1945 - What happened in 1945 ?

January 1945

Tuesday 09:

The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.

Saturday 20:

Hungary drops out of the Second World War, agreeing an armistice with the Allies.

Wednesday 24:

Auschwitz, Concentration Camp in Poland is Liberated by Soviet Troops.

Saturday 27:

World War II: 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.

Tuesday 30:

deadliest maritime disaster in known history killing roughly 9,000.

February 1945

Friday 02:

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.

Saturday 03:

World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.

Monday 19:

about 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.

Friday 23:

1945 - World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.

Saturday 24:

Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

March 1945

Saturday 03:

World War II: Hundreds of people die in The Hague after the Royal Air Force mistakenly bombs a civilian area in the city.

Wednesday 07:

World War II: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.

Wednesday 21:

World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma

Tuesday 27:

World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.

Thursday 29:

World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.

April 1945

Saturday 07:

Kantaro Suzuki becomes the 42nd Prime Minister of Japan

Tuesday 17:

In Strassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seizes half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb.

Wednesday 18:

World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.

Sunday 22:

World War II: 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.

Sunday 29:

Holocaust: The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.

May 1945

Sunday 06:

1945 - World War II: Begun the Prague Offensive (the last major battle of the Eastern Front)

Monday 07:

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.

Tuesday 08:

Thousands of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Setif massacre.

Tuesday 15:

Last skirmish of the Second World War in Europe fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

Wednesday 23:

Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

June 1945

Tuesday 05:

Allied Control Council, military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.

Friday 15:

The General Dutch Youth League (ANJV) is founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Thursday 21:

World War II: Battle of Okinawa ends.

Sunday 24:

The U.S.S.R. capture the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg.

Tuesday 26:

The United Nations Charter is signed.

July 1945

Monday 09:

A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn, the third fire in that area since 1933.

Sunday 15:

President Harry Truman disembarks the heavy cruiser the USS Augusta (CA-31) in Antwerp en route to Potsdam for the Potsdam Conference.

Monday 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.

Sunday 29:

The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.

Tuesday 31:

Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.

August 1945

Thursday 02:

World War II: Potsdam Conference, in which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, concludes.

Thursday 09:

World War II: An atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man", with an energy of 92 terajoules (22,000 tons of TNT), is dropped by the B-29 Bockscar on the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11:02 AM (local time). An estimated 70,000-90,000 are killed and 80,000 more are injured.

Tuesday 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).

Friday 17:

Indonesia proclaims itself independent from the Netherlands.

Sunday 19:

Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.

September 1945

Tuesday 04:

World War II: Japanese forces surrender on Wake Island after hearing word of their nation's surrender.

Saturday 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.

Sunday 09:

Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan formally surrenders to China.

Saturday 15:

A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.

Wednesday 19:

Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) sentenced to death in London

October 1945

Monday 15:

World War II: Former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed by firing squad for treason.

Wednesday 17:

A massive number of people 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). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.

Thursday 18:

The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Sunday 21:

Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón married actress Evita.

Monday 29:

Getulio Vargas, president of Brazil, resigns.

November 1945

Friday 16:

Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.

Tuesday 20:

Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

Thursday 29:

The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared , celebrated as Republic Day until 2003).

December 1945

Tuesday 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).

Wednesday 05:

Flight 19, a United States Navy training flight was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

Wednesday 19:

Austria becomes a republic for the second time, the first having been founded in 1918 and interrupted by the Austro-fascist dictatorship from 1934 onwards and the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938.

Thursday 27:

1945 - Korea is divided

Friday 28:

The U.S. Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance