June 3: On This Day on 1946 - The First Bikini on Display

June 3, 1946: On this day, the first bikini was displayed in Paris. The bikini was invented by Louis Reard, a French designer. He named it after the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon test in the Pacific, Bikini Atoll. He explained the name by saying that the "burst of excitement" created by his design would be like a nuclear device.

Reard and model wearing one of his first bikinis