On August 7, 1942, U.S. forces, primarily the 1st Marine
Division, launched Operation Watchtower, the first major
Allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II, by
landing on Guadalcanal.

This airfield, later named Henderson Field, became a
crucial strategic point in the Pacific campaign. The
invasion marked the beginning of the lengthy and
brutal Guadalcanal Campaign, a six-month struggle
for control of the island.

From the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida,
the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 was launched into
an orbit around the earth.

The photo, received in Hawaii, takes nearly 40 minutes to
transmit.

Released by NASA in September, the first photograph ever
taken of the earth by a U.S. satellite.

One of the first pictures of Earth transmitted.

SANDY KOZEL

On August 6, 1945, the United States became 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 are killed as a direct result of the
blast, and another 35,000 are 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.

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)