1945

Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.

January

Main article: January 1945

January 27: The Soviet Red Army liberates Auschwitz.

• January – WWII: The Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine continues; the United States Army crosses the Siegfried Line.
• January 1 – WWII:
  • Germany begins Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries.
  • Chenogne massacre: German prisoners are allegedly killed by American forces near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.
• January 5 – Australia recognizes the Polish Committee of National Liberation as the government of Poland.
• January 6
  • WWII: A German offensive recaptures Esztergom, Hungary from the Russians.
  • Naval lieutenant George H. W. Bush, future President of the United States, and future First Lady Barbara Pierce marry in Rye, New York.
  • Pepe Le Pew makes his debut as the first major Looney Tunes character, in "Odor-able Kitty"
• January 7 – WWII: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven, describing his role at the Battle of the Bulge.
• January 12 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe, against the German Army.
• January 13 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the East Prussian Offensive, to eliminate German forces in East Prussia.
• January 16 – WWII: Adolf Hitler takes residence in the Führerbunker in Berlin.
• January 17
  • WWII: The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw, Poland.
  • The Holocaust: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who has saved thousands of Jews, is taken into custody by a Soviet patrol during the Siege of Budapest and is never again seen publicly.
• January 18 – The Holocaust: The SS begins the evacuation of Auschwitz 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 the Łódź Ghetto; only 877 Jews of the initial population of 164,000 remain at this time.
• January 20
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a fourth term as President of the United States, the only President ever to exceed two terms.
  • Germany begins the Evacuation of East Prussia.
• January 21–22 (night) – At the Grünhagen railroad station, located in East Prussia at this date, two trains, heading for Elbing, collide. At dawn the station is reached by Soviet Army infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing from 140 to 150 people.
• January 23 – WWII:
  • Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
  • German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the start of Operation Hannibal, the mass evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from the Courland Pocket, East Prussia and the Polish Corridor, evacuating an estimated 800,000-900,000 German civilians and 350,000 soldiers from advancing Soviet forces.
  • Evacuation of Germans from Grünhagen.
• January 24 – WWII: AP war correspondent Joseph Morton, nine OSS men, and four SOE agents are executed by the Germans at Mauthausen concentration camp under Hitler's Commando Order of 1942, which stipulates the immediate execution of all captured Allied commandos or saboteurs without trial, even those in proper uniforms. Morton is the only Allied correspondent to be executed by the Axis during the war.
• January 26 – WWII: 19-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Audie Murphy sees action at Holtzwihr, France, for which is awarded the Medal of Honor.[1]
• January 27 – The Holocaust: The Soviet Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.
• January 28 – WWII: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
• January 30 – WWII:
  • MV Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) is sunk in Gdańsk Bay by three torpedoes from Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic 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 American prisoners of war from the Japanese-held camp in the city of Cabanatuan, in the Philippines.
  • Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech to be delivered personally, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.
• January 31 – WWII:
  • The Battle of Hill 170 in the Burma Campaign ends with the British 3rd Commando Brigade defeating the Imperial Japanese Army 54th Division, causing the Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army to withdraw from the Arakan Peninsula.
  • Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines for desertion, the only U.S. soldier since the American Civil War ever executed for this offense.

February

Main article: February 1945

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, February 4, 1945.

During the Battle of Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines land on the island, February 19, 1945.

