Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
Aug 6, 1945: American bomber drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
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 the Indianapolis" (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."
Well, the obvious big news that occurred on this date in history was the dropping of the Atomic bomb by American forces over Hiroshima. The United States remains the only nation in history to have dropped the bomb on another nation.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
523 - St Hormisdas ends his reign as Catholic Pope
768 - Antipope Constantine II deposed
939 - Battle at Simancas - Spain beats Moors
1181 - Supernova observed by Chinese & Japanese astronomers
1497 - John Cabot returns to Bristol from North-America
1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1588 - Spanish Armada under Medina Sidonia anchors
1600 - Henry IV of France invades Savoy after negotiations break down over Saluzzo, controlled by Savoy since 1588
1601 - Spanish garrison of Meurs surrender to earl Mauritius
1623 - Maffeo Barberini elected Pope Urban VIII
1625 - Earl Earnest Casimir appointed as viceroy of Groningen
1661 - Holland sells Brazil to Portugal for 8 million guilders
1661 - The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
1675 - Russian Czar Aleksei bans foreign hairs cut
1726 - Emperor Karel VI & tsarina Catharina the Great sign military treaty
1774 - Founder of the Shaker Movement, Mother Ann Lee, arrives in NY
1787 - Constitutional Convention in Phila begans debate
1806 - Holy Roman Empire ends; it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire
Founder of the Shakers Ann LeeFounder of the Shakers Ann Lee 1815 - US flotilla ends piracy by Algiers, Tunis & Tripoli
1819 - Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
1821 - 1st edition of "Courrier of Pays-Bas" newspaper published in Brussels
1824 - Battle at Junan - Simon Bolívars army beats Spanish
1825 - Bolivia gains independence from Peru (National Day)
1845 - The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg.
1854 - Congress passes Confiscation Act
1856 - The Great Bell is cast in the Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben)
1861 - Lexington KY-Union milt camp forms in neutral state
1861 - The British annex Lagos, Nigeria.
1862 - Confederate Army ironclad "Arkansas" is badly damaged in Union attack
1864 - Rebels evacuate Ft Powell, Mobile Bayd
1870 - Battle at Spicheren: Prussia beats France
1870 - White conservatives suppresed black vote & captured Tenn legislature
1890 - Denton True "Cy" Young pitches and wins his 1st major league baseball game
Military and Political Leader Simon BolivarMilitary and Political Leader Simon Bolivar 1890 - At Auburn Prison, New York murderer William Kemmler becomes first person to be executed by electric chair.
1896 - France annexes Madagascar
1901 - Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
1905 - 26.7 cm rainfall at Princeton, Indiana (state record)
1908 - St Louis Card John Lush's 2nd no-hitter, beats Dodgers, 2-0 in 6 inn
1909 - Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
1910 - NYC Mayor Wm J Gaynor seriously wounded during assassination attempt
1914 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia & Serbia
1914 - French cavalry enter Belgium
1914 - German Zeppelin bombs Liege City, 9 killed
1914 - Serbia declares war against Germany
1914 - Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the French Foreign Legion, becoming the first American to fight in World War I.
1917 - World War I: Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins.
