A New Zealand mayor has invited the American ambassador for a history lesson, after US President Donald Trump appeared to imply it was the US that split the atom – which it is not alone in and certainly wasn't the first to do.

New Zealanders are expressing frustration after U.S. President Donald Trump credited Americans with splitting the atom in his second inaugural address——an achievement widely attributed to Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand -born scientist hailed as the father of nuclear physics.

The mayor of a New Zealand city has rubbished an eyebrow-raising claim made by President Donald Trump during his wild inauguration speech.

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. The 47th US President erroneously listed the feat among his country's achievements during his address in Washington DC, after he was sworn on Monday.

A small town mayor in New Zealand has picked a nuclear fight with Donald Trump, after the freshly sworn-in US president heaped praise on American scientists for splitting the atom.

U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration in an inauguration speech that Americans “split the atom” prompted vexed social media posts on Tuesday by New Zealanders, who said the achievement belonged to a pioneering scientist revered in his homeland.

After President Trump's claim, a mayor in New Zealand pointed out that work to split the atom was actually pioneered by physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Nick Smith, the mayor of Nelson, challenged Trump’s claim Americans split the atom, stating the feat was actually achieved by New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Mayor Nick Smith said that he would invite the incoming US ambassador to visit the Rutherford memorial in Nelson 'so we can keep the historic record on who split the atom first accurate'.

The president’s inauguration address rattled off a list of other crowning American feats such as ending slavery and launching into space.