• February
  • Anne Frank dies of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Gau Eastern Hanover, Prussia, Germany.[2]
  • Raymond L. Libby of American Cyanamid's research laboratories, at Stamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic penicillin.[3]
• February 3 – WWII:
  • Battle of Manila: United States forces enter the outskirts of Manila to capture it from the Japanese Imperial Army, starting the battle. On February 4, U.S. Army forces liberate Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the city.
  • The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific 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 and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.
• February 6 – French writer Robert Brasillach is executed, for collaboration with the Germans.
• February 7 – WWII: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
• February 8 – The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943.
• February 9
  • Walter Ulbricht becomes leader of the German Communists in Moscow.
  • WWII: "Black Friday": A force of Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffers heavy casualties in an unsuccessful attack on German destroyer Z33 and escorting vessels sheltering in Førde Fjord, Norway.
• February 10 – WWII: The troopship SS General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13; 3,608 drown.[4]
• February 10–20 – WWII: Operation Kita: The Imperial Japanese Navy returns "Completion Force", containing both its Ise-class battleships, safely from Singapore to Kure in Japan despite Allied attacks.
• February 13 – WWII:
  • The Budapest Offensive and the Siege of Budapest end with Nazi troops surrendering Budapest (Hungary) to Soviet-Romanian forces.
  • Bombing of Dresden (Germany) by the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces; 22,000-25,000 are estimated to have died.
• February 16 – WWII:
  • The Bombing of Wesel begins, destroying 97% of the town over three days.
  • American and Filipino ground forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
  • Combined American and Filipino forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
  • Venezuela declares war on Germany.
• February 19–20 – 980 (Actual figure is disputed)[5] Japanese soldiers die as a result of being attacked by long saltwater crocodiles in Ramree, Burma.[6]
• February 19 – WWII: Battle of Iwo Jima – About 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
• February 21 – The last V-2 rocket is launched from Peenemünde.
• February 22 – WWII:
  • Italian Front: The Battle of Monte Castello ends, after nearly three months of fighting, Brazilian troops expel German forces from a pivot point in the (Tuscan) North Apennines, where their artillery was impeding the advance of Eighth British Army toward Bologna.
  • Uruguay declares war on Germany and Japan.
• February 23 – WWII:
  • Battle of Iwo Jima: A group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island, and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (taken by Joe Rosenthal), later wins a Pulitzer Prize.
  • The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free the captives of the Los Baños internment camp.
  • The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops.
  • American and Filipino troops enter Intramuros, Manila.
  • The German garrison in Poznań capitulates to Red Army and Polish troops.
  • Bombing of Pforzheim: The heaviest of a series of bombing raids on Pforzheim, Germany by Allied aircraft is carried out by the British Royal 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 the Allies.
• February 24 – Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament, after reading a decree.
• February 27 – The Bombing of Mainz results in 1,209 confirmed dead; 80% of the city is destroyed.
• February 28 – In Bucharest, a violent demonstration takes place, during which the Bolşevic 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 for Romania, travels to Bucharest to compel Nicolae Rădescu to resign as premier.

April

Main article: April 1945

The Japanese battleship Yamato explodes after persistent attacks from U.S. aircraft during the Battle of Okinawa, April 7, 1945.

Adolf Hitler, along with his wife Eva Braun, committed suicide on April 30, 1945.

