Timeline 1945
Return to home
1945 Jan-Dec, The
worst year in human history measured in terms of people killed, houses
burned, buildings destroyed, and high explosives set off.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W11)
1945 Jan 1, On Operation
Bodenplatte, German planes attacked American forward air bases in
Europe. This was the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1945 Jan 1, France was admitted to
the United Nations.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1945 Jan 2, Allies made an air
raid on Nuremberg.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1945 Jan 3, Stephen Stills singer,
songwriter, guitarist: group, was born: Buffalo Springfield: For What
It’s Worth; group: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1945 Jan 3, US aircraft carriers
attacked Okinawa.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1945 Jan 3, Edgar Cayce (b.1877),
American self-proclaimed psychic from Kentucky, died. Jess Stearn
(d.2002) authored "The Sleeping Prophet: The Life and work of Edgar
Cayce" (1968), and "A Prophet in His Own Country: The Story of the
Young Edgar Cayce" (1974). In 2000 Sidney D. Kirkpatrick authored Edgar
Cayce, An American Prophet.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(SFC,
4/2/02, p.A15)(SFC, 8/7/08, p.E6)
1945 Jan 4, The last German
offensive in Bastogne, Belgium, failed.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1945 Jan 5, Uighur rebels in
China’s southwest Xinjiang declared the Eastern Turkestan Republic. The
republic ended in 1949 when Chinese Communists came to power. In 1949
the Russians told the Uighurs to cooperate with Mao.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A10)(Econ, 12/3/05,
p.39)(www.unpo.org/member.php?arg=21)
1945 Jan 6, Pepe Le Pew, the
cartoon skunk created by Chuck Jones and voiced by Mel Blanc, debuted
in Odor-Able Kitty.
(AH, 2/05,
p.16)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037956/)
1945 Jan 6, George Herbert Walker
Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1945 Jan 6, B-29’s in the Pacific
struck new blows on Tokyo and Nanking.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1945 Jan 7, U.S. air ace Major
Thomas B. McGuire Jr. was killed in the Pacific.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1945 Jan 8, US Tech. Sgt. Russell
Dunham (1920-2009) assaulted 3 German machine gun placements, killed 9
German soldiers and took 2 as prisoners near Kaysersberg, France. His
bravery earned him the US Medal of Honor.
(SFC, 4/10/09, p.B5)
1945 Jan 9, American forces began
landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, 107 miles from Manila.
MacArthur finally mounted his invasion of Luzon.
(HN, 1/9/99)(AP, 1/9/99)
1945 Jan 9, Maj. Raymond Cromley,
head of the top secret "Dixie Mission," sent a cable to US military
headquarters in Chunking that said Mao Tse-tung would like send a group
to Pres. Roosevelt to explain the situation in China. Ambassador
Patrick J. Hurley, who opposed the meeting, intercepted the message and
failed to pass it to Pres. Roosevelt.
(WSJ, 5/30/02, p.A2)
1945 Jan 9, US carrier planes
bombed the Japanese ship Enoura Maru and 316 US POWs were killed.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.B2)
1945 Jan 10, Gunther von Hagens,
German anatomist, was born in Poznan. In 1977 invented the process of
plastination in which natural body fluids are replaced by plastic.
(WSJ, 8/5/04, p.D8)
1945 Jan 10, Rod Stewart, rock
singer, was born in North London, England.
(SSFC, 10/10/04, Par p.20)
1945 Jan 12, US Task Force 38
destroyed 41 Japanese ships in Battle of South China Sea.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1945 Jan 12, German forces in
Belgium retreated in Battle of Bulge.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1945 Jan 12, Soviet forces began a
huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1945 Jan 13, The Red Army opened
an offensive in South Poland, crashing 25 miles through the German
lines.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1945 Jan 16, The U.S. First and
Third armies linked up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of
the Bulge.
(HN, 1/16/99)
1945 Jan 17, Soviet and Polish
forces liberated Warsaw during World War II.
(AP, 1/17/98)(HN, 1/17/99)
1945 Jan 17, Swedish diplomat
Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews,
disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. Raoul Wallenberg was
jailed by the Soviets who believed that he was an American spy. He had
saved more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps. Wallenberg
was a graduate of the Univ. of Michigan and studied there from
1931-1935. In 2000 a Kremlin commission believed that he was shot in a
KGB prison.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-7)(AP, 1/17/98)(MT, Spg. ‘99,
p.18)(SFC, 11/28/00, p.A18)
1945 Jan 18, The German Army
launched its second attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest
from the advancing Red Army.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1945 Jan 18, The Red Army freed
Krakow from Nazi occupation. [see Jan 19]
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A12)
1945 Jan 19, The Red Army captured
Lodz, Krakow, and Tarnow.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1945 Jan 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt
was inaugurated for his fourth term.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1945 Jan 20, The Allies signed a
truce with the Hungarians.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1945 Jan 21, Andrew Stein, pres of
NYC council (D), was born.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1945 Jan 21, The Nazi Edelweiss
unit participated in a bloody operation against two villages in central
Slovakia as punishment for local support of Soviet-backed rebels.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Jan 22, There was a heavy US
air raid on Okinawa.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1945 Jan 22, The Burma highway
reopened.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1945 Jan 23, Helmuth J. Moltke
(37), German general, politician (July 20th Plot), was executed.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1945 Jan 24, A German attempt to
relieve the besieged city of Budapest was finally halted by the Soviets.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1945 Jan 25, The US Justice
Department's Antitrust Division filed suit in the U.S. District Court
in New York against De Beers, four other British or South African
companies, three Belgian companies and one Portuguese Company which
together produced and sold 95 percent of the world's diamonds,
'charging them with conspiring to restrain and monopolize the foreign
trade of the United States in gem and industrial diamonds in violation
of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Wilson Tariff Acts.
(www.macha.f9.co.uk/d-Ch5-rationing.html)
1945 Jan 27, The Soviet army
arrived at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland, and found the Nazi
concentration camp and crematorium. It is now believed that 1 million
Jews were murdered here, up to 75,000 Polish Christians, 21,000
Gypsies, and 15,000 Soviet POWs.
(www.krakow-info.com/auschwit.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/aqhbc)
1945 Jan 28, During World War II,
Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma
Road.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1945 Jan 28, Chiang Kai-shek
renamed the Ledo-Burma Road the Stillwell Road, in honor of General
Joseph Stillwell.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1945 Jan 28, The Red Army captured
Klaipeda, the last German-held Lithuanian city.
(LHC, 1/28/03)
1945 Jan 30, US Army Rangers and
Filipino guerrillas executed a flawless rescue of 486 POWs from Camp
Cabanatuan north of Manila. In 2001 Hampton Sides authored “Ghost
Soldiers,” an account of the rescue.
(WSJ, 5/24/01, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/17/01, DB p.70)(AH,
2/05, p.16)
1945 Jan 30, The Allies launched a
drive on the Siegfried line in Germany.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1945 Jan 30, Nazi SS guards shot
down an estimated 4,000 Jewish prisoners on the Baltic coast at
Palmnicken, Kaliningrad. The town was later renamed by the Russians to
Yantarny. Some 7,000 prisoners had been marched 25 miles from
Koenigsberg to a vacant lock factory at Palmnicken where they were
mowed down with machine guns. The prisoners had been vacated from a
network of 30 camps that made up Poland's Stutthoff concentration camp.
90% of the Jews were women from Lithuania and Hungary.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.C1)
1945 Jan 30, The
German liner "Wilhelm Gustloff" sank in the Baltic Sea between the Bay
of Danzig and the Danish island of Bornholm. An estimated 7000-8000
people, civilian refugees from East Prussia and wounded German
soldiers, drowned in the icy waters. Three torpedoes fired from a
Russian submarine had scored direct hits on the ship. The result was
the largest and most horrible naval disaster of all time.
(NW, 3/18/02,
p.11)(www.cybercreek.com/cybercity/WWIIps/gu)
1945 Jan 31, Private Eddie
Slovik (25) became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be
executed for desertion, as he was shot by an American firing squad near
the village of Ste-Marie aux Mines, France.
(AP, 1/31/04)
1945 Jan, The Albanian Communist
provisional government of Enver Hoxha agreed to restore Kosova to
Yugoslavia under Tito as an autonomous region; Yugoslav leaders brought
Kosova under marshal law. Tribunals began in Albania to condemn
thousands of "war criminals" and "enemies of the people" to death or
prison. The Communist regime began to nationalize industry,
transportation, forests, pastures.
(www, Albania, 1998)(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/3/98,
p.A8)
1945 Jan, Allied forces repulsed
the German counter-offensive in the Battle of the Bulge.
(WUD, 1994, p.195)(SFC, 9/1/96, T3)
1945 Jan, The Red Army drove the
Wehrmacht out of Poland and demolished Danzig (Gdansk) by bomb and
gunfire.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.T4)
1945 Feb 2, President Roosevelt
and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill departed Malta for the
Yalta summit with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
(AP, 2/2/97)
1945 Feb 2, Some 1,200 Royal Air
Force planes blasted Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1945 Feb 2, Karl F. Goerdeler
(60), mayor of Leipzig, "July 20th plot", was hanged.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1945 Feb 3, The Allies dropped
3,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. Robert Rosenthal (1917-2007) led 1,000
B-17s in the raid on Berlin. Rosenthal later served as an assistant to
the US prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.
(HN, 2/3/99)(SFC, 4/30/07, p.B8)
1945 Feb 3, The month-long Battle
of Manila began.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1945 Feb 4, The Big Three,
American, British and Soviet leaders, met in Yalta to discuss the war
aims.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1945 Feb 4-12, President
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader
Josef Stalin held a wartime conference at Yalta, in the southern
Ukraine. Roosevelt joked to Stalin that the only concession he might
give to Ibn Saud in Saudi Arabia was "the 6 million Jews in the US."
(AP, 2/4/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1653)(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1945 Feb 5, American and French
troops destroyed German forces in the Colmar Pocket in France.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1945 Feb 5, US troops under
General Douglas MacArthur entered Manila ("I have returned!").
(MC, 2/5/02)
1945 Feb 6, Bob Marley (d.1981),
reggae superstar, was born in Jamaica. He is best remembered for his
songs "Buffalo Soldier" and "Fire on the Mountain."
(HN, 2/6/99)(SFC, 12/14/04, p.E10)
1945 Feb 6, MacArthur reported the
fall of Manila, and the liberation of 5,000 prisoners.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1945 Feb 6, The French government
executed Robert Brasillach, writer and Nazi propagandist. He had been
arrested in January, was tried for treason and convicted. In 2000 Alice
Kaplan authored "The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert
Brasillach."
(SFEC, 8/13/00, BR
p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Brasillach)
1945 Feb 6, Russian Red Army
crossed the river Oder.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1945 Feb 7, US 76th and 5th
Infantry divisions began crossing Sauer.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1945 Feb 7, German troops and
allied Slovak irregulars massacred 18 Jewish civilians discovered
hiding in underground bunkers at Ksina, Slovakia.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1945 Feb 8, Allied air attack on
Goch, Kleef, Kalkar, Reichswald.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1945 Feb 9, [Maria] Mia Farrow,
actress (Rosemary's Baby, Purple Rose of Cairo, was born in LA.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1945 Feb 9, The German submarine
U-864 with a crew of 73 sank about 2 1/2 miles off Fedje, Norway. It
was on a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced weapons
technology and carried a poisonous cargo of 70 tons of mercury. Leakage
of the mercury posed a severe threat in 2006 and plans were made to
encase the wreck. In 2007 Norway’s government said it would be buried
in special sand to protect the coastline.
(AP, 12/20/06)(AP, 2/13/07)
1945 Feb 10, "Rum & Coca Cola"
by the Andrews Sisters hit #1.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1945 Feb 10, B-29s hit the Tokyo
area. It was a B-29 that dropped the bomb that ended World War II.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1945 Feb 11, President Roosevelt,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin
signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II and adjourned. Alger
Hiss was one of the advisors who accompanied Roosevelt.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 11/16/96, p.A3)(HN,
2/11/97)(AP, 2/11/97)
1945 Feb 11, The 1st gas turbine
propeller-driven airplane was flight tested, at Downey, Ca.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1945 Feb 12, Mayor Roger Lapham of
SF was informed by Washington that San Francisco was chosen as the site
of the Founding Conference of the UN.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W39)
1945 Feb 13, Allied planes began
bombing the German city of Dresden. British bombers in Operation
Thunderclap firebombed the city of Dresden, Germany, and 135,000 people
were killed. The Royal Air Force Bomber Command attacked the city of
Dresden at night with raids by 873 heavy bombers. 796 Lancaster heavy
bombers were led by 9 target marking Mosquito light bombers. A look at
aerial maps of the city before and after the terror attacks clearly
shows the large white oil tanks owned by British-controlled Shell Oil.
These tanks remained entirely untouched by the bombardment. In 2003
Frederick Taylor authored “Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945.”
(http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/61/001.html)(WSJ, 10/22/96,
p.A20)(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T6)(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T13)
1945 Feb 13, During World War II
the Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans ending a
50-day siege.
(HN, 2/13/98)(AP, 2/13/98)
1945 Feb 14, Gregory Hines, actor,
dancer (White Nights, Taps), was born in NYC.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1945 Feb 14, Saudi King Abd
al-Aziz and Franklin D. Roosevelt met on a ship in the Suez Canal and
reached an understanding whereby the US would protect the Saudi royal
family in return for preferred access to Saudi oil. William Eddy, US
minister to Saudi Arabia, arranged the meeting.
(WSJ, 10/4/01, p.A1)(Econ, 11/8/08,
p.102)(http://tinyurl.com/5a3c49)
1945 Feb 14, 521 American heavy
bombers flew daylight raids over Dresden, Germany following the British
assault. The firestorm killed an estimated 135,000 people. At least
35,000 died and some people place the toll closer to 70,000. The novel
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut was set in Dresden during the
firebombing where he was being held as a prisoner of war. US B-17
bombers dropped 771 more tons on Dresden while P-51 Mustang fighters
strafed roads packed with soldiers and civilians fleeing the burning
city. In 2006 Marshall De Bruhl authored “Firestorm: Allied Airpower
and the Destruction of Dresden.”
(WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A10)(SFEC,
7/27/97, p.T6)(HN, 2/13/99)(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T13)(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.M3)
1945 Feb 14, The siege of Budapest
ended as the Soviets took the city. Only 785 German and Hungarian
soldiers managed to escape.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1945 Feb 14, Peru, Paraguay, Chile
and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1945 Feb 16, American paratroopers
landed on Corregidor during World War II, in a campaign to liberate the
Philippines.
(AP, 2/16/98)(HN, 2/16/98)
1945 Feb 17, Gen. MacArthur’s
troops landed on Corregidor in the Philippines. General Tomoyuki
Yamashita was the Japanese general opposing MacArthur.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1945 Feb 18, U.S. Marines stormed
ashore at Iwo Jima. Navajo code talkers used their native language to
communicate by radio on Japanese troop movements.
