear Physics, chaired by Nishina.
1936
March: Leo Szilard patents his method of bringing about a chain reaction, an eventual essential feature of nuclear weapons.
1938
December: Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann demonstrate that the uranium atom can be split through neutron bombardment.
August: Albert Einstein suggests in a letter to US President Roosevelt that Germany may be developing nuclear weapons.
September: World War II begins.
1941
October: Roosevelt approves the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb.
December: Japan attacks the USA military base at Pearl Harbor.
1942
July: First meeting of the Japanese Navy's Committee on Research in the Application of Nuclear Physics, chaired by Nishina.
December: Atomic scientists at the University of Chicago produce the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
1943
February: The Norwegian resistance movement against Nazi occupation succeeds, with Allied support, to sabotage the German plant that produced "heavy water," an essential ingredient in producing nuclear weapons.
August: The Quebec Agreement between the USA and the UK specifies cooperation on development of nuclear weapons.
1944
The USA and the UK attempt to control and monopolize worldwide sources of uranium.
1945
February: American air raid on Tokyo destroys Nishina's lab.
1943
February: The Norwegian resistance movement against Nazi occupation succeeds, with Allied support, to sabotage the German plant that produced "heavy water," an essential ingredient in producing nuclear weapons.
August: The Quebec Agreement between the USA and the UK specifies cooperation on development of nuclear weapons.
1944
The USA and the UK attempt to control and monopolize worldwide sources of uranium.
February: American air raid on Tokyo destroys Nishina's lab.
July: The USA tests its first atomic bomb, code-named "Trinity," at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
August: The USA drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
September: World War II ends; First yank in Tokyo and House on 92nd street are re-written and re-edited before release to include references to atomic weapons.
1946
February: A spy ring is discovered in Canada, which had been passing nuclear secrets to the USSR.
July: The first of many US nuclear weapons tests on Bikini Atoll. The native inhabitants were removed during the tests, although after returning, many suffered from radiation sickness.
August: Notorious, Alfred Hitchock's atomic-themed spy drama, is released in USA.
1947
February: The beginning or the end is released in the USA.
1948
April: Krakatit released in Czechoslovakia, positing the fictional development of a powerful explosive substance.
February: Kampen om tungtvannet AKA La bataille de l'eau lourde released in Norway. It is a dramatization of the "heavy water wars" (see 1943).
1949
August: The USSR detonates its first atomic bomb in the RDS-1 weapons test, also known as "First Lightening."
1950
January: USA President Truman announces development of a "hydrogen bomb."
June: The Korean war begins; Rocketship X-M released in the USA.
September: The Beginning or the End released in Japan; Seven days to noon released in the UK; 長崎の鐘 Nagasaki no kane AKA The bells of Nagasaki is released in Japan, based on a novel by Takashi Nagai (a physician and Nagasaki hibakusha).
1951
January: The USA begins open air nuclear weapons testing in Nevada.
September: The day the earth stood still released in the USA.
October: Five released in the USA.
1952
January: "Duck and cover," a light hearted American civil defense training film aimed at schoolchildren, release in the USA.
March: The day the earth stood still released in Japan as 地球が静止する日 (Chikyu ga seishi suru hi); Nagasaki no uta wa wasureji AKA I’ll never forget the song of Nagasaki released in Japan.
April: The USA occupation of Japan officially ends.
August: Genbaku no ko AKA Children of Hiroshima released in Japan.
October: The UK tests a nuclear weapon at Montebello Islands, Australia.
November: The USA begins nuclear weapons testing at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
December: Invasion USA is released in the USA.
N/D: Hamati kombola zorria AKA My mother-in-law is an atomic bomb released in Egypt.
1953
January: Above and beyond released in the USA.
April: USA President Eisenhower considers using nuclear weapons against China to end the Korean War.
May: Split second release in the USA.
June: The beast from 20,000 fathoms released in the USA.
August: The USSR tests a hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in central Siberia (present-day Kazakhstan).
December: USA President Eisenhower promotes "atoms for peace."
1954
January: The USA develops policy of "massive retaliation."
February: The USA tests a thermonuclear weapon, or "hydrogen bomb," at Bikini Atoll.
March: Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru exposed to radiation from USA nuclear weapons test in the Pacific code-named "Bravo"; Gembaku no ko screened at the Cannes Film Festival, France.
June: Them! released in the USA; The USSR commissions its first practical nuclear power plant.
August: Them! released in Japan as Hoshano X (Radioactivity X).
October: Child’s play released in the UK.
November: Gojira AKA Godzilla released in Japan.
