A Note From Bob

Thursday morning, and a solemn date on the calendar. On August 6, 1945, a lone B-29 named the Enola Gay released its payload over Hiroshima, and the Second World War entered its final days. Today's featured quiz covers the vast ocean war that led to that moment: The War in the Pacific, 15 questions, from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay. And further down, a second quiz on Harry S. Truman, the plainspoken Missourian who carried the weight of the decision. Pour the coffee.

Trivia Question of the Day

The answer is at the bottom of this email.

Today's Featured Quiz

It began with smoke rising over Pearl Harbor and ended on a battleship deck in Tokyo Bay. In between came Midway and Guadalcanal, island landings with names most Americans had never heard before, and a fight waged across thousands of miles of open ocean. Fifteen questions on the war that decided the fate of the Pacific. How much do you remember?

The Answer

On September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan's formal surrender and the Second World War came to an end. The ship was a fitting stage: she was named for Harry Truman's home state, and his daughter Margaret had christened her at her launch in 1944. Truman himself is today's second quiz, waiting just below.

On This Day

On this day in 1945, at 8:15 in the morning local time, the Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later a second bomb fell on Nagasaki, and on August 15 Japan announced its surrender. The order came from Harry S. Truman, president for less than four months, a man who had not even known the bomb existed until Franklin Roosevelt's death put him in the Oval Office. His story, from a Missouri farm to the most consequential decision of the century, is your second quiz.