1918 - Ferdinand Foch becomes marshal of France
1918 - In WW I 2nd battle of the Marne ends
1919 - 1st air flight over a major body of water in Australia (Harry Butler)
1919 - Romanian forces destroys Bela Kun Republic in Budapest
1921 - Clason Point, Bronx to College Point, Queens muni ferry system begins
1926 - NY's Gertrude Ederle becomes 1st woman to swim English Channel
1926 - Warner Bros premieres Vitaphone sound-on-disc movie system (NY)
1926 - Don Juan with John Barrymore shown
1930 - Supreme Court Justice John Force Crater disappears in NYC
1930 - Remains of Solomon Andrees' balloon expedition to North Pole in 1897, found at Kvit oya Spitsbergen
1934 - US troops leave Haiti, which had been occupied since 1915
1936 - 1st time in 20th century, 1st 2 batters in a game-Roy Johnson & Rabbit Warstler of Boston Bees-lead off with HRs
1937 - Franco-artillery fire on Madrid
1937 - Indians overturn Yankees' 7-6 win by a protest
1937 - US & USSR sign trade treaty
1939 - 1st broadcast of "Dinah Shore Show" on NBC-radio
1940 - Estonia is annexed into Soviet empire
1941 - Detroit pitcher Al Benton is 1st to collect 2 sacrifices in an inning
1942 - -8] Riots by Dutch Jews
1942 - Assinibaine destroyer sinks U-210
1942 - Churchill fires Gen Auchinlek as Middle-East commandant
Nazi Politician Hermann GoeringNazi Politician Hermann Goering 1942 - Hermann Goering proclaims occupied areas "thoroughly empty to plunder"
1943 - US 1st Infantry division occupies node Troina Sicily
1944 - All 1,200 Jewish death marchers from Lipcani Moldavia have died
1944 - Anti-German attack at Avranches fails
1944 - Deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz Poland to Auschwitz begins
1944 - US 20th Army corp under general Walker occupies Nantes
1945 - Hiroshima Peace Day-atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima by "Enola Gay"
1945 - Keith Miller scores 110 in the 4 Victory Test Cricket at Lord's
1946 - US officially submits to jurisdiction of World Court
1947 - 1st performance of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No 8"
1948 - Bob Mathias, US, wins decathlon at London Olympics
1948 - Dreesgovernment (KVP/Social Democratics/CHU/Liberal) forms
1948 - Fanny Blankers-Koen (Neth) is 1st women to win 3 golds at Olympics
1949 - Luke Appling record of 2,154 (en route to 2,218) games at shortstop
1951 - Typhoon floods kill 4,800 in Manchuria
1952 - Satchel Paige, 47, becomes oldest pitcher to win a complete shutout
1953 - Ted Williams returns to Red Sox from the military
1954 - WLAC (now WTVF) TV channel 5 in Nashville (CBS) begins broadcasting
1956 - After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena.
1958 - Glenn Davis sets record of 49.2 in 400-meter hurdles
1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
1960 - Pitt Steelers (NFL) beat Toronto Argonauts (CFL) 43-16 in Toronto
1961 - Gherman S Titov, 2nd Russian in space aboard Vostok 2 (17 orbits)
1961 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Waterloo Golf Open
1961 - 1st case of motion sickness in space reported
1962 - Jamaica becomes independent after 300 years of British rule
1964 - Pope Paul VI publishes encyclical Ecclesiam Suam
1964 - Prometheus, the world's oldest tree, is cut down.
1965 - 32nd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Cleveland 24, All-Stars 16 (68,000)
1965 - Beatles release "Help" album in UK
1965 - Federal Voting Rights Act guarantees black voting rights
1965 - Indian troops invade Pakistan
1965 - LBJ signs Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing voting rights for blacks
1966 - Muhammad Ali KOs Brian London in 3 for heavyweight boxing title
1966 - Salazarbrug over Tag opens (longest suspension bridge of Europe)
1966 - US citizens demonstrate against war in Vietnam
1967 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Lady Carling Golf Open
1967 - Minn Twin Dean Chance perfect games Boston Red Sox, 2-0 in 5 innings
1967 - Oriole Brooks Robinson hits into a record 4th triple play
1967 - Pope Paul VI publishes constitution Pro comperto sane
1969 - Balt Orioles pull their 3rd triple play (5-4-3 vs KC Royals)
1970 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1972 - Garry Player wins PGA golf tournament
1972 - Hank Aaron hits 660th & 661st HRs for Braves (record for 1 team)
1972 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Knoxville Ladies Golf Classic
1973 - Roberto Clemente & Warren Spahn inducted into National Baseball Hall of Fame
1973 - Stevie Wonder involved in car crash, goes into a 4 day coma
1974 - 6th time Phils get just 1 assist in game; no other team did it twice
1974 - Explosion & fire destory Great Northern RR yard in Wenatchee, Wash
1976 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lays the foundation stone of Port Qasim, Karachi.