(HN, 2/18/98)(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A6)
1945 Feb 19, During World War II,
some 30,000 US Marines landed on Iwo Jima, an 8-sq. mile island of
rock, volcanic ash and black sand, where they began a month-long battle
to seize control of the island from Japanese forces. The 36-day battle
took the lives of 7,000 Americans and about 20,000 of 22,000 Japanese
defenders.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A20)(SFC, 9/21/00, p.C6)(AP,
2/19/08)
1945 Feb 19, On Ramree Island off
the coast of old Burma, some 900 Japanese soldiers retreated from
British soldiers into an alligator filled swamp. Only about 20 men
survived.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, Z1 p.2)(MC, 2/19/02)
1945 Feb 19, Ivan Kozhedub of the
Ukraine became the only Soviet pilot to shoot down a Messerschmitt
Me-262 jet fighter and, on April 19, 1945, he downed two Focke-Wulf
Fw-190s to bring his final tally to 62--the top Allied ace of the war.
He was the Allies’ top ace and one of only two Soviet fighter pilots to
be awarded the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union three times
during World War II. Ironically prevented from fighting because his
skill as a pilot made him more useful as an instructor, Kozhedub did
not fly his first combat mission until March 26, 1943.
(HNQ, 4//01)
1945 Feb 21, The Bismarck Sea was
the last U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to be sunk in combat during World
War II. The escort carrier Bismarck Sea was supporting the
invasion of Iwo Jima, when about 50 kamikazes attacked the U.S. Navy
Task Groups 58.2 and 58.3. Fleet carrier Saratoga was struck by three
suicide planes and so badly damaged that the war ended before she
returned to service. At 6:45 p.m., two Mitsubishi A6M5 Zeros approached
Bismarck Sea, which opened fire with her anti-aircraft guns. One Zero
was set on fire, but its suicidal pilot pressed home his attack and
crashed into the carrier abreast of the aft elevator, which fell into
the hangar deck below. Two minutes later, an internal explosion
devastated the ship, and at 7:05 p.m., Captain J.L. Pratt ordered
Abandon Ship. Ravaged by further explosions over the next three hours,
Bismarck Sea sank at 10 p.m., the last U.S. Navy carrier to go down as
a result of enemy action during World War II. Of her crew of 943, 218
officers and men lost their lives.
(HNQ, 10/5/01)
1945 Feb 23, Eisenhower opened a
large offensive in the Rhineland.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1945 Feb 23, During World War II,
U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised
the American flag. Actually, there were two flag-raisings that day, the
second was the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph
taken by Joe Rosenthal. John Bradley (d.1994), was one of the soldiers
who raised the US flag at Iwo Jima. The carnage on the 8-sq.-mile
island continued for another 31 days. One flag raising was captured by
AP photographer Joseph Rosenthal (1911-2006) and inspired the 1954
sculpture by Felix de Weldon (d.2003) erected in Washington DC. Sgt.
Bill Genaust filmed the event with a 16mm camera and died in combat 9
days later.
(SFC, 9/21/00, p.C6)(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A21)(SFC,
8/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/07)
1945 Feb 23, Turkey declared war
on Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1945 Feb 24, U.S. forces liberated
prisoners of war in the Los Baños Prison in the Philippines.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1945 Feb 24, American soldiers
liberated the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese control during
World War II.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1945 Feb 24, Egyptian Premier
Ahmed Maher Pasha was killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1945 Feb 26, Mitch Ryder, rocker
(Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels-Devil With the Blue Dress), was
born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, A midnight curfew on
nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment was set to go into
effect across the US.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1945 Feb 26, Very heavy bombing on
Berlin by 8th US Air Force.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1945 Feb 26, Syria declared war on
Germany and Japan. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 2/26/98)
1945 Feb 28, U.S. tanks broke the
natural defense line west of the Rhine and crossed the Erft River.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1945 Mar 1, Burning Spear [Winston
Rodney], Jamaican reggae singer, was born.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1945 Mar 1, President Roosevelt,
back from the Yalta Conference, proclaimed the meeting a success when
he addressed a joint session of Congress.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1945 Mar 1, US infantry regiment
captured Mönchengladbach.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1945 Mar 1, British 43rd Division
under General Essame occupied Xanten.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1945 Mar 1, Chinese 30th division
occupied Hsenwi.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1945 Mar 1, Field marshal
Kesselring succeeded von Rundstedt as commander.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1945 Mar 2, The American flag is
raised again over Corregidor, with General Douglas MacArthur and
members of his staff present. MacArthur, commander of U.S. Army Forces
in the Far East, reluctantly fled his headquarters on the rocky
Philippine island of Corregidor in March 1942 as the Japanese closed
in. MacArthur praised the gallant but futile defense of Corregidor as
"an inspiration to carry on the struggle until the Allies should fight
their way back" and vowed to return one day. On February 16, 1945,
elements of the U.S. Sixth Army began the assault on Corregidor, and
after furious fighting, MacArthur made good on his promise.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1945 Mar 2, 8th Air Force bombed
Dresden.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1945 Mar 2, King Michael of
Romania gave in to Communist government.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1945 Mar 3, Mystery fans remember
this day as they gathered around the radio set, listening to the Mutual
Broadcasting System as Superman encountered Batman and Robin for the
first time. The cartoon character was created by Joe Schuster and Jerry
Siegel at DC Comics.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)(SFC, 7/8/04, p.B9)
1945 Mar 3, US 7th Army occupied
last part of Westwall (Germany).
(SC, 3/3/02)
1945 Mar 3, Churchill visited
Montgomery's headquarters.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1945 Mar 3, Finland declared war
on the Axis.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1945 Mar 3, Roermond-Venlo,
Netherlands, was freed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1945 Mar 3, RAF bombing error hit
The Hague and killed 511.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1945 Mar 3, The Allies fully
secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during
World War II.
(AP, 3/3/07)
1945 Mar 5, US 7th Army Corps
captured Cologne.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1945 Mar 5, Allies bombed The
Hague, Netherlands.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1945 Mar 6, Rob Reiner, actor,
director (All in the Family, Stand By Me), was born in Bronx, NY.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1945 Mar 6, Federico Garcia
Lorca's "La Casa," premiered in Buenos Aires.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1945 Mar 6, Cologne, Germany, fell
to General Hodges' First Army.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1945 Mar 6, Erich Honnecker and
Erich Hanke fled Nazis.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1945 Mar 6, In Holland SS General
Hans Albin Rauter, was ambushed, and his driver and orderly were
killed. Rauter was seriously wounded. SS Brigadefuhrer Dr. Eberhardt
Schongarth immediately ordered reprisals and a total of 263 people were
shot. A Special Court of Justice in the Hague sentenced Rauter to death
and he was executed March 25, 1949. Schongarth was tried by a British
Military Court, found guilty on another war crime charge, sentenced to
death and was hanged in 1946.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html
(WW2D, p.610)
1945 Mar 7, During World War II,
U.S. 9th Armored Division crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany,
using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge. This marked the
1st incursion of Allied forces into Germany.
(AP, 3/7/98)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A16)
1945 Mar 7, Cologne was taken by
allied armies.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1945 Mar 7, In Yugoslavia the
Communist government of Tito formed.
(MC, 3/7/02)(AP, 10/20/02)
1945 Mar 8, "Kiss Me Kate" opened
in Britain.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1945 Mar 8, Phyllis Mae Daley
received a commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She was the first
African-American nurse to serve duty in World War II.
(HN, 3/8/99)
1945 Mar 8, The U.S. First Army
crossed the Rhine between Cologne and Coblenz.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1945 Mar 8, 53 Amsterdammers were
executed by Nazi occupiers.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1945 Mar 9, During World War II,
334 U.S. B29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo,
Japan, causing widespread devastation.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/9/98)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.52)
1945 Mar 10, Patton's 3rd Army
made contact with Hodge's 1st Army.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1945 Mar 10, Germany blew up the
Wessel Bridge on the Rhine.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1945 Mar 10, Some 300 American
B-29s bombed Tokyo at night with almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries
killing 100,000.
(HN, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)
1945 Mar 10, US troops landed on
Mindanao.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1945 Mar 10, In the Philippines
Pfc. Thomas Eugene Atkins (d. 1999 at 78) repulsed a Japanese attack
while wounded and killed 14 enemy soldiers in northern Luzon.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.D6)
1945 Mar 11, 1,000 allied bombers
harassed Essen with 4,662 tons of bombs.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 11, Flemish Nazi
collaborator Maria Huygens was sentenced to death.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, NY became the 1st
state to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, Italy's Communist
Party (CPI) called for armed uprising in Italy.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, In Amsterdam 30
people were executed by Nazi occupiers.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, USSR returned
Transylvania to Romania.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, Anne Frank, author of
"The Diary of Anne Frank," died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a
month before it was liberated. When the British arrived in April, they
found more than 10,000 unburied corpses. Some 14,000 of the prisoners
found at the camp died within a few days.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B8)(HNQ, 4/13/00)(HN,
3/12/01)
1945 Mar 13, Queen Wilhelmina
returned to Netherlands.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1945 Mar 13, Peru declared war on
Germany.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1945 Mar 14, Sgt. 1st Class Marvin
Steinford, a native of Iowa, was part of a 10-man crew of a B-17 bomber
which was hit, while returning to its base in Italy from a mission over
Hungary. In 2004 his remains were found in a grave in the town on Zirc
in western Hungary, where he had been buried with 26 Soviet soldiers.
In 2009 his remains were returned to the US.
(AP, 8/4/09)
1945 Mar 14, Chile declared war on
Germany.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1945 Mar 14, A supreme
Lithuanian independence committee was re-formed in Germany. The
committee was 1st formed Nov 25, 1943, in Lithuania.
(LHC, 3/14/03)
1945 Mar 15, Bing Cosby and Ingrid
Bergman were winners in the 17th Academy Awards along with the film
"Going my Way."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1945 Mar 16, During World War II,
the island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean was declared secured by the
Allies. The U.S. defeated Japan at Iwo Jima. Small pockets of Japanese
resistance still exist.
(AP, 3/16/97)(HN, 3/16/99)
1945 Mar 17, Allied ships bombed
North Sumatra.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1945 Mar 18, 1,250 US bombers
attacked Berlin.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1945 Mar 18, US Task Force 58
attacked targets on Kyushu.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1945 Mar 18, Suicide bombs were
introduced.
(HFA, ‘96, p.26)
1945 Mar 19, US Task Force 58
attacked ships near Kobe and Kure.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1945 Mar 19, Kamikaze planes
attacked the US carrier Franklin off Japan killing 724 people; the
ship, however, was saved.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1945 Mar 19, Adolf Hitler issued
his so-called "Nero Decree," ordering the destruction of German
facilities that could fall into Allied hands. Hitler ordered a
scorched-earth policy. Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a
smoking ruin, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's
order.
(AP, 3/19/97)(HN, 3/19/98)
1945 Mar 21, During World War II,
Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
(AP, 3/21/97)
1945 Mar 21, A British bombing
raid was made on Gestapo Headquarters in Denmark to thwart a planned
German arrest of the leadership of the banned Freedom Council. A 2nd
wave of bombers hit a school by mistake killing 86 students and 13
adults.
(SFC, 9/23/02, p.B5)
1945 Mar 22, The Arab League was
formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt. Saudi Arabia
became a founding member of the UN and the Arab League.
(AP, 3/22/97)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1945 Mar 22, The US 3rd Army
crossed the Rhine at Nierstein.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1945 Mar 23, Premier Winston
Churchill visited Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1945 Mar 23, British 7th Black
Watch crossed the Rhine.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1945 Mar 23, Largest operation in
Pacific war: 1,500 US Navy ships bombed Okinawa.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1945 Mar 24, Gens. Eisenhower,
Montgomery and Bradley discussed advance in Germany.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1945 Mar 24, Largest one-day
airborne drop: 600 transports and 1300 gliders.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1945 Mar 24, Operation Varsity:
British, US and Canadian airborne landings east of Rhine.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1945 Mar 24, Egypt declared war on
Germany.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1945 Mar 25, US 1st army broke out
bridgehead near Remagen.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1945 Mar 26, Generals Eisenhower,
Bradley, and Patton attack at Remagen on the Rhine.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, US 7th Army crossed
Rhine at Worms.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Japanese resistance
ended on Iwo Jima.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Kamikazes attacked US
battle fleet near Kerama Retto.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 26, Syria declared war on
Germany. [see Feb 26]
(HN, 3/25/98)
1945 Mar 26, David Lloyd George
(b.1863), former prime minister (1916-1922), died. In 1973 John Grigg
(d.2001 at 77) authored "The Young Lloyd George." 2 more volumes of the
biography were published in 1978 and 1985.
(WUD, 1994 p.839)(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A16)(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 27, Ella Fitzgerald and
the Delta Rhythm Boys recorded "It's Only a Paper Moon."
(MC, 3/27/02)
1945 Mar 27, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western
Front had been broken.
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1945 Mar 27, Iwo Jima was
occupied, after 22,000 Japanese & 6,000 US killed.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1945 Mar 27, US 20th Army corps
captured Wiesbaden.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1945 Mar 28, Germany launched the
last of the V-2 rockets (buzz bomb) against England.
(HN, 3/28/99)
1945 Mar 30, A Soviet cable was
intercepted that referred to an agent named Ales, later suspected of
being Alger Hiss. The intercepted cables were classified as part of the
"Venona Project" released in 1996. The US began releasing the coded
Venona cables in 1995. They implicated 349 US citizens and residents as
Soviet helpers. In 1999 John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr published
"Venona," the story of the Soviet infiltration of Washington.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.A27)(WSJ, 6/24/99, p.A20)
1945 Mar 30, 289 anti-fascists
were murdered by Nazis in Rombergpark, Dortmund.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1945 Mar 30, The Soviet Union
invaded Austria during World War II.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/98)
1945 Mar 31, The Tennessee
Williams play "The Glass Menagerie" premiered on Broadway.
(AP, 3/30/97)
1945 Mar 31, The U.S. and Britain
barred a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering
the U.N. meeting in San Francisco.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1945 Mar 31, US artillery landed
on Keise Shima and began firing on Okinawa.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1945 Mar 31, Sicherheitsdienst
murdered 10 political prisoners in Zutphen.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1945 Mar, Marcel Carne
(1906-1990), French film director, premiered "The Children of Paradise"
(Les Enfants du Paradis). The 3 ½ hr. film starred Jean-Louis
Barrault and Arletty and centered on the life of 19th century mime
Jean-Baptiste Debureau. The epic film classic was a singular evocation
of show biz in the time of Balzac. Maria Casares (1922-1996) achieved
stardom for her 1943 role in "Les Enfants du Paradis."
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A28)(WSJ, 10/20/95, p. A-12)(SFC,
11/25/96, p.B2)
1945 Mar, The German submarine
U-96, commissioned in September 1940, was sunk during a US bombing raid
on the port city of Wilhelmshaven. It had gone on 11 patrols in the
Atlantic Ocean before it was sunk. In 1981 Lothar-Guenther Buchheim
(1918-2007), authored his autobiographical novel, "Das Boot," based on
his service aboard the sub. In 1981, the book was turned into an
acclaimed German film starring Juergen Prochnow that detailed the
hopelessness of war and its effect on sailors living in the cramped
confines of their submarine.
(AP, 2/23/07)
1945 Mar, American B-29 attacks on
Tokyo caused some 83,703 deaths.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.B1)
1945 Mar, In the Philippines
Gen'l. Tomoyuki Yamashita retreated with 140,000 soldiers to the
Central Cordillera and Caraballo mountain ranges of northern Luzon
island.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.D6)
1945 Apr 1, Easter Sunday, the
American assault on Okinawa began with 150,000 army and marine
soldiers. It was the last campaign of World War II. The island was
defended by 100,000 Japanese troops and auxiliaries. It took three
months of heavy fighting to secure the island. US casualties numbered
68,000 with 8,000 dead. Japanese civilian casualties are estimated at
100-200 thousand killed. A book was published in 1995 by Col. Hiromishi
Yahara, chief Japanese strategist of Okinawa titled "The Battle for
Okinawa." A counterpoint to the colonel’s account is a collection of
first hand accounts from US soldiers in Gerold Astor’s "Operation
Iceberg."
