On this day in 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

Marker noting the burial site of
the first nuclear reactor

The end of World War II was in sight after Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 140,000 people died in the bombing but many more would have perished had Operation Downfall--the invasion of Japan--had commenced as planned in the autumn of 1945.

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were the culmination of the successful Manhattan Project. The first nuclear reactor, which was part of that project, is buried near Willow Springs, Illinois.

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(Photos) Burial site of the world's first nuclear reactor