1977 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA Colgate European Women's Golf Open
Singer-Songwriter Stevie WonderSinger-Songwriter Stevie Wonder 1978 - 60th PGA Championship: John Mahaffey shoots a 276 at Oakmont CC PA
1978 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Colgate Europea Golf Open
1979 - 61st PGA Championship: David Graham shoots a 272 at Oakland Hills Mich
1979 - Marcus Hooper, 12, is youngest person to swim English Channel
1980 - University adm declares 5 Pac-10 schools ineligible for conference titles & post-season play due to transcript & curriculum abuses
1981 - Argentina ex-president Isabel Peron freed
1981 - Due to strike, Yanks, A's, Philles & Dodgers declared 1st ½ champs
1981 - NASA launches Fltsatcom-5, it failed
1981 - crowned Miss National Teen-Ager
1982 - 22nd Curtis Cup: US, 14½-3½
1982 - California Doug DeCinces hits 3 HRs again in game (did it 5 days ago also)
1982 - WQXI (Atlanta) is 1st to use Harris Corp AM stereo system
1983 - Minnesota Vikings beat St Louis Cards 28-10 in London, England (NFL expo)
1983 - Supertanker Castillo de Bellvar crashes at South Africa
1984 - 203.05 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
Olympic Sprinter and Long jumper Carl LewisOlympic Sprinter and Long jumper Carl Lewis 1984 - Carl Lewis wins 2nd (long jump) of 4 gold medals in Summer Olympics
1985 - 19th space shuttle mission (51-F), Challenger 8, lands at Edwards AFB
1985 - Major League Baseball Players Association go on strike
1985 - Players' Association stages a midseason baseball strike (lasts 1 day)
1985 - STS 51-I vehicle moves to launch pad
1986 - Orioles (Dwyer & Sheets) & Rangers (Harrah) hit record 3 grand slams
1986 - Phil Katz releases PKARC version 1.0, for IBM
1986 - Record 3 grand slams hit in game Tx vs Balt (Harrah, Sheets & Dwyer)
1988 - Oakland A's Jose Canseco becomes 11th to hit 30 HRs & steal 30 bases
1988 - Rich Gossage 300th career save (beats Phillies)
1988 - The Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City spurs reform of the NYPD, who were responsible for the melee that transpired the night of August 6-7.
1989 - "Oh! Calcutta!" closes at Edison Theater NYC after 5959 performances
1989 - Beth Daniel wins LPGA Greater Washington Golf Open
1989 - Boston Red Sox retire Carl Yastrezemski's #8
1989 - Jaime Paz Zamora inaugurated as president of Bolivia
1989 - Pilot Union tells pilots okay to cross Eastern picket lines
1990 - NY Yankee Kevin Mass sets record with 11th HR in 1st 86 at bats
Pakistani Politican Benazir BhuttoPakistani Politican Benazir Bhutto 1990 - President Ghulam Ishaq Kahn dismisses Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan
1990 - UN Security Council votes 13-0 (2 abstensions Cuba & Yemen) to place economic sanctions against Iraq
1991 - Debbie Doom (US) pitches 2nd consecutive perfect game in women's softball at the Pan American Games, beats Nicaragua, 8-0
1991 - Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1992 - Harold Wilson's academy award is auctioned for $60,500
1993 - Japan Hosokawa government begins
1993 - Pope John Paul II publishes Veritatis splendor encyclical
1994 - Algerian Moslem fundamentalists threaten school/Universities
1995 - "Damn Yankees" closes at Marquis Theater NYC after 510 performances
1995 - Dottie Mochrie wins McCall's LPGA Golf Classic at Stratton Mountain
1995 - Indians & Browns play in Cleveland on same day for 1st time ever both lose - Chicago 5, Indians 1; Giants 19, Browns 13 (exhibition)
1995 - Thousands of people in Hiroshima tribute on 50th anniversary of bomb
1996 - NASA announces that life may have existed on Mars (ALH84001)
1997 - Microsoft announces it will invest $150 million in Apple Computer Inc
1997 - NHL Nashville Tenn names Barry Trotz as its 1st coach
264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 2008 - Access 31 TV stops broadcasting in Perth, Western Australia.
