August 1945Reputable sourceWell documented
The Atomic Bomb
On the timeline · around August 1945 ·
What happened
In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing well over 100,000 people, most of them civilians. Japan surrendered days later. The bombs were the product of the secret Manhattan Project, the largest scientific undertaking in history to that point.
Why it matters
The atomic bombings ended World War II but ushered in the nuclear age, giving humanity for the first time the power to destroy itself and defining the terror and strategy of the Cold War to come.
Sources
- HISTORY (A&E). Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki · Reputable source
Related timelines
- History of Physics → — Nuclear physics and the bomb