On this day......

On this day in 1945, a Japanese sunk the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst loss in the history of the U.S. navy.

There were 1,196 crewmen onboard the Indianapolis; over 350 died upon impact of the torpedo or went down with the ship.

800 fell into the Pacific. Because the ship was on a secret mission that had just delivered the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima, no distress signal was sent.

It was 48 hours before help arrived. The 800 were left floating in the Pacific, fending off sharks and waiting to be rescued.

Only 318 survived.

The rest were eaten by sharks or drowned.

The Indianapolis's commander, Captain Charles McVay, was the only officer ever to be court-martialed for the loss of a ship during wartime in the history of the U.S. Navy.