(WSJ, 8/29/95, p.A-12)(AP, 4/1/98)(HN, 4/1/98)
1945 Apr 1, Canadian troop freed
Doetinchem, Enschede, Borculo & Eibergen.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1945 Apr 2, Linda Hunt, actress
(Bostonians, Eleni, Silverado), was born in Morristown, NJ.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1945 Apr 2, 1st US units reached
the east coast of Okinawa.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1945 Apr 3, Nazis began evacuation
of camp Buchenwald. [see Apr 20]
(MC, 4/3/02)
1945 Apr 4, U.S.
forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
(AP, 4/4/97)
1945 Apr 4, US tanks and infantry
conquered Bielefeld.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1945 Apr 4, US
troops on Okinawa encountered the first significant resistance from
Japanese forces at the Machinato Line.
(AP, 4/4/07)
1945 Apr 4, Hungary was liberated
from Nazi occupation (National Day).
(MC, 4/4/02)
1945 Apr 6, During World War II,
the Japanese warship Yamato and nine other vessels sailed on a suicide
mission to attack the U.S. fleet off Okinawa; the fleet was intercepted
the next day.
(AP, 4/6/99)
1945 Apr 7,
During World War II, American planes intercepted a Japanese fleet that
was headed for Okinawa on a suicide mission. The Japanese battleship
Yamato, the world's largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for
Okinawa along with 4 Japanese destroyers.
(AP, 4/7/97)(HN, 4/7/99)(MC, 4/7/02)
1945 Apr 8, Nazi occupiers were
executed. Nazi general Christiansen fled the Netherlands.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1945 Apr 9, The Red Army was
repulsed at the Seelow Heights on the outskirts of Berlin.
(HN, 4/9/00)
1945 Apr 9, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(b.1906), a German Lutheran theologian and antifascist, was hanged by
the Nazis at Flossenburg prison. He had participated in the failed July
20, 1944, plot to assassinate Hitler. A TV documentary on Bonhoeffer
was aired in 2006.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/3/06,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer)
1945 Apr 9, Hans Oster, German
major-general, spy and participant in the "July 20th plot", was hanged
by Nazis.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1945 Apr 9, Hans von Dohnanyi,
"July 20th plotter", hanged by Nazis.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1945 Apr 9, Wilhelm Canaris,
Admiral, headed Germany Abwehr, was hanged by Nazis.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1945 Apr 10, US troops landed on
Tsugen Shima, Okinawa.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1945 Apr 10, German Me 262 jet
fighters shot down ten U.S. bombers near Berlin.
(HN, 4/10/99)
1945 Apr 10, In their second
attempt to take the Seelow Heights, near Berlin, the Red Army launched
numerous attacks against the defending Germans. The Soviets gain one
mile at the cost of 3,000 men killed and 368 tanks destroyed.
(HN, 4/10/00)
1945 Apr 11, The Americans
liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Some 250,000
prisoners passed through the camp and 50,000 are known to have died
there. From 1945 to 1950, occupying Soviet forces used the camp to hold
political prisoners.
(AP, 4/11/97)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.B1)(SFC, 8/3/99,
p.A10)(AP, 6/5/09)
1945 Apr 11, U.S. troops reached
the Elbe River in Germany.
(HN, 4/11/98)
1945 Apr 11, The US battleship
Missouri was struck by a kamikaze pilot while it was operating off the
coast of Okinawa.
(www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb63-l.htm)
1945 Apr 11, After two frustrating
days of being repulsed and absorbing tremendous casualties, the Red
Army finally takes the Seelow Heights north of Berlin.
(HN, 4/11/00)
1945 Apr 11, The Nazi SS burned
and shot 1,100 at Gardelegen.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1945 Apr 12, Richard Strauss
completed his "Metamorphosis."
(MC, 4/12/02)
1945 Apr 12, Pres. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt the 32nd president of the United States, died of a cerebral
hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63. Roosevelt, a polio victim
confined to a wheelchair, spent a great deal of time in the soothing
waters of the resort. He succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage while
posing for a portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff at what came to be known
as the Little White House in Warm Springs, where the unfinished
portrait remains on display. Lucy Rutherford Mercer, his secret
companion, was at his bedside. He was succeeded by his Vice-President,
Harry S. Truman. The 63-year-old president had been at Warm Springs,
Georgia, since March 28, resting from the rigors of leading a nation at
war. Roosevelt, left paralyzed by polio in 1921, was elected to the
nation's highest office four times and is judged by historians to be
among the greatest American presidents. He was buried at the Roosevelt
family home in Hyde Park, New York. The period is covered in "Mr.
Truman’s War" (1996) by Robert Moskin. In 2001 "The New Dealer’s
War," the 5th and last volume of the Roosevelt biography by Thomas
Fleming (d.1999) was published. In 2001 Kenneth S. Davis authored "FDR:
The War President." In 2003 Conrad Black, aka Lord Black of
Crossharbour, authored "Franklin Delano Roosevelt." In 2008 H. W.
Brands authored “”Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical
Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
(A & IP., ESM, p.167)(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A8)(SFC,
9/6.96, p.A10)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN, 4/11/99)(HNQ, 6/16/00)(WSJ, 4/26/01,
p.A18)(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.D12)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.95)
1945 Apr 12, Robert Daniell
(1901-1996), British tank commander, entered with his tank crew into
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He found some 10,000 corpses killed
by the guards as the allies approached. Of the remaining 38,500
prisoners, barely a third survived.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B8)
1945 Apr 12, Canadian troops
liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Westerbork, Neth.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1945 Apr 13, US marines conquered
Minna Shima off Okinawa.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1945 Apr 13, Vienna fell to Soviet
troops.
(HN, 4/13/99)
1945 Apr 14, Robert Dole, later US
senator and 1996 presidential candidate, was severely crippled by an
artillery shell. During World War II, Robert Dole served in the 85th
Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division. While stationed in Italy he
participated in Operation Craftsman where he was wounded during a
firefight with German troops. Dole spent nearly 40 months in army
hospitals and lost most of the use of his right arm as a result.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.A-4)(HNQ, 2/7/02)
1945 Apr 14, US 7th Army and
allies forces captured Nuremberg and Stuttgart, Germany.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1945 Apr 14, US forces conquered
Motobu peninsula on Okinawa.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1945 Apr 14, B-29's damaged the
Imperial Palace during firebombing raid over Tokyo.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1945 Apr 14, Arnhem and Zwolle
were freed from Nazis.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1945 Apr 15, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt was buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1945 Apr 15, Commenting on the
death of American President Franklin Roosevelt in his Order of the Day,
Adolf Hitler proclaimed: "Now that fate has removed from the earth the
greatest war criminal of all time, the turning point of this war will
be decided."
(HNQ, 10/8/99)
1945 Apr 15, British and Canadian
troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. It is a
village in west Germany about 30 miles north of Hanover. About 40,000
people were liberated from the camp, although about 13,000 later died
of illness. Overall, about 70,000 people died in Belsen.
(AHD, p.122)(AP, 4/17/05)
1945 Apr 15, The deadly battle for
Berlin began. The Seelow Heights posed the last natural barrier to
Berlin in April 1945 from an advancing Red Army. The rolling plains and
plateaus of the Seelow Heights were only 35 miles from the German
capital and were well defended. The battle, which raged for a week, was
extremely costly to both sides, leaving some 30,000 Red Army soldiers
and at least 80,000 Germans killed.
(HNQ,
4/16/99)
1945 Apr 16, In his first speech
to Congress, President Truman pledged to carry out the war and peace
policies of his predecessor, President Roosevelt.
(AP, 4/16/97)
1945 Apr
16, After a 2-day fight US troops liberated the German POW camp at
Colditz Castle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Castle)
1945 Apr 16, U.S. troops reached
Nuremberg, Germany, during World War II.
(AP, 4/16/98)(HN, 4/16/98)
1945 Apr 16, US troops landed on
He Shima, Okinawa.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1945 Apr 17, The US Army raided
factory in Stassfurt, Germany, and found some 1,100 tons of ore, some
in the form of uranium oxide, a basic material of atomic bombs. It was
part of mission Alsos, intended to track down Germany's atomic bomb
project and nuclear scientists. In 1986 Richard Rhodes authored "The
Making of the Atomic Bomb."
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.B4)
1945 Apr 17, 8th Air Force bombed
Dresden.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1945 Apr 17, Mussolini fled from
to Milan.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1945 Apr 17, Hannie Schaft (24),
Dutch resistance fighter who lived in Haarlem, known as the "Girl with
red hair," was executed by the Germans just one month before the war
ended. She was a student who joined the resistance early in the war. On
her bicycle she delivered ration coupons, newspapers, secret
information and weapons. She was shot and buried in a shallow grave in
the Dunes around Bloemendaal.
(MC, 4/17/02)(Internet)
1945 Apr 17, Walter Model (54),
German field marshal, committed suicide. [see Apr 21]
(MC, 4/17/02)
1945 Apr 18, Ernie Pyle (b.1900),
famed American war correspondent, was killed at age 44 by Japanese
gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa. He did a
syndicated aviation column from 1928-1932, and served as a roving
reporter from 1935-1939. In 1997 James Tobin published "Ernie Pyle’s
War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II."
(AP, 4/18/97)(MT, Sum. ‘98, p.22)
1945 Apr 19, The Rodgers and
Hammerstein adopted Ferenc Molnar’s "Lilliom" and produced the musical
"Carousel" on Broadway.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, DB p.40)(AP, 4/19/97)
1945 Apr 19, US aircraft carrier
Franklin was heavily damaged in Japanese air raid.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1945 Apr 20, During World War II,
Allied forces, the U.S. 7th army, took control of the German cities of
Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
(AP, 4/20/97)(HN, 4/20/98)
1945 Apr 20, American forces
liberated Buchenwald. 350 Americans were imprisoned at Berga, a
sub-camp of Buchenwald, following their Dec, 1944, capture at the
Battle of the Bulge. Charles Guggenheim's (d.2002) last documentary
film was title "Berga." [see Apr 10-11]
(WSJ, 5/28/03, p.D8)
1945 Apr 20, US forces conquered
Motobu peninsula on Okinawa.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1945 Apr 20, Soviet troops began
their attack on Berlin.
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(HN, 4/20/98)
1945 Apr 21, Allied troops
occupied a German nuclear laboratory.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1945 Apr 21, German Field Marshal
Walther Model, known as the "Fuhrer‘s Fireman," shot himself near
Dusseldorf. Hitler, who called Model "the Savior of the Eastern Front,"
sent him to shore up the perceived failings of others and to faithfully
carry out his most ignorant and impossible orders. A sycophant to the
end, Model sent Hitler a note commending his survival of the July bomb
plot. Model‘s army was eventually enveloped in the Ruhr in 1945 and,
although offered terms for surrender, Model chose to commit suicide.
(HNQ, 2/25/00)
1945 Apr 21, He Shima, Okinawa,
was conquered in 5 days with 5,000 dead.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1945 Apr 21, Russian army arrived
at outskirts of Berlin.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1945 Apr 22, In Croatia as Ustashe
were killing fast before closing down the Jasenovac camp, 87 inmates
escaped. 1000 others were recaptured or shot and killed while fleeing.
Brother Satan, who took part in a World War II massacre of 2,000 Serbs
by Ustashe troops and whose real name was Tomislav Filipovic
Majstorovic, was defrocked in 1943 but stayed on in the camp, known as
"Auschwitz of the Balkans," where he was said to have killed freely.
Independent historians put the number of victims executed there at
between 80,000 and 100,000.
(SFC, 3/23/99, p.A10)(AP, 4/24/05)
1945 Apr 22, Hitler acknowledged
that the war was lost. A stenographic record of Hitler’s conferences
with his generals from Apr, 1942, until Apr, 1945, was published in
2003 as: "Hitler and His Generals." It was edited by Helmut Heiber and
David M. Glantz."
(WSJ, 2/5/03, p.A1)
1945 Apr 22, Soviet troops
liberated the concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen. Soviet secret police
then used the camp just north of Berlin to imprison many Nazis as well
as critics of the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany after the defeat
of Adolf Hitler's regime. In all, an estimated 60,000 people were sent
to "Special Camp No. 1" in 1945-50. In 2008 researchers finished
compiling a list of 11,890 Germans who died there.
(AP, 4/17/05)(AP, 3/6/08)
1945 Apr 23, US troops in Italy
crossed the river Po.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1945 Apr 23, The concentration
camp at Flossenburg was liberated.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1945 Apr 23, The Soviet Army
fought its way into Berlin.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1945 Apr 25, Stu Cook, rock
bassist (Creedence Clearwater Revival-Proud Mary), was born.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1945 Apr 25, Bjorn Ulvaeus, rock
vocalist, guitarist (ABBA-Waterloo, Dancing Queen), was born.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1945 Apr 25,
Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the
United Nations. Charles Easton Rothwell (d.1987) headed the 500-member
group that helped establish the UN Charter.
(AP, 4/25/97)(SFC, 8/14/04, p.B6)
1945 Apr 25, During World War II,
U.S. and Soviet forces linked up at Torgau, on the Elbe River, in
central Europe, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany.
(AP, 4/25/97)(HN, 4/25/98)
1945 Apr 25, Some 318 British
Lancaster bombers dropped 1,232 tons of bombs on Hitler’s alpine
redoubt at Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.G5)
1945 Apr 25, Last B-17 attack
against Nazi Germany.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1945 Apr 25, Clandestine Radio
1212, used to hoax Nazi Germany, made its final transmission.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1945 Apr 26, Marshal Henri
Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War
II, was arrested. In 2001 Adam Nossiter authored "The Algeria Hotel:
France, Memory and the Second World War." The Algeria Hotel had been
headquarters for the Vichy government’s anti-Jewish agency. Nossiter
included accounts of the hangings at Tulle and the massacre of 642
people in Oradour. In 204 Robert O. Paxton authored “Vichy France: Old
Guard and New Order.”
(AP, 4/26/98)(SSFC, 8/26/01, DB p.80)(Econ, 3/13/04,
p.85)
1945 Apr 27, August Wilson, US
playwright (Fences, Pulitzer 1987), was born.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1945 Apr 27, US 5th army entered
Genoa.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1945 Apr 27, Italian partisans
captured Mussolini.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1945 Apr 28, John F. Kennedy,
correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed his 1st dispatch on the
founding of the UN in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F1)
1945 Apr 28, US 5th army reached
the Swiss border.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1945 Apr 28, British commands
attacked Elbe and occupied Lauenburg.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1945 Apr 28, Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by
Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country. In 1961
Charles F. Delzell, a historian at Vanderbilt Univ., wrote "Mussolini's
Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance.” In 2005 R.J.B. Bosworth
authored ”Mussolini’s Italy.” In 2007 Philip Morgan authored “The Fall
of Mussolini.
(AP, 4/28/97)(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)(Econ, 10/8/05,
p.92)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.89)
1945 Apr 29, American soldiers
liberated 31,601 in the Dachau, Germany, concentration camp; that same
day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Adm. Karl Doenitz
his successor.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 Apr 29, The German Army in
Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Venice and Mestre were
captured by the Allies. In 1956 Norman Kogan, historian at the Univ. of
Connecticut, wrote "Italy and the Allies."
