Great Moments In History: 1945

The United States Army Air Forces dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on the mornings of August 6 and August 9, 1945 during World War II.

The goal was to secure the unconditional surrender of Japan. At least 120,000 people died immediately from the two attacks combined, and perhaps more than 200,000 by the end of the year, from the effects of nuclear radiation. More than 90% of the casualties were civilians.


Japan sent notice of its unconditional surrender to the Allies on August 15, a week after the bombings. These bombings were the first and only nuclear attacks in world history.


lol

Great Moments In History: 1995

The Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the 地下鉄サリン事件 (chikatetsu sarin jiken "subway sarin incident") was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995. In five coordinated attacks, the conspirators released sarin gas on several lines of the Tokyo Subway, killing twelve people and injuring some six thousand more. The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatacho, home to the Japanese government. This was (and remains, as of 2006) the most serious attack that has occurred in Japan since the end of the Second World War.