• April 1 – WWII: Battle of Okinawa: The Tenth United States Army lands on Okinawa.
• April 4 – WWII:
  • American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf extermination camp in Germany.
  • The Red Army enters Bratislava and pushes to the outskirts of Vienna, taking it on April 13, after several days of intense fighting.
• April 6 – WWII:
  • Sarajevo is liberated from Nazi Germany and the Independent State of Croatia (a fascist puppet state), by Yugoslav Partisans.
  • The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville Island concludes, with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th Brigade.
  • Allied forces reach Merkers Salt Mines in Thuringia, where gold reserves of the Nazi German Reichsbank are stored.
• April 7 – WWII:
  • The only flight of the German ramming unit known as Sonderkommando Elbe takes place, resulting in the loss of some 24 B-17s and B-24s of the United States Eighth Air Force.
  • Japanese battleship Yamato and nine other warships take part in Operation Ten-Go, a suicide attack on Allied forces engaged in the Battle of Okinawa. Yamato is sunk by U.S. Navy aircraft in the East China Sea 200 miles (320 km) north of Okinawa with the loss of 2,055 of 2,332 crew, together with five other Japanese warships.
  • Kantarō Suzuki becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
• April 8 – The SS begins to evacuate the Buchenwald concentration camp; inmates in the Buchenwald Resistance call for American aid, and overpower and kill the remaining guards.
• April 9
  • WWII: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends with Soviet forces capturing the city.
  • Abwehr conspirators Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Hans von Dohnányi are hanged at Flossenberg concentration camp, along with pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
  • Johann Georg Elser, would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler, is executed at Dachau concentration camp.
• April 10 – WWII: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina Brigades from the Tenth Division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
• April 11 – Buchenwald concentration camp is liberated by the United States Army.
• April 12
  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States, and is sworn in that evening in the White House.
  • WWII: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reaches Tangermünde — only 50 miles from Berlin.
• April 14 – WWII:
  • The First Canadian Army assumes military control of the Netherlands, where German forces are trapped in the Atlantic Wall fortifications along the coastline.[10]
  • Razing of Friesoythe: The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroys the German town of Friesoythe, on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes.
• April 15 – WWII:
  • The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British and Canadian forces.
  • The Canadian First Army reaches the coast in the northern Netherlands, and captures Arnhem.
• April 16 – WWII:
  • The Battle of Berlin begins, opening with the Battle of the Oder–Neisse and the Battle of the Seelow Heights.
  • Canadian forces take Harlingen and occupy Leeuwarden and Groningen in the Netherlands.
  • MV Goya is sunk by Soviet submarine L-3 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German troops and civilians as part of Operation Hannibal; 7,000-8,000 drown.
  • Death marches from Flossenbürg concentration camp begin.
• April 17 – WWII:
  • Brazilian forces liberate the town of Montese, Italy, from German forces.
  • The Wieringermeer is inundated in the Netherlands, by occupying German forces.
• April 18 – American 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 Molnár's Liliom, opens on Broadway, and becomes their second long-running stage classic.
• April 20 – WWII: On his 56th birthday, Adolf Hitler leaves his Führerbunker, to decorate a group of Hitler Youth soldiers in Berlin. It will be his last trip to the surface from his underground bunker.
• April 22 – WWII:
  • Heinrich Himmler, through Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, puts forth an offer of German surrender to the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.
  • Adolf Hitler privately concedes defeat in his underground Berlin bunker, after learning Felix Steiner cannot mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on the Soviet Union which has just broken through Germany.
• April 23 – WWII:
  • Hermann Göring sends the Göring 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 main Flossenbürg concentration camp is liberated by the United States Army.
• April 24 – Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historic Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.
• April 25
  • Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
  • WWII – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two.
• April 25–26 – WWII: The last major strategic bombing raid by RAF Bomber Command, the destruction of the oil refinery at Tønsberg in southern Norway, is carried out by 107 Avro Lancasters.
• April 26 – WWII:
  • Battle of Bautzen: The last "successful" German panzer-offensive in Bautzen ends with the city recaptured.
  • The British 3rd Infantry Division, under General Whistler, captures Bremen.[11]
  • Nazi surrenders mean the British and Canadians now control the German border with Switzerland, from Basle to Lake Constance.
• April 27
  • The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
  • U.S. Ordnance troops find the coffins of Frederick William I of Prussia, Frederick the Great, Paul von Hindenburg, and his wife.
  • The Western Allies flatly reject any offer of surrender by Germany other than unconditional on all fronts.
• April 28
  • 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 Piazzale Loreto.
  • The Canadian First Army captures Emden and Wilhelmshaven.
• April 29
  • At the royal palace in Caserta, Lieutenant-Colonel Viktor von Schweinitz (representing General Heinrich von Vietinghoff) and SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Eugen Wenner (representing Waffen-SS General Karl Wolff) sign an unconditional instrument of surrender for all Axis powers forces in Italy, taking effect on May 2. Italian General Rodolfo Graziani orders the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano forces under his command to lay down their arms.
  • Dachau concentration camp is surrendered to U.S. forces, who kill SS guards at the camp and the nearby hamlet of Webling.[12]
  • Brazilian forces liberate the commune of Fornovo di Taro, Italy, from German forces.
  • Operation Manna: British Avro Lancaster bombers drop food into the Netherlands, to prevent the starvation of the civilian population.
  • Adolf Hitler marries his longtime mistress Eva Braun, in a closed civil ceremony in the Berlin Führerbunker, and signs his last will and testament.
• April 30 – Death of Adolf Hitler: Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as the Red Army approaches the Führerbunker in Berlin. Großadmiral Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany (Reichspräsident) and Joseph Goebbels succeeds as Chancellor of Germany (Reichskanzler), in accordance with Hitler's political testament of the previous day.

May

Main article: May 1945

• May – Interpol (being headquartered in Berlin) effectively ceases to exist (it is recreated on June 3, 1946).
• May 1 – WWII:
  • Reichssender Hamburg's Flensburg radio station announces that Hitler has died in battle, "fighting up to his last breath against Bolshevism."
  • Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide, after killing their six children. Karl Dönitz appoints Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new Chancellor of Germany, in the Flensburg Government.
  • Troops of the Yugoslav 4th Army, together with the Slovene 9th Corpus NOV, enter Trieste.
  • 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:
  • The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. Soviet soldiers hoist the Red flag over the Reich Chancellery.
    

