The Day Time Stood Still

At approximately 2:00 a.m., local time, on August 6, 1945 a B-29 Superfortress took off from Tinian headed for Japan. The plane was named after the mother of the pilot, one Paul Tibbets, Jr. The plane was called the Enola Gay.

Almost exactly 13 hours later, the plane landed back at Tinian where the crew was greeted by General Tooey Spaatz, a large contingent of military big wigs, and a group of wildly cheering enlisted men. Then and there, Tibbets was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was now a hero, his name forever written in the history books. The other crew members were decorated with Air Medals, their names largely forgotten.

In between, at 8:16, Tibbets and crew dropped something called Little Boy over Hiroshima, an important transportation hub and a previously un-bombed city. Just a few minutes before, the Japanese had detected the approach of two B-29s. Local radio stations broadcast the warning, but depending on what version of the story you believe, the warning was