Q: Which City Was the Only City in the Continental United States to be Bombed During World War II?

Answer: Boise City, Oklahoma.

The Mon­u­ment to the Bomb­ing in Boise City, Oklahoma

On the evening of July 5, 1943 the crew of a B-17 Fly­ing Fortress Bomber took off to fly a rou­tine train­ing mis­sion. The plan was to fly to a bomb range in Texas but the crew became dis­ori­ented and instead headed for the small town of Boise City. The bomb­ing began at approx­i­mately 12:30 a.m when the crew mis­took the lights around the town square for lights at the tar­get range. The bomb­ing con­tin­ued until power plant worker Frank Gar­rett rushed to the sta­tion and killed the power shut­ting off the lights. With­out the lights on the tar­get the bomb run ended and the B-17returned home not yet know­ing of the mis­take they had made. Thank­fully no one was killed or injured due to the use of prac­tice bombs. Also prop­erty dam­age was min­i­mal, destroy­ing only an aban­doned garage. The B-17 crew later became highly dec­o­rated war heroes fight­ing over the skies of Berlin. For the 50th anniver­sary of the bomb­ing a mon­u­ment was unveiled and an audio record­ing from one the pilots was played where he issued an apology.

Via Men­tal Floss