THE WORLD WAS READY FOR A LITTLE FUN THAT YEAR:  On this day in 1946, Micheline Bernardini, modeled a skimpy two-piece swimsuit at a press conference held at a public swimming pool in Paris.  The swimsuit’s designer, Louis Réard, called it a “bikini” after the Pacific atoll where the United States had recently conducted a nuclear weapons test.

Bernardini was an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, not a professional runway model.  Réard had been unable to find a runway model willing to pose in his little creation.

The bikini was a scandal … or so the newspapers wrote.  But it was also a hit—especially with men.  Bernardini received over 50,000 fan letters.

Réard didn’t do badly either.  The former automotive engineer had inherited his mother’s lingerie business sometime during the war.  His bikini sold well (and … well … the cost of materials was low enough to allow for a decent profit margin).