    Prague liberated by Red Army in May 1945.
  • Lübeck is liberated by the British Army.
  • The surrender of Axis troops in Italy comes into effect.
  • A Holocaust death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted under two kilometers west of Waakirchen by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.[13][14]
  • Troops of the New Zealand Army 2nd Division enter Trieste a day after the Yugoslavs; the German Army in Trieste surrenders to the New Zealand Army.
  • Following the death or resignation of the Hitler Cabinet in Germany, the Schwerin von Krosigk cabinet first meets.
  • Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is evacuated at about this date.
  • Expatriate American poet Ezra Pound is arrested by the Italian resistance movement but soon released by them as of no interest; on May 5 he turns himself in to the United States Army and is imprisoned as a traitor.
• May 3 – WWII:
  • The prison ships Cap Arcona (5,000 dead), Thielbek (2,750 dead) and Deutschland (all survive) are sunk by the British Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
  • Rocket scientist Wernher 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 theologian Gerhard Kittel is arrested by the French forces in Tübingen, Germany.
• May 4 – WWII:
  • German surrender at Lüneburg Heath: All German armed forces in northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands surrender unconditionally to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, effective on May 5 at 08:00 hours British Double (and German) Summer Time.
  • The Netherlands is liberated by British and Canadian troops.[15]
  • Denmark is liberated.[16]
  • Admiral Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to bases in Norway.[17]
  • The Holy Crown of Hungary is found by the United States Army 86th Infantry Division. The United States government keeps the crown in Fort Knox for safekeeping from the Soviets, until it is returned to Hungary on January 6 1978.
  • German auxiliary cruiser Orion is sunk on her way to Copenhagen carrying refugees, with a loss of over 3,800 lives.
• May 5 – WWII:
  • Prague uprising: Prague rises up against occupying Nazi forces.
  • The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp, including Simon Wiesenthal.
    

    American soldiers fighting in the Pacific theater listen to radio reports of Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945.
  • Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.
  • A Japanese fire balloon kills six people, Elsie Mitchell and five children, near Bly, 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.
  • The cartoon character Yosemite Sam debuts in Hare Trigger.
• May 6
  • WWII: Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (the first was on December 11, 1941).
  • Holocaust: Ebensee concentration camp in Austria is liberated by troops of the 80th Division (United States).
• May 6–7 – The government of the Independent State of Croatia, the Nazi-affiliated fascist puppet state established in occupied Yugoslavia, flees Zagreb for a location near Klagenfurt in Austria, rather than fall into the hands of the Yugoslav Partisans, initiating the Bleiburg repatriations.[18][19]
• May 7 – WWII:
  • At 02:41, General Alfred Jodl signs the unconditional German Instrument of Surrender in SHAEF HQ at Reims, 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).
  • Numerous RAF Lancasters 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 as Nazi Germany surrenders, marking the end of WWII in Europe.
  • Shortly before midnight (May 9 Moscow time) the final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin-Karlshorst, attended by Allied representatives.
  • Canadian troops move into Amsterdam, after German troops surrender.
  • The surrender of the Dodecanese is signed in Symi.
  • The Eighth British Army, together with Slovene partisan troops and a motorized detachment of the Yugoslav 4th Army, arrives in Carinthia and Klagenfurt. The Croatian Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia are ordered by their commanders not to surrender to the Yugoslav Partisans, but to attempt to retreat to Austria and surrender to the British, part of the events leading to the Bleiburg repatriations.
• May 8–29 - Sétif and Guelma massacre: in Algeria, thousands die as French troops and released Italian POWs kill an estimated 6,000 to 40,000 Algerian citizens.

Marines of 1st Marine Division fighting on Okinawa, May 1945.

