Today in History

Today in History Today is Friday, Aug. 6, the 218th day of 2021. There are 147 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 6, 1945, during World War II, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named ‘œLittle Boy’� on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths. (Three days later, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki; five days after that, Imperial Japan surrendered.) On this date: In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated. In 1962, Jamaica, formerly ruled by Britain, became an independent dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. In 1973, entertainer Stevie Wonder was seriously injured in a car accident in North Carolina. In 1978, Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo at age 80. In 1986, William J. Schroeder (SHRAY’-dur) died at Humana Hospital-Audubon in Louisville, Kentucky, after living 620 days with the Jarvik 7 artificial heart. In 1991, the World Wide Web made its public debut as a means of accessing webpages over the Internet. TV newsman Harry Reasoner died in Norwalk, Connecticut, at age 68. In 1993, Louis Freeh won Senate confirmation to be FBI director. In 2005, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier-son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, began a weeks-long protest outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice by a Senate vote of 68-31. John Hughes, 59, Hollywood’s youth movie director of the 1980s and ’90s, died in New York City. In 2013, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan went on trial at Fort Hood, Texas, charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 attack. (Hasan, who admitted carrying out the attack, was convicted and sentenced to death.) In 2015, ‘œHamilton,’� the hip-hop flavored biography about Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary, opened on Broadway. Jon Stewart bade an emotional goodbye after 16 years as host of Comedy Central’s ‘œThe Daily Show.’� Ten years ago: Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy commando unit that had slain Osama bin Laden; seven Afghan commandos also died. Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Shannon Sharpe, Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter and NFL Films founder Ed Sabol were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Five years ago: The White House released a version of President Barack Obama’s 3-year-old guidance on the use of lethal force against terrorists overseas, laying out what it said were safeguards to minimize civilian deaths and errant strikes while preserving the capability to take quick action with drone attacks and other means. At the Rio Olympics, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu stormed to a world-record victory in the women’s 400 individual medley on the first evening of the swimming competition. Brett Favre, Tony Dungy and Marvin Harrison were among an eight-member class inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Clarinetist Pete Fountain, a Dixieland jazz virtuoso, died in New Orleans at age 86.