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1945

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see1945 (disambiguation).

From top to bottom, left to right: TheAtomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastate Japan and force theSurrender of Japan, endingWorld War II; theBattle of Berlin brings the fall ofNazi Germany, thedeath ofAdolf Hitler, and theend of World War II in Europe; theBattle of Iwo Jima sees theUnited States capture a vital island after fierce fighting; theYalta Conference unitesWinston Churchill,Franklin D. Roosevelt, andJoseph Stalin to shape postwarEurope and establish theUnited Nations; theBombing of Dresden levels the city with heavy civilian losses; thedeath ofBenito Mussolini marks the collapse of Fascist Italy; theBombing of Tokyo becomes one of the deadliest air raids of the war; thedeath of Franklin D. Roosevelt seesHarry S. Truman assume the U.S. presidency; and the1945 Empire State Building B-25 crash strikesNew York City, killing 14.

Calendar year

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19th century 20th century 21st century
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1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
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1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948
v t e

1945 by topic
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Afghanistan Australia Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Denmark France Germany India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Malaya Netherlands New Zealand Norway Palestine Mandate Philippines Portugal South Africa South Korea Soviet Union Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States Venezuela
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Birth and death categories
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Establishments and disestablishments categories
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v t e

1945 in variouscalendars
Gregorian calendar	1945 MCMXLV
Ab urbe condita	2698
Armenian calendar	1394 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԴ
Assyrian calendar	6695
Baháʼí calendar	101–102
Balinese saka calendar	1866–1867
Bengali calendar	1351–1352
Berber calendar	2895
British Regnal year	9 Geo. 6 – 10 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2489
Burmese calendar	1307
Byzantine calendar	7453–7454
Chinese calendar	甲申年 (Wood Monkey) 4642 or 4435 — to — 乙酉年 (Wood Rooster) 4643 or 4436
Coptic calendar	1661–1662
Discordian calendar	3111
Ethiopian calendar	1937–1938
Hebrew calendar	5705–5706
Hindu calendars
-Vikram Samvat	2001–2002
-Shaka Samvat	1866–1867
-Kali Yuga	5045–5046
Holocene calendar	11945
Igbo calendar	945–946
Iranian calendar	1323–1324
Islamic calendar	1364–1365
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 20 (昭和２０年)
Javanese calendar	1875–1876
Juche calendar	34
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4278
Minguo calendar	ROC 34 民國34年
Nanakshahi calendar	477
Thai solar calendar	2488
Tibetan calendar	ཤིང་ཕོ་སྤྲེ་ལོ་ (male Wood-Monkey) 2071 or 1690 or 918 — to — ཤིང་མོ་བྱ་ལོ་ (female Wood-Bird) 2072 or 1691 or 919

Wikimedia Commons has media related to1945.

1945 (MCMXLV) was acommon year starting on Monday of theGregorian calendar, the 1945th year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini (AD) designations, the 945th year of the2nd millennium, the 45th year of the20th century, and the 6th year of the1940s decade.

Calendar year

A turning point^[1] inhuman history, 1945 marked the end ofWorld War II, ending with the defeat and occupation ofNazi Germany, and theEmpire of Japan. It is also the year theNazi concentration camps were liberated and the only year in whichatomic weapons have been used in warfare.

Events

[edit]

World War II will be abbreviated as "WWII"

January

[edit]

Main article:January 1945

January 27 – The SovietRed Army liberatesAuschwitz.

January 1 – WWII:
- Germany beginsOperation Bodenplatte, an attempt by theLuftwaffe to crippleAllied air forces in theLow Countries.^[2]
- Chenogne massacre: German prisoners are allegedly killed by American forces near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.
January 6 – WWII: A German offensive recapturesEsztergom,Hungary from the Soviets.
January 9 – WWII: American and Australian troops land atLingayen Gulf on western coast of the largest Philippine island ofLuzon, occupied by Japan since 1942.
January 12 – WWII: TheSoviet Union begins theVistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe, against theGerman Army.^[3]
January 13 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins theEast Prussian Offensive, to eliminate German forces inEast Prussia.
January 16 – WWII:Adolf Hitler takes residence in theFührerbunker in Berlin.^[4]
January 17
- WWII: TheSoviet Union occupiesWarsaw, Poland.
- The Holocaust: Swedish diplomatRaoul Wallenberg, who has saved thousands of Jews, is taken into custody by a Soviet patrol during theSiege of Budapest and is never again seen publicly.^[5]
January 18 –The Holocaust: TheSS begins the evacuation ofAuschwitz concentration camp. Nearly 60,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to other locations in Germany; as many as 15,000 die. The 7,000 too sick to move are left without supplies being distributed.
January 19 –The Holocaust: Soviet forces liberate theŁódź Ghetto; only 877 Jews of the initial population of 164,000 remain at this time.^[6]
January 20 – Germany begins theEvacuation of East Prussia.
January 21–22 (night) – At theGrünhagen railroad station, located inEast Prussia at this date, two trains, heading forElbing, collide. At dawn the station is reached bySoviet Army infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing between 140 and 150 people.
January 23 – WWII:
- Hungary agrees to anarmistice with theAllies.
- German Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz orders the start ofOperation Hannibal, the mass evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from theCourland Pocket,East Prussia and thePolish Corridor, evacuating an estimated 800,000-900,000 German civilians and 350,000 soldiers from advancing Soviet forces.
- Evacuation of Germans fromGrünhagen.
January 24 – WWII:AP war correspondent Joseph Morton, nineOSS men, and fourSOE agents are executed by the Germans atMauthausen concentration camp under Hitler'sCommando Order of 1942, which stipulates the immediate execution of all captured Alliedcommandos orsaboteurs without trial, even those in proper uniforms. Morton is the onlyAllied correspondent to be executed by theAxis during the war.
January 25 – WWII: Hitler appointsHeinrich Himmler as commander of the hastily formedArmy Group Vistula (Heeresgruppe Weichsel) to halt the SovietRed Army'sVistula–Oder offensive intoPomerania, despite Himmler's lack of military experience.^[7]
January 26 – WWII: 19-year-old U.S. Army Staff SergeantAudie Murphy sees action atHoltzwihr, France, for which is awarded theMedal of Honor.
January 27 –The Holocaust: The SovietRed Army liberates theAuschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.
January 30 – WWII:
- MV Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) is sunk inGdańsk Bay by threetorpedoes fromSoviet submarineS-13 in theBaltic Sea; up to 9,400, 5,000 of whom are children, are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.
- Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 Americanprisoners of war from the Japanese-held camp in the city ofCabanatuan, in thePhilippines.
- Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.
January 31 – WWII: TheBattle of Hill 170 in the Burma Campaign ends with the British3rd Commando Brigade defeating theImperial Japanese Army 54th Division, causing theJapanese Twenty-Eighth Army to withdraw from theArakan Peninsula.

