On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes 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, while
another 35,000 were injured. At least another 60,000 would be
dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end
of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold
War.

On this day in 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S.
Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as part of its plan to conquer Southeast Asian territories; the raid, which claims 2,400 American
lives, would prompt the United States to declare war against Japan
the next day.

The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

   
German bomber flying over Britain during the Blitz.

On the evening of December 29, 1940, London suffers its most devastating
air raid when Germans firebomb the city. Hundreds of fires caused by the
exploding bombs engulfed areas of London, but firefighters showed a
valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much
of the city from destruction. The next day, a newspaper photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral standing undamaged amid the smoke and flames seemed to
symbolize the capital’s unconquerable spirit during the Battle of Britain.

The dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, visible through smoke generated by German incendiary bombs.

LTJG Kennedy (standing at far right) with his crew on PT-109 in 1943.

On this day in 1943, future President John F. Kennedy was serving as the
commander of a torpedo boat in the Solomon Islands when his ship was
fired upon by the Japanese navy.   
 

As a young man, Kennedy had desperately wanted to go into the Navy but
was originally rejected because of chronic health problems, particularly a
back injury he had sustained playing football while attending Harvard
University. In 1941, though, his politically connected father used his
influence to get Jack, as he  was called, into the Navy. In 1942,
Kennedy volunteered for PT (motorized torpedo) boat duty in the
Pacific.