Mark 39 nuclear bomb
E860241
The Mark 39 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. thermonuclear weapon deployed during the Cold War, best known for the 1961 Goldsboro incident in which two of these bombs were accidentally dropped over North Carolina, nearly causing a catastrophic detonation.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Mark 39 nuclear bomb canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10223474 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mark 39 nuclear bomb Context triple: [Nuclear bombs of the United States, hasPart, Mark 39 nuclear bomb]
-
A.
Mark 36 nuclear bomb
The Mark 36 nuclear bomb was a high-yield thermonuclear gravity bomb developed and deployed by the United States during the early Cold War era.
-
B.
Mark 4 nuclear bomb
The Mark 4 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. post–World War II fission weapon derived from the Fat Man design and used during the early Cold War.
-
C.
Mark 3 nuclear bomb
The Mark 3 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. atomic weapon, a production version of the "Fat Man" design used at the end of World War II.
-
D.
B43 nuclear bomb
The B43 nuclear bomb is a U.S. Cold War–era air-dropped thermonuclear weapon designed for use by tactical and strategic aircraft.
-
E.
B41 nuclear bomb
The B41 nuclear bomb was a high-yield, Cold War–era American thermonuclear gravity bomb and one of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever deployed by the United States.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mark 39 nuclear bomb Target entity description: The Mark 39 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. thermonuclear weapon deployed during the Cold War, best known for the 1961 Goldsboro incident in which two of these bombs were accidentally dropped over North Carolina, nearly causing a catastrophic detonation.
-
A.
Mark 36 nuclear bomb
The Mark 36 nuclear bomb was a high-yield thermonuclear gravity bomb developed and deployed by the United States during the early Cold War era.
-
B.
Mark 4 nuclear bomb
The Mark 4 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. post–World War II fission weapon derived from the Fat Man design and used during the early Cold War.
-
C.
Mark 3 nuclear bomb
The Mark 3 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. atomic weapon, a production version of the "Fat Man" design used at the end of World War II.
-
D.
B43 nuclear bomb
The B43 nuclear bomb is a U.S. Cold War–era air-dropped thermonuclear weapon designed for use by tactical and strategic aircraft.
-
E.
B41 nuclear bomb
The B41 nuclear bomb was a high-yield, Cold War–era American thermonuclear gravity bomb and one of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever deployed by the United States.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
nuclear bomb
ⓘ
thermonuclear weapon ⓘ |
| accidentCause | in-flight structural failure of B-52 ⓘ |
| accidentDate | 24 January 1961 ⓘ |
| accidentInvolvedAircraft |
B-52 Stratofortress
ⓘ
linked to:
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
|
| accidentLocation | near Goldsboro, North Carolina ⓘ |
| approximateWeightCategory | multi-ton class bomb ⓘ |
| associatedCity |
Goldsboro
ⓘ
linked to:
Goldsboro, North Carolina
|
| associatedState | North Carolina ⓘ |
| compatibleAircraft |
B-52 Stratofortress
ⓘ
linked to:
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
|
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| deliveryPlatform | strategic bomber ⓘ |
| deployedBy | United States Air Force ⓘ |
| deploymentPlatformType | free-fall bomb ⓘ |
| deploymentRole | gravity bomb ⓘ |
| designedForRole | strategic deterrent ⓘ |
| designType | two-stage thermonuclear ⓘ |
| detonationPreventedBy | single low-voltage switch that did not close ⓘ |
| developedBy |
U.S. nuclear weapons complex
ⓘ
linked to:
United States nuclear weapons complex
United States Air Force ⓘ |
| droppedAccidentallyOn | North Carolina ⓘ |
| environmentalRemediationAction | easement placed on land above buried components ⓘ |
| era | Cold War ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | example of close call in nuclear weapons history ⓘ |
| maximumEstimatedCasualtiesIfDetonated | millions of people on U.S. East Coast (historical estimates) ⓘ |
| nearDetonation | true ⓘ |
| notableFor | near-catastrophic Goldsboro incident ⓘ |
| notableIncident | 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash ⓘ |
| numberOfBombsInAccident | two ⓘ |
| numberOfSafetyDevices | four ⓘ |
| publicRevelationOfAccidentDetails | declassified documents in 2013 ⓘ |
| recoveredComponentsLocation | farmland near Faro, North Carolina ⓘ |
| relatedProgram | U.S. strategic bomber-based nuclear deterrent ⓘ |
| riskCategory | broken arrow incident (Goldsboro) ⓘ |
| safetyDeviceStatusInAccident | three of four safety mechanisms failed on one bomb ⓘ |
| safetyLessonsInfluence |
U.S. nuclear weapon safety design
ⓘ
development of enhanced nuclear surety standards ⓘ |
| safetySystemType | mechanical and electrical interlocks ⓘ |
| serviceEntry | late 1950s ⓘ |
| status | retired ⓘ |
| unrecoveredComponents | part of secondary stage buried underground ⓘ |
| unrecoveredComponentsLocation | near Goldsboro, North Carolina ⓘ |
| usedInCombat | false ⓘ |
| usedInConflict | Cold War ⓘ |
| warheadType | hydrogen bomb ⓘ |
| yield | approximately 3.8 megatons of TNT ⓘ |
| yieldType | variable yield ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Mark 39 nuclear bomb Description of subject: The Mark 39 nuclear bomb was an early U.S. thermonuclear weapon deployed during the Cold War, best known for the 1961 Goldsboro incident in which two of these bombs were accidentally dropped over North Carolina, nearly causing a catastrophic detonation.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.