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Brilliant. What’s everyone being for Halloween?

The stomach is a highly acidic environment, and Helicobacter pylori is one of the few bacteria that can thrive there. H. pylori bacteria, shown here, are both a boon and a bother to humans. They help us regulate our immune system, prevent allergies and control our appetite. However, they can also cause ulcers and stomach cancer. 

Stephen Colbert doing a hilarious Cosmos parody. 

USS Missouri arrives in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese Surrender, 9/2/1945

USS Missouri as It Enters Tokyo Bay for the Surrender Ceremony, 9/2/1945

Spectators and photographers pick vantage spots on the deck of the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay, to witness the formal Japanese surrender proceedings., 9/2/1945 

Japanese surrender signatories arrive aboard the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay to participate in surrender ceremonies., 9/2/1945

Deck Log of the USS Missouri, 9/2/1945

F4U’s and F6F’s fly in formation during surrender ceremonies; Tokyo, Japan. USS MISSOURI [in] left foreground., 9/2/1945

The battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) hosted the signing ceremony for the Japanese Surrender marking the end of World War II on September 2, 1945.  The accompanying ship’s deck log details the day’s events and the numerous prominent attendees, including Admiral Chester Nimitz, Admiral William Halsey, and General Douglas MacArthur.

The USS Missouri’s deck log can be transcribed in the National Archives Catalog:

How to get started transcribing

Credentials of Mamoru Shigemitsu, 9/1/1945

Series: Instruments of Japanese Surrender, 9/1945 - 9/1945 Record Group 218: Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1941 - 1977

This letter authorizes Mamoru Shigemitsu, then the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, to sign the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of Emperor Hirohito of Japan.

LB (Little Boy) unit on trailer cradle in pit. [Note bomb bay door in upper right-hand corner.], 8/1945

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

“At the time this photo was made, smoke billowed 20,000 feet above Hiroshima while smoke from the burst of the first atomic bomb had spread over 10,000 feet on the target at the base of the rising column.Two planes of the 509th Composite Group, part of the 313th Wing of the 20th Air Force, participated in this mission, one to carry the bomb, the other to act as escort, 8/6/1945″

Series: Black and White Photographs of U.S. Air Force and Predecessors’ Activities, Facilities, and Personnel, Domestic and Foreign, 1930 - 1975 Record Group 342: Records of U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations, 1900 - 2003

Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., Pilot of the Enola Gay, the Plane that Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Waves from His Cockpit before the Takeoff, 6 August 1945, Army Air Forces.

SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY — Brochure cover, circa 1946-1950, from the Manufacturers’ Research Committee, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Letter from Secretary of War Henry Stimson to President Harry S. Truman, 4/24/1945

On this day 70 years ago, Harry Truman received one of the most important letters of all time. For this week’s “Just the Facts” we take a look at a letter sent from the Secretary of War on April 24, 1945.

Harry Truman had been President all of 13 days following Franklin Roosevelt’s death when he received a letter from Secretary of War Henry Stimson about a “highly secret matter” that had a large “bearing on our present foreign relations.” During the 82 days Truman had served as Vice President, he had been kept out of FDR’s inner circle on many issues concerning World War II.

Stimson’s secret that he felt the President “ought to know about…without much further delay” would have a major impact on the end of World War II–it was the Manhattan Project.