| 1945-03-06
Cologne is captured by American Troops.
|
| 1945-07-29
The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.
|
| 1945-03-19
World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
|
| 1945-05-01
World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany".
|
| 1945-09-15
A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
|
| 1945-01-27
World War II: The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
|
| 1945-04-12
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.
|
| 1945-05-05
World War II: Canadian and UK troops liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazi occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate
|
| 1945-05-23
World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.
|
| 1945-07-20
The US Congress approves the Bretton Woods Agreement.
|
| 1945-12-16
Thailand joins the United Nations.
|
| 1945-04-25
The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Mussolini tries to escape. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy.
|
| 1945-09-05
Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
|
| 1945-02-23
World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free the captives of the Los Baños internment camp.
|
| 1945-08-19
Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
|
| 1945-04-25
Last German troops retreat from Finland's soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military acts of Second World War end in Finland.
|
| 1945-12-15
Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
|
| 1945-04-29
The Italian commune of Fornovo di Taro is liberated from German forces by Brazilian forces.
|
| 1945-10-18
A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup d'état against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.
|
| 1945-02-25
World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.
|
| 1945-01-16
Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
|
| 1945-04-22
World War II: Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
|
| 1945-01-05
The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
|
| 1945-02-24
Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
|
| 1945-05-06
World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
|
| 1945-04-09
World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk.
|
| 1945-07-26
The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
|
| 1945-01-23
World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
|
| 1945-10-21
Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
|
| 1945-10-18
The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
|
| 1945-01-17
Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.
|
| 1945-08-31
The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
|
| 1945-12-04
By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (the UN was established on October 24, 1945).
|
| 1945-04-02
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
|
| 1945-03-27
World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
|
| 1945-09-30
The Bourne End rail crash, in Hertfordshire, England, kills 43
|
| 1945-12-05
Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
|
| 1945-03-07
World War II: American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen.
|
| 1945-02-03
World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
|
| 1945-05-03
World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
|
| 1945-08-30
Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
|
| 1945-11-15
Venezuela joins the United Nations.
|
| 1945-04-04
World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
|
| 1945-03-21
World War II: Operation Carthage – British planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also hit a school; 125 civilians are killed.
|
| 1945-04-22
World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. 520 are killed and 80 escape.
|
| 1945-08-08
World War II: the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.
|
| 1945-03-16
Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 are killed.
|
| 1945-01-03
World War II: Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.
|
| 1945-02-16
World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
|
| 1945-04-13
German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen Germany.
|
| 1945-06-07
King Haakon VII of Norway returns with his family to Oslo after five years in exile.
|
| 1945-01-20
Franklin Roosevelt's fourth and final inauguration is held at the White House due to wartime considerations.
|
| 1945-04-04
World War II: Soviet Army takes control of Hungary.
|
| 1945-04-14
Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from fascist occupation.
|
| 1945-03-10
The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
|
| 1945-03-30
World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to the Americans.
|
| 1945-04-30
World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
|
| 1945-01-09
World War II: The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.
|
| 1945-05-12
Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne dissolved.
|
| 1945-09-05
Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
|
| 1945-02-23
World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize and become the model for the national USMC War Memorial.
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| 1945-03-16
World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
|
| 1945-02-19
World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
|
| 1945-04-27
World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
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| 1945-03-17
The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany collapses, ten days after its capture.
|
| 1945-01-07
World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
|
| 1945-02-14
World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
|
| 1945-04-17
Brazilian forces liberate the town of Montese, Italy, from German Nazi forces.
|
| 1945-11-29
The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.
|
| 1945-07-23
The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin.
|
| 1945-02-14
World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
|
| 1945-04-19
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.
|
| 1945-09-16
World War II: Surrender of the Japanese forces in Hong Kong. The ceremony was presided by British Admiral Cecil Harcourt.
|
| 1945-06-05
The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
|
| 1945-05-09
World War II: The Channel Islands are liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.
|
| 1945-09-07
Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
|
| 1945-10-12
World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
|
| 1945-02-23
World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
|
| 1945-04-27
World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
|
| 1945-04-21
World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
|
| 1945-02-23
World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed in a raid by 379 British bombers.
|
| 1945-09-09
Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan formally surrenders to China.
|
| 1945-10-21
Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Evita.
|
| 1945-01-17
The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
|
| 1945-05-02
World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead inmates, most starved to death.
|
| 1945-05-02
World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building.
