Timeline of nuclear fusion

Timeline of significant events in the study and use of nuclear fusion:

• 1929 - Atkinson and Houtermans used the measured masses of low mass elements and applied Einstein's discovery that E=mc² to predict that large amounts of energy could be released by fusing small nuclei together.
• 1932 - hydrogen nuclei could be made to react with each other.
• 1939 - Hans Bethe won the Nobel Prize in physics (awarded 1967) "for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars."