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President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the production of an atomic bomb after the world's best scientists warn that Germany is harnessing nuclear force for warfare. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2020/08/05/10-events-75-years-later-looking-back-atomic-attacks-hiroshima-nagasaki-world-war-ii/5574979002/ -
The Manhattan Engineer District, also known as the Manhattan Project, is established. Scientists and the military start working together to build an atomic bomb. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2020/08/05/10-events-75-years-later-looking-back-atomic-attacks-hiroshima-nagasaki-world-war-ii/5574979002/ -
Col. Leslie Groves is put in charge of the newly formed Manhattan Project. That month, he decides to buy 59,000 acres of land in East Tennessee for a production site. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2020/08/05/10-events-75-years-later-looking-back-atomic-attacks-hiroshima-nagasaki-world-war-ii/5574979002/
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The Oak Ridge lab is closed to the public. Only the 30,000 employees and authorized personnel can enter https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2020/08/05/10-events-75-years-later-looking-back-atomic-attacks-hiroshima-nagasaki-world-war-ii/5574979002/ -
President Harry Truman learns of the existence of the atomic bomb program from Secretary of War Henry Stimson two weeks after he takes office https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2020/08/05/10-events-75-years-later-looking-back-atomic-attacks-hiroshima-nagasaki-world-war-ii/5574979002/ -
The Bomb is completed
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Paul Tibbets and Robert Lewis fly a bomber Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, with an armed bomb. They drop the bomb, code named "Little Man," over the city, and it explodes. An estimated 80,000 people die that day, and 60,000 more die within the year because of complications caused by the nuclear explosion. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2020/08/05/10-events-75-years-later-looking-back-atomic-attacks-hiroshima-nagasaki-world-war-ii/5574979002/