William Shakespeare wrote many plays, stories and poems. But did any of the works of William Shakespeare make the world a better place? I think not.

However, Colonel Paul Tibbets did make the world a better place on August 6, 1945 by dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first atomic bomb dropped in warfare. When a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki a few days later, the Japanese finally did the right thing and surrendered. Yes, the two atomic bombs killed thousands of people in 1945. But the other option, an all-out invasion of Japan similar to the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, would have cost at least two million lives of both Japanese and Americans. And that's assuming it worked.
So not only did the invention and use of the atomic bomb save lives by accelerating the end of World War II, it also prevented World War III by creating the threat of mutually assured destruction. The two atomic bombs used in warfare in 1945 did more to change the world in fractions of a second than William Shakespeare's writings did to change the world in over 400 years.

Happy Veteran's Day.