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1945

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1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1945th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 945th year of the 2nd millennium, the 45th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1940s decade.

1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat.

World War II will be abbreviated as “WWII”

• January 1 – WWII:
  • Germany begins Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries.^[1]
  • Chenogne massacre: German prisoners are allegedly killed by American forces near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.
• January 6 – WWII: A German offensive recaptures Esztergom, Hungary from the Soviets.
• January 9 – WWII: American and Australian troops land at Lingayen Gulf on western coast of the largest Philippine island of Luzon, occupied by Japan since 1942.
• January 12 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe, against the German Army.^[2]
• 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.^[3]
• January 20
  • Franklin D. Rooseveltissworn 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 between 140 and 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 commandosorsaboteurs without trial, even those in proper uniforms. Morton is the only Allied correspondent to be executed by the Axis during the war.
• January 25 – WWII: Hitler appoints Heinrich Himmler as commander of the hastily formed Army Group Vistula (Heeresgruppe Weichsel) to halt the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder offensive into Pomerania, despite Himmler's lack of military experience.^[4]
• 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.
• January 27 – The Holocaust: The Soviet Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.
• 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, 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.

• February – Raymond L. Libby of American Cyanamid's research laboratories, at Stamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic penicillin.^[5]
• 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 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: German troopship SS General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13; 3,608 drown.^[6]
• February 10–20 – WWII: Operation Kita: The Imperial Japanese Navy returns "Completion Force", containing both its Ise-class battleships, safely from SingaporetoKure in Japan despite Allied attacks.
• February 12 – A devastating tornado outbreakinMississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.^[7][8]
• 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; 25,000-35,000 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)^[9] Japanese soldiers die as a result of being attacked by long saltwater crocodilesinRamree, Burma.^[10]
• 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. The suburb of Intramuros is devastated.^[11]
  • 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 assassinated in Parliament after declaring war on Germany and Japan.
• 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.

• March 1 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of the United States Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.
• March 2
  • Former U.S. Vice-president Henry A. Wallace starts his term of office as United States Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  • The rocket-propelled Bachem Ba 349 Natter is first test launched at Stetten am kalten Markt. The launch fails and the pilot, Lothar Sieber, dies.^[12]
• March 3 – WWII:
  • Finland declares war on the Axis powers.
  • United States and Filipino troops take Manila, Philippines.
  • Pawłokoma massacre: A Polish Home Army unit massacres between 150 and 500 Ukrainian civilians in the Polish village of Pawłokoma.
  • Bombing of the Bezuidenhout: The British Royal Air Force accidentally bombs the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in The Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
• March 4
  • In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a truck driver/mechanic in London.
  • The Swiss cities of Basel and Zürich are accidentally bombed by the United States.^[13]
• March 5 – WWII: Brazilian troops take Castelnuovo (Vergato), in the last operations of the Allied Spring 1945 offensive in Italy.
• March 6
  • A Communist-led government is formed in Romania under Petru Groza, following Soviet intervention.
  • Resistance fighters accidentally ambush and attempt to execute SS general Hanns Albin Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
• March 7 – WWII: At the end of Operation Lumberjack, American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the RhineatRemagen, Germany and begin to cross; in the next 10 days, 25,000 troops with equipment are able to cross.
• March 8
  • Josip Broz Tito forms a Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
  • Nazi authorities kill 117 Dutch men, in reprisal for the attempted murder of Hanns Albin Rauter.
  • Operation Sunrise: Waffen-SS General Karl Wolff meets with Allen Welsh Dulles of the United States Office of Strategic ServicesatLucerne, Switzerland, to negotiate the surrender of the Axis forces in Italy to the Allies.
• March 9–10 – WWII: Bombing of Tokyo: USAAF B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan, with incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 citizens in the firebombing. It is the single most destructive conventional air attack of the war.
• March 11
  • The Empire of Japan establishes the Empire of Vietnam, a puppet state which will last only until August 23, with Bảo Đại as its ruler.
  • The Sammarinese general election gives San Marino the world's first democratically elected communist government, which will hold power until 1957.^[14][15]
• March 12 – WWII: Swinemünde is destroyed by the USAAF, killing an estimated 8,000 to 23,000 civilians, mostly refugees saved by Operation Hannibal.
• March 15–31 – WWII: The Soviet Red Army carries out the Upper Silesian Offensive.
• March 15 – The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held, broadcast via radio in the United States for the first time. Best Picture goes to Going My Way.
• March 16 – WWII:
  • The Battle of Iwo Jima unofficially ends.
  • The Bombing of Würzburg, as part of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, destroys 89% of the city and causes 4,000 deaths.
• March 17 – WWII: Kobe, Japan is fire-bombed by 331 B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000 people.
• March 18 – WWII:
  • The 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in Tigbauan forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General Macario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.^[16]
  • 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.^[17]
  • Battle of Kolberg concludes with the Baltic seaport (designated a key Festung (fortress) by the Germans) taken by Polish and Soviet forces and ethnic Germans evacuated or expelled.^[18]
• March 19 – WWII:
  • Adolf Hitler issues the "Nero Decree" ordering that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed ahead of Allied advances, but Albert Speer, placed in charge of the implementation, deliberately disobeys it.
  • Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.
• March 20 – WWII: Hitler dismisses Heinrich Himmler from his military command.^[2]
• March 21 – WWII:
  • British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
  • Bulgarian and Soviet troops successfully defend the north bank of the Drava River, as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.
• March 22
  • The Arab League is formed, with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
  • The Cathedral and the historic centre of Hildesheim in Germany are destroyed in a bombing of the city.
• March 24
  • WWII: Operation Varsity – Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the river Rhine to aid the Allied advance.
  • The cartoon character Sylvester the cat debuts in Life with Feathers.
• March 26 – WWII: The Battle of Iwo Jima officially ends, with the destruction of the remaining areas of Japanese resistance, although there are Japanese holdouts here until 1949.
• March 27 – WWII:
  • The United States Army Air Forces begins Operation Starvation, laying naval mines in many of Japan's seaways.
  • Argentina declares war on Germany and Japan.
• March 29
  • WWII: The Red Army almost destroys the German 4th Army, in the Heiligenbeil PocketinEast Prussia.
  • The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden in New York, as Oklahoma State University defeats DePaul 52–44 in basketball.
• March 30 – WWII:
  • The Red Army pushes most of the Axis forces out of Hungary into Austria.
  • American official Alger Hiss is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing the positions of the Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other, at the Yalta Conference.