February

[edit]

Main article:February 1945

February 4 – The "Big Three" at theYalta Conference:Winston Churchill,Franklin D. Roosevelt andJoseph Stalin.

February 19 – During theBattle of Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines land onthe island.

February – Raymond L. Libby ofAmerican Cyanamid's research laboratories, atStamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibioticpenicillin.^[8]
February 3 – WWII:
- Battle of Manila: United States forces enter the outskirts ofManila to capture it from theJapanese Imperial Army, starting the battle. On February 4, U.S. Army forces liberateSanto Tomas Internment Camp in the city.
- TheSoviet Union agrees to enter thePacific War against Japan, once hostilities against Germany are concluded.
February 4–11 – WWII:President Franklin D. Roosevelt,Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill andSoviet leaderJoseph Stalin hold theYalta Conference.
February 7 – WWII: GeneralDouglas MacArthur returns toManila.
February 8 – The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leaderElizabeth Peratrovich, is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943.
February 9
- Walter Ulbricht becomes leader of the GermanCommunists in Moscow.
- WWII: "Black Friday": A force of AlliedBristol Beaufighter aircraft suffers heavy casualties in an unsuccessful attack onGerman destroyerZ33 and escorting vessels sheltering inFørde Fjord, Norway.
February 10 – WWII: Germantroopship SS General von Steuben is sunk by theSoviet submarineS-13; 3,608 drown.^[9]
February 10–20 – WWII:Operation Kita: TheImperial Japanese Navy returns "Completion Force", containing both itsIse-class battleships, safely fromSingapore toKure in Japan despiteAllied attacks.
February 12 – Adevastating tornado outbreak inMississippi andAlabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.^[10]^[11]
February 13 – WWII:
- TheBudapest Offensive and theSiege of Budapest end withNazi troops surrenderingBudapest (Hungary) toSoviet-Romanian forces.
- Bombing of Dresden (Germany) by the BritishRoyal Air Force andUnited States Army Air Forces; 25,000-35,000 are estimated to have died.
February 16 – WWII:
- TheBombing of Wesel begins, destroying 97% of the town over three days.
- American and Filipino ground forces land onCorregidor Island in thePhilippines.
- Combined American and Filipino forces recapture theBataan Peninsula.
- Venezuela declares war on Germany.
February 18–March 5 – WWII: American and Brazilian troops kick offOperation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in theNorthern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of theAllied Spring offensive.^[12]
February 19–20 – 980 (actual figure is disputed)^[13] Japanese soldiers die as a result of being attacked by long saltwatercrocodiles inRamree, Burma.^[14]
February 19 – WWII:Battle of Iwo Jima – About 30,000United States Marines land onIwo Jima.
February 21 – The lastV-2 rocket is launched fromPeenemünde.
February 22 – WWII:
- Italian Front: TheBattle of Monte Castello ends after nearly three months of fighting when theBrazilian Expeditionary Force expels German forces from a pivot point in the(Tuscan) North Apennines where their artillery was impeding the advance of theBritish Eighth Army towardBologna.
- Uruguay declares war on Germany and Japan.
February 23 – WWII:
- Battle of Iwo Jima: A group ofUnited States Marines reach the top ofMount Suribachi on the island, and are photographed raising theAmerican flag. The photo,Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (taken byJoe Rosenthal), later wins aPulitzer Prize.
- The11th Airborne Division, withFilipino guerrillas, free the captives of theLos Baños internment camp.
- The capital of thePhilippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops. The suburb ofIntramuros is devastated.^[15]
- The German garrison inPoznań capitulates toRed Army and Polish troops.
- Bombing of Pforzheim: The heaviest of a series of bombing raids onPforzheim, Germany by Allied aircraft is carried out by the BritishRoyal Air Force. As many as 17,600 people, or 31.4% of the town's population, are killed in the raid and about 83% of the town's buildings destroyed, two-thirds of its complete area and between 80 and 100% of the inner city.
- Turkey joins the war on the side of theAllies.
February 24 – Egyptian PremierAhmad Mahir Pasha is assassinated in Parliament after declaring war on Germany and Japan.
February 27 – TheBombing of Mainz results in 1,209 confirmed dead; 80% of the city is destroyed.
February 28 – InBucharest, a violent demonstration takes place, during which theBolşevic group opens fire on the army and protesters. In response,Andrei Y. Vishinsky,USSR vice commissioner of foreign affairs and president of the Allied Control Commission forRomania, travels to Bucharest to compelNicolae Rădescu to resign as premier.

March

[edit]

