In simple terms, that assertion is correct, but for those with an expertise in the field, the longer answer to who did it ...

Donald Trump angered New Zealanders on his first day in office when he asserted that America split the atom, something that Sir Ernest Rutherford accomplished.

The mayor of Nelson in New Zealand's South Island seized on the subatomic slight, pointing out that work to split the atom was actually pioneered by Kiwi-born physicist Ernest Rutherford.

The term "splitting the atom" isn't the most descriptive way of explaining what Rutherford, along with John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, actually achieved; splitting apart a nucleus by bombarding ...

Scientists based in Manchester, not the US, made the "key breakthrough" in splitting the atom, despite Donald Trump's claims in his inaugural speech, says a lecturer at one of the city's universities.

Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel Prize winner known as the father of nuclear physics, is regarded by many as the first to knowingly split the atom by artificially inducing a nuclear reaction in 1917 ...

writing that he was “a bit surprised” by Trump’s claim “when that honour belongs to Nelson’s most famous and favourite son,” the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel Prize winner known as the father of nuclear physics, is regarded by many as the first to knowingly split the atom by artificially inducing a nuclear reaction in 1917 ...

The claim sparked backlash from officials and social media users in across the country, with many asserting that Rutherford's groundbreaking work is a source of national pride. Ernest Rutherford ...