December: The beast from 20,000 fathoms released in Japan as Genshi kaiju genwaru (The Atomic Monster Appears); The atomic kid, the first atomic comedy, released in the USA; Port of hell released in the USA.
1955
April: Gojira no gyakushu (Godzilla's counter-attack or Godzilla raids again) released in Japan.
July: It came from beneath the sea and Creature with the atom brain released in the USA.
November: Ikimono no kiroku (Record of a living being) released in Japan.
December: Day the world ended released in the USA.
N/D: The USA begins positioning nuclear missiles in Europe, targeting the USSR.
1956
March: World without end released in the USA.
April: Ikimono no kiroku screened at Cannes Film Festival, France; the Japanese film Gojira AKA Godzilla is re-edited and released in the USA as Godzilla, king of the monsters!.
June: UK nuclear weapons test on Alpha Island spreads radioactive fallout into Australia.
August: The world's first nuclear power plant dedicated solely to producing electricity is commissioned in the UK; Sora no daikaiju Radon AKA Rodan released in Japan.
September: Calabuch AKA The rocket from Calabuch released in Spain.
N/D: The UK continues nuclear testing in Australia.
1957
June: Beginning of the end released in the USA.
July: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established.
September: USSR nuclear accident, known as Kyshtym disaster, releases radioactive fallout in the Ural Mountains.
October: UK nuclear reactor accident releases radioactive fallout; The amazing colossal man released in the USA.
December: 地球防衛軍 Chikyuu bou-eigun (Earth defense force) AKA The Mysterians released in Japan.
N/D: Series of short films featuring Super Giant, Japan’s first superhero, released in Japan, parts of which are later re-edited into Atomic rulers of the world.
1958
February: American bomber dumps nuclear bomb into ocean off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, after mid-air collision during a military exercise, one of several "lost nuclear weapons."
June: 美女と液体人間 Bijo to ekitai ningen AKA The H-man released in Japan; The space children and War of the colossal beast released in the USA.
N/D: Red alert, a novel by Peter Bryant, published in the UK, and which would inspire several atomic bomb related films, most notably Dr. Strangelove and Fail safe (see 1964).
February: 第五福龍丸 Daigo fukuryu maru AKA Lucky dragon no. 5 released in Japan.
March: The giant behemoth released in the UK.
May: Bijo to ekitai ningen released in the USA as The H-man; Gojira no gyakushu released in the USA as Gigantis the fire monster; Chikyuu Bou-eigun (Earth defense force) released in the USA as The Mysterians; The world, the flesh and the devil released in the USA.
June: Hiroshima mon amour, a joint French and Japanese production, released in France and Japan.
July: USA nuclear bomber with two inactive weapons on board crashes in Louisiana, one of many "nuclear accidents"; The mouse that roared released in the UK.
December: On the beach released in the USA.
1960
February: France tests nuclear weapon, code named "Gerboise bleue," in the French Sahara (present day Algeria, but which was at the time was under French colonial occupation).
May: Hiroshima mon amour released in the USA.
October: USA early warning radar system indicates a massive Soviet missile attack is in progress, but it turns out to be the rising moon, one of several "false missile alerts."
August: Last woman on earth released in the USA.
1961
January: USA bomber explodes over North Carolina with five nuclear weapons on board, one of which nearly detonated, in an incident that was only recently declassified.
May: The beast of Yucca Flats released in the USA.
June: The USA positions nuclear missiles in Turkey, targeting the USSR, eventually bringing about the Cuban Missile Crisis (see 1962); Antarctica established as a nuclear free zone.
July: The most dangerous man alive and Voyage to the bottom of the sea released in the USA.
September: Flight that disappeared released in the USA.
October: The USSR tests "Tsar Bomba," with an explosive yield equal to 4000 Hiroshima bombs, at Novaya Zemlya archipelago; 世界大戦争 Sekai daisenso AKA The last war released in Japan.
November: The day the earth caught fire released in the UK.
1962
January: S-a furat o bomba AKA A bomb was stolen released in Romania.
July: Panic in year zero released in the USA.
September-October: The Cuban missile crisis brings the USA and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war.
October: Fail safe, a novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, is published in the USA. The authors would become embroiled in a lawsuit with the UK author of Red Alert (1958), as Fail safe had a very similar plot. The screenplay for Dr. Strangelove (1964) was written by Stanley Kubrick in collaboration with the author of Red alert, while the film Film Safe (1964) was based on the novel of the same name.
N/D: This is not a test released in the USA.
1963
May: These are the damned AKA The Damned is released in the UK.
