Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Aug. 9. Three days after the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, an American B-29 bomber left its base on this date in 1945 and headed for the Japanese city of Kokura. However, because of bad weather over Kokura, the plane headed for a secondary target -- Nagasaki -- and dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" at 11:02 a.m., local time. The blast killed an estimated 70,000 people and destroyed half the city. Japan would surrender six days later. Advertisement At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African-American track star Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal on this date and helped strike a propaganda blow against Adolph Hitler. It was on this date in 480 B.C., after one of history's most famous battles, that Persian forces finally overran the heavily outnumbered Spartan defenders of the narrow pass at Thermopylae in Greece. The world would learn the name of Charles Manson after this date in 1969, when his followers crept into the Los Angeles home of film director Roman Polanski and murdered his wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four other people. The slayings were the first of two nights of bizarre killings by the cult. Advertisement And President Nixon's resignation became effective at noon on this date in 1974. Vice President Ford was sworn in as the nation's 38th chief executive, thus becoming the first person to serve as vice president and president without being elected. We now return you to the present, already in progress.
