Video: 'Peter Jennings - Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped (1995)' (July 24, 1945, at 52:15)

(Tuesday, July 24, 1945, 5:15-7:30 p.m. CEST; during World War II) — At some point during a session of the Potsdam Conference tonight, U.S. President Harry S. Truman rose from his chair and walked slowly around the table to have a private word with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, casually mentioning that “we had a new weapon of unusual destructive force,” Truman later wrote.

“All he said was that he was glad to hear it and hoped we would make good use of it against the Japanese” (click here for a clip of this event from “American Experience: Truman” at 2:06:18).

Video: 'The World At War 1973(World War II Documentary)Episode 24-The Bomb(February–September 1945)' (July 24, 1945, at 28:38)