June: The USA and the USSR establish direct communication link to avert mistaken nuclear war, the first of several "hotline agreements."
August: Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by the USA, the USSR and the UK, bans atmospheric nuclear tests, although France refuses to sign.
November: Haha AKA Mother released in Japan.
December: Ladybug, ladybug released in the USA.
1964
January: Dr Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb released in the USA.
February: Seven days in May released in the USA.
April: Seven days in May released in Japan.
June: Panic in year zero released in Japan as 性本能と原爆戦
Sei hon'no to genbakusen (Sexual instinct and atomic bomb battle).
October: Dr. Strangelove released in Japan as 博士の異常な愛情
Hakase no ijona aijo; Fail safe released in the USA; China tests its first nuclear weapon at Lop Nur in Xinjiang.
Continued at Part Two of the timeline.
===
This timeline was compiled by Joseph Progler for a course on Media and History at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. It is a work in progress, and may be amended and updated as needed.
August: The USA drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
September: World War II ends; First yank in Tokyo and House on 92nd street are re-written and re-edited before release to include references to atomic weapons.
1946
February: A spy ring is discovered in Canada, which had been passing nuclear secrets to the USSR.
July: The first of many US nuclear weapons tests on Bikini Atoll. The native inhabitants were removed during the tests, although after returning, many suffered from radiation sickness.
August: Notorious, Alfred Hitchock's atomic-themed spy drama, is released in USA.
February: The beginning or the end is released in the USA.
April: Krakatit released in Czechoslovakia, positing the fictional development of a powerful explosive substance.
February: Kampen om tungtvannet AKA La bataille de l'eau lourde released in Norway. It is a dramatization of the "heavy water wars" (see 1943).
1949
August: The USSR detonates its first atomic bomb in the RDS-1 weapons test, also known as "First Lightening."
1950
January: USA President Truman announces development of a "hydrogen bomb."
June: The Korean war begins; Rocketship X-M released in the USA.
September: The Beginning or the End released in Japan; Seven days to noon released in the UK; 長崎の鐘 Nagasaki no kane AKA The bells of Nagasaki is released in Japan, based on a novel by Takashi Nagai (a physician and Nagasaki hibakusha).
January: The USA begins open air nuclear weapons testing in Nevada.
September: The day the earth stood still released in the USA.
October: Five released in the USA.
January: "Duck and cover," a light hearted American civil defense training film aimed at schoolchildren, release in the USA.
March: The day the earth stood still released in Japan as 地球が静止する日 (Chikyu ga seishi suru hi); Nagasaki no uta wa wasureji AKA I’ll never forget the song of Nagasaki released in Japan.
April: The USA occupation of Japan officially ends.
August: Genbaku no ko AKA Children of Hiroshima released in Japan.
October: The UK tests a nuclear weapon at Montebello Islands, Australia.
November: The USA begins nuclear weapons testing at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
December: Invasion USA is released in the USA.
N/D: Hamati kombola zorria AKA My mother-in-law is an atomic bomb released in Egypt.
January: Above and beyond released in the USA.
April: USA President Eisenhower considers using nuclear weapons against China to end the Korean War.
May: Split second release in the USA.
June: The beast from 20,000 fathoms released in the USA.
August: The USSR tests a hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in central Siberia (present-day Kazakhstan).
December: USA President Eisenhower promotes "atoms for peace."
January: The USA develops policy of "massive retaliation."
February: The USA tests a thermonuclear weapon, or "hydrogen bomb," at Bikini Atoll.
March: Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru exposed to radiation from USA nuclear weapons test in the Pacific code-named "Bravo"; Gembaku no ko screened at the Cannes Film Festival, France.
June: Them! released in the USA; The USSR commissions its first practical nuclear power plant.
August: Them! released in Japan as Hoshano X (Radioactivity X).
October: Child’s play released in the UK.
November: Gojira AKA Godzilla released in Japan.
December: The beast from 20,000 fathoms released in Japan as Genshi kaiju genwaru (The Atomic Monster Appears); The atomic kid, the first atomic comedy, released in the USA; Port of hell released in the USA.
April: Gojira no gyakushu (Godzilla's counter-attack or Godzilla raids again) released in Japan.
July: It came from beneath the sea and Creature with the atom brain released in the USA.
November: Ikimono no kiroku (Record of a living being) released in Japan.
December: Day the world ended released in the USA.
N/D: The USA begins positioning nuclear missiles in Europe, targeting the USSR.
March: World without end released in the USA.
April: Ikimono no kiroku screened at Cannes Film Festival, France; the Japanese film Gojira AKA Godzilla is re-edited and released in the USA as Godzilla, king of the monsters!.