Main article:March 1945

March 1 – PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to ajoint session of the United States Congress, reporting on theYalta Conference.
March 2
- Former U.S. Vice-presidentHenry A. Wallace starts his term of office asUnited States Secretary of Commerce, serving under PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.
- The rocket-propelledBachem Ba 349Natter is first test launched atStetten am kalten Markt. The launch fails and the pilot,Lothar Sieber, dies.^[16]
March 3 – WWII:
- Finland declares war on theAxis powers.
- United States and Filipino troops takeManila,Philippines.
- Pawłokoma massacre: A PolishHome Army unit massacres between 150 and 500 Ukrainian civilians in the Polish village ofPawłokoma.
- Bombing of the Bezuidenhout: The BritishRoyal Air Force accidentally bombs theBezuidenhout neighbourhood inThe Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
March 4
- In the United Kingdom,Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins theAuxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a truck driver/mechanic in London.
- The Swiss cities ofBasel andZürich areaccidentally bombed by the United States.^[17]
March 5 – WWII: Brazilian troops take Castelnuovo (Vergato), in the last operations of the AlliedOperation Encore.
March 6
- A Communist-led government is formed inRomania underPetru Groza, followingSoviet intervention.
- Resistance fighters accidentally ambush and attempt to execute SS generalHanns Albin Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
March 7 – WWII: At the end ofOperation Lumberjack, American troops seize theLudendorff Bridge over theRhine atRemagen, Germany and begin to cross; in the next 10 days, 25,000 troops with equipment are able to cross.
March 8
- Josip Broz Tito forms aProvisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, in theKingdom of Yugoslavia.
- Nazi authorities kill 117 Dutch men, in reprisal for the attempted murder ofHanns Albin Rauter.
- Operation Sunrise:Waffen-SS GeneralKarl Wolff meets withAllen Welsh Dulles of the United StatesOffice of Strategic Services atLucerne, Switzerland, to negotiate the surrender of theAxis forces in Italy to theAllies.
March 9–10 – WWII:Bombing of Tokyo:USAAF B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan, withincendiary bombs, killing 100,000 citizens in the firebombing. It is the single most destructive conventional air attack of the war.
March 11
- TheEmpire of Japan establishes theEmpire of Vietnam, apuppet state which will last only until August 23, withBảo Đại as its ruler.
- TheSammarinese general election givesSan Marino the world's first democratically electedcommunist government, which will hold power until1957.^[18]^[19]
March 12 – WWII:Swinemünde is destroyed by the USAAF, killing an estimated 8,000 to 23,000 civilians, mostly refugees saved byOperation Hannibal.
March 15–31 – WWII: The SovietRed Army carries out theUpper Silesian Offensive.
March 15 – The17th Academy Awards ceremony is held, broadcast via radio in the United States for the first time.Best Picture goes toGoing My Way.
March 16 – WWII:
- TheBattle of Iwo Jima unofficially ends.
- TheBombing of Würzburg, as part of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, destroys 89% of the city and causes 4,000 deaths.
March 17 – WWII:Kobe, Japanis fire-bombed by 331B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000 people.
March 18 – WWII:
- The 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed inTigbauan forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and GeneralMacario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare theLiberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.^[20]
- 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.^[21]
- Battle of Kolberg concludes with the Baltic seaport (designated a keyFestung (fortress) by the Germans) taken by Polish and Soviet forces and ethnic Germans evacuated or expelled.^[22]
March 19 – WWII:
- Adolf Hitler issues the "Nero Decree" ordering that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed ahead of Allied advances, butAlbert Speer, placed in charge of the implementation, deliberately disobeys it.
- Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit theaircraft carrier USSFranklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.
March 20 – WWII: Hitler dismissesHeinrich Himmler from his military command.^[3]
March 21 – WWII:
- British troops liberateMandalay,Burma.
- Bulgarian andSoviet troops successfully defend the north bank of theDrava River, as theBattle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.
March 22
- TheArab League is formed, with the adoption of a charter inCairo, Egypt.
- TheCathedral and the historic centre ofHildesheim in Germany are destroyed in abombing of the city.
March 24
- WWII:Operation Varsity – Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the riverRhine to aid the Allied advance.
- The cartoon characterSylvester the cat debuts inLife with Feathers.
March 26 – WWII: TheBattle of Iwo Jima officially ends, with the destruction of the remaining areas of Japanese resistance, although there areJapanese holdouts here until 1949.
March 27 – WWII:
- TheUnited States Army Air Forces beginsOperation Starvation, layingnaval mines in many of Japan's seaways.
- Argentina declares war onGermany andJapan.
March 29
- WWII: TheRed Army almost destroys theGerman 4th Army, in theHeiligenbeil Pocket inEast Prussia.
- The "Clash of Titans":George Mikan andBob Kurland duel atMadison Square Garden in New York, asOklahoma State University defeatsDePaul 52–44 inbasketball.
March 30 – WWII:
- TheRed Army pushes most of the Axis forces out of Hungary into Austria.
- American officialAlger Hiss is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing the positions of the Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other, at theYalta Conference.

April

[edit]

Main article:April 1945

April 7 –Japanese battleshipYamato explodes after persistent attacks from U.S. aircraft during theBattle of Okinawa.

April 30 –Adolf Hitler, along with his wife of one dayEva Braun,commits suicide.

