1945

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Millennium:	2nd millennium
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Years:	1942 1943 1944 – 1945 – 1946 1947 1948

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1945 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar	1945 MCMXLV
Ab urbe condita	2698
Armenian calendar	1394 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԴ
Assyrian calendar	6695
Bahá'í calendar	101–102
Bengali calendar	1352
Berber calendar	2895
British Regnal year	9 Geo. 6 – 10 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2489
Burmese calendar	1307
Byzantine calendar	7453–7454
Chinese calendar	甲申年十一月十八日 (4581/4641-11-18) — to — 乙酉年十一月廿七日 (4582/4642-11-27)
Coptic calendar	1661–1662
Ethiopian calendar	1937–1938
Hebrew calendar	5705–5706
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2001–2002
- Shaka Samvat	1867–1868
- Kali Yuga	5046–5047
Holocene calendar	11945
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	945–946
Iranian calendar	1323–1324
Islamic calendar	1364–1365
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 20 (昭和20年)
Juche calendar	34
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4278
Minguo calendar	ROC 34 民國34年
Thai solar calendar	2488

Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

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

January

January 27: The Soviet Union liberates Auschwitz.

January – American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Germany.
January 1 – Germany begins Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries
January 5 – Australia recognizes the Polish Committee of National Liberation as the government of Poland.
January 7 – British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his supporting role at the Battle of the Bulge.
January 12 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the Germans.
January 13 – WWII: A day after beginning the Vistula-Oder Offensive, the Soviets launch the East Prussian Offensive to eliminate German forces in East Prussia.
January 16 – WWII: In Berlin Adolf Hitler takes residence in the Führerbunker.
January 17
- WWII: A Soviet patrol arrests Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary.
- WWII: The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw, Poland.
January 20
- The Holocaust: The evacuation of Auschwitz concentration camp begins.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, has ever reached a third term in office.
January 23 – Hungary drops out of WWII, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
January 26 – WWII: Infantry action at Holtzwihr, France, for which Audie Murphy is awarded the Medal of Honour.
January 27 – The Holocaust: The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.
January 28 – WWII: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
January 30
- The Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen ( Gdynia) in the Gdansk Bay, is sunk by three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea; up to 9,400 are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in war action in history.
- Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American POWs from the Japanese-held camp at Cabanatuan City, Philippines.
- Adolf Hitler gives his last speech.
January 31 – Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines for desertion, the first American soldier since the American Civil War, and last to date to be executed for this offense.

February

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, February 2, 1945.

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

February – Raymond L. Libby of American Cyanamid's research laboratories at Stamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic penicillin.
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.
- 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 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.
February 13 – WWII:
- Soviet forces capture Budapest, Hungary, from the Nazis.
- Royal Air Force bombing of Dresden, Germany.
February 14 – Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru join the United Nations.
February 16 – WWII:
- 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– February 20 – 980 Japanese soldiers die as a result of a killing spree by long saltwater crocodiles in Ramree, Burma.
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: end of the Battle of Monte Castello, after nearly three months of fighting Brazilian troops expel German forces of an pivot point in the (Tuscan) North Apennines, where their artillery was impeding the advance of British 8th 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, freed 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: Heaviest of a series of bombing raids on Pforzheim in 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 allies side.
February 24 – The Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
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

March: Anne Frank dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp of typhus

