1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured. At least another 60,000 died by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. America had been working on developing an atomic weapon since 1940, after having been warned by Albert Einstein that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. By the time the U.S. conducted the first successful test, in the New Mexico desert in July 1945, Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan in the Pacific raged on, however, and President Harry S. Truman was warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties. He ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end, and so on Aug. 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people, and a few days later, Japan announced its surrender.
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