Today in History: Aug. 6, U.S. drops atom bomb on Hiroshima
Today in History
Today is Sunday, Aug. 6, the 218th day of 2023. There are 147 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths.
On this date:
In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated.
In 1825, Upper Peru became the autonomous republic of Bolivia.
In 1942, Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands became the first reigning queen to address a joint session of Congress, telling lawmakers that despite Nazi occupation, her people’s motto remained, “No surrender.”
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.
In 1973, entertainer Stevie Wonder was seriously injured in a car accident in North Carolina.
In 1978, Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo at age 80.
In 1991, the World Wide Web made its public debut as a means of accessing webpages over the Internet.
In 1993, Louis Freeh won Senate confirmation to be FBI director.
In 2003, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger used an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” to announce his bid to replace California Gov. Gray Davis.
In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice by a Senate vote of 68-31.
In 2011, insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy commando unit that had slain Osama bin Laden; seven Afghan commandos also died.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama said during an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” that he was “disappointed” that Russia had granted temporary asylum...