Page 67 - 100 Events That Made History

Weapon of mass destruction
The bombs Oppenheimer’s team
developed were nicknamed Little Boy
and Fat Man. Little Boy was 10 ft (3 m)
long and weighed the same as an adult
elephant. Its destructive power came from
reactions within atoms, which is why
it was called an ATOMIC BOMB (and
sometimes, a nuclear bomb). Fat Man was
slightly larger and 40 percent more lethal.

Little Boy was fitted with a
parachute to slow its drop
and allow time for the plane
to escape the blast zone.

Did you know?
There were about 165
known “double survivors”— How it changed the world
people who experienced
both atomic bombs.

Though the atomic bombs ended
Hiroshima and Nagasaki also showed humans just how destructive
the worst conflict in human history, they
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped other countries developed their own
Little Boy on the Japanese CITY OF HIROSHIMA. atomic bombs, but the fear of them being
war could be. In the following years,
More than 70,000 people were killed instantly, used has kept the Western world
and twice that number died later, as a result of
radiation. Three days later, Fat Man was dropped
largely free from major wars.
on Nagasaki, again causing devastation and
horrific suffering. Japan surrendered, and
World War II was finally over.

Invading the Soviet On June 6, 1944 (D-Day),
Union turned out to be British, American, and
Hitler’s biggest mistake. Allied troops landed on the
His long campaign to BEACHES OF NORTHERN FRANCE,
take the CITY OF STALINGRAD and began gradually to win
ended in failure and the mainland Europe back
loss of 850,000 men. from German control.
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