TODAY IN HISTORY

FRIDAY AUG 6, 2021 1945

During World War II, the U.S. B-29superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths.

1806

The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated.

1962

Jamaica, formerly ruled by Britain, became an independent dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations.

1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

1973

Entertainer Stevie Wonder was seriously injured in a car accident in North Carolina.

1978

Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo at age 80.

1986

William J. Schroeder died at Humana Hospital-audubon in Louisville, Kentucky, after living 620 days with the Jarvik 7 artificial heart.

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.

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.

2009

Sonia Sotomayor was con- firmed 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.

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.

2015

“Hamilton,” 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 “The Daily Show.”