1945

Years: 1942 1943 1944 - 1945 - 1946 1947 1948
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1945 in art 1945 in aviation 1945 in film 1945 in literature 1945 in music 1945 in radio 1945 in science 1945 in sports 1945 in television 1945 state leaders 1945 in Canada

[Top]

Events

[Top]

January

January 5 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
January 7 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
January 12 - World War II: The Soviets begin a very large offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
January 13 - Soviet patrol arrests Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary.
January 16 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker
January 17 - World War II: Soviets occupy Warsaw
January 17 - Holocaust: Nazis begin to evacuate from Auschwitz concentration camp
January 27 - The Red Army arrives at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland and find the Nazi concentration camp where 1.1-1.5 million people were murdered.
January 28 - World War II: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
January 30 - The Wilhelm Gustloff with more 10,000 refugees from Gotenhafen in the Gdansk Bay sunk with three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13. More 9,300 drowned in the Baltic Sea.
January 31 - Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion

[Top]

February

February 2 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill leave to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference.
February 3 - World War II: Russia agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.
February 4 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin begin the Yalta Conference (ends February 11)
February 7 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila
February 8 - World War II: United States fire bombs Dresden, Germany killing 35,000 citizens.
February 9 - Walter Ulbricht becomes the leader of German communists in Moscow
February 10 - World War II: The Steuben sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13.
February 13 - World War II: Soviet Union forces capture Budapest, Hungary from the Nazis.
February 13 - World War II: The British Air Force bombs Dresden, Germany.
February 14 - Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru join the United Nations.
February 16 - World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
February 16 - American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula
February 19 - World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima - about 30,000 United States Marines landed on Iwo Jima starting the battle.
February 23 - World War II: Following the American victory at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo will later win a Pulitzer Prize.
February 23 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
February 24 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

[Top]

March

March 1 - Jesse Holman Jones starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt
March 3 - World War II: Previously neutral Finland declares war on the Axis powers.
March 6 - Communist-led government formed in Romania
March 7 - World War II: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.
March 8 - Josip Broz Tito forms a government in Yugoslavia
March 9 – March 10 - World War II: American B-29 bombers attack Japan with incendiary bombs. Tokyo is fire-bombed killing 100,000 citizens.
March 16 - World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
March 18 - World War II: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
March 19 - World War II: Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
March 19 - Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
March 21 - World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma
March 22 - The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
March 30 - World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna.

From February 14, 1936, to March 1, 1945, AG Weser launched a total of 162 U-boats.

[Top]

April

April 1 - World War II: United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war. The Battle of Okinawa starts.
April 4 - World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
April 7 - World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while in-route to a suicide mission.
April 10 - The Allied Forces liberated their first Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald.
April 12 - United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) takes the Oath of Office.
April 25 - Founding negotiations of United Nations in San Francisco
April 25 - World War II: United States and Russian troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two
April 28 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are hanged upside down by Italian partisans as they attempt to flee the country.
April 30 - Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as Red Army approaches Führerbunker in Berlin.

[Top]

May

May 1 - Joseph Goebbels and his wife commit suicide after killing their 6 children.
May 2 - World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag building.
May 2 - World War II: Troops of Yugoslav 4th Army together with Slovene 9th Corpus NOV liberate Trieste.
May 3 - World War II: Sinking of the floating-jails Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in the Lübeck Bay.
May 3 - Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to US forces. They later help start the US space program.
May 4 - World War II: Liberation of the concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg by the British army.
May 4 - World War II: Reddition of the North Germany army by Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
May 5 - Ezra Pound, poet and author, is arrested by American soldiers in Italy for treason.
May 5 - World War II: US armored unit liberates prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp - including Simon Wiesenthal
May 5 - World War II: Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.
May 6 - World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
May 7 - World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document will take effect the next day.
May 8 - World War II: V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of World War II in Europe.
May 8 - World War II: British 8th Army together with Slovene partisan troops and motorized detachment of Yugoslav 4th Army arrives to Carinthia and Klagenfurt.
May 8-29 - In Algeria, French troops and released Italian POWs defeat rebellion of Algerians
May 9 - World War II: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army; Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling; Soviet Union marks V-E Day.
May 9 - World War II: General Alexander Löhr Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signs capitulation of German occupation troops.
May 15 - the last battle of WWII at Poljana near Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia
May 23 - Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide in British custody.
May 25 - In Atlantic, ships can finally keep their lights lit. Szilard begs Harry S. Truman not to use the bomb.
May 28 - William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. He is hanged in January of 1946.
May 29 - Group of German communists, Ulbricht in the lead, arrive in Berlin
May 30 - Iranian government demands that Soviet and British troops leave the country

[Top]

June

June 1 - British take over Lebanon and Syria
June 6 - King Haakon VII of Norway returns to Norway
June 11 - William Lyon Mackenzie King is reelected as Canadian prime minister. Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan.
June 21 - World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends.
June 24 - World War II: Victory parade in Red Square
June 25 - Seán T. O'Kelly is elected the second President of Ireland.
June 26 - United Nations charter signed.

[Top]

July

July 1 - World War II: Germany is divided between Allied occupation forces
July 5 - World War II: Liberation of the Philippines declared.
July 8 - World War II: Harry S. Truman informed that Japan will talk peace if she can keep the Emperor.
July 9 - A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn, the third fire in that area since 1933.
July 16 - Nuclear testing: The Trinity Test, the first test of an atomic bomb, using 6 kilograms of plutonium, succeeds in detonating, unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 20 kilotons of TNT.
July 17 - World War II: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.
July 21 - World War II: Harry S. Truman approves order for atomic bombs to be used.
July 23 - World War II: French marshall Philippe Pétain, who headed the Vichy government during World War II goes on trial, charged with treason.
July 26 - Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's prime minister after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party. Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister. Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12 permitting Japan to retain the Emperor had been deleted by Truman.
July 28 - A US bomber accidentally crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
July 28 - World War II: Japan rejects Potsdam Declaration .
July 29 - The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.
July 29 - Bomber accidentally hits Empire State Building on the 78 floor - upper floors burst to fire but the building remains standing. About 20 dead.
July 30 - World War II: The USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by an I-58 Japanese submarine. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for 4 days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain Charles Butler MacVey III is later court-martialed.
July 31 - World War II: Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.

[Top]

August

August 6 - World War II: The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan at 8:16 AM (local time) killing about 10,000 citizens immediately, 60,000 from injuries and sickness before the end of 1945, and 140,000 total from a mixture of radition sickness, injuries, and instant death from the bomb.
August 8 - The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation becomes the first to join the new international organization. Soviets declare war on Japan.
August 9 - World War II: The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" over the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11:02 AM (local time) with an equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. An estimated 80,000 are killed and more than 60,000 are injured. The bomb was orginally meant for the nearby city of Kokura, but bad weather impared the bomber's visual contact with the city. After several failed tries they diverted to their back-up target, Nagasaki. World War II: The Soviet Union begins its offensive against Japan in the then Japanese controlled Chinese region of Manchuria.
August 10 - World War II: US drops warning leaflets on Nagasaki.
August 13 - Zionist World Congress approaches British government to talk about founding of Israel.
August 15 - World War II: Imperial Japan surrenders, but retains the Emperor. The United States called this day V-J Day (Victory in Japan). This ends the period of Japanese expansionism and begins the period of Occupied Japan.
August 15 - Korea divided to North and South Korea
August 17 - Indonesian nationalists Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta declare the independence of Republic of Indonesia, Sukarno as a president. Dutch colonial authorities do not approve
August 19 - Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
End of August - Chinese Civil War: Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek meet in Chongqing to discuss an end to hostilities between the Communists and the Nationalists.

