JULY 16 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JULY 16

1942

Jews of Paris were rounded up:  Following the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup on July 16 and 17, 1942, more than 4,900 of the 13,152 victims, including more than 4,000 children, were arrested and sent directly to the camp at Drancy, from where they were deported in rail cattle cars to Auschwitz for exterminated. The raid was directed by Nazis and French police to eradicate the Jewish population in France, both in the occupied zone and in the free zone.  ( In 1995, French President Jacques Chirac apologized for the complicit role that French policemen and civil servants served in the raid.  And in 2017, President Emmanuel Macron admitted the responsibility of the French State in the roundup and hence, in the Holocaust.)

1945

Three components of the atom bomb, code-named "Little Boy" left Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, California, aboard the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis.  Specifications for building each component was given to three different plants, to ensure that no one had the complete design.  The Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C made the gun and breech.;  the Naval Ordnance Plant in Center Line, Michigan, made the target case and other components;  the Expert Tool and Die Company in Detroit, Michigan, made the tail fairing and mounting brackets ( without the fissile components.). There was the concern that an accidental detonation during transport might occur, despite the safety-mechanisms incorporated into the design of the "Little Boy".  Tests were conducted to determine, in the event of a crash, if the hollow "bullet" would be driven onto the "target" cylinder, which would result in a massive release of radiation, or possibly nuclear detonation. But neither possibility was likely since the impact would require 500 times the force of gravity.  In the event of a crash and fire, there was concern that it could trigger the explosives. Or, if it immersed in water, there would be a neutron moderator effect (which would result in massive radioactive contamination of the water.)  Therefore, pilots were instructed on the emergency procedure, that is, to crash on land, rather than at sea.  The "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945.