• May 9 – WWII:
  • The Soviet Union marks VE Day.
  • The Red Army enters Prague.
  • Hermann Göring surrenders to the United States Army near Radstadt.
  • Vidkun Quisling and other members of the collaborationist Quisling regime in Norway surrender to the Resistance (Milorg) and police at Møllergata 19 in Oslo, as part of the legal purge in Norway after World War II.
  • General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signs the capitulation of German occupation troops.
  • German occupation of Guernsey and Jersey ends with their liberation by the Royal Navy as HMS Bulldog arrives in St Peter Port and HMS Beagle in St Helier.
• May 10 – WWII: German occupation of Sark ends, with its liberation by the Royal Navy.
• May 12
  • Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Meat Industry Workers Federation dissolved.
  • Rev. W. V. Awdry's children's book The Three Railway Engines, first of The 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 near Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia.
• May 15 – WWII: – Surrender at Bleiburg – Retreating troops of the Croatian Armed Forces of the former puppet Independent State of Croatia (intermingled with fleeing civilians) attempt to surrender to the British Army at Bleiburg, but are directed to surrender to Yugoslav Partisans, who open fire on them. The remainder, after orders are given by Tito, are force-marched through Croatia and Serbia, interned or massacred, with thousands dying.[20][21]
• May 16 – WWII: German occupation of Alderney ends, with its liberation by the Royal Navy.
• May 23
  • The Flensburg Government is dissolved by the Allies, and German President Karl Dönitz and German Chancellor Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by British RAF Regiment personnel at Flensburg. They are respectively the last German Head of state and Head of government until 1949.
  • Heinrich Himmler, former head of the Nazi SS, commits suicide in British custody.
• May 28 – U.S.-born Irish-raised William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is captured on the German border. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January 1946.
• May 29
  • German communists, led by Walter Ulbricht, arrive in Berlin.
  • Dutch painter Han van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with the Nazis, but the "Dutch Golden Age" paintings he has sold to Hermann Göring (Koch) are later proved to be his own fakes.
• May 30 – The Iranian government demands that all Soviet and British troops leave the country.

June

Main article: June 1945

Dwight Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Arthur Tedder on June 5, 1945.

• June 1 – The British take over Lebanon and Syria.
• June 5 – The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
• June 6 – King Haakon VII of Norway returns to Norway.
• June 11
  • William Lyon Mackenzie King is re-elected as Canadian prime minister.
  • The Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan.[22]
• June 12 – The Yugoslav Army leaves Trieste, leaving the New Zealand Army in control.
• June 21 – WWII: The Battle of Okinawa ends, with U.S. occupation of the island until 1972.
• June 24 – WWII: A victory parade is held in Red Square in Moscow.
• June 25 – Seán T. O'Kelly is elected the second President of Ireland.
• June 26 – The United Nations Charter is signed.
• June 29 – Czechoslovakia cedes Carpathian Ruthenia to the Soviet Union.
• June 30 – John von Neumann's First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC is distributed, containing the first published description of the logical design of a computer, with stored-program and instruction data stored in the same address space within the memory (von Neumann architecture).

July

Main article: July 1945

July 16: Trinity test at night in New Mexico.

• Vannevar Bush's As We May Think published.[23]
• July 1 – WWII: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.
• July 4 – Brazilian cruiser Bahia is sunk by an accidentally induced explosion, killing more than 300 and stranding the survivors in shark-infested waters.
• July 5
  • The 1945 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, 14th Prime Minister of Australia, dies in office from heart failure at the age of 60. He is briefly replaced by his deputy Frank Forde, who serves as the 15th Prime Minister until a Labor Party leadership election is held to replace Curtin.
  • WWII: The Philippines are declared liberated.
• July 6–7 – Schio massacre: 54 prisoners, mostly fascist sympathisers, are killed by members of the Italian resistance movement in Schio.
• July 8 – WWII: Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if it can retain the reign of the Emperor.[22]
• July 9 – A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn (the third in that area of Oregon since 1933).
• July 12 – Ben Chifley is elected leader of the Labor Party, and consequently becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Australia, defeating Frank Forde as well as Norman Makin and H.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 15 – The Scott Morrison Award of Minor Hockey Excellence is first given; the first recipient is Gordie Howe.
• July 16
  • The Trinity Test, the first of an atomic bomb, using about six kilograms of plutonium, succeeds in unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 22 kilotons of TNT.
  • A train collision near Munich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.
• July 17–August 2 – WWII: Potsdam Conference – At Potsdam, the three main Allied 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: President Harry S. Truman approves the order for atomic bombs to be used against Japan.[22]
• July 23 – WWII: French marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the Vichy government during WWII, goes on trial for treason.

July 26 – Clement Attlee became British Prime Minister.