(HN, 4/29/99)(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 Apr 29, Japanese army
evacuated Rangoon.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 Apr 30, Annie Dillard, writer
(Pilgrim at Tinker Creek), was born.
(HN, 4/30/01)
1945 Apr 30, "Arthur Godfrey Time"
made its debut on the CBS radio network.
(AP, 4/30/05)
1945 Apr 30, The show “Queen For
Today” began on the Mutual Broadcasting Company radio program. In 1956
it moved to television as Queen For a Day until 1964 with a 2nd run
from 1969-1970.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_for_a_Day)(WSJ,
2/4/08, p.B1)
1945 Apr 30, US troops attacked at
the Elbe.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1945 Apr 30, Lord Haw-Haw called
for a crusade against the Bolsheviks.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1945 Apr 30, Red Army opened an
attack on German Reichstag building in Berlin.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1945 Apr 30, The Russian Army
freed the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. They found 3,000 sickly
prisoners who had been unable to make the march north under the SS.
(AP, 4/17/05)
1945 Apr 30, Adolf Hitler (56)
committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun (33), in
his Fuhrerbunker as Russian troops approached Berlin. Karl Donitz
became his successor. Their bodies were cremated and their remains
hastily buried in a shell hole in the Reich Chancellery garden just
hours before Berlin's fall. A few days later a Soviet officer showed
British troops Hitler's probable gravesite. In 1970 Russia’s KGB
ordered Hitler’s remained to be dug up, turned to powder and thrown
into the nearest river. In 1947 Hugh Trevor-Roper authored “The Last
Days of Hitler.” In 1973 Robert Payne authored a definitive biography.
In 1998 Ron Rosenbaum authored "Explaining Hitler: The Search for the
Origin of His Evil." In 1977 Robert G.L. Waite (d.1999) authored The
Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler." In 2002 Ingo Helm made a film for TV
titled "Hitler’s Money." In 2004 the German film “The Downfall”
portrayed the last days of Hitler.
(AP, 4/30/97)(HN, 4/30/98)(HNPD, 4/30/99)(WSJ,
8/31/99, p.A22)(SFC, 10/11/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 7/24/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/8/02,
p.A14)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.48)(WSJ, 12/29/05, p.D8)
1945 Apr 30, Hanna Reitsch evaded
Soviet searchlights and fighters to reach temporary freedom in
German-held territory. During the final days of World War II, German
female test pilot Reitsch was ordered to fly General Ritter von Greim
60 miles to Berlin to personally accept Adolf Hitler’s appointment as
Supreme Commander of the German Luftwaffe. Flying her light plane
through heavy Soviet anti-aircraft fire, Reitsch and her passenger
reached Hitler’s underground bunker safely, where they were among the
last to see the German dictator alive. Although both expected to die in
the bunker, Hitler ordered Reitsch and Greim to escape from Berlin to
continue the fight.
(HNPD, 4/27/00)
1945 Apr, US troops arrived at
Erfurt, Thuringia, Germ.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.114)
1945 Apr, In the Battle for
Okinawa 35 American ships were sunk and over 300 damaged. 5,000
American sailors were killed. Much of the damage was due to Japanese
kamikaze operations. [see Apr 1]
(WSJ, 9/10/02, p.D8)
1945 Apr, Black officers of the
477th Bombardment Group of the Army Air Forces were arrested for
entering the Freeman Field officer’s club near Seymour, Ind. 101 black
officers refused to sign a document that established segregation of the
club and were put up for court-martial. Criminal charges were dropped
but reprimands were placed in the officers’ files. The reprimands were
only removed in 1995.
(SFC, 4/11/98, p.A15)
1945 Apr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a
German Evangelical Protestant theologian, was executed a few weeks
before the end of the war. In 1998 Denise Giardina published her novel
"Saints and Villains," that reconstructed his story.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, Par p.20)
1945 May 1, A
day after Adolf Hitler committed suicide, Admiral Karl Doenitz
effectively became sole leader of the Third Reich with the suicide of
Hitler's propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels. Goebbels committed
suicide with his wife and 8 children.
(AP, 5/1/07)(MC, 5/1/02)
1945 May 1, Martin Bormann,
private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escaped the Fuhrerbunker as the Red
Army advanced on Berlin. Specialists later determined that he probably
died in May 1945. The mystery behind his fate was settled in 1972 when
construction workers in Berlin dug up a skeleton. Experts concluded the
remains were Bormann's after a five-month examination that included
making X-rays of the bones, studying the teeth, and using the skull as
a model to reconstruct what its face would've looked like. West German
authorities officially declared him dead in 1973.
(WSJ, 8/30/99, p.A1)(AP, 9/1/09)
1945 May 1, Arthur Seys-Inquart,
Nazi overlord of Netherlands, fled to Flensburg.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1945 May 2, German Army in Italy
surrendered.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, The Soviet Union
announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of
Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria. The Russians took Berlin
after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting and General Weidling
surrendered. Yevgeny Khaldei (d.1997 at 80), soldier-photographer, made
pictures of Soviet soldiers hoisting the red flag over the Reichstag in
Berlin.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AP, 5/2/97)(SFC, 10/11/97,
p.A19)(HN, 5/2/98)(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, Yugoslav troops
occupied Trieste.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 3, The US Submarine
Lagarto (SS-371) sank in the Gulf of Thailand following depth charges
from the Japanese mine-layer Hatsutaka. 85 sailors died. In 2005 the
wreck of the Lagarto was found. The USS Hawksbill sank the Hatsutaka on
May 15.
(SSFC, 6/18/06,
p.A5)(www.thaiwreckdiver.com/lagarto.htm)
1945 May 3, Allies arrested German
nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1945 May 3, German ship "Cap
Arcona" sank and 5,800 were killed.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1945 May 3,
Allied forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
(AP, 5/3/07)
1945 May 3, Ireland’s PM Eamon de
Valera conveyed official condolences to diplomat Eduard Hempel. Pres.
Douglas Hyde also visited German diplomat Eduard Hempel, a day after
Ireland received reports of Hitler's death. Documents confirming Hyde’s
visit were made public in 2005.
(AP, 12/30/05)
1945 May 3, Japanese forces on
Okinawa launched their only major counter-offensive, but failed to
break the American lines.
(AP, 5/3/05)
1945 May 4, John F. Kennedy,
correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed a dispatch on the
founding of the UN in San Francisco in which he said: Any organization
drawn up here will be merely a skeleton. Its powers will be limited…
The hope is however, that this skeleton will put on flesh as time goes
by.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F6)
1945 May 4, During World War II,
German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed
to surrender.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1945 May 5, Ezra Pound (60), poet
and author, was arrested by American Army soldiers in Italy for
treason. He had served during the war as a profascist and anti-Semitic
spokesman for the Mussolini government. He was soon transferred to Pisa
where he wrote his "Pisan Cantos." In 1999 Omar Pound and Robert Spoo
published "Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946."
After Pisa Pound spent the next 12 years in St. Elizabeth's Hospital
for the criminally Insane.
(NPR, 5/5/95 interview with the sergeant who
arrested Mr. Pound.)(WSJ, 2/5/99, p.W10)
1945 May 5, A Japanese balloon
bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing Mrs. Elsie
Mitchell, the pregnant wife of a minister, and five children after they
attempted to drag it out the woods in Lakeview, Oregon. The balloon was
armed, and exploded soon after they began tampering with it. They
became the 1st and only known American civilians to be killed in the
continental US during World War II.
(AP, 5/5/97)(MC, 5/5/02)
1945 May 5, The 761st Tank
Battalion, an all black unit under Gen. Patton, linked with Russian
allies near Steyr, Austria.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.B4)
1945 May 5, The Mauthausen
Concentration camp in Austria was liberated.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1945 May 5, There was an uprising
against SS-occupation troops in Prague.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1945 May 5, Netherlands and
Denmark were liberated from Nazi control.
(HN, 5/5/98)
1945 May 6, Bob Seger, folk singer
(Silver Bullet Band-Shake Down), was born in Dearborn, Mich.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1945 May 6, Axis Sally made her
final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
(HN, 5/6/99)
1945 May 7, A Pulitzer prize was
awarded to John Hersey (Bell for Adano).
(MC, 5/7/02)
1945 May 7, Germany signed an
unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to
take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World
War II. After five years, World War II in Europe ended when Colonel
General Alfred Jodl, the last chief of staff of the German Army, signed
the unconditional surrender at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's
headquarters at Rheims, France.
(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(HNPD, 5/8/99)
1945 May 7, SS opened fire on a
crowd in Amsterdam and killed 22.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1945 May 8, Keith Jarrett, jazz
musician, film composer (Nachtfahrer), was born in Allentown, Pa.
http://www.ecmrecords.com/ecm/bio/47.html
(MC, 5/8/02)
1945 May 8, Life photographer
Alfred Eisenstaedt got signalman Jim Reynolds to pose for a kiss with a
nurse in a famous photo that later appeared in life Magazine’s issue of
Aug 27. This was denied by Life and not verified by Reynolds.
(WSJ, 8/14/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A11)
1945 May 8, Algerian demonstrators
in the town of Setif unfurled an Algerian flag, banned by the French
occupiers. As police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on
the French, killing about two dozen of them. This led to an uprising in
which Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France
put the number at about 15,000 to 20,000. No one is quite sure.
(AP, 5/9/05)
1945 May 8, Germany surrendered
and Victory in Europe was achieved by the allies. Marshal Wilhelm
Keitel surrenders to Marshal Zhukov. The day is commemorated as V-E
Day. President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II
had ended in Europe. In 2004 Max Hastings authored “Armageddon,” an
account of the last days of WW II.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(AP, 5/8/97)(WSJ, 11/16/04,
p.D10)
1945 May 8, Oskar Schindler gave a
speech and urged the Jews who worked for him not to pursue revenge
attacks. An original list of 1,200 of his workers at the Plaszow
concentration camp was found in 1999.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A13)
1945 May 9, U.S. officials
announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted
immediately.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1945 May 9, Czechoslovakia was
liberated from Nazi occupation (Nat’l Day).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Jersey was liberated
from Nazis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi
collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Soviet citizens
celebrated their WW II victory in Europe at Red Square. This became an
annual holiday to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens who died
in the war.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.45)
1945 May 10, US POW Lt. John F.
Kinney (d.2006 at 91) and 4 other Marines jumped off a Japanese
prisoner train in China and journeyed for 47 days with the help of
Chinese communists before reuniting with US troops.
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
1945 May 10, Russian troops
occupied Prague.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1945 May 11, Kiyoshi Ogawa,
Japanese pilot, crashed his plane into the US carrier Bunker Hill near
Okinawa. 496 Americans died with him and the ship was knocked out of
the war.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A15)
1945 May 12, The Churchill
Barriers were formally opened by the first Lord of the Admiralty. They
were built to protect Scapa Flow from enemy submarines. The 5 causeways
linked Orkney’s Mainland to South Ronaldsay and marked a dividing line
between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Thousands of Italian
prisoners of war carried out the project and left behind their
decorated Italian Chapel.
(SSFC, 11/13/05,
p.F10)(www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/churchill/)
1945 May 13, US troops conquered
Dakeshi, Okinawa.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1945 May 13, The Baya, US
submarine SS-318 under the command of Capt. Benjamin C. Jarvis (d.2008
at age 91), sank a Japanese tanker and left 2 other ships severely
disable off of French Indochina. Capt. Jarvis received a Navy Cross for
his action.
(SFC, 3/22/08, p.B5)(www.ussbaya.com/history.html)
1945 May 14, A Kamikaze Zero
struck the US aircraft carrier Enterprise.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1945 May 14, US offensive on
Okinawa. Sugar Loaf was conquered.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1945 May 16, The Nazi submarine
U-234 surrendered to US forces at Portsmouth, NH. It had been bound for
Tokyo with 10 containers of uranium oxide. The atomic material ended up
in the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.B4)(www.uboat.net/)
1945 May 19, Peter Townshend,
England, rock guitarist, vocalist, composer (Who-Tommy), was born.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1945 May 19, The UN Charter
committee met in Muir Woods. The meeting was planned by Roosevelt on a
suggestion by Sec. of the Interior Ickes: one of the sessions "might be
held among the giant redwoods in Muir Woods. Not only would this focus
attention upon the nation’s interest in preserving these mighty trees
for posterity, but in such a "temple of peace" the delegates would gain
a perspective and sense of time that could be obtained nowhere better
than in such a forest."
(Park, Spring/95, p.2)
1945 May 21, Actors Lauren Bacall
and Humphrey Bogart were married.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Par p.6)(MC, 5/21/02)
1945 May 21, German Reichsfuhrer,
SS Heinrich Himmler, was captured.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1945 May 23, Winston Churchill,
the head Britain’s coalition government, resigned pending the upcoming
general election. He continued to serve as the head of the caretaker
government which lasted till he lost the election on July 26 and
officially resigned as PM.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caretaker_Government_1945)
1945 May 23, British military
police arrested Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, Hitler's designated
successor ("Fuhrer for a Weekend").
(MC, 5/23/02)
1945 May 23, Heinrich
Himmler (44), the head of the Nazi Gestapo, committed suicide while
imprisoned in Luneburg, Germany.
(AP, 5/23/97)(HN, 5/23/01)
1945 May 25, Arthur C. Clark
proposed relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1945 May 26, US dropped fire bombs
on Tokyo.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1945 May 28, Lord Haw Haw (aka
William Joyce), a virulent anti-Semite who broadcast pro-Nazi
propaganda from Germany during the war, was shot in the leg in an
encounter with two British officers near Flensburg on the Danish border
with Germany. He was sentenced to death for treason on 19 September
1945 and hanged on 3 January 1946.
(http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/special/joyce.html)
1945 May 29, US 1st Marine
division conquered Shuri-castle in Okinawa.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1945 May 29, Dutch police arrested
and imprisoned Hans van Meegeren (1889-1947) for collaborating with the
enemy. His name had been traced to a sale made during the second world
war of what was then believed to be an authentic Vermeer to Nazi
Field-Marshal Hermann Goering. On July 12, in order to prove his
innocence, Meegeren revealed that he had forged the painting.
(WSJ, 10/14/06, p.P10)(ON, 12/07, p.12)
1945 May, The Wayne Victory, a
merchant marine ship, was commissioned with the Detroit Wayne Univ.
name.
(WSUAN, Winter 1997, p.10)
1945 May, In Austria US Army
officers and troops plundered a “gold train” on its way to Germany from
Hungary that carried gold, jewels, paintings and other valuables seized
by the Nazis from Jewish families. A 2001 suit filed in Miami said the
army falsely classified it as unidentifiable and enemy property, which
avoided having to return the goods to their rightful owners. The suit
alleged that the US made no effort to return the goods and lied to
Hungarian Jews who sought information about their property after the
war. In 2004 the property was estimated to be worth ten times its
original $200 million valuation. In 2005 the US government reached a
$25.5 million settlement with families of the Hungarian Holocaust
victims for distribution to needy Holocaust survivors.
(AP, 12/20/04)(SFC, 3/12/05, p.A5)
1945 May-Jun, The graves of some
1,000 Croatian soldiers killed at this time were found in 1999 near
Maribor in eastern Slovenia. Another 6-7,000 bodies were believed to be
buried in the area.
