Today in history

2011-08-06T04:08:00.001-07:00

American bomber drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima

August 6Calendar

On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a "conventional" bombing of Japan was underway, "Little Boy," (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets' plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, "Little Boy" was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of theIndianapolis" (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).

There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city's 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before-only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.

According to John Hersey's classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.

There were so many spontaneous fires set as a result of the bomb that a crewman of the Enola Gay stopped trying to count them. Another crewman remarked, "It's pretty terrific. What a relief it worked."

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AUTOMOTIVE: Peugeot says au revoir to U.S. car market, 1991
CIVIL WAR: Confederate ship blown up by crew, 1862
COLD WAR: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, 1945
CRIME: Dutch Schultz is born,1902; Joseph Force Crater becomes the missingest man in New York, 1930
DISASTER: Planes crashes in Guam jungle, 1997
GENERAL INTEREST: First draft of Constitution debated, 1787; First execution by electric chair, 1890; Andy Warhol is born,1928
HOLLYWOOD: Lucille Ball born, 1911; “Breakfast Club” director John Hughes dies, 2009
LITERARY: Burns released from marriage, 1786
MUSIC: Isaac Hayes is born, 1942
OLD WEST: Belle Starr's first husband slain, 1874
PRESIDENTIAL: Johnson signs Voting Rights Act, 1965
SPORTS: Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim English Channel,1926
VIETNAM WAR: Johnson Administration officials argue for resolution, 1964; Green Berets are charged with murder,1969; First U.S. Army troops deployed to Vietnam stand-down for withdrawal, 1971
WORLD WAR I: Allies land at Suvla Bay,1915
WORLD WAR II: Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, 1945

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American bomber drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima

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