April 1 – WWII:Battle of Okinawa: TheTenth United States Army lands onOkinawa.
April 4 – WWII:
- American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp,Ohrdruf extermination camp in Germany.
- The SovietRed Army entersBratislava and pushes to the outskirts ofVienna, taking it on April 13, after several days of intense fighting.
April 6 – WWII:
- Sarajevo is liberated fromNazi Germany and theIndependent State of Croatia (afascist puppet state) byYugoslav Partisans.
- TheBattle of Slater's Knoll onBougainville Island concludes with a decisive victory for theAustralian Army's7th Brigade.
- Allied forces reachMerkers Salt Mines inThuringia where gold reserves of the Nazi GermanReichsbank and art treasures are stored.
April 7 – WWII:
- The only flight of the German ramming unit known asSonderkommando Elbe takes place, resulting in the loss of some 24B-17s andB-24s of the United StatesEighth Air Force.
- Japanese battleship Yamato and nine other warships take part inOperation Ten-Go, a suicide attack on Allied forces engaged in the Battle of Okinawa.Yamato is sunk by U.S. Navy aircraft in theEast China Sea 200 miles (320 km) north ofOkinawa with the loss of 2,055 of 2,332 crew, together with five other Japanese warships.
- Kantarō Suzuki becomesPrime Minister of Japan.
April 8 – TheSS begins to evacuate theBuchenwald concentration camp; inmates in theBuchenwald Resistance call for American aid, and overpower and kill the remaining guards.
April 9
- WWII: TheBattle of Königsberg, inEast Prussia, ends with Soviet forces capturing the city.
- Abwehr conspiratorsWilhelm Canaris,Hans Oster andHans von Dohnányi are hanged at Flossenberg concentration camp, along with pastorDietrich Bonhoeffer.
- Johann Georg Elser, would-be assassin ofAdolf Hitler, is executed atDachau concentration camp.
April 10 – WWII:Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina Brigades from the Tenth Division ofYugoslav Partisan forces.
April 11 –Buchenwald concentration camp is liberated by theUnited States Army.
April 12
- Vice PresidentHarry S. Truman becomes the 33rd president of the United States upon the death of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt at theLittle White House inWarm Springs, Georgia of anintracerebral hemorrhage. President Truman issworn in later this evening in theWhite House.
- Adevastating tornado outbreak occurs across the United States, which kills 128 people and injures over 1,000 others. This is heavily overshadowed by the death of President Roosevelt.^[23]^[24]
- WWII: TheU.S. Ninth Army under GeneralWilliam H. Simpson crosses theElbe River astrideMagdeburg, and reachesTangermünde — only 50 miles fromBerlin.
- Richard Strauss completes composition of hisMetamorphosen.
April 14 – WWII:
- TheFirst Canadian Army assumes military control of the Netherlands, where German forces are trapped in the Atlantic Wall fortifications along the coastline.^[25]
- Razing of Friesoythe: The4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroys the German town ofFriesoythe, on the orders of Major GeneralChristopher Vokes.
April 15 – WWII:
- TheBergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British and Canadian forces.
- The Canadian First Army reaches the coast in the northernNetherlands, and capturesArnhem.
April 16 – WWII:
- TheBattle of Berlin begins, opening with theRed Army launching theBattle of the Oder–Neisse and theBattle of the Seelow Heights.
- Canadian forces takeHarlingen and occupyLeeuwarden andGroningen in the Netherlands.
- MV Goya is sunk bySoviet submarineL-3 in theBaltic Sea while evacuating German troops and civilians as part ofOperation Hannibal; 7,000–8,000 drown.
- Death marches fromFlossenbürg concentration camp begin.
April 17 – WWII:
- Battle of Montese:Brazilian forces liberate the town ofMontese, Italy, from German forces.
- Inundation of the Wieringermeer in the Netherlands by occupying German forces.
April 18 – Americanwar correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanesemachine gun fire on the island ofIe Shima offOkinawa.
April 19 –Rodgers and Hammerstein'sCarousel, a musical play based onFerenc Molnár'sLiliom, opens onBroadway, and becomes their second long-running stage classic. It includes the standard "You'll Never Walk Alone".
April 20 – WWII:
- On his 56th birthday,Adolf Hitler leaves hisFührerbunker, to decorate a group ofHitler Youth soldiers in Berlin. It will be his last trip to the surface from his underground bunker.
- The German city ofNuremberg, previously the site of theNuremberg rallies, is occupied by American troops.
- "Morotai Mutiny": members of theAustralian First Tactical Air Force based on the island ofMorotai in theDutch East Indies tender their resignations to protest their belief that they are being assigned to missions of no military importance and in which they are not specialists; a subsequent inquiry effectively vindicates them.^[26]
April 22 – WWII:
- Heinrich Himmler, throughFolke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, puts forth an offer of German surrender to the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.
- Adolf Hitler finally concedes that "everything is lost"^[27] at a meeting in theFührerbunker after learning thatSS-ObergruppenführerFelix Steiner cannot mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on theSoviet forces which are surrounding Berlin.
April 23 – WWII:
- Hermann Göring sends theGöring telegram to Hitler, seeking confirmation that he should take over leadership of Germany, in accordance with the decree of June 29, 1941. Hitler regards this as treason.
- The mainFlossenbürg concentration camp is liberated by the United States Army.
April 24 – WWII:
- Battle of Berlin:Red Army troops complete encirclement of Berlin.^[28]
- RetreatingGerman troops destroy all the bridges over theAdige inVerona, including the historicPonte di Castelvecchio andPonte Pietra.
April 25
- Founding negotiations for theUnited Nations begin inSan Francisco.
- WWII –Elbe Day: United States andSoviet troops link up at the riverElbe, cutting Germany in two.
April 25–26 – WWII: The last majorstrategic bombing raid byRAF Bomber Command, the destruction of the oil refinery atTønsberg in southern Norway, is carried out by 107Avro Lancasters.
April 26 – WWII:
- Battle of Bautzen: The last "successful" German panzer-offensive inBautzen ends with the city recaptured.
- TheBritish 3rd Infantry Division, underGeneral Whistler, captures Bremen.^[29]
- Nazi surrenders mean the British and Canadians now control the German border with Switzerland, fromBasel toLake Constance.
April 27
- The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. TheLapland War and thus,World War II in Finland, comes to an end and theRaising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
- The provisional government ofAustria headed byKarl Renner asserts its independence from Germany.^[30]
- U.S. Ordnance troops find the coffins ofFrederick William I of Prussia,Frederick the Great,Paul von Hindenburg and his wife in a salt mine in Germany.^[31]
April 28
- The bodies ofBenito Mussolini, his mistress,Clara Petacci, and other followers are hung by their heels at a gas station in the public square ofMilan, Piazzale Loreto, following their execution by Italian partisans after an attempt to flee the country.
- The Canadian First Army capturesEmden andWilhelmshaven.
April 29
- At the royal palace inCaserta, Lieutenant-Colonel Viktor von Schweinitz (representing GeneralHeinrich von Vietinghoff) and SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Wenner (representingWaffen-SS GeneralKarl Wolff) sign an unconditional instrument of surrender for allAxis powers forces in Italy, taking effect onMay 2. Italian GeneralRodolfo Graziani orders theEsercito Nazionale Repubblicano forces under his command to lay down their arms.^[32]
- Dachau concentration camp is surrendered to U.S. forces, who kill SS guards at the camp and the nearby hamlet of Webling.^[33]
- Brazilian forces liberate the commune ofFornovo di Taro, Italy, from German forces.
- Operation Manna: BritishAvro Lancaster bombers drop food into the Netherlands to prevent the starvation of the civilian population.
- Soviet soldiers hoist theRed flag over theReich Chancellery in Berlin.
- Adolf Hitler marries his longtime mistressEva Braun, in a closed civil ceremony in the BerlinFührerbunker, and signshis last will and testament.
April 30 – WWII:
- Death of Adolf Hitler: Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day,Eva Braun, commit suicide as theRed Army approaches theFührerbunker in Berlin.GroßadmiralKarl Dönitz succeeds Hitler asReichspräsident (President of Germany) andJoseph Goebbels succeeds asReichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany), in accordance with Hitler's political testament the day earlier.
- American forces enter the Bavarian capital ofMunich.

May

[edit]

Main article:May 1945

a black and white image of two Marines in their combat uniforms. One Marine is providing cover fire with his M1 Thompson submachinegun as the other with a Browning Automatic Rifle, prepares to break cover to move to a different position. There are bare sticks and rocks on the ground. — May – Marines of 1st Marine Divisionfighting on Okinawa.

May 8 – American soldiers fighting in thePacific theater listen to radio reports ofVictory in Europe Day.

May 9 – Prague is liberated by theRed Army.