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.C3)
1945 May-Jun, Some 40,000
anti-Soviet Cossacks, who had surrendered to the British in Austria,
were turned over to the Red Army. Some 30,000 Yugoslavs were handed
over to Tito under the pretense that they were being sent to Italy. The
Yugoslavs (mostly Croatian soldiers) were locked into trains and taken
to Slovenia, where they were shot and buried in mass graves.
(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A16)(SFC, 6/17/99, p.C3)
1945 Jun 3-1945 Jun 14, Koki
Hirota, Japanese envoy, met with Russian ambassador in Tokyo to propose
a new relationship between the two countries and divide up Asia.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)
1945 Jun 4, Anthony Braxton, jazz
composer and saxophonist, was born.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1945 Jun 4, US, Russia, England
& France agreed to split occupied Germany.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1945 Jun 5, Opera "Peter Grimes"
by Benjamin Britten," premiered in London.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1945 Jun 5, US air raids on Kobe,
Japan, destroyed over 50% of the city. Some 3,614 Japanese were killed
and 51,399 buildings were demolished in 3 air raids.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.B2)
1945 Jun 6, Meinoud M. Rost van
Tonningen, anti Semite, NSB (1937-41), committed suicide.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1945 Jun 9, Japanese Premier
Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan will fight to the last rather than
accept unconditional surrender.
(HN 6/9/98)
1945 Jun 11, Adrienne Barbeau,
wife of John Carpenter, actress (Maude, Swamp Thing), was born.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1945 Jun 14, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower was honored as a Companion of the Liberation by Gen. Charles
de Gaulle.
(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A12)
1945 Jun 14, Burma was liberated
by the British.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1945 Jun 18, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington, where he
addressed a joint session of Congress. Eisenhower went on to meet Pres.
Harry Truman and the 2 men established a warm relationship that later
soured. In 2001 Steve Neal authored "Harry and Ike: The Relationship
That Remade the Postwar World."
(AP, 6/18/97)(WSJ, 11/5/01, p.A19)
1945 Jun 18, William Joyce, known
as "Lord Haw-Haw," was charged in London with high treason for his
English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. He was hanged the
following January.
(AP, 6/18/00)
1945 Jun 18, Organized Japanese
resistance ended on the island of Mindanao, Philippines.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1945 Jun 19, Aung San Suu Kyi,
Myanmar poet, Nobel peace laureate (1991), was born.
(DT, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/01)
1945 Jun 19, Tobias Wolff,
American writer (This Boy's Life: A Memoir, The Night in Question), was
born.
(HN, 6/19/01)
1945 Jun 19, Millions of New
Yorkers turned out to cheer Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was honored
with a parade.
(DT, 6/19/97)
1945 Jun 21, Japanese forces on
Okinawa surrendered to the Americans. American soldiers on Okinawa
found the body of the Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima,
who had committed suicide. The embattled destroyer USS Laffey survived
horrific damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa.
[see Jun 22]
(HN, 6/21/98)(AP, 6/21/99)
1945 Jun 22, The World War II
battle for Okinawa officially ended; 12,520 Americans and 90,000
Japanese soldiers, plus 130,000 civilians were killed in the 81-day
campaign. The battle for Okinawa proved to be the bloodiest in the
Pacific Theater. A huge assemblage of American forces from both Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz's Central Pacific drive and General Douglas
MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific thrust converged on Okinawa--over 180,000
troops. For three months they faced more than 100,000 Japanese troops
of Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima's Thirty-Second Army. Tokyo needed time to
prepare for the expected American invasion of the home islands, so
Ushijima wanted to make his adversary wrench each hill and ridge from
his well-armed men.
(HN, 6/27/01)(AP, 6/22/07)
1945 Jun 23, Lt Gen Ushijima,
Japanese commander, committed suicide at Okinawa.
(MC, 6/23/02)
1945 Jun 25, Imperial General
Headquarters in Tokyo announced the fall of Okinawa.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1945 Jun 26, The United Nations
Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) was held in San
Francisco. Officials gathered to draft a UN Charter, and 50 countries
signed the Charter on this date at what is now the Herbst Theater. This
signifies the birth of the UN. The Charter was drafted in the Garden
Room of the Fairmont Hotel.
(Park, Spring/95, p.2)(AP, 6/26/97)(SSFC, 2/4/07,
p.F1)
1945 Jun 27, Norma Kamali, dress
designer (Costumes for the Wiz), was born in NYC.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1945 Jun 28, General Douglas
MacArthur announced the end of Japanese resistance in the Philippines.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1945 Jun 29, Ruthenia, formerly in
Czechoslovakia, became part of Ukrainian SSR.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1945 Jun, During this time,
General Curtis LeMay had been firebombing Japanese cities daily,
dropping napalm-filled bombs. In one three-day period, Tokyo, Nagoya,
Kobe and Osaka had been destroyed.
(WSJ, 7/19/95, p.A-12)
1945 Jun, The Japanese army, faced
with an impending US invasion, handed out grenades to residents in
Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to
the Americans. About 500 people committed suicide.
(AP, 9/29/07)
1945 Jun, James Franck, head of a
group of scientists in the study of the social and political
implications of nuclear weapons, delivered the report to Washington
directed to Sec. of War Henry L. Stimson.
(SFEM, 7/30/00, p.16)
1945 Jul 1, New York established
the New York State Commission Against Discrimination to prevent
discrimination in employment because of race, creed or natural origin;
it was the first such agency in the United States.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1945 Jul 3, U.S. troops landed at
Balikpapan and took Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1945 Jul 5, US General Douglas
MacArthur announced that the liberation of the Philippines from its
Japanese occupiers was complete.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1945 Jul 5, Labour Party won
British parliamentary election.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1945 Jul 6, President Truman
signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.
(AP, 7/6/97)
1945 Jul 6, B-29 Superfortress
bombers attacked Honshu, Japan, using new fire-bombing techniques.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1945 Jul 6, Operation Overcast
began in Europe--moving Austrian and German scientists and their
equipment to the United States.
(HN, 7/6/01)
1945 Jul 6, Nicaragua became the
first nation to formally accept the United Nations Charter.
(AP, 7/6/05)
1945 Jul 7, Matti Salminen,
operatic basso (King Philip-Don Carlos), was born in Turku, Finland.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1945 Jul 9, Dean R[ay] Koontz, US
author (Star Quest, Beastchild), was born.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1945 Jul 9, A 3rd big Tillamook
fire occurred near the Salmonberry River, and was joined two days later
by a second blaze on the Wilson River, started by a discarded
cigarette. This fire burned 180,000 acres before it was put out. The
cause of the blaze on the Salmonberry River was mysterious, and many
believed it had been set by an incendiary balloon launched by the
Japanese, and brought to Oregon by the jet stream.
(http://www.fact-index.com/t/ti/tillamook_burn.html)
1945 Jul 11, Napalm was first used.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)
1945 Jul 14, American battleships
and cruisers bombarded the Japanese home islands for the first time.
The battleship USS South Dakota was 1st US ship to bombard Japan.
(HN, 7/14/98)(MC, 7/14/02)
1945 Jul 16, The first US test
explosion of the atomic bomb was made at Alamogordo Air Base, south of
Albuquerque, New Mexico, equal to some twenty thousand tons of TNT. The
bomb was called the Gadget and the experiment was called Trinity from a
poem by John Donne (Batter my heart, three-person’d God), and it was
conducted in a part of the desert called Jornada del Muerto, (Dead
Man’s Trail), and measured the equivalent of 18,600 (21,000) tons of
TNT. It was the culmination of 28 months of intense scientific research
conducted under the leadership of physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer
under the code name Manhattan Project. The successful atomic test was
witnessed by only one journalist, William L. Laurence of the New York
Times, who described seeing the blinding explosion: "One felt as though
he had been privileged to...be present at the moment of the Creation
when the Lord said: Let There be Light." Oppenheimer’s own thoughts
from the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita were very different: "I am become death,
the shatterer of worlds." The event is described in Richard Thode’s
"The Making of the Atomic Bomb." In 2005 Diane Preston authored
“Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima.”
(NOHY, 3/1990, p.212-213)(HNPD, 7/16/98)(SFC,
12/31/98, p.D4)(SFEC, 12/19/99, Par p.15)(SSFC, 7/10/05, p.E3)
1945 Jul 16, The US cruiser
Indianapolis left SF with an atom bomb to be assembled at Tinian Island
in the western Pacific.
(SSFC, 7/31/05, p.B1)
1945 Jul 17-1945 Aug 2, President
Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston
S. Churchill (and his successor Clement Atlee) began meeting at the
Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War
II. It re-established the European borders that were in effect as of
Dec 31, 1937.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996,
p.2)(AP, 7/17/97)(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T6)
1945 Jul 20, Paul Valery (b.1871),
French poet (Le cimetiere Marin, Mon Faust), died at age 73. He was
buried in his home town of Sete.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1945 Jul 23, French Marshal Henri
Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, went
on trial, charged with treason. He was condemned to death, but his
sentence was commuted; Petain died in prison on this date in 1951.
(AP, 7/23/08)
1945 Jul 24, U.S. Navy bombers
sank the Japanese battleship-carrier Hyuga in shallow waters off Kure,
Japan.
(HN, 7/24/00)
1945 Jul 25, Donna Theodore,
Broadway singer (Hollywood Talent Scouts), was born.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1945 Jul 26, US cruiser
Indianapolis reached Tinian with atom bomb.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1945 Jul 26, The US, Britain and
China issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan that she surrender
unconditionally. Two days later Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki
announced to the Japanese press that the Potsdam declaration is to be
ignored. In 1961 Herbert Feis authored “Japan Subdued.”
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.P8)
1945 Jul 26, Winston Churchill
resigned as Britain’s prime minister after his Conservatives were
soundly defeated by the Labor Party. Clement Attlee became the new
prime minister.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1945 Jul 27, US Communist Party
formed.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1945 Jul 28, Jim Davis, cartoonist
(Garfield), was born.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1945 Jul 28, Richard Wright,
rocker (Pink Floyd-The Wall), was born.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1945 Jul 28, The US Senate
ratified UN charter 89-2.
(AP, 7/28/07)
1945 Jul 28, A twin-engine U.S.
Army B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building between the
78th and 79th floors and killed 14 people. The plane’s propellers
severed elevator cables and sent one on a 38-story fall in which the
operator survived.
(SFC, 2/24/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/11/97, p.A1)(HT, 5/97,
p.26)(AP, 7/28/97)
1945 Jul 29, After delivering
parts of the first atomic bomb to the island of Tinian, the U.S.S.
Indianapolis was hit and sunk by the I-58 Japanese submarine around
midnight. Some 879 survivors jumped into the sea and were adrift for 4
days. Nearly 600 died before help arrived. In 1958 Richard F. Newcomb
authored "Abandon Ship," the story of the Indianapolis and the
subsequent court-martial of Capt. Charles Butler McVey III. [see Jul
30] Charles B. McVay III was exonerated in 2001.
(HN, 7/29/98)(SFEC, 8/20/00, Par p.4)(SFC, 7/14/01,
p.A9)
1945 Jul 30, The USS Indianapolis,
which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to
the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.
Only 317 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested
waters. [see Jul 29] In 2001 Doug Stanton authored "In Harm’s Way," an
account of the sinking and trial of Capt. McVey. In 2001 the Navy
exonerated the Indianapolis’ captain, Charles Butler McVay the Third,
who was court-martialed and convicted for failing to evade the
submarine that sank his ship.
(AP, 7/30/97)(SFEC, 8/20/00, Par p.4)(WSJ, 4/6/01,
p.W9)(AP, 7/29/01)
1945 Jul 31, Pierre Laval, premier
of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S. authorities in
Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed
him.
(AP, 7/31/05)
1945 Jul, Vannevar Bush published
his report to Pres. Roosevelt: "Science—The Endless Frontier," a vision
for government-funded science and engineering. His essay in the
Atlantic Monthly described how adding structured code words to
microfilm pages in his imaginary “Memex” information retrieval system
would help researchers.
(WSJ, 10/20/97, p.A20)(Econ, 3/3/07,
p.74)(www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm)
1945 Jul, Soviet troops took over
the city of Erfurt, Thuringia, Germ.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.114)
1455 Aug 2, Johan Cicero, elector
of Brandenburg (1486-99), was born.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1945 Aug 2, President Truman,
Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee
concluded the Potsdam conference.
(AP, 8/2/97)
1945 Aug 2, Pietro Mascagni (81),
Italian composer (Cavalleria Rusticana), died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1945 Aug 2, Emil Nikolaus von
Reznicek (b.1860), Austrian composer, died in Berlin. The overture to
his opera Donna Diana (1894) was later used as the theme for the radio
and TV series “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_von_Reznicek)(SFC, 2/19/07, p.B4)
1945 Aug 3, Ron Hendren, TV host
(Entertainment Tonight), was born in Pinehurst, NC.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1945 Aug 3, Chinese troops under
American General Joseph Stilwell took the town of Myitkyina from the
Japanese.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1945 Aug 6, Hiroshima, Japan, was
struck with the uranium bomb, Little Boy, from the B-29 airplane, Enola
Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets (1915-2007) of the US Air Force along
with 11 other men. The 9,600 pound bomb had a 2-part core of enriched
uranium-235. It killed an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of
a nuclear weapon in warfare. Major Thomas Wilson Ferebee (d.2000 at 81)
was the bombardier. Richard Nelson (d.2003) was the radio operator. In
1946 John Hersey authored “Hiroshima,” an account of the bombing based
on interviews with 6 survivors.
(AP, 8/6/97)(SSFC, 7/31/05, p.B2)(WSJ, 8/12/06,
p.P8)(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A23)
1945 Aug 8, President Truman
signed the United Nations Charter.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1945 Aug 8, The Soviet Union
declared war against Japan. 1.5 million Soviet troops launched a
massive surprise attack (August Storm) against Japanese occupation
forces in northern China and Korea. Within days, Tokyo's million-man
army in the region had collapsed in one of the greatest military
defeats in history.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/8/97)(AP, 8/6/05)
1945 Aug 9, The 10,000 lb.
plutonium bomb, Fat Man, was dropped over Nagasaki after the primary
objective of Kokura was passed due to visibility problems. It killed an
estimated 74,000 people. The B-29 bomber plane Bock's Car so named for
its assigned pilot, Fred Bock, was piloted by Captain Charles W.
Sweeney (d.2004). Kermit Beahan (d.1989) was the bombardier.
(WSJ, 7/19/95, p.A-12)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)(SFC,
3/17/00, p.D6)(HNQ, 3/31/00)
1945 Aug
10, Robert Goddard (b.1882), American rocket scientist, died. He
received 214 patents for rocket systems and components. In 2003 David
Clary authored "Rocket Man," a biography of Goddard.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Goddard_(scientist))(WSJ, 8/7/03,
p.W8)
1945 Aug 10, Japan announced its
willingness to surrender to Allies provided that the status of Emperor
Hirohito remains unchanged. Yosuke Yamahata photographed the aftermath
of the bombing of Nagasaki. He was dispatched by the Japanese military,
but did not turn over the pictures to the military authorities.
(HFA, ‘96, p.36)(WSJ, 8/1/95, p.A-8)(MC, 8/10/02)
1945 Aug 13, 35 Jews sacrificed
their lives to blow up a Nazi rubber plant in Silesia.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1945 Aug 14, Steve Martin,
American comedian, actor and screenwriter, was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1945 Aug 14, Alfred Eisenstaedt
shot a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square. In 2007
Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson completed a
detailed investigation and concluded that Glenn McDuffie (80) is the
man in the image, which was published on the cover of Life Magazine on
Aug 27.