• 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 Soviet 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 (afascist puppet state) by Yugoslav Partisans.
  • The Battle of Slater's KnollonBougainville Island concludes, with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th Brigade.
  • Allied forces reach Merkers Salt MinesinThuringia, 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
  • Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd president of the United States, upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Little White HouseinWarm Springs, Georgia of an intracerebral hemorrhage. President Truman is sworn in later that evening in the White House.
  • Adevastating tornado outbreak occurs across the United States, which kills 128 people and injures over 1,000 others. This outbreak is heavily overshadowed by the death of President Roosevelt.^[19][20]
  • 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.^[21]
  • 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 Red Army launching 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.
  • Inundation of the Wieringermeer 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. It includes the standard "You'll Never Walk Alone".
• 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.
  • The German city of Nuremberg, previously the site of the Nuremberg rallies, is occupied by American troops.
• 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 finally concedes that "everything is lost"^[22] at a meeting in the Führerbunker after learning that SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner cannot mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on the Soviet forces which have completely surrounded Berlin.
• 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 – WWII:
  • Battle of Berlin: Red Army troops complete encirclement of Berlin.^[23]
  • Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the AdigeinVerona, 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.^[24]
  • Nazi surrenders mean the British and Canadians now control the German border with Switzerland, from BaseltoLake 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.
  • The provisional government of Austria headed by Karl Renner asserts its independence from Germany.^[25]
  • U.S. Ordnance troops find the coffins of Frederick William I of Prussia, Frederick the Great, Paul von Hindenburg, and his wife, in a salt mine in Germany.^[26]
• April 28
  • The bodies of Benito Mussolini, his mistress, Clara Petacci, and other followers are hung by their heels at a gas station in the public square of Milan, Piazzale Loreto, following their execution by Italian partisans after an attempt to flee the country.
  • 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-Obersturmbannführer 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.^[27]
  • 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.
  • Soviet soldiers hoist the Red flag over the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
  • 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 – WWII:
  • 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.
  • American forces enter the Bavarian capital of Munich.

