“It was purple, red, white, all colors—something like boiling coffee. It looked alive,” said Bombardier Lt. Charles Levy on the atomic bombing of #Nagasaki - this day 1945. Here: the bomb's radioactive mushroom cloud rises 45,000 feet into the air (more)
The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed tens of thousands instantly; radiation and burns thousands more in the years ahead. Advisors told President Truman that even MORE lives - both Japanese and American - would be lost in an actual invasion. Here: before and after
The obliteration of two cities in three days (Hiroshima on Aug. 6) convinced the Japanese to surrender on Aug. 14, bringing World War II to an end. Emperor Hirohito cited "a new and most cruel bomb" in his surrender proclamation, overriding his ministers' objections
The atomic bombs appeared to do what Truman and his advisors determined they would do: save more lives than they took, and hasten the end of WWII - which would have dragged on well into 1946, had Operations Olympic and Coronet (a November 1945 invasion of Japan) commenced
75 years later, you may have an opinion pro or con on the decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan. At the Truman library in Independence, MO, you can express your views in a guest book. This woman says it saved her Father’s life (Photo/WWR)
November 22, 1963 was not the only day a member of the Kennedy family died - and Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. This day in 1963, JFK and Jackie's son Patrick - just two days old - died. In New Orleans, Oswald was busted for disturbing the peace and spent the night in jail
Oswald, who had also just checked out a book on JFK from the New Orleans Public Library, was fined $10 - about a day's pay for him - and released the next morning. He soon tried to leave the U.S. for either Cuba or the Soviet Union but was rejected. He then moved to Dallas
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