August 9: Second atomic bomb dropped

1945: A second atom bomb was dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender

• 378 AD: In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, was defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians. The decisive Visigoth victory at the Battle of Adrianople left the Eastern Roman Empire nearly defenceless and established the supremacy of cavalry over infantry that would last for the next millennium.

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• 1854: Henry David Thoreau published Walden, in which he described his experiences while living near Walden Pond in Massachusetts.

• 1902: Edward VII was crowned king of England following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

• 1925: Ten men of the Hindustan Republican Army led by Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and others held up the 8-Down train at Kakori, near Lucknow and looted its railway cash. The robbery was to provide money for arms, the training of men and to organise propaganda in the freedom struggle against the British. The government arrested Bismil and Khan in what was called the Kakori Conspiracy case and hanged them. Others received varying prison terms.

• 1945: A second atom bomb was dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender. The bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was dropped at 11:02 am, 1,650 feet above the city. (It is said that actor Rita Hayworth's photograph was pasted on the bomb). The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000.

• 1963: Birth of Whitney Houston, American singer and actor who is the cousin of singer Dionne Warwick.