• 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 carries out his sole official act as Chancellor of Germany, dictating a letter to the Soviet commander in Berlin advising of Hitler's death and requesting a ceasefire. When the latter is refused, he and his wife Magda kill their six children and commit suicide themselves. Karl Dönitz appoints Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new de facto 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.
  • Lübeck is liberated by the British Army.
  • The surrender of Axis troops in Italy comes into effect.
  • AHolocaust 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.^[28][29]
  • Troops of the New Zealand Army 2nd Division enter Trieste a day after the Yugoslavs; the German ArmyinTrieste 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 ForceinLübeck 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.
  • Operation Dracula: British troops liberate the Burmese capital of Rangoon from Japanese forces.
• 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.^[30]
  • Denmark is liberated.^[31]
  • Admiral Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to bases in Norway.^[32]
  • The Holy Crown of Hungary is found in Mattsee, Austria, by the United States Army 86th Infantry Division. The U.S. government keeps the crown in Fort Knox for safekeeping from the Soviets until it is returned to Hungary on January 6 1978.^[33]
  • 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, encouraged by radio broadcasts (giving rise to the Battle for Czech Radio).
  • The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp, including Simon Wiesenthal.
  • 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.
• 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, but is captured in the Bleiburg repatriations that then leads to mass executions.^[34][35]
• May 7 – WWII:
  • At 02:41, General Alfred Jodl signs the unconditional German Instrument of SurrenderinSHAEF 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). This afternoon Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Leading Minister in the rump Flensburg Government, makes a broadcast announcing the German surrender and American journalist Edward Kennedy breaks an Allied embargo on news of the signing.^[36]
  • 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 Prague uprising ends with a ceasefire.
  • 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.
  • Hermann Göring surrenders himself to the United States Army near Radstadt.^[37]
• 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.
• May 9 – WWII:
  • The Soviet Union marks VE Day as the Red Army enters Prague.^[38]
  • Vidkun Quisling and other members of the collaborationist Quisling regime in Norway surrender to the Resistance (Milorg) and policeatMøllergata 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.
  • Liberation of the German-occupied Channel Islands: British forces take the surrender of the occupying troops, with Royal Navy ships HMS Bulldog arriving in St Peter Port, Guernsey, and HMS BeagleinSt Helier, Jersey.
• May 10 – WWII: Liberation of the German-occupied Channel Islands: Occupation of Sark ends, with British forces taking the surrender of the occupying troops and leaving them under the orders of Dame Sibyl Hathaway.
• May 12 – Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Meat Industry Workers Federation dissolved.
• 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.^[39][40]
• May 16 – WWII: Liberation of the German-occupied Channel Islands: Occupation of Alderney ends, with British forces taking the surrender of the occupying troops, the civilian population having been evacuated.
• 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 in London with high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts from 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 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 7 – King Haakon VII of Norway returns to Norway five years to the day after leaving for exile in Britain.
• June 11
  • William Lyon Mackenzie King is re-elected as Canadian prime minister.
  • The Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan.^[41]
• 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 in San Francisco.
• 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 1
  • WWII: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.
  • WWII: Australian and other Allied forces launch an invasion of the east coast of Japanese-occupied Borneo near Balikpapan.
• July 2 – The 1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion breaks out in Burao and ErigavoinBritish Somaliland, led by Sheikh Bashir, a Somali religious leader.^[42]
• 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 movementinSchio.
• July 8 – WWII: Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if it can retain the reign of the Emperor.^[41]
• July 12 – Ben Chifleyiselected 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 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.^[41]
• July 23 – WWII: French marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the Vichy government during WWII, goes on trial for treason.
• 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.^[43]
  • 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.^[41]
• 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
  • WWII: Japan ambiguously rejects the Potsdam Declaration.^[41]
  • ANorth American B-25 Mitchell crashes into The Empire State Building, killing 14 people.^[44]
• July 29
  • The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched in the United Kingdom, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.
  • WWII: Bombing of Aomori: The Japanese city of 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; in 2000, he is posthumously exonerated.^[45]

• August 6 – WWII: Atomic bombing of Hiroshima: United States Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drops a uranium-235 atomic bomb, codenamed "Little Boy", on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time, resulting in between 90,000 and 146,000 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: United States B-29 Bockscar drops a plutonium-239 atomic bomb, codenamed "Fat Man", on the Japanese city of Nagasaki at 11:02 a.m. local time, resulting in between 39,000 and 80,000 deaths.
  • 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.^[46]
• 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 stating 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:
    • Bombing of Kumagaya, Japan, by the United States using conventional bombs, beginning at 00:23.
    • Hirohito surrender broadcast (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, without directly referring to surrender and following official censorship of the country's weak position, 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 and sets the stage for Korean independence.
  • The August RevolutioninVietnam 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 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.
• August 18 – WWII: Death of Subhas Chandra Bose: Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose is killed as a result of his overloaded Japanese plane crashing in Japanese Taiwan.
• 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 25 – Bảo Đại abdicates as Emperor of Vietnam, ending 2,000 years of dynastic and monarchic rule in the country and 143 years of the Nguyễn dynasty.
• 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.^[47] This vitamin is abundant in green leaf vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast.^[48]