March – Anne Frank, dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Lower Saxony, Germany, of typhus.
March 1 – Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of 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 U.S. Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- The Bachem Ba 349 Natter is launched from Stetten am kalten Markt. The Natter is the first manned rocket, developed as an anti-aircraft weapon. The launch fails and the pilot, Lothar Sieber, dies.
March 3 – WWII:
- Finland declares war on the Axis powers.
- United States and Filipino troops take Manila, Philippines.
- Bombing of the Bezuidenhout: The British Royal Air Force accidentally bombs the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in The Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
- A possible experimental atomic test blast occurs at the Nazis' Ohrdruf military testing area.
March 4 – In the United Kingdom, The Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Army's Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service as a truck driver/mechanic.
March 4 – Football club FC Red Star (in Serbian: FK Crvena Zvezda) formed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
March 5 – Brazilian troops take Castelnuovo ( Vergato), in the last prior operations for the Allied Spring offensive in Italy.
March 6
- A Communist-led government is formed in Romania under Petru Groza following Soviet intervention.
- Resistance fighters ambush and attempt to execute SS general Hanns Albin Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
March 7 – WWII: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.
March 8
- Josip Broz Tito forms a government in Yugoslavia.
- The 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 Services at Lucerne in neutral Switzerland to negotiate 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.
March 9 – The film Les Enfants du Paradis premieres in Paris.
March 12 – Swinemünde is destroyed by the USAAF killing an estimated 8,000 to 23,000 civilians, mostly refugees saved by Operation Hannibal.
March 15 – The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held, broadcast via radio for the first time. Best Picture goes to Going My Way.
March 16 – WWII: The Battle of Iwo Jima unofficially ends, with pockets of guerrilla resistance persisting until the official conclusion of the battle.
March 17 – WWII: Kobe, Japan is fire-bombed by 331 B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000 people.
March 18 – WWII: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
March 19 – WWII:
- Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
- Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.
March 21 – WWII: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
March 22
- Arab League is formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
- St. Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim, is destroyed in an air raid.
March 24
- WWII – Operation Varsity: Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the Rhine River to aid the Allied advance.
- Sylvester the cat, a cartoon character, 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.
March 29 – The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden 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 and into Austria.
- Alger Hiss is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing positions of Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other at the Yalta Conference.

April

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

Adolf Hitler, along with his wife Eva Braun, committed suicide on 30 April 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 Nazi German puppet state) by Yugoslav Partisans.
April 7 – WWII:
- The only flight of the German ramming unit known as the Sonderkommando Elbe takes place, resulting in the loss of some 24 B-17s and B-24s of the United States Eighth Air Force.
- The Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk 200 miles (320 km) north of Okinawa while en route on a suicide mission.
- Kantarō Suzuki becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
April 9
- WWII: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
- Abwehr conspirators Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Hans Dohanyi are hanged at Flossenberg concentration camp, along with pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
April 10 – WWII:
- The Allied Forces liberate the Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald.
- Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina Brigades from the Tenth Division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
April 12 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President.
April 14 – WWII: The Canadian First Army assumes military control of the Netherlands where German forces are trapped in the Atlantic wall fortifications along the coastline.
April 15 – WWII:
- The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British and Canadian forces.
- The Canadian First Army reaches the coast in northern Holland and captures Arnhem.
April 16 – WWII:
- Battle of Berlin begins.
- The Canadians take Harlingen, and occupy Leeuwarden and Groningen in the Netherlands.
- The Goya is sunk by Soviet submarine L-3.
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.
April 22 – WWII:
- Heinrich Himmler, through Count Bernadotte, puts forth an offer of German surrender to the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.
- Adolf Hitler concedes defeat in his underground Berlin bunker after learning Felix Steiner could not mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on the Soviets who had just broken through Germany.
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: Last major strategic bombing raid by RAF Bomber Command, the destruction of the oil refinery at Tønsberg in southern Norway 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.
- Nazi surrenders mean the British and Canadians now control the German border with Switzerland from Basle to Lake Constance.
April 27
- 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.
- 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 Wolf) signs 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.
- 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.
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. Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany; Joseph Goebbels succeeds Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

May

May – Interpol (being headquartered in Berlin) effectively ceases to exist (it is recreated on June 3, 1946).
May 1 – WWII:
- Hamburg Radio 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 Count Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the new Chancellor of Germany.
- Troops of the Yugoslav 4th Army, together with the Slovene 9th Corpus NOV, enter Trieste.
- Mass suicide in Demmin.
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.
- Surrender of Axis troops in Italy comes into effect.
- 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.
- Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is evacuated at about this date.
May 3 – WWII:
- The prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland 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 to 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: The North German army surrenders unconditionally to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
- Holland is liberated by British and Canadian troops. German forces officially surrender one day later.
- Denmark is liberated. German forces officially surrender one day later.
May 5 – WWII:
- Prague uprising: Prague rises up against occupying Nazi forces.
- Ezra Pound, the American poet and author, is arrested by American soldiers in Italy as a traitor.
- The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp, including Simon Wiesenthal.
  
