T OKYO -- The atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later brought a scale of destruction the world had never seen. Many who survived the blasts died in the weeks, months and years that followed. Japan surrendered six days after the Nagasaki bombing, bringing an end to World War II.

Japan held a memorial service and ceremony for victims and the remaining survivors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, marking its 80th anniversary and renewing pledges of working towards a world without nuclear weapons.

In 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later an atomic bomb hit Nagasaki and Japan soon surrendered, ending World War II. In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The measure barred states from conducting discriminatory voting practices.