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| 1945-06-24
The Moscow Victory Parade takes place.
|
| 1945-10-05
Hollywood Black Friday: A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators turns into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios.
|
| 1945-06-10
Australian Imperial Forces land in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei.
|
| 1945-08-08
The United Nations Charter is signed by the United States, which becomes the third nation to join.
|
| 1945-05-23
World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
|
| 1945-11-16
Cold War: Operation Paperclip: The United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.
|
| 1945-05-04
World War II: The liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.
|
| 1945-03-21
World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
|
| 1945-01-28
World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
|
| 1945-03-03
World War II: American and Filipino troops take Manila in the Philippines.
|
| 1945-03-14
World War II – The R.A.F. first operational use of the Grand Slam bomb, Bielefeld, Germany.
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| 1945-08-21
Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
|
| 1945-04-09
The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.
|
| 1945-02-14
President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.
|
| 1945-02-13
World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
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| 1945-08-09
World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, "Fat Man", is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright.
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| 1945-04-16
The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).
|
| 1945-01-01
World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Unternehmen Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
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| 1945-11-09
Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan is founded.
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| 1945-04-16
The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin.
|
| 1945-01-02
World War II: Nuremberg (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces
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| 1945-04-28
Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
|
| 1945-05-08
Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
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| 1945-05-08
End of the Prague uprising, today celebrated as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.
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| 1945-05-01
The Yugoslav partisans free Trieste.
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| 1945-04-26
World War II: Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
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| 1945-06-29
Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union.
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| 1945-03-30
World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
|
| 1945-05-02
World War II: Italian Campaign – General Heinrich von Vietinghoff signs the official instrument of surrender of all Wehrmacht forces in Italy.
|
| 1945-11-01
The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro. Australia joins the United Nations.
|
| 1945-04-29
World War II: Start of Operation Manna.
|
| 1945-06-18
William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) is charged with treason.
|
| 1945-03-19
World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
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| 1945-10-17
A massive number of people, headed by CGT and Evita, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (Loyalty Day). It's considered the founding day of Peronism.
|
| 1945-08-02
World War II: Potsdam Conference, in which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, concludes.
|
| 1945-04-20
World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
|
| 1945-11-10
Heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, is celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
|
| 1945-08-16
An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.
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| 1945-07-16
World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
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| 1945-05-11
World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill, is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of her crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
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| 1945-10-24
Founding of the United Nations
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| 1945-04-09
World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
|
| 1945-01-17
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
|
| 1945-10-09
Parade in NYC for Fleet Admiral Nimitz and 13 USN/USMC Medal of Honor recipients
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| 1945-11-16
UNESCO is founded.
|
| 1945-03-06
Communist-dominated government under Petru Groza assumes power in Romania.
|
| 1945-10-15
World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
|
| 1945-03-29
World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.
|
| 1945-05-06
World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
|
| 1945-05-08
World War II: V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Rheims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
|
| 1945-04-29
World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
|
| 1945-09-02
World War II: Combat ends in the Pacific Theater: the Instrument of Surrender of Japan is signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
|
| 1945-11-20
Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.
|
| 1945-04-11
World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
|
| 1945-08-14
Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).
|
| 1945-07-26
The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
|
| 1945-04-25
Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.
|
| 1945-03-04
Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi Germany.
