Hiroshima was the first city struck by an atomic bomb in warfare during World War II.
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb Little Boy over Hiroshima. The bomb detonated at approximately 8:15 a.m. local time. Hiroshima was selected because it was a large urban center with military facilities and had not been devastated by earlier conventional bombing.
The bombing caused enormous destruction and loss of life. Estimates for deaths in Hiroshima during the following months vary, partly because many victims died from injuries, burns, radiation sickness, and other effects. The event remains the first use of a nuclear weapon in armed conflict.
Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan announced its acceptance of the Allied surrender terms on August 15, after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks and the Soviet declaration of war. The formal surrender followed on September 2.