• July 26
  • Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election. Clement Attlee becomes the new Prime Minister. It is the first time that Labour has governed Britain with a majority in the House of Commons.[24]
  • The Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12, permitting Japan to retain the reign of the Emperor, has been deleted by President Truman.[22]
• July 27 – WWII: Bombing of Aomori – Two USAAF B-29s drop a total of 60,000 leaflets on the city of Aomori, Japan, warning civilians of an air raid and urging them to leave immediately.
• July 28
  • A U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people, including all on board.
  • WWII: Japan ambiguously rejects the Potsdam Declaration.[22]
• July 29
  • The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.
  • WWII: Bombing of Aomori: Aomori is firebombed by 63 USAAF B-29 heavy bombers, killing 1,767 civilians and destroying 18,045 homes.
• July 30 – WWII: Heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 in the Philippine Sea. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for up to four days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain Charles B. McVay III of the cruiser is later court-martialed and convicted.

August

Main article: August 1945

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

September 2: Japan signs the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

• August 6 – WWII: Atomic bombing of Hiroshima: A United States Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, drops an atomic bomb, codenamed "Little Boy", on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m. (local time). The atomic bombings are believed to have resulted in between 129,000 and 246,000 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 cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31), in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
• August 8
  • The United 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: A United States B-29, Bockscar, drops an atomic bomb, codenamed "Fat Man", on Nagasaki, Japan, at 11:02 a.m. (local time).
  • The Soviet–Japanese War opens: The Soviet Union begins its army offensive against Japan, in the northern part of the Japanese-held Chinese region of Manchuria.[25]
• August 10 – WWII: Japan offers to surrender to the Allies, "provided this does not prejudice the sovereignty of the Emperor".
• August 11
  • WWII: The Allies reply to the Japanese surrender offer, by saying that Emperor Hirohito will be subject to the authority of the Supreme 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 of Sakhalin.
• August 13 – The Zionist World Congress approaches the British government, to discuss the founding of the country of Israel.
• August 14
  • WWII: Emperor Hirohito accepts the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. His recorded announcement of this is smuggled out of the Tokyo Imperial Palace. At 19:00 hrs in Washington, D.C. (23:00 GMT), U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces the Japanese surrender.
• August 15
  • WWII: Gyokuon-hōsō: Emperor Hirohito's announcement of the unconditional surrender of Japan is broadcast on the radio a little after noon (12:00 Japan Standard Time is 03:00 GMT). This is probably the first time an Emperor of Japan has been heard by the common people. Delivered in formal classical Japanese and without directly referring to surrender, the recorded speech is not immediately easily understood by ordinary people. The Allies call this day Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day). This ends the period of Japanese expansionism, and begins the period of the Occupation of Japan. Korea gains independence.
  • The August Revolution in Vietnam begins, with the Viet Minh taking over the capital Hanoi, taking advantage of the collapse of Japanese power.
  • The Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization is founded, as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• August 16 – A Polish–Soviet treaty establishes boundaries between the two countries.
• August 17
  • Philippines President José P. Laurel issues an Executive Proclamation putting an end to the Second Philippine Republic, thus ending his term as President of the Philippines.
  • Proclamation of Indonesian Independence: Indonesian nationalists Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declare the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, with Sukarno as president and Mohammad Hatta as vice-president, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
  • The allegorical dystopian novella Animal Farm by George Orwell, a satire on Stalinism, is first published by Fredric Warburg in London.
• August 18 – WWII: Subhas Chandra Bose is killed in an air crash.
• August 19 – Chinese Civil War: Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek meet in Chongqing to discuss an end to hostilities between the Communists and the Nationalists.
• August 23 – Soviet–Japanese War – Joseph Stalin orders the detention of Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union.
• August 30 – WWII: Vietnam's capital Hanoi is taken by the Viet Minh, which ends the French occupation in what becomes North Vietnam, and thus the southern provinces become South Vietnam. This ends the August Revolution.
• August 31
  • WWII: Allied troops arrest German field marshal Walther von Brauchitsch.
  • A team at American Cyanamid's Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, New York, led by Yellapragada Subbarow, announces they have obtained folic acid in a pure crystalline form.[26] This vitamin is abundant in green leaf vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast.[27]

September

Main article: September 1945

• September 2 – World War II ends:
  • Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
  • The final official Japanese Instrument of Surrender is accepted by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, and Fleet 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 by Mamoru Shigemitsu, on board the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
  • General Douglas MacArthur is given the title of Supreme Commander Allied Powers, and is also tasked with the occupation of Japan.[28]
  • The Democratic Republic of Vietnam is officially established, by Ho Chi Minh.[28]
• September 4 – WWII: Japanese forces surrender on Wake Island, after hearing word of their country's surrender.
• September 5
  • Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose", is arrested in Yokohama.
  • Russian code clerk Igor 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 occupy southern Korea, while the Soviet Union occupies the north, 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 the Korean War in 1950.
• September 9 – Chiang Kai-shek officially accepts the Japanese capitulation at Nanking.[28]
• September 10 – Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death as a Nazi collaborator, in Norway.[28]