2008 - A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'etat in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi
2011 - A helicopter containing members of Navy SEAL 6 is shot down in Afghanistan killing 38.
2012 - Mount Tongariro, New Zealand, erupts for the first time in a century
1787 - The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began. The articles of the U.S. Constitution draft were to be debated. 1806 - The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated. 1825 - Bolivia declared independence from Peru. 1879 - The first Australian rules football game to be played at night took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The game was to promote the introduction of electricity to the city of Melbourne. 1890 - Cy Young achieved his first major league victory. He would accumulate 511 in his career. 1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia. Serbia declared war against Germany. 1926 - Gertrude Ederle became the first American woman to swim the English Channel. She was 19 years old at the time. The swim took her 14 1/2 hours. 1926 - Warner Brothers premiered its Vitaphone system in New York. The movie was "Don Juan," starring John Barrymore. 1939 - Dinah Shore started her own show on the NBC Blue radio network. 1945 - The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed. 1949 - Chicago White Sox player Luke Appling played in the 2,154th game of his 19-year, major league career. 1952 - Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest pitcher to complete a major league baseball game. 1960 - Nationalization of U.S. and foreign-owned property in Cuba began. 1962 - Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth. 1965 - The Voting Rights Act was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. 1969 - The first fair ball to be hit completely out of Dodger Stadium occurred. Willie "Pops" Stargell, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hit the ball 506 feet from home plate. 1981 - Fire fighters in Indianapolis, IN, answered a false alarm. When they returned to their station it was ablaze due to a grease fire. 1981 - Lee Trevino was disqualified from the PGA Championship in Duluth, GA when he had his scorecard signed by Tom Weiskopf instead of himself. 1985 - The 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing brought tens of thousands of Japanese and foreigners to Hiroshima. 1986 - William J. Schroeder died. He lived 620 days with the Jarvik-7 manmade heart. He was the world's longest surviving recipient of a permanent artificial heart. 1986 - Timothy Dalton became the fourth actor to be named "James Bond." 1989 - Jaime Paz Zamora was inaugurated as the president of Bolivia. 1990 - The U.N. Security Council ordered a worldwide trade embargo with Iraq. The embargo was to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait. 1993 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Louis Freeh to be the director of the FBI. 1993 - Morihiro Hosokawa was elected prime minister of Japan. 1995 - Thousands of glowing lanterns were set afloat in rivers in Hiroshima, Japan, on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bombing. 1996 - NASA announced the discovery of evidence of primitive life on Mars. The evidence came in the form of a meteorite that was found in Antarctica. The meteorite was believed to have come from Mars and contained a fossil. 1997 - Apple Computer and Microsoft agreed to share technology in a deal giving Microsoft a stake in Apple's survival. 1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S. President Clinton. 1998 - The last new episode of Magic Johnson's talk show, "The Magic Hour," aired.
1806 The Holy Roman Empire ended with the abdication of Emperor Francis II. 1825 Bolivia declared its independence from Peru. 1926 Gertrude Ederle became the first U.S. woman to swim across the English Channel. 1945 The first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 1962 Jamaica gained its independence within the Britain Commonwealth. 1965 President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed the poll taxes and literacy tests that had restricted black voter registration in the South. 1997 British prime minister Tony Blair and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams meet—the first time in 76 years that a British leader and an IRA ally meet. 2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy to replace Gray Davis as governor of California to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. 2012 Curiosity, a SUV-size rover, successfully landed on Mars. The rover's research has been planned for the next two years, but since Curiosity's electricity is powered by plutonium, it could be operational and provide insight into Mars for decades to come
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
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