|
| 1945-03-11
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
|
| 1945-05-07
World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
|
| 1945-02-04
World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
|
| 1945-04-15
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
|
| 1945-05-04
World War II: The surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
|
| 1945-07-28
A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
|
| 1945-10-25
The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan's surrender to the Allies.
|
| 1945-02-23
World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
|
| 1945-04-01
World War II: Operation Iceberg – United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.
|
| 1945-09-08
Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
|
| 1945-07-31
Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
|
| 1945-04-07
World War II: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
|
| 1945-08-25
Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
|
| 1945-04-05
Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory".
|
| 1945-01-18
Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.
|
| 1945-04-29
The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
|
| 1945-10-30
Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.
|
| 1945-09-02
Vietnam declares its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
|
| 1945-07-05
World War II: liberation of the Philippines declared.
|
| 1945-02-05
World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
|
| 1945-10-29
Getulio Vargas, president of Brazil, resigns.
|
| 1945-01-20
World War II: Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
|
| 1945-12-27
The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations.
|
| 1945-06-26
The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
|
| 1945-10-10
The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang signed a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China. Later, the pact is commonly referred to as the Double-Ten Agreement.
|
| 1945-01-31
US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.
|
| 1945-08-15
World War II: Victory over Japan Day – Japan surrenders.
|
| 1945-02-14
World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
|
| 1945-09-18
General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.
|
| 1945-03-26
World War II: US forces declare Iwo Jima secure.
|
| 1945-07-31
John K. Giles attempts to escape from Alcatraz prison.
|
| 1945-01-01
World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
|
| 1945-09-19
Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) is sentenced to death in London.
|
| 1945-05-09
World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France, with the signatures of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Soviet Union, and for the Western Headquarters Sir Arthur Tedder, British Air Marshal and Eisenhower’s deputy, and for the German side of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
|
| 1945-04-06
World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from the German and Croatian Nazis by the Yugoslav Partisans.
|
| 1945-06-22
World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
|
| 1945-02-09
World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic – HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
|
| 1945-04-20
World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
|
| 1945-04-07
World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while en-route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
|
| 1945-07-26
The US Navy cruiser Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
|
| 1945-02-13
World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
|
| 1945-02-23
World War II: The Verona Philharmonic Theatre is bombed by Allied forces. It would later be re-opened in 1975.
|
| 1945-02-21
World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
|
| 1945-05-29
First combat mission of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator heavy bomber.
|
| 1945-10-16
The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City, Canada.
|
| 1945-04-29
World War II – Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun will commit suicide the next day.
|
| 1945-05-15
World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
|
| 1945-04-18
Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
|
| 1945-09-09
First actual case of a computer bug being found: a moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University.
|
| 1945-09-03
Three-day celebration was held in China, following the Victory over Japan Day on September 2.
|
| 1945-04-25
Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
|
| 1945-01-25
World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ends.
|
| 1945-12-28
The United States Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance.
|
| 1945-03-22
The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
|
| 1945-03-18
World War II: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
|
| 1945-11-05
Colombia joins the United Nations.
|
| 1945-03-04
In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service as a driver.
|
| 1945-01-30
World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance liberate 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
|
| 1945-08-16
Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.
|
| 1945-07-16
Manhattan Project: the Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
|
| 1945-01-30
World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,000 people.
|
| 1945-07-30
World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
|
| 1945-01-19
World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź ghetto. Out more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.
|
| 1945-08-06
World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
|
| 1945-04-16
More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.
|
| 1945-08-30
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
|
| 1945-07-17
World War II: Potsdam Conference – at Potsdam, U.S. President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the three main Allied leaders, begin their final summit of the war. The meeting would end on August 2.
|
| 1945-06-15
The General Dutch Youth League (ANJV) is founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
|
| 1945-08-15
World War II: Korean Liberation Day.
|
| 1945-08-17
Indonesian Declaration of Independence.
|
| 1945-10-06
Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series (see Curse of the Billy Goat).
|
| 1945-12-26
CFP franc and CFA franc are created.
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