(AP, 8/4/07)
1945 Aug 14, President Truman
announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War
II. Shaken by the atomic destruction wreaked on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and faced with the daunting prospect of Allied invasion, the Japanese
Emperor Hirohito met with his ministers on the morning of August 14 and
announced, "We cannot continue the war any longer." Japan accepted the
Allies "Potsdam Declaration," a cease-fire. In 1999 Prof. John W. Dower
published "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II." Dower
earlier published "War Without Mercy," a study of the war in the
Pacific.
(WSJ, 8/14/95, p. A-11)(AP, 8/14/97)(HN,
8/14/98)(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A20)(AP, 8/14/08)
1945 Aug 14, Japanese occupation
of Hong Kong ended.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)
1945 Aug 15, Gasoline and fuel oil
rationing ended in the United States.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1945 Aug 15, A riot ensued in SF
while the city was celebrating the end of WW II. The riot left 11 dead
and some 1,000 people injured.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.B1)
1945 Aug 15, Emperor Hirohito
announced to his subjects in a pre-recorded radio address that Japan
had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II. This day was
proclaimed "V-J Day" by the Allies, a day after Japan agreed to
surrender unconditionally. At 7 p.m. reporters gathered in the Oval
Office to hear President Harry S. Truman announce the unconditional
surrender of Japan.
(HNPD, 8/13/98)(AP, 8/15/07)
1945 Aug 15, Korea was
liberated after nearly 40 years of Japanese colonial rule, but it
soon faced the tragic division of the North and South along the 38th
parallel.
(www.koreanconsulate.on.ca/en/?mnu=a06b03)(SFC,
6/17/00, p.A9)
1945 Aug 16, Suzanne Farrel,
ballerina, was born.
(HN, 8/16/00)
1945 Aug 16, Lieutenant General
Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on
Corregidor on May 6, 1942, was released from a POW camp in Manchuria by
U.S. troops.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1945 Aug 16, Takijiro Ohnishi,
leader of Japanese kamikaze pilots, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1945 Aug 16, The communist
dominated Polish government signed a treaty with the USSR to formally
cede eastern territories, including Galicia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_areas_annexed_by_the_Soviet_Union)(Econ,
7/7/07, p.51)
1945 Aug 17, Indonesian
nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands. Upon hearing
confirmation that Japan has surrendered, Sukarno proclaims Indonesia’s
independence. Sukarno helped lead Indonesia to independence from the
Dutch. President Sukarno, an ardent nationalist, became president at
the time of Indonesian independence and helped the Communists become
the leading party in the country. The Dutch resisted and 4 years of
fighting followed.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A12)(SFEC,
4/27/97, p.T7)(HNQ, 5/21/98)(AP, 8/17/99)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)(HN,
8/17/00)
1945 Aug 18, Subhas Chandra Bose
(b.1897), a leader of the Indian Independence Movement, died about this
time. He attempted to drive the British out of India by force.
(Econ, 5/23/09,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose)
1945 Aug 21, Patty McCormack,
actress (Mama, Peck's Bad Girl, Ropers), was born in Brooklyn NY.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1945 Aug 21, President Harry S.
Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50 billion
in aid to America’s Allies during World War II.
(AP, 8/21/97)(HN, 8/21/98)
1945 Aug 22, Soviet troops landed
at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwangtung Peninsula in China.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1945 Aug 22, Conflict in Vietnam
began when a group of Free French parachuted into southern Indochina,
in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/22/00)
1945 Aug 24, The women at the
Japanese internment camp in Sumatra were liberated.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.C3)
1945 Aug 24, A blast aboard a
Japanese Navy transport carrying 4,000 Koreans home killed at least 524
Koreans and 25 Japanese crew members in Mizuru port in Kyoto. In 2001 a
Japanese court awarded $375,000 to 15 Korean survivors of the explosion.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A16)
1945 Aug 25, At Leavenworth Prison
in Kansas the last US mass execution was held. 7 German U-boat seamen
were hanged for the murder of a fellow seaman, a traitor in their eyes
who spied on them on behalf of the US military.
(HC, 1/29/98)
1945 Aug 25, John Birch, Baptist
missionary and US army intelligence specialist, was killed by Chinese
Communists. His death is considered the first US death in the struggle
against communism.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1945 Aug 25, Jewish
immigrants were permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1945 Aug 26, Japanese diplomats
boarded the Missouri to receive instructions on Japan's surrender at
the end of WW II.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1945 Aug 26, Franz Werfel (54),
Czech-German-US poet, writer (Mirror Man), died.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1945 Aug 27, B-29 Superfortress
bombers began to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in
China.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1945 Aug 27, American troops began
landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in
World War II.
(AP, 8/27/97)
1945 Aug 27, Life Magazine’s issue
for VJ-Day featured a photo that Life photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt
made on May 8, VE-Day when he got signalman Jim Reynolds to pose for a
kiss with a nurse on Times Square. That the photo was posed was denied
by Life and Reynold’s role was not verified. Edith Shain in a letter
claimed to be the nurse with documented letters from Eisenstaedt. In
2007 Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson completed a
detailed investigation and concluded that Glenn McDuffie (80) is the
man in Alfred Eisenstaedt's Aug. 14, 1945 image of a sailor kissing a
nurse in Times Square.
(WSJ, 8/14/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A11)(AP,
8/4/07)
1945 Aug 28, US forces under
General George Marshall landed in Japan.
(HTNet, 8/28/99)
1945 Aug 28, Chinese communist
leader Mao Tse-Tung arrived in Chunking to confer with Nationalist
leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1945 Aug 29, Gen MacArthur was
named the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1945 Aug 29, U.S. airborne troops
landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo,
beginning the occupation of Japan.
(HN, 8/29/98)
1945 Aug 29, British liberated
Hong Kong from Japan.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1945 Aug 30, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur arrived in Japan and set up Allied occupation headquarters.
(AP, 8/30/97)
1945 Aug 30, Dmitri Shostakovitch
completed his 9th Symphony.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1945 Aug 31, Itzhak Perlman,
violinist, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1945 Aug 31, Van Morrison, singer
(Here Comes the Night), was born in Belfast, Ireland.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1945 Aug, George Orwell published
"Animal Farm" in England.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, BR p.5)
1945 Aug, Harry Truman signed a
death order for the execution of 7 German prisoners of war. The German
submariners had killed an 8th POW for giving information to the US
captors. They were hanged.
(SFC, 4/19/97, p.E4)
1945 Summer’s end, The Ukrainian
Trophy Brigade occupied the castle of Count von Althmann in Silesia,
Poland. It was packed with Nazi archival records.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A18)
1945 Sep 1, Americans received
word of Japan’s formal surrender that ended World War II. Because of
the time difference, it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony
took place.
(AP, 9/1/97)
1945 Sep 2, The Japanese surrender
delegation boarded the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay to formally
sign documents of surrender, ending World War II.
(WSJ, 8/31/95, p.A-10)(AP, 9/2/97)(HN, 9/2/98)
1945 Sep 2, Ho Chi Minh (55)
promulgated the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence and unity from
the north to the south. He was known to have written letters to
President Truman asking for humanitarian assistance and advocated
political rather than military action. His letters went unanswered.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)(AP,
9/2/97)
1945 Sep 2-1991 Dec 26, This
period marked the beginning and end of America's longest war, the Cold
War.
(www.coldwarveterans.com/dates_in_cold_war_history.htm)
1945 Sep 3, George Biondo
(musician-Steppenwolf: Born to Be Wild), was born.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1945 Sep 3, General Tomoyuki
Yamashita, the Japanese commander of the Philippines, surrendered to
Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright at Baguio.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1945 Sep 4, US regained possession
of Wake Island from Japan. The American flag was raised on Wake Island
after surrender ceremonies there.
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1945 Sep 5, Iva Toguri D'Aquino
(1916-2006), a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio
propagandist "Tokyo Rose," was arrested in Yokohama. In 1949 she was
tried in San Francisco and convicted for having spoken “into a
microphone concerning the loss of ships.” Toguri was sentenced to 10
years in prison but was released after six years for good behavior; she
was pardoned in 1977 by President Ford.
(AP, 9/5/99)(SFC, 9/28/06, p.A18)(SFC, 9/28/06,
p.A18)
1945 Sep 6, George Weller
(d.2002), a Chicago Daily News journalist, wrote his 1st story on the
bombing of Nagasaki. Posing as a US Army colonel Weller had slipped
into Nagasaki in early September. His stories infuriated MacArthur so
much he personally ordered that they be quashed, and the originals were
never returned. Carbon copies of his stories, running to about 25,000
words on 75 typed pages, along with more than two dozen photos, were
discovered by his son, Anthony, in 2004 at Weller's apartment in Rome,
Italy. In 2005 the national Mainichi newspaper began serializing the
stories and photographs for the first time since they were rejected by
US military censors. In 2007 Weller’s son Anthony edited “First Into
Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and
Its Prisoners of War.”
(AP, 6/19/05)(WSJ, 3/1/07, p.D5)
1945 Sep 8, Jose Feliciano, blind
singer, was born in Lares, Puerto Rico.
(www.fact-index.com)
1945 Sep 8, Bess Myerson of New
York was crowned Miss America, the first Jewish contestant to win the
title.
(AP, 9/8/99)
1945 Sep 8, Hideki Tojo, Japanese
PM during most of WW II, failed in his attempted suicide rather than
face war crimes tribunal attempt. He was later hanged.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1945 Sep 8, Korea was partitioned
by the Soviet Union and the United States. The US invaded Japanese-held
Korea.
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1945 Sep 9, The Japanese in S.
Korea, Taiwan, China and Indochina surrendered to Allies.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1945 Sep 9, The 1st "bug" in a
computer program was discovered by Grace Hopper. A moth was removed
with teasers from a relay and taped into the log.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1945 Sep 10, Vidkun Quisling was
sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis. He was
executed by firing squad in October 1945.
(AP, 9/10/07)
1945 Sep 11, Leo Kottke, guitarist
(Ice Water, Greenhouse), was born in Athens, Ga.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1945 Sep 12, French troops landed
in Indochina.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1945 Sep 13, Iran demanded the
withdrawal of Allied forces.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1945 Sep 15, Jesse Norman,
soprano, was born.
(HN, 9/15/00)
1945 Sep 16, Japan surrendered
Hong Kong to Britain.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1945 Sep 18, 1000 white children
walked out of Gary, Indiana, schools to protest integration.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1945 Sep 19, Nazi propagandist
William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw," was sentenced to death by a
British court.
(AP, 9/19/97)
1945 Sep 20, German rocket
engineers began work in US.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1945 Sep 22, President Truman
accepted U.S. Secretary of War Stimson’s recommendation to designate
the war World War II.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1945 Sep 23, The first American
died in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1945 Sep 25, Bela Bartok,
Hungarian composer, died at 64. [see Sep 26]
(MC, 9/25/01)
1945 Sep 26, Bryan Ferry, singer
in group Roxy Music and solo, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1945 Sep 26, Bela Bartok,
Hungarian pianist and composer, died at 64. [see Sep 25]
(MC, 9/26/01)
1945 Sep 27, Misha Dichter,
pianist (Tchaikovsky 2nd prize-1966), was born in Shanghai, China.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1945 Sep 27, Stephanie Pogue,
artist and art professor, was born.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1945 Sep 30, US daylight saving
time (also called war time), begun Feb 9, 1942, ended.
(www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html)
1945 Oct 1, The US Army Air Corps
founded the RAND Corporation less than 2 months after bombs were
dropped on Japan. Gen. Arnold and others met at Hamilton Field,
California, to set up Project RAND under special contract to the
Douglas Aircraft Company. In 2008 Alex Abella authored “Soldiers of
Reason: The RAND corporation and the rise of the American empire.”
(SSFC, 6/8/08, Books
p.4)(www.rand.org/about/history/)
1945 Oct 6, Gen Eisenhower was
welcomed in Hague on Hitler's train.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1945 Oct 8, President Truman
announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with
Britain and Canada.
(AP, 10/8/97)
1945 Oct 8, Felix Salten (b.1869),
Austrian writer and the creator of Disney’s Bambi (1923), died in
Switzerland. In 1906 he authored the novel Josephine Mutzenbacher, the
fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, a notorious
pornographic novel.
(Econ, 11/8/08,
p.102)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Salten)
1945 Oct 11, Negotiations between
Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung
broke down. Nationalist and Communist troops we soon engaged in a civil
war.
(HN, 10/11/98)
1945 Oct 13, Milton Hershey
(b.1857), Philadelphia chocolate tycoon, died. In 2005 Michael D.
Antonio authored “Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of
Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams.”
(WSJ, 8/12/99,
p.A1)(www.hersheyhistory.com/milton.html)
1945 Oct 14, British Chief Justice
Geoffrey Lawrence was elected president of the Int’l. Military Tribunal
for the trial of war criminals at Nuremberg. Drexel A. Sprecher
(d.2006), a prosecutor during the trial, later edited the official
15-volume work on the 4-year trial.
(http://tinyurl.com/pnk7h)(SFC, 4/11/06, p.B5)
1945 Oct 15, The former Vichy
French Premier Pierre Laval was executed by a firing squad for his
wartime collaboration with the Germans.
(AP, 10/15/97)(HN, 10/15/98)
1945 Oct 17, Col. Juan Peron, the
future president of Argentina, was released from prison after protests
by trade unionists, ending a crisis that began with his forced
resignation from his government posts and his arrest.
(AP, 10/17/06)
1945 Oct 18, The first German War
Crimes Trial began in 1945. The International Military Tribunal met at
Nuremberg and lasted through to 1946. Ranking Nazi officials were tried
and convicted of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against
humanity. The proceedings were endorsed by the UN. William D. Denson
(d.1998 at 85) was the chief prosecutor for the US.
(HFA, ‘96, p.40)(MT, Dec. ‘95, p.16)(SFC, 12/14/98,
p.C4)
Telford Taylor in 1992 published
"Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials." He helped write the rules for the
prosecution of the war criminals and became the trial’s chief
prosecutor.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)
1945 Oct 19, Divine, [Harris Glenn
Milstead], cross-dressing actor-actress (Pink Flamingo), was born in
Baltimore, Md.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1945 Oct 20, Egypt, Syria, Iraq
and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against
the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1945 Oct 21, Women in France were
allowed to vote for the first time.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1945 Oct 23, Jackie Robinson
signed a Montreal Royal contract.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1945 Oct 24, The United
Nations was born with the ratification of its charter by the first 29
nations at a San Francisco Conference chaired by the State Department’s
Alger Hiss.
(TMC, 1994, p.1945)(AP, 10/24/97)(HN, 10/24/98)(WSJ,
12/19/03, p.A1)
1945 Oct 24, Vidkun Quisling,
Norway's wartime minister president, was executed by firing squad for
collaboration with the Nazis.
(HN, 10/24/00)
1945 Oct 24, Robert Ley, Nazi,
committed suicide.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1945 Oct 25, Japanese surrendered
Taiwan to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1945 Oct 26, Pat Conroy,
American writer (Great Santini, Prince of Tides), was born in Atlanta,
Georgia. His work included "Conrack" (1973; film, 1974; stage musical,
1987); "The Great Santini" (1976; film, 1979); "The Lords of
Discipline" (1980; film, 1983); "The Prince of Tides" (1986; film,
1991); and "Beach Music" (1995; film, 1997).
