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 1945
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). It is most widely known for being the year in which World War II ended. It is also known as the beginning of the Information Age.[citation needed]
[edit] Events of 1945
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- (Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)
[edit] January
- January - American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium.
- January 5 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
- January 7 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his supporting role at the Battle of the Bulge.
- January 9 - United States forces was landed the beaches on Lingayen Gulf in Luzon the Philippines was the attack the Imperial Japanese Army.
- January 12 - WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
- January 13 - A Soviet patrol arrests Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary.
- January 16 - Adolf Hitler evacuates to his underground Führerbunker.
- January 17 - WWII:
- January 20 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented 4th term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, has ever reached a third term in office.
- January 20 - Hungary drops out of World War II, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
- January 24 - The German A4b-Rocket is first successfully launched.
- January 26 - Beginning the Second Battle of Santa Cruz, Laguna the Philippines was entering the town to the Filipino soldiers and guerrilla units against the Japanese forces.
- January 27 - WWII The Holocaust - The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.
- January 28 - WWII: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
- January 30 - The Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in the Gdansk Bay, is sunk by 3 torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea; 9,000 die.
- January 30 - Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and other 200 Filipino guerrillas free 513 American POWs from the Japanese-held camp at Cabanatuan City, Philippines.
- January 31 - Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad for desertion, the first American soldier since the American Civil War, and last to date to be executed for this offence.
[edit] February
[edit] March
- March - Annelies Marie Frank, also called Anne Frank, dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Lower Saxony, Germany of typhus.
- March 1 - Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.
- March 2 - Former U.S. Vice-President Henry Agard Wallace starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
- March 2 - The Bachem Ba 349 Natter is launched from Stetten am kalten Markt. The Natter is the first manned rocket, developed as anti-aircraft weapon. The launch fails and the pilot dies.[2]
- March 3 - WWII:
- Previously neutral Finland declares war on the Axis powers.
- A possible experimental atomic test blast occurs at the Nazis' Ohrdruf military testing area.
- The United States and Filipino troops take Manila the Philippines.
- March 4 - In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Army as a driver.
- March 6 - A Communist-led government is formed in Romania.
- March 7 - WWII: 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 9–10 - WWII: American B-29 bombers attack Japan with incendiary bombs; Tokyo is fire-bombed killing 100,000 citizens.
- March 10 - WWII - Battle of Mindanao: American and Philippine Commonwealth troops together with Filipino guerrillas was battle the Japanese Imperial forces was invaded in Mindanao in Southern Philippines.
- March 15 - The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
- March 16 - WWII: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, with small pockets of guerrilla resistance persisting past the official conclusion of the battle.
- March 17 - WWII: Kobe, Japan is fire-bombed by 331 B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000.
- March 18 - WWII: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
- March 19 - WWII:
- Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
- Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
- March 21 - WWII: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
- March 22 - The Arab League is formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
- March 24
- March 29 - The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden. OSU defeats DePaul 52-44.
- March 30 - WWII:
[edit] April
- April 1 - WWII - Battle of Okinawa: United States troops land on Okinawa.
- April 4 - WWII: American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
- April 7 - WWII:
- April 9 - Abwehr conspirators Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Hans Dohanyi are hanged at Flossenberg concentration camp, along with pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
- April 9 - WWII: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
- April 10 - The Allied Forces liberate the Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald.
- April 12 - United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) dies suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) becomes the 33rd President.
- April 15 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
- April 16 - WWII: The Goya is sunk by the Soviet submarine L-3.
- April 18 - U.S. war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off Okinawa.
- April 19 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, a musical play based on Ferenc Molnar's Liliom, opens on Broadway and becomes their second long-running stage classic.
- April 24 - Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historical Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.
- April 25 - Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
- April 25 - WWII - Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two.
- April 26 - Battle of Bautzen (World War II): The last "successful" German panzer-offensive in Bautzen ends with the city recaptured.
- April 27 - U.S. Ordinance troops find the coffins of Frederick Wilhelm I, Frederick the Great, Paul Von Hindenburg, and his wife.
- April 28 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are executed by Italian partisans as they attempt to flee the country. Their bodies are then hung by their heels in the public square of Milan.
- April 29 - Operation Manna: British Lancaster bombers drop food into the Netherlands to prevent the starvation of the civilian population.
- April 30 - Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as the Red Army approaches the Führerbunker in Berlin. Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany. Joseph Goebbels succeeds Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.
[edit] May
- May 1 - WWII:
- May 2 - WWII:
- May 3 - WWII:
- May 4 - WWII:
- May 5 - WWII:
- May 6 - WWII: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (the first on December 11, 1941).
