On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, the nuclear bomb 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people.

By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought the total number of deaths to 90,000??66,000. The population before the bombing was around 340,000 to 350,000. Approximately 70% of the city's buildings were destroyed, and another 7% severely damaged.