  American soldiers fighting in the Pacific theatre listen to radio reports of Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945.
- Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.
- Admiral Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.
- A Japanese fire balloon kills five children and a woman, Elsie Mitchell, near Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. They 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).
May 7 – WWII: General Alfred Jodl signs the unconditional German Instrument of Surrender at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
May 8 – WWII:
- Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) as Nazi Germany surrenders, marking the end of WWII in Europe, with the final surrender being to the Soviets in Berlin, attended by representatives of the Western Powers.
- Canadian troops move into Amsterdam, after German troops surrender.
- Surrender of the Dodecanese is signed in Symi.
- The British 8th Army, together with Slovene partisan troops and a motorized detachment of the Yugoslav 4th Army, arrives in Carinthia and Klagenfurt.
May 8– 29 – Sétif 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 V-E Day.
- Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army.
  
  Marines of 1st Marine Division fighting on Okinawa, May 1945.
- The Norwegian resistance movement in Oslo, Norway, arrests the traitor Vidkun Quisling.
- The Red Army enters Prague.
- General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signs the capitulation of German occupation troops.
- The German occupation of the Channel Islands ends with the liberation by British troops.
- Alderney, an annex of the concentration camp Neuengamme, is liberated.
May 12
- Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne 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 23 – President of Germany Karl Dönitz and Chancellor of Germany Count Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by British forces at Flensburg. They are respectively the last German Head of state and Head of government until 1949.
May 23 – Heinrich Himmler, former head of the Nazi SS, commits suicide in British custody.
May 28 – William Joyce (" Lord Haw-Haw") is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, 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 paintings he had sold to Hermann Göring (Koch) are later found to be his fakes.
May 30 – The Iranian government demands that all Soviet and British troops leave the country.

June

Dwight Eisenhower and Georgy Zhukov, June 5, 1945.

June 1 – The British take over Lebanon and Syria.
June 5 – The Allied Control Council, 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.
June 12 – The Yugoslav Army leaves Trieste, leaving the New Zealand Army in control.
June 21 – WWII: The Battle of Okinawa ends.
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 – Distribution of John von Neumann's First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, 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

July 16: Trinity Test at night in New Mexico.

July 1 – WWII: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.
July 5 – Australian Prime Minister John Curtin dies of a heart attack at age 60.
July 5 – WWII: The Philippines are declared liberated.
July 8 – WWII: Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if it can retain the reign of the Emperor.
July 9 – A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn (the third in that area of Oregon since 1933).
July 15 – The Scott Morrison Award of Minor Hockey Excellence was first given out to recipient Gordie Howe
July 14 – 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 19 kilotons of TNT.
July 16 – WWII: 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.
July 21 – WWII: President Harry S. Truman approves the order for atomic bombs to be used against Japan.
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 the United Kingdom's Prime Minister 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 commons majority.
July 26 – 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.
July 28 – An U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people, including all on board.
July 28 – WWII: Japan ambiguously rejects the Potsdam Declaration.
July 29 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.
July 30 – WWII: The 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