May –Interpol (being headquartered in Berlin) effectively ceases to exist (it is recreated onJune 3,1946).
May 1 – WWII:
- Reichssender Hamburg'sFlensburg radio station announces that Hitler has died in battle, "fighting up to his last breath againstBolshevism."
- Joseph Goebbels carries out his sole official act as Chancellor of Germany, dictating a letter to the Soviet commander in Berlin advising of Hitler's death and requesting a ceasefire. When the latter is refused, he and his wifeMagda kill theirsix children and commit suicide themselves. Karl Dönitz appointsLutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the newde factoChancellor of Germany, in theFlensburg Government.
- Troops of theYugoslav 4th Army, together with theSlovene 9th Corpus NOV, enterTrieste.
- Mass suicide in Demmin: An estimated 700–2,500 suicides take place, after 80% of the town has been destroyed by the Soviets during the past three days.
May 2 – WWII:
- TheSoviet Union announces thefall of Berlin. The famous picture ofRaising a Flag over the Reichstag was taken at this date.
- Lübeck is liberated by theBritish Army.
- The surrender ofAxis troops in Italy comes into effect.
- AHolocaust death march fromDachau to the Austrian border is halted under two kilometers west ofWaakirchen by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.^[34]^[35]
- Troops of theNew Zealand Army 2nd Division enterTrieste a day after theYugoslavs; theGerman Army inTrieste surrenders to theNew Zealand Army.
- Following the death or resignation of theHitler Cabinet in Germany, theSchwerin von Krosigk cabinet first meets.
- Neuengamme concentration camp nearHamburg is evacuated at about this date.
- Expatriate American poetEzra Pound is arrested by theItalian resistance movement but soon released by them as of no interest; onMay 5 he turns himself in to theUnited States Army and is imprisoned as a traitor.
May 3 – WWII:
- Theprison shipsCap Arcona (5,000 dead),Thielbek (2,750 dead) andDeutschland (all survive) are sunk by the BritishRoyal Air Force inLübeck Bay.
- Rocket scientistWernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to U.S. forces (later going on to help start the U.S. space program).
- German Protestant theologianGerhard Kittel is arrested by the French forces in Tübingen, Germany.
- Operation Dracula: British troops liberate the Burmese capital ofRangoon from Japanese forces.
May 4 – WWII:
- German surrender at Lüneburg Heath: All German armed forces in northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands surrender unconditionally to Field MarshalBernard Montgomery, effective on May 5 at 08:00 hours British Double (and German) Summer Time.
- The Netherlands is liberated by British and Canadian troops.^[36]
- Denmark is liberated.^[37]
- AdmiralKarl Dönitz orders allU-boats to cease offensive operations and return to bases in Norway.^[38]
- TheHoly Crown of Hungary is found inMattsee, Austria, by theUnited States Army 86th Infantry Division. The U.S. government keeps the crown inFort Knox for safekeeping from the Soviets until it is returned toHungary on January 61978.^[39]
- German auxiliary cruiserOrion is sunk on her way toCopenhagen carrying refugees, with a loss of over 3,800 lives.
May 5 – WWII:
- Prague uprising:Prague rises up against occupying Nazi forces, encouraged by radio broadcasts (giving rise to theBattle for Czech Radio).
- TheUS 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners ofMauthausen concentration camp, includingSimon Wiesenthal.
- Canadian soldiers liberate the city ofAmsterdam fromNazi occupation.
- A Japanesefire balloon kills six people, Elsie Mitchell and five children, nearBly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. These are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the American mainland during WWII.
May 6
- WWII:Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her lastpropaganda broadcast toAllied troops (the first was on December 11,1941).
- Holocaust:Ebensee concentration camp in Austria is liberated by troops of the80th Division (United States).
May 6–7 – The government of theIndependent State of Croatia, the Nazi-affiliated fascist puppet state established in occupiedYugoslavia, fleesZagreb for a location nearKlagenfurt in Austria, but is captured in theBleiburg repatriations that then leads to mass executions.^[40]^[41]
May 7 – WWII:
- At 02:41, GeneralAlfred Jodl signs the unconditionalGerman Instrument of Surrender inSHAEF HQ atReims, France, to end Germany's participation in the war. Surrender is effective on May 8 at 23:01 hours Central European Time (00:01 hours May 9 German Summer Time). This afternoonLutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Leading Minister in the rumpFlensburg Government, makes a broadcast announcing the German surrender and American journalistEdward Kennedy breaks an Allied embargo on news of the signing.^[42]
- Numerous RAFLancasters land in Germany to repatriate British prisoners of war. Some 4,500 ex-POWs are flown back to Great Britain over the next 24 hours.
May 8 – WWII:
- Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) is observed by the western European powers asNazi Germany surrenders, marking the end of WWII in Europe.
- Shortly before midnight (May 9 Moscow time) the finalGerman Instrument of Surrender is signed at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin-Karlshorst, attended byAllied representatives.
- Canadian troops move intoAmsterdam, after German troops surrender.
- The surrender of theDodecanese is signed inSymi.
- ThePrague uprising ends with a ceasefire.
- TheEighth British Army, together with Slovene partisan troops and a motorized detachment of the Yugoslav 4th Army, arrives inCarinthia andKlagenfurt. TheCroatian Armed Forces of theIndependent State of Croatia are ordered by their commanders not to surrender to theYugoslav Partisans, but to attempt to retreat to Austria and surrender to the British, part of the events leading to theBleiburg repatriations.
- Hermann Göring surrenders himself to the United States Army nearRadstadt.^[43]
May 8–29 –Sétif and Guelma massacre: inAlgeria, thousands die as French troops and released Italian POWs kill an estimated 6,000 to 40,000 Algerian citizens.
May 9 – WWII:
- TheSoviet Union marksVE Day as theRed Army enters Prague.^[44]
- Vidkun Quisling and other members of thecollaborationist Quisling regime in Norway surrender to the Resistance (Milorg) andpolice atMøllergata 19 in Oslo, as part of thelegal purge in Norway after World War II.
- GeneralAlexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica,Slovenia, signs the capitulation of German occupation troops.
- Liberation of the German-occupied Channel Islands: British forces take the surrender of the occupying troops, with Royal Navy shipsHMSBulldog arriving inSt Peter Port,Guernsey, andHMSBeagle inSt Helier,Jersey.
May 10 – WWII:Liberation of the German-occupied Channel Islands: Occupation ofSark ends, with British forces taking the surrender of the occupying troops and leaving them under the orders of DameSibyl Hathaway.
May 12
- Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares theMeat Industry Workers Federation dissolved.
- Rev. W. V. Awdry's children's bookThe Three Railway Engines, first ofThe Railway Series, is published in England.
May 14–15 – WWII:Battle of Poljana: The last battle of the War in Europe is fought at Poljana nearSlovenj Gradec,Slovenia.
May 15 – WWII:Surrender at Bleiburg – Retreating troops of theCroatian Armed Forces of the former puppetIndependent State of Croatia (intermingled with fleeing civilians) attempt to surrender to the British Army atBleiburg, but are directed to surrender toYugoslav Partisans, who open fire on them. The remainder, after orders are given byTito, are force-marched through Croatia andSerbia, interned or massacred, with thousands dying.^[45]^[46]
May 16 – WWII:Liberation of the German-occupied Channel Islands: Occupation ofAlderney ends, with British forces taking the surrender of the occupying troops, the civilian population having been evacuated.
May 18 – WWII:Operation Unthinkable – British prime ministerWinston Churchill secretly requests his military chiefs of staff to consider a plan for British, American and reactivated German forces to attack the SovietRed Army on July 1 to preserve the independence of Poland. The operation is ruled militarily unfeasible.^[47]^[48]
May 23
- TheFlensburg Government is dissolved by the Allies, andGerman President Karl Dönitz andGerman Chancellor Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by BritishRAF Regiment personnel atFlensburg. They are respectively the last GermanHead of state andHead of government until1949.
- Heinrich Himmler, former head of theNazi SS, commits suicide in British custody.
May 28 – U.S.-born Irish-raisedWilliam Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is captured on the German border. He is later charged in London with high treason for his earlier English-language wartime broadcasts from German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January 1946.
May 29
- German communists, led byWalter Ulbricht, arrive in Berlin.
- Dutch painterHan van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with the Nazis, but the "Dutch Golden Age" paintings he has sold toHermann Göring (Koch) are later proved to be his own fakes.
May 30 – TheIranian government demands that all Soviet and British troops leave the country.

