Seventy years ago, this police officer stood watch over an empty Fifth Avenue & 44th street in Manhattan, as the city conducted its first ever air raid drill of the atomic age. At 10:33 AM on Wednesday, November 28, 1951, the sirens sounded, and all New Yorkers were to take shelter. Buses stopped, and passengers were handed a special transfer that instructed them to take shelter in the closest building, and then present the ticket as soon as the all clear was sounded to re-board the bus. The New York Stock Exchange shut down as traders left the floor and headed to shelters. At left, schoolchildren and their teachers take cover at school.

According to one account, there were about a hundred fatalities when motorists dutifully stopped their cars and headed to the public library, which was locked. They eventually made their way to a bank on the other side of the street, but were presumably vaporized before they could get there.

These images appeared in Life magazine 70 years ago today, in the December 10, 1951, issue.