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 B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, drops an atomic bomb, codenamed " Little Boy", on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m. (local time).
August 7 – President Harry Truman announces the successful bombing of Hiroshima with the atomic bomb, while 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 one to join the new international organization.
- The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
August 9 – WWII: Atomic bombing of Nagasaki:
- A United States B-29 Bomber, Bockscar, drops an atomic bomb, codenamed " Fat Man", on Nagasaki, Japan, at 11:02 a.m. (local time).
- The Soviet Union begins its army offensive against Japan in the northern part of the Japanese-held Chinese region of Manchuria.
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.
August 11– 25 – Soviet troops complete 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.
August 15
- WWII: Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio. The United States calls this day Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day). This ends the period of Japanese expansionism and begins the period of Occupation of Japan. Korea gains independence.
- Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
August 17
- President José P. Laurel issues an Executive Proclamation putting an end to the Second Philippine Republic, thus putting an end to his term as President of the Philippines.
- Indonesian nationalists Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta declare the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, with Soekarno as president. Dutch colonial authorities do not approve.
- The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published by Fredric Warburg in London.
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 30 – WWII: Veitnam's capital Hanoi is overthrown by the Viet Minh which ends the French occupation in what becomes North Vietnam and thus the southern provinces become South Vietnam.
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 Subbarao, announces they have obtained folic acid in a pure crystalline form. This vitamin is abundant in green leaf vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast.

September

September 2 – WWII ends:
- Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
- The final official surrender of Japan is accepted by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States, and delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, China, and others from a Japanese delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, on board the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
- The earliest events of the Cold War begin.
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.
- The 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
- American 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.
- Hideki Tōjō, Japanese prime minister during most of WWII, attempts suicide to avoid facing a war crimes tribunal.
September 11
- 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 in Japan kills 3,746 people.
September 20 – Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru demand that all British troops depart India.

October

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 order to show Allied forces the rocket with liquid fuel.
October 2– George Albert Smith becomes president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
October 3– 10 – The Detroit Tigers win the World Series against the Chicago Cubs; the Cubs have not returned to the World Series since.
October 4 – The Partizan Belgrade sports society is founded in Belgrade, Serbia.
October 5 – A strike by the Set Decorator's Union in Hollywood results in a riot.
October 15 – WWII: Pierre Laval, the former premier of Vichy France, is shot to death by a firing squad for treason against France.
October 15– 21 – The Fifth Pan-African Congress is held in Manchester, United Kingdom.
October 16 – Food and Agriculture Organization established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
October 17 – A massive number of people, headed for CGT, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina 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.
October 21 – Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
October 23 – Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals baseball team.
October 24
- The United Nations is founded by ratification of its Charter.
- International Court of Justice ("World Court") established by the United Nations Charter.
- The Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quisling is shot to death by a firing squad for treason against Norway.
October 27 – Indonesian separatists riot and fight Dutch and British security forces.
October 29
- Getúlio Vargas resigns as the 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. Pakistan is formed and joins later.

November

November 1
- International Labour Organization (ILO) In 1945, the organisation's new constitution came into effective.
- John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of the magazine Ebony.
- Telechron introduces the model 8H59 "Musalarm", the first clock radio.
November 5 – Colombia joins the United Nations.
November 9 – Soo bahk do Moo Duk Kwan is founded.
November 13 – Charles De Gaulle is elected head of a French provisional government
November 15 – Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee, and Mackenzie King call for a United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
November 16
- Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
- The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to this time, it wins several Academy Awards in the following year.
- Yeshiva College is founded in New York City.
November 20 – The Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of WWII start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
November 28 – An earthquake in Balochistan (Pakistan) causes a tsunami and kills 4,000.
November 29
- The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day is celebrated as Republic Day until the 1990s). Marshal Tito is named president.
- 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

December 2
- General Eurico Gaspar Dutra is elected president of Brazil.
- French banks ( Banque de France, BNCI, CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais, and Société Générale) nationalized.
December 3 – Communist demonstrations in Athens presage the Greek Civil War.
December 4 – By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations.
December 5 – A flight of United States Navy TBF Avenger torpedo bombers known as Flight 19 disappears on a training exercise from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.
December 21 – General George S. Patton dies from injuries sustained in a car accident on December 9 in Germany.
December 27
- Twenty-eight nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank.
- Terror strikes are carried out against British military bases in Palestine.

Date unknown

A team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory led by Charles Coryell discovers chemical element 61, the only one still missing between 1 and 96 on the periodic table, which they will name promethium.
The first geothermal milk pasteurization is done in Klamath Falls, Oregon.