Trivia
HardThe Bikini Derives Its Name From What Unlikely Source?

Answer: The Atomic Bomb
In 1946, two distinct events overlapped in such a fashion as to forever link a swimsuit design with an island via a nuclear test. The island in question is Bikini Atoll, a ring-shaped coral reef island located in the Pacific Ocean within the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It was there that the United States tested 23 nuclear devices between 1946 and 1958.
When the tests started on the atoll, it made the news the world over and it was through the news that the designer of the modern two-piece swimsuit, French automotive engineer Louis Réard, heard about Bikini Atoll. Réard was so confident his design—which revealed more of the midriff and chest than previous two-piece swimsuits had—would be as explosive in popularity as an atomic bomb that he named it the bikini in a nod to the location of the nuclear tests.
Réard was right, from a long-term perspective. Short-term, however, the design was considered scandalous. In fact, he couldn’t even find a regular model in Paris to model the design for him. The woman seen here, Micheline Bernardini, was a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris who was more than happy to take the assignment in the summer of 1946 to promote the new swimsuit style. Part of the advertisement was the box she is holding in the photo above: Réard’s design was so small that the entire two-piece swimsuit could be packed into the tiny box in her left hand.
More Trivia Questions
Trivia
Very HardWhat Console Featured The First Video Game Easter Egg?
Trivia
HardThere’s A Popular Literary Genre In Japan Where The Works Are Composed Using?
Trivia
EasyIn The U.S. Skin Cancer Appears Most Often On The Left Side Of The Body Because Of?
Trivia
HardIn 1983, Which One Of These Product Categories Was Gutted By A Market Crash?
Trivia
HardThe Fermi Paradox Deals With What Scientific Matter?
Trivia
HardThe Real World Company Located In Terminator 2’s Cyberdyne Systems Building Specializes In?
Trivia
HardVideo Games Frequently Use Which Of These Techniques To Create The Illusion Of 3D Space?