(www.patconroy.com/patconroy/biography.htm)
1945 Oct 29, A.B. ("Happy")
Chandler, resigned as a US Senator. He remained as baseball commissar.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1945 Oct 29, The first ball-point
pen was sold by Gimbell's department store in New York for a price of
$12.
(HN, 10/29/00)
1945 Oct 30, The US government
announced the end of shoe rationing, effective at midnight.
(AP, 10/30/07)
1945 Oct, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $0.40 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1945 Nov 1, John H. Johnson
(1919-2005) published the 1st issue of Ebony magazine. His weekly Jet
magazine was founded in 1951 and Ebony Man began in 1985.
{Black History}
(HN, 11/1/98)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.B4)
1945 Nov 6, HUAC began an
investigation of 7 radio commentators.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1945 Nov 6, The first landing of a
jet on a carrier took place on the USS Wake Island when an FR-1
Fireball touched down.
(HN, 11//99)
1945 Nov 8, A riverboat sank off
Hong Kong and 1,550 were killed.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1945 Nov 9, FBI agents staked out
a house in Berkeley, Ca., to watch George Eltenton, a suspected Soviet
spy. In 1946 Eltenton admitted that he had tried to obtain secret data
on Berkeley’s radiation lab. Eltenton moved to Britain in 1947.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1945 Nov 11, Jerome Kern (60), US
composer (Sally, Leave it to Jane), died.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1945 Nov 12, Tracy Kidder, writer,
was born. (Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends).
(HN, 11/12/00)
1945 Nov 12, Neil Percival Young,
musician, singer and songwriter, was born in Toronto. His rock groups
later included "Buffalo Springfield," "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young"
and "Crazy Horse." In 2002 Jimmy McDonough authored: "Shakey: Neil
Young’s Biography."
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M1)(MC, 11/12/01)
1945 Nov 12, Cordell Hull (d.1955)
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in founding the United
Nations. Hull served as secretary of state in the Franklin Roosevelt
Administration (1933-1944) longer than any other individual. Hull, born
in Tennessee in 1871, had been a U.S. senator prior to his appointment
by Roosevelt.
(HNQ, 7/6/98)(MC, 11/12/01)
1945 Nov 13, Charles de Gaulle was
elected president of France.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1945 Nov 14, H. Lindsay & R.
Crouse "State of the Union," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1945 Nov 15, A report issued by
General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, offered
a detailed account of Japanese military brothels run as "comfort
stations."
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.A19)
1945 Nov 16, Eighty-eight German
scientists, holding Nazi secrets, arrived in the U.S.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1945 Nov 20, Dmitri
Shostakovitch's 9th Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, In Nuremberg, Germany
22 out of 24 indicted Nazi officials went on trial (one in absentia)
before an international war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
1945 Nov 21, Goldie Hawn, Takoma
Park, Md., actress (Laugh-in, Private Benjamin), was born.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1945 Nov 21, General Motors
workers went on strike.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1945 Nov 21, The last residents of
the US Japanese-American internment left their camps.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, Z1 p.6)
1945 Nov 21, Robert Benchley (56),
US humorist (My 10 Years in a Quandary), died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1945 Nov 21, Bummy Davis (b.1920
as Albert Davidoff), former middleweight boxer turned thug, died after
taking on 2 hoodlums in Brooklyn, NY. In 1951 W.C. Heinz's wrote
"Brownsville Bum," an account of the Bummy Davis tragedy for True
Magazine. In 2003 Ron Ross authored Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Inc.”
(WSJ, 3/5/08, p.D9)(www.ronross.us/reviews.html)
1945 Nov 23, Most US wartime
rationing of foods, including meat and butter, was set to expire by
day's end.
(HN, 11/23/98)(AP, 11/23/07)
1945 Nov 27, Gen. George C.
Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China to try to end
hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.
(AP, 11/27/99)
1945 Nov 27, Argentina declared
war on Axis.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1945 Nov 28, Deborah Kerr wed
Anthony Bartley.
(DT, 11/28/97)
1945 Nov 29, In India Bajaj Auto
came into existence as M/s Bachraj Trading Corporation Private Limited.
(www.bajajauto.com/aboutbajaj/milestones.asp)(Econ,
6/3/06, Survey p.10)
1945 Nov 30, Radu Lupu, pianist
(Enesco 1st prize-1967), was born in Galati, Romania.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1945 Nov 30, Russian forces took
Danzig, and invaded Austria.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1945 Nov, Glenn Miller’s Army Band
was dissolved.
(WSJ, 10/24/96, p.A16)
1945 Dec 1, Bette Midler, singer,
actress (Do You Want to Dance?), was born in Patterson, NJ.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1945 Dec 4, The Senate approved
U.S. participation in the United Nations.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1945 Dec 5, Four TBM Avenger
bombers disappear approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida, in
what is considered the Bermuda Triangle.
(HN, 12/5/99)
1945 Dec 6, U.S. extended a $3
billion loan to Britain to help compensate for the termination of
Lend-Lease.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1945 Dec 7, The microwave oven was
patented. Percy Spencer accidentally discovered that microwaves would
also heat food. Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard,
worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts
developing a radar machine using microwave radiation.
(HN, 9/5/01)(MC, 12/7/01)
1945 Dec 11, B-29 Superfortress
shattered all records by crossing the U.S. in five hours and 27 minutes.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1945 Dec 13, France and Britain
agreed to quit Syria and Lebanon.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1945 Dec 14, Josef Kramer, known
as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were hanged in Hameln for
crimes committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps.
(AP, 12/14/05)
1946 Dec 15, Vietnam leader Ho Chi
Minh sent a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace
talks.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1945 Dec 19, Congress confirmed
Eleanor Roosevelt as the U.S. delegate to the UN.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1945 Dec 19, Jean Giraudoux' "La
Folle de Chaillot," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1945 Dec 20, The US Office of
Price Administration announced the end of tire rationing, effective
Jan. 1, 1946.
(AP, 12/20/97)
1945 Dec 21, Gen. George S. Patton
died at the age of 60 in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car
accident. He was buried at Hamm, Luxembourg. A biography of Patton was
written in 1995 by Carlo D’Este titled: "Patton: A Genius for War." In
1998 Brian Sobel published "The Fighting Pattons." It was a history of
the Patton family.
(AP, 12/21/97)(WSJ, 8/14/98, p.W7)(HN, 12/21/98)
1945 Dec 22, Diane Sawyer,
newscaster (60 Minutes, ABC Prime Time), was born in Glasgow, Ky.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1945 Dec 22, The U.S. recognized
Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
(HN, 12/22/98)
1945 Dec 23, Frederick Ashton's
"Cinderella" premiered in London.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1945 Dec 26, The Big Three, the
US, Soviet Union and Great Britain, ended a 10-day meeting, seeking an
atomic rule by the UN Council.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1945 Dec 27, Arthur Laurent's
"Home of the Brave," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1945 Dec 27, Foreign ministers
from the former Allied nations of the United States, the Soviet Union,
and Great Britain agreed to divide Korea into two separate occupation
zones and to govern the nation for five years.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1945 Dec 27, The International
Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development was
created. 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank. Better
known as the World Bank, the IMF was created to promote healthy
international trade and began transactions in 1947. The World Bank was
designed by Englishman John Maynard Keynes and American Harry Dexter
White. WB chronology @ (http://tinyurl.com/2f6tgw)
(AP, 12/27/97)(HN, 12/27/98)(HNQ, 12/27/00)(Econ,
7/24/04, p.63)
1945 Dec 27, The Dutch formally
relinquished sovereignty to Indonesia.
(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.B4)
1945 Dec 28, Congress officially
recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."
(AP, 12/28/97)
1945 Dec 28, Max Hastings, British
editor-in-chief (Daily Telegraph), historian, was born.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1945 Dec 31, The ratification of
the UN Charter was completed.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1945 Dec 31, Czechoslovakia began
forcing the German population of the Sudetenland back to Germany.
(WSJ, 11/25/96, p.A15)
1945 Dec, In Albania elections
were held for the People's Assembly. Only members of the Democratic
Front were permitted to participate.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1945 The German Quedlinburg
Manuscript of 1516 and other church treasures were stolen from a cave
where they were being stored and guarded. Lt. Joe Tom Meador of
Whitewright, Texas, shipped 13 items home. They were then sold by his
brother and sister. In 1996 a criminal trial focused on the issue.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A20)
1945 The Schliemann treasure from
Troy, bequeathed to the German people, was shipped by the Soviets to
Moscow.
(WSJ, 4/17/96, p.A-18)
1945 Willem de Kooning painted
"Study for Pink Angels" and "Still Life."
(SFC, 6/28/02, p.D1)
1945 Pierre Bonnard painted his
"Large Landscape, South of France (Le Cannet)."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1945 Polish born painter Irving
Norman won the prestigious Albert Bender Prize. His work included The
Bridge (1953), War and Peace (1965-67), and Rebellions and Revolutions
(1970). He was much influenced by his experiences in Spain while
serving with the Abraham Lincoln battalion against Gen’l. Franco.
(SFEM, 9/22/96, p.33,34)
1945 Georgia O’Keeffe painted
"Pelvis Series, Red With Yellow."
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.E3)
1945 Jackson Pollock (d.1956) and
Lee Krasner (d.1984) purchased a property in East Hampton, NY, with a
loan from Peggy Guggenheim. It was declared a National Historic
Landmark in 1994. (www.pkhouse.org)
(Brochure, 2002)
1945 The photograph used for a
"Rosie the Riveter" poster was taken at the Kaiser Shipyards in
Richmond, Ca. Charles Etta Turner, 21, posed for the photo at which
time she also met her future husband.
(SFC, 10/4/96, p.A1)
1945 Alan Cranston, later US
Senator, authored "The Killing of the Peace," about America’s decision
to stay out of the League of Nations.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A5)
1945 John Hersey won a Pulitzer
Prize for his novel "Bell for Adano." It was later made into a Broadway
play and a movie. The story was modeled on Major Frank E. Toscani
(d.2001 at 89), military governor of Licata, Italy.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A22)
1945 Varian Fry published
"Surrender on Demand," the story of his experiences helping some 4,000
Jewish refugees escape from France between 1940-1941.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.E3)
1945 Chester Himes authored "If He
Hollers Let Him Go," an exploration of work-place racism.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E7)
1945 Christopher Isherwood wrote
his novella "Prater Violet." It was about a young English screenwriter
and an old Austrian director and the romance of filmmaking.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A16)
1945 Carlo Levi (1902-1975),
Italian journalist, artist and doctor, authored “Christ Stopped at
Eboli,” his first documentary novel.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/clevi.htm)
1945 Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002)
of Sweden authored her novel "Pippi Longstocking."
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17)
1945 Writer Richard Patrick Russ
changed his name to Patrick O’Brian. He went on to author 20 sea novels
that featured Capt. Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin. In 2000
Dean King published "Patrick O’Brian: A Life Revealed."
(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.3)
1945 Karl Popper (1902-1994)
authored “The Open Society and Its Enemies.” “Unlimited tolerance must
led to the disappearance of tolerance.”
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)
1945 Nevil Shute authored “Most
Secret,” a novel about a French-crewed trawler that uses a flame
thrower against a German gunboat during WW II.
(SFC, 10/28/06, p.P12)
1945 John Steinbeck wrote his
novel "Cannery Row."
(SFEC, 6/21/98, DB p.35)
1945 Meridel Le Sueur (1900-1996)
wrote "North Star Country." It told the story of how Minnesota and
Wisconsin were settled.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, C12)
1945 E.B. White published his
children’s book "Stuart Little," about a tiny mouse that is adopted by
a family. It was planned as a movie in 1998.
(NG, 5/93, p.6)(SFC, 7/17/98, p.D5)
1945 The nonfiction book by Ira
Wolfert "American Guerilla in the Philippines" was made into a 1950
film of the same title.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B8)
1945 Richard Wright (1908-1960)
authored "Black Boy."
(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.61)
c1945 The US Army published "112
Gripes about the French," as a prejudice-busting primer for American
troops occupying France following WWII. It was re-published in 2003.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A2)
1945 JB Priestly, British
playwright, staged his thriller "An Inspector Calls." The play is set
in 1912.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.D-1)
1945 Mary Hunter Wolf (d.2000 at
95) made her Broadway debut as director of "Only the Heart."
(SFC, 11/13/00, p.A24)
1945 Paramount Studios released a
theatrical short cartoon titled "The Friendly Ghost." It featured
Casper, a character invented by Seymour V. Reit (d.2001 at 81) and 1st
drawn by Joe Oriolo.
(SFC, 12/19/01, p.A25)
1945 The film "Mildred Pierce"
starred Ann Blyth and Joan Crawford and was directed by Michael Curtiz.
The screenplay was by Catherine Turney (d.1998 at 92) and was based on
a novel by James M. Cain. Crawford won an Academy Award for her role.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.C3)(SFEC, 11/7/99, DB
p.49)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0037913/)
1945 Rogers and Hammerstein
converted the 1933 film "State Fair" into a musical film with original
songs.
(WSJ, 3/29/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A22)
1945 Samuel Barber composed his
"Sonata for Piano and Cello, Op.6."
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.B3)
1945 Pierre Boulez, composer,
wrote his "Opus 1, a Sonatina for Flute and Piano."
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A16)
1945 Hadda Brooks (d. 2002 at 86)
sang the hit "Swingin’ With the Boogie," her 1st record.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A19)
1945 Richard Thomas Goldhahn
(d.2003 at 88), aka Dick Thomas, wrote "Sioux City Sue." Bing Crosby
recorded it in 1946 and made the Lucky Strike Hit Parade for 14 weeks.
(SFC, 11/29/03, p.A20)
1945 Wesley Tuttle (d.2003 at 85),
country singer, made a hit with the song "With Tears in My Eyes."
(SFC, 10/3/03, p.A20)
1945 In Germany Hans Pfitzner
composed his last work: "the Sextet for Piano, Clarinet and Strings."
(WSJ, 7/29/97, p.A12)
1945 Oscar Peterson, Canadian Jazz
pianist, in a trio made his first record for Victor.
(WSJ, 1/11/95, A-12)
1945 George Kleinsinger composed
"Tubby the Tuba," a children’s piece about a fat, brass tuba. It was
re-issued in 1997 on a CD.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.13)
1945 Todd Duncan (d.1998 at 95),
baritone, became the first black artist to perform with the NY City
Opera as Tonio in "Pagliacci."
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.D8)
1945 Benjamin Britten composed his
opera "Peter Grimes."
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.E1)
1945 The NYC house at 7 Middagh
St. in Brooklyn Heights was among those destroyed to make way for the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. A group of American and English artists had
lived there from the early 1940s. They included Carson McCullers,
Wystan Auden, Benjamin Britten, Gypsy Rose Lee, Jane and Paul Bowles
and guests such as Salvador Dali. In 2005 Sherrill Tippins authored
“February House,” an account of their interactions.
(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.B1)
1945 The Arrowmont School of Arts
and Crafts was founded in Gatlinburg, Ten.
(WSJ, 12/24/03, p.D7)
1945 Florence Wysinger "Flo" Allen
(d.1997 at 84), legendary SF artist’s model, founded the Models Guild.