June

[edit]

Main article:June 1945

June 5 –Dwight Eisenhower,Georgy Zhukov andArthur Tedder.

June 1 – The British take overLebanon andSyria.
June 5 – TheAllied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
June 7 – KingHaakon VII of Norway returns to Norway five years to the day after leaving for exile in Britain.
June 11
- William Lyon Mackenzie King is re-elected as Canadian prime minister.
- The Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan.^[49]
June 12 – TheYugoslav Army leavesTrieste, leaving theNew Zealand Army in control.
June 21 – WWII: TheBattle of Okinawa ends, with U.S. occupation of the island until1972.
June 24 – WWII: Avictory parade is held inRed Square in Moscow.
June 25 –Seán T. O'Kelly is elected the secondpresident of Ireland.
June 26 – TheUnited Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
June 29 –Czechoslovakia cedesCarpathian Ruthenia to theSoviet Union.
June 30 –John von Neumann'sFirst Draft of a Report on the EDVAC is distributed, containing the first published description of the logical design of a computer, withstored-program and instruction data stored in the same address space within the memory (von Neumann architecture).

July

[edit]

Main article:July 1945

July 16 –Trinity test at night inNew Mexico.

July 1
- WWII: Germany isdivided between the Allied occupation forces.
- WWII: Australian and other Allied forces launch an invasion of the east coast of Japanese-occupiedBorneo nearBalikpapan.
July 2 – The1945 Sheikh Bashir rebellion breaks out inBurao andErigavo inBritish Somaliland, led bySheikh Bashir, aSomali religious leader.^[50]
July 4 –Brazilian cruiserBahia is sunk by an accidentally induced explosion, killing more than 300 and stranding the survivors in shark-infested waters.
July 5
- The1945 United Kingdom general election is held, though some constituencies delay their polls for local holiday reasons. Counting of votes and declaration of results are delayed until July 26 to allow for voting by the large number of service personnel still overseas.
- John Curtin, 14thPrime Minister of Australia, dies in office from heart failure at the age of 60. He is briefly replaced by his deputyFrank Forde, who serves as the 15th Prime Minister until aLabor Party leadership election is held to replace Curtin.
- WWII: ThePhilippines are declared liberated.
July 6–7 –Schio massacre: 54 prisoners, mostly fascist sympathisers, are killed by members of theItalian resistance movement inSchio.
July 8 – WWII:Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if it can retain the reign of the Emperor.^[49]
July 12 –Ben Chifley iselected leader of theLabor Party, and consequently becomes the 16thPrime Minister of Australia, defeatingFrank Forde as well asNorman Makin andH.V. Evatt. As a result, Forde becomes the shortest-serving prime minister in Australian history; nevertheless, he retains his post as deputy leader.
July 14 – WWII: Italy declares war on Japan.
July 16
- TheTrinity Test, the first of anatomic bomb, using about six kilograms ofplutonium, succeeds in unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 22 kilotons of TNT.
- A train collision nearMunich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.
July 17–August 2 – WWII:Potsdam Conference – AtPotsdam, the three mainAllied leaders hold their final summit of the war. President Truman officially informs Stalin that the U.S. has a powerful new weapon.
July 21 – WWII: PresidentHarry S. Truman approves the order for atomic bombs to be used against Japan.^[49]
July 23 – WWII: French marshalPhilippe Pétain, who headed theVichy government during WWII, goes on trial for treason.
July 26
- Winston Churchill resigns asPrime Minister of the United Kingdom, after hisConservative Party is soundly defeated by theLabour Party in the1945 general election.Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister. It is the first time that Labour has governed Britain with a majority in theHouse of Commons.^[51]
- ThePotsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12, permitting Japan to retain the reign of the Emperor, has been deleted by President Truman.^[49]
July 27 – WWII:Bombing of Aomori – TwoUSAAF B-29s drop a total of 60,000leaflets on the city ofAomori, Japan, warning civilians of an air raid and urging them to leave immediately. The city was firebombed the next day, killing more than 1,700 people.
July 28
- WWII: Japan ambiguously rejects thePotsdam Declaration.^[49]
- ANorth American B-25 Mitchell crashes intoThe Empire State Building, killing 14 people.^[52]
July 29
- TheBBC Light Programme radio station is launched in the United Kingdom, aimed atmainstream light entertainment andmusic.
- WWII:Bombing of Aomori: The Japanese city ofAomori is firebombed by 63USAAF B-29 heavy bombers, killing 1,767 civilians and destroying 18,045 homes.
July 30 – WWII: Heavy cruiserUSS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from theJapanese submarine I-58 in thePhilippine Sea. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for up to four days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. CaptainCharles B. McVay III of the cruiser is later court-martialed and convicted; in 2000, he is posthumously exonerated.^[53]

August

[edit]

Main article:August 1945

August 9 – The mushroom cloud from thenuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air.

August 18 – Surrender of the Japanese Army in Central China (Memorial in Wuhan).

