on this day: july 5th

79 years ago - 1946, Birth of the Bikini

Louis Réard, a French automobile engineer, was inspired to create the smallest swim costume on the market while working in his mother's lingerie boutique.

After struggling to find a model comfortable enough to be photographed in such a revealing outfit, he eventually was able to hire Parisian burlesque dancer Micheline Bernardini to unveil the skimpy new beach wear in a fashion show at a public pool in Paris.

The bikini wasn't the first of its kind on the market, but Réard gave it its signature name, which was taken from an area of the Pacific Ocean called Bikini Atoll, where the United States had just begun nuclear weapons tests.

Beach bikini bombshells?