Here is how events unfolded and the pleas of the ageing survivors for a nuclear bomb ban.
The United States launched the first atomic bomb 75 years ago on Thursday in a devastating attack on the city of Hiroshima. Thousands of people were killed underneath a deadly mushroom cloud. Three days later on August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing thousands more and pushing Japan to surrender during World War Two. It was the last nuclear bomb used in armed conflict. Here is how events unfolded and the pleas of the ageing survivors for a ban on nuclear bombs. The world’s first nuclear bomb used against civilians went off at 08:15 local time in the southwestern city of Hiroshima. The bomb nicknamed „Little Boy“ immediately killed 80,000 people, according to initial estimates. This represented around 30 per cent of the population at that time. The US B-29 „Enola Gay“ was the warplane that dropped the bomb, which is estimated to have destroyed 70 per cent of the city. The bomb was built with uranium-235, the only fissile natural isotope of uranium. The explosion was the equivalent of 16 kilotons of TNT.