August 6 – WWII:Atomic bombing of Hiroshima: United StatesBoeing B-29 SuperfortressEnola Gay drops auranium-235 atomic bomb, codenamed "Little Boy", on the Japanese city ofHiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time, resulting in between 90,000 and 146,000 deaths.
August 7 – U.S. President Harry Truman announces the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, while he is returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiserUSS Augusta (CA-31), in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
August 8
- TheUnited Nations Charter is ratified by the United States Senate, and this nation becomes the third to join the new international organization.
- WWII: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
August 9 – WWII:
- Atomic bombing of Nagasaki: United StatesB-29Bockscar drops aplutonium-239 atomic bomb, codenamed "Fat Man", on the Japanese city ofNagasaki at 11:02 a.m. local time, resulting in between 39,000 and 80,000 deaths.
- TheSoviet–Japanese War opens: TheSoviet Union begins its army offensive against Japan, in the northern part of the Japanese-held Chinese region ofManchuria.^[54]
August 10 – WWII: Japan offers to surrender to the Allies, "provided this does not prejudice the sovereignty of the Emperor".
August 11
- WWII: TheAllies reply to the Japanese surrender offer by stating that EmperorHirohito will be subject to the authority of theSupreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
- The Holocaust:Kraków pogrom –Róża Berger is shot dead by Polish militia.
August 11–25 – Soviet troops complete the occupation ofSakhalin.
August 13 – TheZionist World Congress approaches the British government to discuss the founding of the country ofIsrael.
August 14 – WWII: EmperorHirohito accepts the terms of thePotsdam Declaration. His recorded announcement of this is smuggled out of theTokyo Imperial Palace. At 19:00 hrs inWashington, D.C. (23:00GMT), U.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman announces the Japanese surrender.
August 15
- WWII:
  - Bombing of Kumagaya, Japan, by the United States using conventional bombs, beginning at 00:23.
  - Hirohito surrender broadcast(Gyokuon-hōsō): EmperorHirohito's announcement of the unconditionalsurrender of Japan is broadcast on the radio a little after noon (12:00Japan Standard Time is 03:00 GMT). This is probably the first time anEmperor of Japan has been heard by the common people. Delivered in formalclassical Japanese, without directly referring to surrender and following official censorship of the country's weak position, the recorded speech is not immediately easily understood by ordinary people. The Allies call this dayVictory over Japan Day (V-J Day). This ends the period ofJapanese expansionism, and begins the period of theOccupation of Japan and sets the stage for Korean independence.
- TheAugust Revolution inVietnam begins, with theViet Minh taking over the capitalHanoi, taking advantage of the collapse of Japanese power.
- The ProvisionalInternational Civil Aviation Organization is founded, as a specialized agency of theUnited Nations.
August 17
- Philippines PresidentJosé P. Laurel issues an Executive Proclamation putting an end to theSecond Philippine Republic, thus ending his term as President of the Philippines.
- Proclamation of Indonesian Independence: Indonesian nationalistsSukarno andMohammad Hatta declare the independence of the Republic ofIndonesia, with Sukarno as president andMohammad Hatta as vice-president, igniting theIndonesian National Revolution against theDutch Empire.
August 18 – WWII:Death of Subhas Chandra Bose: Indian nationalist leaderSubhas Chandra Bose is killed as a result of his overloaded Japanese plane crashing inJapanese Taiwan.
August 19 –Chinese Civil War:Mao Zedong andChiang Kai-shek meet inChongqing to discuss an end to hostilities between theCommunists and theNationalists.
August 23 –Soviet–Japanese War:Joseph Stalin orders the detention ofJapanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union.
August 25 –Bảo Đại abdicates asEmperor of Vietnam, ending 2,000 years of dynastic and monarchic rule in the country and 143 years of theNguyễn dynasty.
August 30 – WWII:Vietnam's capitalHanoi is taken by theViet Minh, which ends the French occupation in what becomesNorth Vietnam, and thus the southern provinces becomeSouth Vietnam. This ends theAugust Revolution.
August 31
- WWII: Allied troops arrest Germanfield marshal Walther von Brauchitsch.
- A team atAmerican Cyanamid's Lederle Laboratories,Pearl River, New York, led byYellapragada Subbarow, announces they have obtainedfolic acid in a pure crystalline form.^[55] Thisvitamin is abundant in greenleaf vegetables,liver,kidney, andyeast.^[56]

September

[edit]

Main article:September 1945

September 2 – Japan signs theInstrument of Surrender aboard theUSSMissouri.

September 9 – Japanese troops formally relinquish control of Southern Korea over to the United States, effectively ending Japan's 35-yearrule over Korea.

September 2 – World War II ends:
- Japanese generalTomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Philippine and American forces atKiangan, Ifugao.
- The final officialJapanese Instrument of Surrender is accepted by the Supreme Allied Commander, GeneralDouglas MacArthur, andFleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz for the United States, and delegates from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, China, and others from a Japanese delegation led byMamoru Shigemitsu, on board the American battleship USSMissouri inTokyo Bay.
- GeneralDouglas MacArthur is given the title ofSupreme Commander Allied Powers, and is also tasked with the occupation of Japan.^[57]
- TheDemocratic Republic of Vietnam is officially established, byHo Chi Minh.^[57]
September 4 – WWII: Japanese forces surrender onWake Island, after hearing word of their country's surrender.
September 5
- Iva Toguri D'Aquino, aJapanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose", is arrested inYokohama.
- Russian code clerkIgor Gouzenko comes forward with numerous documents implicating the Soviet Union in many spy rings in North America, both in the United States and in Canada.
September 8
- U.S. troops arrive inSouthern Korea, while theSoviet Union occupies thenorth, with the dividing line being the 38th parallel of latitude. This arrangement proves to be the indirect beginning of a divided Korea, which will lead to theKorean War when North Korea invades in1950.
- The Afghan governmentdefeats a rebel force at Kunar Khas; Gerald Crichton, the BritishCharge de 'affairs in Kabul, later describes the victory as the “turning point” of theAfghan tribal revolts of 1944–1947.^[58]
September 9
- Chairman of the Nationalist Government of ChinaChiang Kai-shek officially accepts the Japanese capitulation atNanking.^[57]
- Japanese troops inKeijō (present daySeoul) formally relinquish control over Southern Korea to the United States, effectively ending Japan's 35-year rule of Korea.^[59]^[60]
September 10 –Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death for being a Nazi collaborator in Norway.^[57]
September 11
- Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War II, attempts to commit suicide to avoid facing an Alliedwar crimes tribunal.
- Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.
- TheBatu Lintang camp inSarawak,Borneo is liberated by Australian forces.
September 12
- Operation Tiderace: The Japanese Army formally surrenders to the British inSingapore.
- The office ofgovernor-general of Korea is disbanded by the United States Army Military Government in Korea, formally ending Japan's 35-year rule in Korea.
September 18
- Typhoon Makurazaki kills 3,746 people in Japan.
- The Japanese Army in Central China officially surrenders to the Chinese, inWuhan.
September 20 –Mohandas Gandhi andJawaharlal Nehru demand that all British troops depart India.
September 24 –Postwar anti-Jewish violence in Slovakia: TheTopoľčany pogrom is carried out in Czechoslovakia.