August 18: The surrender of the Japanese Army in Central China, 1945-09-18. (Memorial in Wuhan)

• September 11
  • Hideki Tōjō, Japanese prime minister during most of WWII, attempts suicide to avoid facing a war crimes tribunal.
  • Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.
  • The Batu Lintang camp in Sarawak, Borneo is liberated by Australian forces.
• September 12 – The Japanese Army formally surrenders to the British in Singapore.
• September 18
  • Typhoon Makurazaki kills 3,746 people in Japan.
  • The Japanese Army in Central China officially surrenders to the Chinese, in Wuhan.
• September 20 – Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru demand that all British troops depart India.
• September 24 – Anti-Jewish violence in Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–46: The Topoľčany pogrom is carried out in Slovakia.

October

Main article: October 1945

October 24: The United Nations is formed. This was its flag. The modern version is slightly retouched.

October 18: Nuremberg trials begin, after Buchenwald closed.

• October – Arthur C. Clarke puts forward the idea of a geosynchronous communications satellite, in a Wireless World magazine article.
• October 1–15 – Operation Backfire: Three A4 rockets are launched near Cuxhaven, in a demonstration to Allied forces.
• October 2– George Albert Smith becomes president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• October 4 – The Partizan Belgrade sports club is founded in Belgrade, 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 the Hadamar Euthanasia Centre, now in the American zone of Allied-occupied Germany, are the first to be tried for systematic extermination in Nazi Germany.
• October 9 – Pierre Laval is sentenced to death, for collaboration with the Nazis in Vichy France.[28]
• October 10 – The Nazi Party is officially dissolved by the Allied Powers.
• October 14 – Czechoslovakia: A new provisional national assembly is elected.[28]
• October 15 – WWII: Pierre Laval, the former premier of Vichy France, is shot dead by a firing squad, for treason against France.
• October 15–21 – The Fifth Pan-African Congress is held in Manchester.
• October 16 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is established at a meeting in Quebec City, as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• October 17 – A massive number of people, headed for the General Confederation of Labour (Argentina), gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to demand Juan Perón's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (Loyalty Day) and considered the founding day of Peronism.
• October 18 – Isaías Medina Angarita, president of Venezuela, is overthrown by a military coup.[28]
• October 19 – Members of the Indonesian People's Army attack Anglo-Dutch forces in Indonesia.[28]
• October 20 – Mongolians vote for independence from China.[28]
• October 21 – Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in the French Legislative Election for the first time.
• October 22 – Rómulo Betancourt is named provisional president of Venezuela.[28]
• October 23 – Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals baseball team.
• October 24
  • The United Nations is founded by ratification of its Charter, by 29 nations.[28]
  • The International Court of Justice ("World Court") is established by the United Nations Charter.
  • Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quisling is executed by firing squad, for treason against Norway.[28]
• October 25
  • WWII: Japanese armed forces in Taiwan surrender to the Allies.
  • Getúlio Vargas is deposed as president in Brazil; José Linhares is named temporary president.[28]
  • Osijek prison massacre
• October 27–November 20 – Indonesian National Revolution: Battle of Surabaya – Pro-independence Indonesian soldiers and militia fight British and British Indian troops in Surabaya.
• October 29
  • Getúlio Vargas resigns as president of Brazil.
  • At Gimbels Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.
• October 30 – The undivided country of India joins the United Nations.

• Physics – Wolfgang Pauli
• Chemistry – Artturi Ilmari Virtanen
• Physiology or Medicine – Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain, Sir Howard Florey
• Literature – Gabriela Mistral
• Peace – Cordell Hull

• Ian Buruma. Year Zero: A History of 1945 (Penguin Press; 2013) 368 pages; covers liberation, revenge, decolonization, and the rise of the United Nations. excerpt
• International News Service, It Happened In 1945 The Essential Year Book (1946)
• Keith Lowe. Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II (2012) excerpt and text search
• McDannald, A. H. ed. The Americana Annual 1946 (1946) events of 1945 online; encyclopedia yearbook global coverage in 950pp
• Walter Yust, ed. 10 Eventful Years, 1937 – 1946 Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1947, 4 vol., encyclopedia yearbook online