[Top]

September

September 2 - World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. But in Japan August 14 is well recognized as the day the Pacific War ended.
September 2 - Ho Chi Minh promulgates the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, and unity from the north to the south.
September 4 - World War II: Japanese forces surrender on Wake Island after hearing word of their nation's surrender.
September 5 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose," is arrested in Yokohama.
September 8 - US troops occupy southern Korea, Russians occupy the north. This arrangement proves to be the beginning of a divided Korea.
September 8 - Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide to avoid facing a war crimes tribunal.
September 20 - Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru demand that British troops leave India

[Top]

October

October 10 - Russian code clerk Igor Gouzenko defects to Canada. He helps the West gain an understanding of Soviet spy rings in North America.
October 15 - World War II: Former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed by firing squad for treason.
October 17 - Colonel Juan Peron stages a coup d'etat, becoming ruler of Argentina.
October 18 - The first German war crimes trial begins in Nuremberg.
October 21 - Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
October 23 - Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals.
October 24 - United Nations founded.
October 24 - Execution of Vidkun Quisling, leader of Norwegian nazis
October 27 - Indonesian separatists riot and fight Dutch and British security forces
October 29 - Getulio Vargas, president of Brazil, resigns
October 29 - At Gimbels Department Store in New York City the first ballpoint pens go on sale (price: $12.50 each).

[Top]

November

November 1 - John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of Ebony Magazine.
November 13 - Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France.
November 15 - Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee, and Mackenzie King call for a UN Atomic Energy Commission.
November 16 - Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
November 20 - Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
November 29 - The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day was celebrated as Republic Day until 1990s). Marshal Tito is named president.
November - Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), is completed. It covers 1800 feet of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.

[Top]

December

December 4 - 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).
December 20 - Gen. George S. Patton dies in a car accident at the age of 60.
December 2 - general Dutran elected president of Brazil
December 27 - Twenty-eight nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank.
December 27 - Terror strikes against British military bases in Palestine.

[Top]

unknown date

Foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Poland has two rival governments
Discovery of Nag Hammadi scriptures
Dutch painter Han van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with Nazis but the paintings he had sold to Hermann Göring are found to be his fakes.
Female suffrage in Guatemala and Japan
Saskatchewan Government Insurance, the first state-owned automobile insurance company in North America, is created.
Denmark recognizes independent Iceland
US house of representatives calls for unrestricted Jewish immigration to Palestine in order to establish a Jewish commonwealth there
Doctor Marcel Petiot kills 27 war refugee for their money
Denmark recognizes Iceland independence

[Top]

Ongoing events

Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)

[Top]

Year in topic

1945 in film
- The Lost Weekend. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture; Ray Milland, Best Actor; Billy Wilder, Best Director, Best Screenplay
- Mildred Pierce Winner of Academy Award for Joan Crawford, Best Actress.
- Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck
- With Rossellini's Roma Citt`a aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins.
- Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled "The Friendly Ghost", featuring ghost named Casper
- Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert's The Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) is released following the liberation of France
1945 in literature
1945 in music
- Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, makes his first record for Victor
- Hit songs of 1945:
  - "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" - Johnny Mercer
  - "You Belong to My Heart" - Bing Crosby and Xavier Cugat Orch
  - "Rum and Coca-Cola" - The Andrews Sisters
  - "It Might as Well be Spring" - Dick Haymes
  - "My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time" - Doris Day and Les Brown
- Bebop begins to emerge as popular style of jazz to contrast music of the big bands. Development of bebop is attributed in large part to trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker
1945 in sports
- Toronto Maple Leafs win Stanley Cup
- Detroit Tigers win World Series
1945 in television

[Top]

Science and Technology

Arthur C. Clarke puts forward idea of a communications satellite in a Wireless World magazine article
At Mayo Clinic, streptomycin first used to treat tuberculosis
Percy Spencer accidentally discovers that microwaves can heat food. Invention of microwave oven follows.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Newburgh, New York become the first cities to add fluoride to drinking water
The first nuclear reactor outside of the U.S. is built in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada.
High-altitude west-to-east winds across Pacific, discovered by Japanese in 1942 and by Americans in 1944, are dubbed "jet stream"
Salvador Edward Luria and Alfred Day Hershey independently recognize that viruses undergo mutations
Herbicide 2,4-D is introduced. Later used as a component of Agent Orange
Team led by Charles DuBois Coryell discovers element 61, the only one still missing between 1 and 96 on Periodic Table. New element is called promethium