October

[edit]

Main article:October 1945

October 18 –Nuremberg trials begin, afterBuchenwald closes.

October –Arthur C. Clarke puts forward the idea of ageosynchronous communications satellite, in aWireless World magazine article.
October 1–15 –Operation Backfire: ThreeA4 rockets are launched nearCuxhaven, in a demonstration to Allied forces.
October 2 –George Albert Smith becomespresident ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
October 4 – ThePartizan Belgrade sports club is founded inBelgrade,Serbia.
October 5 –Hollywood Black Friday: A strike by the Set Decorator's Union in Hollywood results in a riot.
October 8–15 – Hadamar Trial: Personnel of theHadamar Euthanasia Centre, now in the American zone ofAllied-occupied Germany, are the first to be tried for systematic extermination inNazi Germany.
October 9 – Former prime ministerPierre Laval is sentenced to death, for collaboration with theNazis inVichy France.^[57]
October 10 – TheNazi Party is dissolved by the Allied Powers.
October 14 –Czechoslovakia: A new provisional national assembly is elected.^[57]
October 15–21 – TheFifth Pan-African Congress is held inManchester.
October 16 – TheFood and Agriculture Organization is established at a meeting inQuebec City, as a specialized agency of theUnited Nations.
October 17 – A massive number of people, headed for theGeneral Confederation of Labour (Argentina), gather in thePlaza de Mayo inBuenos Aires to demandJuan Perón's release. This is known to thePeronists as theDía de la lealtad (Loyalty Day) and considered the founding day ofPeronism.
October 18 –Isaías Medina Angarita, president ofVenezuela, is overthrown by amilitary coup.^[57]
October 19 – Members of theIndonesian People's Army attack Anglo-Dutch forces inIndonesia.^[57]
October 20 –Mongolians vote for independence from China.^[57]
October 21 –Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in theFrench Legislative Election for the first time.
October 22 –Rómulo Betancourt is named provisional president ofVenezuela.^[57]
October 24
- TheUnited Nations is founded by ratification ofits Charter, by29 nations.^[57]
- TheInternational Court of Justice ("World Court") is established by theUnited Nations Charter.
- Norwegian Nazi leaderVidkun Quisling isexecuted by firing squad, fortreason against Norway.^[57]
October 25
- WWII: Japanese armed forces inTaiwan surrender to the Allies.
- Getúlio Vargas is deposed as president in Brazil;José Linhares is named temporary president.^[57]
- Osijek prison massacre by Yugoslav secret police.
October 27–November 20 –Indonesian National Revolution:Battle of Surabaya – Pro-independenceIndonesian soldiers and militia fight British and British Indian troops inSurabaya.
October 29
- Getúlio Vargas resigns as president of Brazil.
- AtGimbels Department Store in New York City, the firstballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.
October 30 – The undivided country ofIndia joins theUnited Nations.

November

[edit]

Main article:November 1945

November 1
- International Labour Organization's new constitution comes into effect.
- Telechron introduces the model 8H59 Musalarm, the firstclock radio.
November 5 –Colombia joins theUnited Nations.
November 6 –Indonesians reject an offer of autonomy from theDutch.^[57]
November 9 –Soo Bahk Do andMoo Duk Kwan martial arts are founded inKorea.
November 10 –Indonesian National Revolution:Battle of Surabaya – Following the killing of British officer BrigadierA. W. S. Mallaby on October 30, theBritish Indian Army (in support of its allied Dutch colonial administration) begins an advance onSurabaya in theDutch East Indies againstIndonesian nationalists; although most of the city is retaken in 3 days of heavy fighting, the strength of the resistance leads to today being celebrated asHeroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan) in Indonesia.
November 11 –1945 Yugoslavian parliamentary election: MarshalJosip Broz Tito and thePeople's Front win a decisive majority (90%) in the Yugoslavian Assembly.^[57]
November 15
- Harry S. Truman,Clement Attlee andMackenzie King share nuclear information with the U.N. and call for aUnited Nations Atomic Energy Commission.^[49]^[57]
- An offensive is begun inManchuria by theKuomintang (Chinese Nationalists) against further infiltration by theChinese Communist Party.^[57]
November 16
- Charles de Gaulle is unanimously electedpresident of France by theprovisional government.^[57]
- The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production ofrocket technology.
- The foundation ofUNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is agreed at a meeting in London.
November 18 – TheTudeh party starts a bloodless coup, and will formAzerbaijan within days. Soviet troops preventIranian troops from getting involved.
November 20 – TheNuremberg trials begin: Trials against 22Nazis forwar crimes of World War II start at thePalace of Justice, Nuremberg.^[57]
November 26 – U.S. Ambassador to ChinaPatrick J. Hurley resigns after he is unable to broker a deal betweenChiang Kai-shek andMao Tse-tung.^[57]
November 28
- The1945 Balochistan earthquake causes a tsunami and kills 4,000.
- Britishfascist John Amery pleads guilty to treason, and is condemned to death.^[61]
November 29
- TheSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day is celebrated as Republic Day until the 1990s).Marshal Tito is named president.
- Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), is completed in the United States, covering 1,800 square feet (170 m²) of floor space, and the first set of calculations is run on it.

December

[edit]

Main article:December 1945

December 2
- GeneralEurico Gaspar Dutra is elected president of Brazil.
- French banks (Bank of France,BNCI,CNEP,Crédit Lyonnais, andSociété Générale) are nationalized.
December 3 –Communist demonstrations inAthens presage theGreek Civil War.
December 4 – TheUnited States Senate approves the entry of the United States into theUnited Nations by a vote of 65–7.
December 5 –Flight 19 ofUnited States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers disappears on a training exercise fromNaval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.
December 9 – American GeneralGeorge S. Patton is involved in a car accident in Germany, resulting in his death on December 21.
December 27 – Twenty-one nations ratify the articles creating theWorld Bank.^[62]

Date unknown

[edit]

A team atOak Ridge National Laboratory (led byCharles D. Coryell) discoverschemical element 61, the only one still missing between 1 and 96 on theperiodic table, which they will namepromethium.^[63] Found by analysis of fission products of irradiated uranium fuel, its discovery is not made public until 1947.
The Australian government introduces an Assisted Passage Migration Scheme to encourage the immigration of British subjects, at a fare of£10, hence they become known as "Ten Pound Poms".^[64]
The first geothermal milk pasteurization is done inKlamath Falls, Oregon, United States.

Births

[edit]

Births
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