- May 7 - WWII: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Rheims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
- May 8 - WWII:
- May 8–29 - Sétif massacre: In Algeria, thousands die as French troops and released Italian POW's kill an estimated 6,000 Algerian citizens.
- May 9 - WWII:
- May 14–15 - WWII - Battle of Poljana: The last battle of WWII in Europe is fought at Poljana near Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia.
- May 23 - President of Germany Karl Dönitz and Chancellor of Germany Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by British forces at Flensburg. They are respectively the last German Head of state and Head of government until 1949.
- May 23 - Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide in British custody.
- May 28 - William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, and hanged in January 1946.
- May 29 - German communists, led by Walther Ulbricht, arrive in Berlin.
- May 30 - The Iranian government demands that Soviet and British troops leave the country.
[edit] June
[edit] July
[edit] August
[8]
[edit] September
- September 2 - Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
- September 2 - World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted by Supreme Allied Commander General Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay (but in Japan August 14 is 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 - WWII: 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 5 - Russian code clerk Igor Gouzenko comes forward with numerous documents implicating the Soviet Union in numerous spy rings in North America.
- September 8 - U.S. troops occupy southern Korea, while the Soviet Union occupies 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 9 - The first actual case of (a computer) bug being found, is a moth lodged in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at the Naval Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.
- September 11 - Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.
- September 11 - The Batu Lintang camp in Sarawak, Borneo is liberated by Australian forces.
- September 12 - The Japanese Army formally surrenders in Singapore.
- September 18 - Typhoon Makurazaki in Japan kills 3,746.
- September 20 - Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru demand that British troops leave India.
[edit] October
- October 1–15 - Operation Backfire: Three A4 rockets are launched near Cuxhaven in order to show Allied forces the rocket with liquid fuel.
- October 3–10 - The Detroit Tigers win the World Series against the Chicago Cubs, who haven't made it to the World Series since.
- October 4 - The Partizan Belgrade sports society is founded in Belgrade, Serbia.
- October 5 - A strike by the Set Decorator's Union in Hollywood results in a riot.
- October 15 - WWII: Pierre Laval, former premier of Vichy France, is executed by firing squad for treason.
- October 17 - A massive number of people, headed for CGT, 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 (day of loyalty) or San Perón (Saint Perón) (considered the birthday of Peronism).
- October 18 - Isaías Medina Angarita, president of Venezuela, is overthrown by a military coup.
- 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 - The United Nations is founded.
- October 24 - Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quisling is shot by firing squad for treason.
- October 27 - Indonesian separatists riot and fight Dutch and British security forces.
- October 29 - Getúlio Vargas, resigns as president of Brazil.
- October 29 - At Gimbel's Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.
[edit] November
- November 1 - John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of the magazine Ebony.
- November 1 - Telechron introduces the model 8H59 "Musalarm", the first clock radio.
- November 13 - Charles De Gaulle is elected head of a French provisional government
- November 15 - Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee, and Mackenzie King call for a U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.[9]
- November 16 - Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
- November 16 - The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to that time, it wins several Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director (Billy Wilder) and Best Actor (Ray Milland). Billy Wilder wins his first Oscar for the film; Milland his only one. After his Oscar win, Ray Milland, who has usually starred in light comedies and adventure films, will be given more heavily dramatic roles.
- November 16 - Yeshiva College is founded.
- November 20 - The Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
- November 28 - An earthquake in Balochistan (Pakistan) causes a tsunami and kills 4,000.
- November 29 - The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day is celebrated as Republic Day until the 1990s). Marshal Tito is named president.
- November 29 - Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), is completed. It covers 1,800 square feet of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.
[edit] December
[edit] Undated
[edit] Science and technology
- The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, the first chiropractic college in Canada, initiates its four year doctoral program.
- Arthur C. Clarke puts forward the idea of a communications satellite in a Wireless World magazine article.
- At the Mayo Clinic, streptomycin is first used to treat tuberculosis.
- Percy Spencer accidentally discovers that microwaves can heat food. Invention of the 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 the Pacific Ocean (discovered by the Japanese in 1942 and by Americans in 1944) are dubbed the jet stream.
- Salvador Edward Luria and Alfred Day Hershey independently recognize that viruses undergo mutations.
- The herbicide 2,4-D is introduced; it is later used as a component of Agent Orange.
- A team led by Charles DuBois Coryell discovers chemical element 61, the only one still missing between 1 and 96 on the periodic table. The new element is called promethium.
- Raymond Libby develops oral penicillin.
- American Canamid discovers folic acid, a vitamin abundant in green leafy vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast.
- The first geothermal milk pasteurization occurs in Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA.
[edit] Births
[edit] January
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