Part 3: Ten Facts About the Halifax Explosion, the Atomic Bombings, and the Tsar Bomba

     Hello everybody and welcome to part three of our 300 fast facts series! For this edition we'll be looking at three famous explosions. I will start linking readers to posts if I have written about this topic before, making it easier to learn more. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get into it!

     The Halifax Explosion:

1. The two boats involved in the explosion were called the Mont Blanc and the Imo.
2. The Mont Blanc was carrying 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high-octane gasoline, and ten tons of gun cotton, resulting in the violent explosion.
3. The explosion itself happened twenty-one minutes after the collision. 
4. 2,000 people were killed and over 9,000 injured during the explosion.
5. The Halifax Explosion was the largest manmade explosion prior to the Atomic Bomb.
6. Most of the windows in Halifax were completely shattered by the explosion. 
7. The explosion left 691 people with injuries.
8. To thank Boston for their quick actions after the explosion, Halifax sends Boston a Christmas tree every year. This tradition didn't start until 1971 however.
9. 1,630 homes were completely destroyed and 12,000 were damaged.
10. A total of 6,000 people were left without a home after the explosion.

     Source(s): https://discoverhalifaxns.com/halifax-explosion-facts/

     The Atomic Bombings:

1. The first target was decided an hour before the bomb dropped.
2. The temperature at ground zero at Hiroshima upon detonation was 60,000,000 (sixty million) degrees Fahrenheit.
3. A total of up to 246,000 may have died in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
4. The bombs were armed in mid-air.
5. The second target was originally going to be Kokura, but bad weather forced Nagasaki to get hit instead.
6. The name of the plane that dropped the second bomb was Bockscar.
7. The city of Kyoto had also been considered as a second target instead of Nagasaki, but the Secretary of War asked for it to be removed from the list because he had been there on his honeymoon.
8. The crew that dropped the bombs was called Enola Gay.
9. The members of Enola Gay were equipped with cyanide tablets that they would take if they were captured.
10. A man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived both explosions.

Source(s): http://www.realclear.com/history/2015/08/07/21_surprising_facts_about_the_atomic_bomb_attacks_on_japan_12001.html

     Tsar Bomba:

1. The Tsar Bomba is the most powerful nuclear weapon in the world. 
2. The Tsar Bomba could have been more powerful, but there was fear that the pilots dropping the bomb wouldn't survive.
3. The mushroom cloud created by the detonation was forty miles high.
4. The plane that had carried the massive bomb almost came down after experiencing the bomb's air shockwave.
5. Windows hundreds of miles away from the testing sight were shattered as a result of the shockwave too.
6. The bomb was attached to a parachute to slow the fall. This was mildly successful, but as soon as the bomb exploded, the plane instantly fell 3,000 feet.
7. The bomb was created to show the Russian military's strength.
8. The bomb was actually incredibly impractical for wartime simply because it was too difficult to move.
9. The pilots moving the Tsar Bomba were given at best a 50% survival rate.
10. The bomb was made extraordinarily quickly. It was created in a total of between 14-16 weeks. 

     Source(s): https://www.warhistoryonline.com/guns/10-facts-the-tsar-bomba-the-biggest-bomb-the-world-has-ever-seen.html