• September 2 – World War II ends:
  • Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Philippine 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 MissouriinTokyo Bay.
  • General Douglas MacArthur is given the title of Supreme Commander Allied Powers, and is also tasked with the occupation of Japan.^[49]
  • The Democratic Republic of Vietnam is officially established, by Ho Chi Minh.^[49]
• 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 arrive in 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 when North Korea invades in 1950.
• September 9
  • Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek officially accepts the Japanese capitulation at Nanking.^[49]
  • Japanese troops in Keijō (present day Seoul) formally relinquish control over Southern Korea to the United States, effectively ending Japan's 35-year rule of Korea.^[50][51]
• September 10 – Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death for being a Nazi collaborator in Norway.^[49]
• September 11
  • Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War II, attempts to commit suicide to avoid facing an Allied war crimes tribunal.
  • Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.
  • The Batu Lintang campinSarawak, Borneo is liberated by Australian forces.
• September 12
  • The Japanese Army formally surrenders to the British in Singapore.
  • The office of governor-general of Korea is disbanded by the United States Army Military Government in Korea, formally ending Japan's 35-year rule in Korea.
• 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 – Postwar anti-Jewish violence in Slovakia: The Topoľčany pogrom is carried out in Czechoslovakia.

• 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 presidentofthe 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 – Former prime minister Pierre Laval is sentenced to death, for collaboration with the NazisinVichy France.^[49]
• October 10 – The Nazi Party is dissolved by the Allied Powers.
• October 14 – Czechoslovakia: A new provisional national assembly is elected.^[49]
• 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 MayoinBuenos 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.^[49]
• October 19 – Members of the Indonesian People's Army attack Anglo-Dutch forces in Indonesia.^[49]
• October 20 – Mongolians vote for independence from China.^[49]
• 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.^[49]
• October 24
  • The United Nations is founded by ratification of its Charter, by 29 nations.^[49]
  • The International Court of Justice ("World Court") is established by the United Nations Charter.
  • Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quislingisexecuted by firing squad, for treason against Norway.^[49]
• 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.^[49]
  • Osijek prison massacre by Yugoslav secret police.
• 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.
  • AtGimbels 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.

• November 1
  • International Labour Organization's new constitution comes into effect.
  • Telechron introduces the model 8H59 Musalarm, the first clock radio.
• November 5 – Colombia joins the United Nations.
• November 6 – Indonesians reject an offer of autonomy from the Dutch.^[49]
• November 9 – Soo Bahk Do and Moo Duk Kwan martial arts are founded in Korea.
• November 10 – Indonesian National Revolution: Battle of Surabaya – Following the killing of British officer Brigadier A. W. S. Mallaby on October 30, the British Indian Army (in support of its allied Dutch colonial administration) begins an advance on Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies against Indonesian nationalists; although most of the city is retaken in 3 days of heavy fighting, the strength of the resistance leads to today being celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan) in Indonesia.
• November 11 – 1945 Yugoslavian parliamentary election: Marshal Josip Broz Tito and the People's Front win a decisive majority (90%) in the Yugoslavian Assembly.^[49]
• November 15
  • Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee and Mackenzie King share nuclear information with the U.N. and call for a United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.^[41][49]
  • An offensive is begun in Manchuria by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalists) against further infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party.^[49]
• November 16
  • Charles de Gaulle is unanimously elected president of France by the provisional government.^[49]
  • The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
  • The foundation of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is agreed at a meeting in London.
• November 18 – The Tudeh party starts a bloodless coup, and will form Azerbaijan within days. Soviet troops prevent Iranian troops from getting involved.
• November 20 – The Nuremberg trials begin: Trials against 22 Nazis for war crimes of World War II start at the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg.^[49]
• November 26 – U.S. Ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley resigns after he is unable to broker a deal between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung.^[49]
• November 28
  • The 1945 Balochistan earthquake causes a tsunami and kills 4,000.
  • British fascist John Amery pleads guilty to treason, and is condemned to death.^[52]
• 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.
  • Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), is completed in the United States, covering 1,800 square feet (170 m²) of floor space, and the first set of calculations is run on it.

• December 2
  • General Eurico Gaspar Dutra is elected president of Brazil.
  • French banks (Bank of France, BNCI, CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais, and Société Générale) are nationalized.
• December 3 – Communist demonstrations in Athens presage the Greek Civil War.
• December 4 – The United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations by a vote of 65–7.
• December 5 – Flight 19ofUnited States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers disappears on a training exercise from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.
• December 9 – American General George S. Patton is involved in a car accident in Germany, resulting in his death on December 21.
• December 27 – Twenty-one nations ratify the articles creating the World Bank.^[53]