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B-29 Superfortress bombers shortly before participating in the attack

The Bombing of Yawata on the night of 15/16 June 1944 was the first air raid on the Japanese home islands conducted by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) strategic bombers during World War II. The attack was undertaken by 75 B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers (examples pictured) staging from bases in China. Only 47 of these aircraft dropped bombs near the raid's primary target, the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata, and little damage was caused. Five B-29s were lost in accidents during the operation and two were destroyed by Japanese aircraft. While the raid did not achieve its aims, it raised Japanese civilians' awareness that their country was being defeated and received inordinately positive media coverage in the United States. Intelligence gathered also revealed weaknesses in Japan's air defenses and the raid was the first of many on Japan. Yawata was attacked again on 20 August 1944. Much of the city was destroyed in a firebombing raid conducted by B-29s based in the Mariana Islands on 8 August 1945. (Full article...)

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On this day

June 15

1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo

1859 – The shooting of a pig in the San Juan Islands led to the so-called Pig War over the border between the United States and British North America.
1896 – A 7.2 M_s earthquake and a subsequent tsunami struck Japan, destroying about 9,000 homes and causing at least 22,000 deaths.
1944 – In the Saskatchewan general election, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation led by Tommy Douglas won enough seats in the Legislative Assembly to form the first socialist government in North America.
1991 – The eruption of Mount Pinatubo (pictured) in the Philippines deposited large amounts of particulate matter into the atmosphere, enough to lower global temperatures by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F).
2001 – Leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Thomas Randolph (b. 1605)
Herman Smith-Johannsen (b. 1875)
W. Arthur Lewis (d. 1991)

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Bessie Coleman (1892–1926) was a civil aviator. On June 15, 1921, she became the first African American woman and the first Native American to earn an aviation pilot's license. Denied opportunity in the United States because of her race and sex, she had to go to France to learn to fly. Her career involved stunt flying and performing in air shows, and was cut short in 1926 when she was thrown from a plane in mid-air. Her death meant that her ambition to establish a school for young black aviators went unaccomplished, but her pioneering achievements served as an inspiration for a generation of African American men and women.

Photograph credit: Unknown

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