TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY: US Drop 2nd Atomic Bomb On Japan, Killing 74,000| Biafrans Launch Midwest Invasion

WORLD WAR 2: US Drop 2nd Atomic Bomb On Japan, Killing 74,000

On this day, in 1945, a U.S. B-29 Superfortress code-named Bockscar dropped a nuclear device over Nagasaki; the bombing and subsequent radiation poisoning killed an estimated 74,000 people.

The first bomb had been dropped 3 days earlier on Hiroshima and the bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and this remains the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

Japan surrendered to the Allies on 15 August, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union’s declaration of war against Japan and invasion of Japanese-occupied Manchuria. The Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender on 2 September, effectively ending World War II.