On This Day. 1945: For the second time in three days, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan—this time on Nagasaki. Shown: The doomed city before and after the attack. /1 
In the weeks before the atomic bomb was even tested, President Truman and his advisors (called the "Interim Committee") carefully studied - agonized, really - over whether to use the bomb, or to invade Japan ("Operation Olympic") in November 1945 /2
In the end, horrendous American casualties on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the prospect of even greater U.S. and Japanese bloodshed in an invasion of Japan itself, convinced Truman that the bomb would save more lives than it would take - while shortening the war /3
Did the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki save more lives than they took? Here's an excerpt from "Under This Roof," the 2015 book by WWR's Paul Brandus: /4
The decision to use the atomic bomb was arguably the most consequential ever made by an American president. At the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO, visitors can share their thoughts. What are yours? (Photo/WWR)
On This Day, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald, living in New Orleans and drifting from job to job, was arrested after a street scuffle while distributing pro-Castro leaflets. During that fateful summer, he had decided to either go to Cuba or return w/wife Marina to the Soviet Union /1
Had Oswald been granted permission to go to Cuba or return to the Soviet Union in the Fall of 1963, he would not have moved back to Texas; he relocated to Dallas on October 4th in search of work after being turned away by both Havana and Moscow /2
One of the great misunderstandings of the subsequent assassination of President Kennedy is how Oswald wound up getting a job (Oct. 15, 1963) at the Texas School Book Depository. WWR's Paul Brandus explains in this article for @TheWeek theweek.com/articles/45895…
On This Day. 1974: With this terse letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon became the only president of the United States to resign /1
Following Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th president - thus becoming the only person to become both VP and POTUS without being elected to either office. He had become VP the year before, after Spiro Agnew resigned in a tax evasion scandal /2
Nixon, here departing the White House on Army One (not Marine One), would be pardoned by his successor, setting off a firestorm that contributed to Ford's narrow 1976 election defeat
