Canada's Role in the Atomic Bomb Programs of the United States, Britain, France and India ~ A Chronology ~ by Gordon Edwards, Ph.D. Christmas 1938: In Berlin, Hahn and Strassman discover that the nucleus of a uranium atom can be ''split'' or ''fissioned'' by bombarding it with neutrons. January 1939: Lise Meitner, a German emigree, working with Neils Bohr in Norway, provides the theoretical ...