USS Indianapolis is sunk by a Japanese submarine, July 30, 1945
Three days ago, the USS Indianapolis had unloaded a top-secret cargo: the atomic bomb that ultimately will be dropped on Hiroshima. Now it is steaming toward the Philippines. Its captain, confident that the ship is in no imminent danger, has ordered that evasive action be abandoned in order to increase sailing speed. Thirteen miles away, the Japanese submarine I-58 detects the vessel and fires six torpedoes. Eight minutes later, the crew is ordered to abandon ship as it slowly sinks into the sea. Eight hundred of the 1,196 crew members endure five days in the Pacific Ocean before 317 of them are rescued.