June: UK nuclear weapons test on Alpha Island spreads radioactive fallout into Australia.
August: The world's first nuclear power plant dedicated solely to producing electricity is commissioned in the UK; Sora no daikaiju Radon AKA Rodan released in Japan.
September: Calabuch AKA The rocket from Calabuch released in Spain.
N/D: The UK continues nuclear testing in Australia.
June: Beginning of the end released in the USA.
July: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established.
September: USSR nuclear accident, known as Kyshtym disaster, releases radioactive fallout in the Ural Mountains.
October: UK nuclear reactor accident releases radioactive fallout; The amazing colossal man released in the USA.
December: 地球防衛軍 Chikyuu bou-eigun (Earth defense force) AKA The Mysterians released in Japan.
N/D: Series of short films featuring Super Giant, Japan’s first superhero, released in Japan, parts of which are later re-edited into Atomic rulers of the world.
February: American bomber dumps nuclear bomb into ocean off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, after mid-air collision during a military exercise, one of several "lost nuclear weapons."
June: 美女と液体人間 Bijo to ekitai ningen AKA The H-man released in Japan; The space children and War of the colossal beast released in the USA.
N/D: Red alert, a novel by Peter Bryant, published in the UK, and which would inspire several atomic bomb related films, most notably Dr. Strangelove and Fail safe (see 1964).
1959
March: The giant behemoth released in the UK.
May: Bijo to ekitai ningen released in the USA as The H-man; Gojira no gyakushu released in the USA as Gigantis the fire monster; Chikyuu Bou-eigun (Earth defense force) released in the USA as The Mysterians; The world, the flesh and the devil released in the USA.
June: Hiroshima mon amour, a joint French and Japanese production, released in France and Japan.
July: USA nuclear bomber with two inactive weapons on board crashes in Louisiana, one of many "nuclear accidents"; The mouse that roared released in the UK.
December: On the beach released in the USA.
February: France tests nuclear weapon, code named "Gerboise bleue," in the French Sahara (present day Algeria, but which was at the time was under French colonial occupation).
May: Hiroshima mon amour released in the USA.
October: USA early warning radar system indicates a massive Soviet missile attack is in progress, but it turns out to be the rising moon, one of several "false missile alerts."
August: Last woman on earth released in the USA.
January: USA bomber explodes over North Carolina with five nuclear weapons on board, one of which nearly detonated, in an incident that was only recently declassified.
May: The beast of Yucca Flats released in the USA.
June: The USA positions nuclear missiles in Turkey, targeting the USSR, eventually bringing about the Cuban Missile Crisis (see 1962); Antarctica established as a nuclear free zone.
July: The most dangerous man alive and Voyage to the bottom of the sea released in the USA.
September: Flight that disappeared released in the USA.
October: The USSR tests "Tsar Bomba," with an explosive yield equal to 4000 Hiroshima bombs, at Novaya Zemlya archipelago; 世界大戦争 Sekai daisenso AKA The last war released in Japan.
November: The day the earth caught fire released in the UK.
1962
January: S-a furat o bomba AKA A bomb was stolen released in Romania.
July: Panic in year zero released in the USA.
September-October: The Cuban missile crisis brings the USA and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war.
October: Fail safe, a novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, is published in the USA. The authors would become embroiled in a lawsuit with the UK author of Red Alert (1958), as Fail safe had a very similar plot. The screenplay for Dr. Strangelove (1964) was written by Stanley Kubrick in collaboration with the author of Red alert, while the film Film Safe (1964) was based on the novel of the same name.
N/D: This is not a test released in the USA.
1963
May: These are the damned AKA The Damned is released in the UK.
June: The USA and the USSR establish direct communication link to avert mistaken nuclear war, the first of several "hotline agreements."
August: Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by the USA, the USSR and the UK, bans atmospheric nuclear tests, although France refuses to sign.
November: Haha AKA Mother released in Japan.
December: Ladybug, ladybug released in the USA.
January: Dr Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb released in the USA.
February: Seven days in May released in the USA.
April: Seven days in May released in Japan.
June: Panic in year zero released in Japan as 性本能と原爆戦
Sei hon'no to genbakusen (Sexual instinct and atomic bomb battle).
October: Dr. Strangelove released in Japan as 博士の異常な愛情
Hakase no ijona aijo; Fail safe released in the USA; China tests its first nuclear weapon at Lop Nur in Xinjiang.
Continued at Part Two of the timeline.
===
This timeline was compiled by Joseph Progler for a course on Media and History at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. It is a work in progress, and may be amended and updated as needed.
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