She was sketched, painted and sculpted by such artists as: Diego
Rivera, Mark Rothko, Elmer Bischoff, Hassel Smith, Roy De Forest, Ralph
Du Casse, Wayne Thiebaud, Eleanor Dickenson, Beth Van Heusen, Mark
Adams, Richard Shaw, Nathan Oliveira, Karl Kasten, Glenn Wessels, Helen
Salz, Art Grant, Joan Brown, Frank Lobdell and Bill Wiley.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A20)
1945 In California the Zamorano
Club published “The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished
California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club.” The criterion
for inclusion was that a selection above all should be distinguished,
and that rarity and importance would be secondary. The Club printed 500
copies and gave a copy to each member at its June 6, 1945 meeting. On
June 8, Dawson’s Book Shop bought 300 of the remaining copies. In all,
the Club had spent $1,699.93 to present this book to the world.
(www.zamoranoclubla.org/zam80/)
1945 The Kentucky Derby was won by
Hoop Jr., owned by Fred Hooper (d.2000 at 102).
(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A21)
1945 The Pulitzer Prize for drama
went to Mary Chase for her play "Harvey."
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.54)
1945 Sir Alexander Fleming was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his codiscovery of penicillin
along with Ernst B. Chain (b.1908), German chemist, bacteriologist, and
Dr. Howard Florey, who found Fleming's paper in 1938 and began clinical
trials.
(WUD, 1994, p.542)(SFC, 1/19/04, p.B4)
1945 Wolfgang Pauli (b.1900),
Austrian-born physicist, received the Nobel prize.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1945 Byron Nelson (1912-2006),
American golfer, won a record 11 tournaments in a row. He retired at
the end of the 1946 season at age 34 with 52 PGA wins.
(WSJ, 9/27/06, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/30/06, p.A6)
1945 Gundeer Haag (1919-2004),
Swedish runner, set the world record for the mile and held it until
1954.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.B7)
1945 William O’Dwyer was elected
mayor of NYC. He left the post after 5 years to become the ambassador
to Mexico.
1945 Saipan and some nearby
islands began to be administered by the US on behalf of the United
Nations after WW II.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)
1945 US submarine losses for WW II
totaled 52.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A17)
c1945 LCVPs (landing craft
vehicle, personnel). LCVPs (landing craft vehicle, personnel), an
innovation by Andrew Jackson Higgins prompted General Dwight D.
Eisenhower to refer to Higgins as "the man who won the war for us." For
the Allied war effort Andrew Jackson Higgins designed and built
approximately 20,094 boats and landing craft, including the LCVPs,
LCPLs (landing craft personnel, large) and LCMs (landing craft,
mechanized) that made beach landings of large numbers of equipment and
troops, such as D-Day, possible.
(HNQ, 6/11/01)
1945 It was made illegal to chew
tobacco in any US federal building.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.D3)
1945 From this year on Congress
left the regulation of the insurance industry to the individual states.
(WSJ, 1/14/98, p.A1)
1945 The US Navy was officially
desegregated.
(SFC, 5/17/04, p.B4)
1945 The 120 members of the Werner
von Braun German rocket team came to the US to help start the US space
program.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A24)
1945 John S. Service (d.1999 at
89), one of the US "China hands" experts, participated in the "Dixie
Mission" as a US Foreign Service officer, and visited Mao Zedong at
Yanan. He reported that Chiang Kai-shek was vulnerable due to
corruption and that the Communists would win the war. The US ambassador
to China, Army Gen'l. Patrick Hurley, ordered him back to the US and
later accused him of handing secret US documents to the Chinese. In the
US Service was arrested by the FBI in the Amerasia affair and became a
target of Joseph McCarthy. He was dismissed from the State Dept. in
1951 but later vindicated.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.D4)
1945 With the war over 16 million
GIs began reentry to civilian life. Some 406,000 Americans died in WW
II. In 1987 a national war memorial was proposed and in 1993 Congress
approved funding to build it on the Mall in Washington DC.
www.wwiimemorial.com
(TMC, 1994, p.1945)(SFEC, 5/30/99, Par p.16)
1945 The US War Production Board
lifted the motor vehicle production ban.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1945 The Soviets presented
American ambassador Averell Harriman a plaque that contained a
listening device designed by Leon Theremin. Harriman hung the seal over
his desk and the implanted device was not discovered until 1952.
(ON, 11/01, p.8)
1945 Filipino New Scouts were
inducted into the US Army toward the end of WW II. On Dec 6, 2003,
Pres. Bush signed a measure that made Filipino American veterans
eligible for full Veterans Affair health care. Previous benefits were
at half the rate of US veterans.
(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A2)
1945 The offices of Amerasia, a
twice-monthly journal of Asian affairs, were raided by the US
government. Hundreds of classified documents of US-China policy and
other matters were found.
(SFC, 7/19/96, p.B1)
1945 The US Forest Service named
"Smokey the Bear" as its spokesman to fight forest fires: "Remember,
only you can prevent forest fires." Smokey the Bear was named after NYC
assistant chief Smokey Joe Martin (d.1945). Rudolph A. Wendelin (d.2000
at 90) served as the "caretaker" of the Smokey Bear icon. [see Aug 9,
1944]
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.C8)(ON, 4/03, p.9)
1945 The 1,000-foot aircraft
carrier USS Midway began service. It was decommissioned in 1992 and set
up as a museum in San Diego in 2004
(SFC, 12/29/03, p.A9)
1945 Georgia denied clemency and
executed Lena Baker, a black maid, for the murder of E.B. Knight.
Knight had held her against her will in a grist mill and threatened to
shoot her if she tried to leave. She had been sentenced to die
following a one-day trial before an all-male jury. In 2005 the Georgia
Board of Pardons decided to pardon her.
(SFC, 8/16/05, p.A4)
1945 The 1st plastic mannequin was
introduced.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.M6)
1945 Joseph P. Kennedy bought
Chicago’s Merchandise Mart for $13 million, less than half of what it
cost to build.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1945 Henry Ford II (1917-1987) was
named president of the Ford Motor company.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1945 Bill Miller (d.2002 at 98)
bought the Las Vegas hotel Riviera. It closed in 1953 to make way for
the Palisades Parkway.
(SFC, 12/17/02, p.A23)
1945 Sam Walton opened his first
variety store in Newport, Arkansas, with a $20,000 loan from his wife’s
father. [see 1950]
(SFEC, 9/3/00, Par p.4)
1945 British author Arthur C.
Clarke was the first to put forward the idea of a communications
satellite in a magazine article in 1945. The American satellite
Telestar, launched in 1962, ushered in the age of satellite
communications.
(HNQ, 4/21/99)
1945 Kaiser established a health
maintenance organization for its workers.
(Econ, 7/17/04, Survey p.13)
1945 At the Mayo Clinic
streptomycin was first used to treat TB. Also the first lab principles
to evaluate chemotherapy were established.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1945 Jacob A. Marinsky (1918-2005)
and L. E. Glendenin, while working on the Manhattan Project, identified
the element promethium (147-Pm) in the by-products of uranium fission.
The American Chemical Society acknowledged the result in 1949,
recognizing the finding as element 61 for the periodic table.
(http://nautilus.fis.uc.pt/st2.5/scenes-e/elem/e06100.html)
1945 Radiocarbon dating 1st became
available for archeological use.
(Arch, 7/02, p.51)
1945 Charles L. Schepens
(1912-2006), Belgian-born eye researcher, developed in London a
binocular indirect opthalmoscope to allow a more thorough examination
of the retina.
(SFC, 4/11/06,
p.B5)(http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=10)
1945 Mary Caroline Richards
(d.1999 at 83) joined the faculty at Black Mountain College near
Ashville N.C. Her later books included "The Crossing Point" (1973),
"Opening Our Moral Eye" (1996), "Imagine Inventing Yellow" (1991) and
"Toward Wholeness: Rudolf Steiner Education in America."
(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)
1945 A new medium priced home in
the US was priced at $7,500.
(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.B10)
1945 The industrial force exceeded
the number of people engaged in agriculture in France.
(V.D.-H.K.p.284)
1945 Ralph Ellis Jr. was released
from commitment. He had collected some 65,000 books, plates,
manuscripts and illustrations with such a mania that his mother feared
bankruptcy and had him committed.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.C5)
1945 The US merchant marine ship
Bushnell sank in the Arctic Ocean after being hit by a German torpedo.
It was headed for the Russian port of Murmansk.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A15)
1945 W.T. Anderson, editor and
publisher of the Macon Telegraph, died. He willed much of his wealth to
help indigent blacks receive medical care but by 1996 his will had
still not been executed. The original bequest of $600,000 had only
grown to $2 million and the executor’s were under scrutiny for
negligence.
(WSJ, 9/27/96, p.B1)
1945 Bela Bartok, Hungarian
composer, died of leukemia in New York. He composed the 6 volume
Mikrokosmos for piano students amongst other extensive works.
(WSJ, 8/18/95, p.A-1)
1945 Robert Benchley, New Yorker
theater critic and actor, died. He was a founding member of the
Algonquin Round Table. Members included George S. Kaufman, Dorothy
Parker, Alexander Woolcott, Robert Sherwood, Heywood Broun, Franklin P.
Adams, Edna Ferber and Marc Connelly. In 1997 Billy Altman wrote:
"Laughter’s Gentle Soul: The Life of Robert Benchley." His films
included "Foreign Correspondent" by Alfred Hitchcock and "I Married a
Witch" by Rene Clair.
(WSJ, 4/14/97, p.A13)
1945 David Lloyd George (b.1863),
former British prime minister (1916-1922), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.839)
1945 Rene Jules Lalique, French
jewelry designer, died.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A26)
1945 Anton Webern (b.1883),
Austrian composer, died. He was accidentally shot by an American
soldier policing his town.
(WSJ, 2/14/00, p.A20)
1945 N.C. Wyeth, illustrator of
children’s adventure books, died. He was the father of artist Andrew
Wyeth and grandfather of artist Jamie Wyeth.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T3)
1945 Australian soldier Edward
Kenna (d.2009 at 90) single-handedly stormed a Japanese machine-gun
nest at Wewak, New Guinea, firing a Bren gun from his hip with enemy
bullets passing under his arms as he advanced. Kenna was awarded a
Victoria Cross for his valor.
(AFP, 7/9/09)
1945 Austria retrieved some 18,000
looted artworks from a US Army depot in Munich. The bulk of them were
restituted to former owners over the next 3 years.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A20)
1945 In Britain Clement Atlee was
the prime minister after WW II. The Labor party toppled Winston
Churchill with a 146-seat majority win.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A1)
1945 Maria Dickin decorated Rip, a
dog, for finding more than 100 people trapped by German bomb damage in
World War II. Dickin was the creator of the Dickin Medal program,
Britain's highest honor for animals. Rip died in 1948 and is buried in
a pet charity cemetery in east London. In 2009 the medal sold at
auction in London on Friday for 24,250 pounds ($35,700).
(AP, 4/24/09)
1945 Some 732 teenage
concentration camp survivors were settled in Britain. They formed the
Primrose Club of London in 1947 to maintain contact. Their story was
told in the 1997 book "The Boys: The Story 0f 732 Young Concentration
Camp Survivors" by Martin Gilbert.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.B4)
1945 Barbara Hutton (1912-1979),
heir to the Woolworth fortune, gifted Winfield House, her London
mansion, to the United States government and moved to California. In
2008 Maria Tuttle and Marcus Binney authored “Winfield House.”
(Econ, 11/1/08,
p.96)(www.spiritus-temporis.com/barbara-hutton/)
1945 Canada’s Molson Brewery went
public.
(WSJ, 6/29/04, p.A11)
1945 In China Aisingyoro Henry
Puyi, the last emperor, Xuantong, and the figurehead ruler of the
Manchurian state, was captured by Soviet troops and later turned over
the Chinese Communists. He was sent to a re-education camp.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C16)
1945 Some 13,000 pro-Nazi soldiers
and civilians were executed as the WWIII ended. In 2009 Croatia asked
that charges be brought against Simo Dubajic (86), a former major in
the Yugoslav army, on suspicion of ordering the executions.
(SFC, 4/1/09, p.A2)
1945 Eduard Benes returned from
exile in London to Prague, and set up a government. Under the "Benes
decrees" millions of Germans, Austrian and Hungarians were dispossessed
and expelled.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.45)
1945 Hamas began life as a branch
of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which advocated the creation of states
based ion Muslim law across the Middle East. [see Palestine 1987]
(Econ, 11/12/05,
p.48)(www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=18062002-051845-8272r)
1945 In France the magazine Point
de Vue was founded as a general-interest publication. By the 1960s its
coverage was directed to royalty.
(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A16)
1945 The Salon de Mai was held in
France and organized to continue the French tradition of salon art
exhibits, but by this time artists no longer needed salon approval and
presented their work through public galleries. private exhibitions, and
individual art dealers.
(Calg. Glen., 1996)
1945 France set up the Ecole
Nationale d’Administration, a post-graduate civil service college, to
turn out a meritocratic elite equipped to run an administered economy
battered by war.
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1945 In Germany an American air
raid destroyed most of the buildings of Hitler’s "Eagle’s Nest" above
the town of Berchtesgaden in the Alps. The area was used by the
Americans for recreational purposes until it was returned to Bavaria in
1996
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.16A)
c1945 In Germany Josef Ritter von
Gadolla saved the people, the old town and the square of Gotha by
surrendering to the advancing Americans. He was shot for surrendering
without a fight. His conviction was overturned in 1998.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1945 In Germany a US transport
train collided with a trainload of German war prisoners and 102 people
were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)
1945 In Germany Albert A. Hutler
(d.1998 at 89) served as chief of the Displaced Persons Section of the
US 7th Army Military Government. He authored "Agony of Survival" in
1988, a recounting of his efforts to aid the concentration camp
survivors.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A22)
c1945 In Hong Kong Nadya Jacobova
Moiseeva (daughter of Jacob Moiseef) and John Henry McCann, a former
officer with Gen’l. Claire Chennault and the Flying Tigers, managed CAT
Airlines, formed by formed by former Flying Tiger pilots. The couple
had met and married in Shanghai in 1944.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)
c1945 The India Gate in New Delhi
was built to memorialize the 85,000 Indians who died in WW II.
(Hem., 2/97, p.58)
1945 Indonesia claimed West Timor.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A6)
1945 Indonesia’s original
constitution of 1945 had 71 clauses. By 2004 amendments had expanded it
to 199 clauses.
(Econ, 12/11/04, Survey p.13)
1945 From Iraq foreign minister
Fadhel al-Jamali (1903-1997) signed the UN Charter for Iraq. He later
became prime minister under colonial rule and tried to get more freedom
from Britain.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A22)
1945 American occupiers broke up
Japan’s national power company into 9 privately-owned utilities. After
the Americans left the government set up a 10th, publicly owned
utility, J-Power.
(Econ, 9/4/04, p.60)
1945 Some 760,000 Japanese were
imprisoned in Soviet labor camps after WWII. Records of their
internment were discovered in 2009 at a national archive in Moscow.
(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A4)
1945 An uprising in Kosovo was put
down by Tito’s Communists.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A8)
1945 The Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) was founded by Mullah Mustafa Barzani. He played a major
role in establishing the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mehabad, "Red"
Kurdistan, in Iran. In the 30s and 40s he had organized "Pesh merga"
guerrillas from clans in the Zagros region.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A14)
1945 On the island of Saipan
thousands of (Japanese) civilians killed their wives and children and
then committed suicide (hara-kiri). This was in response to imminent US
takeover and is quoted from an eye-witness account along with other
incidents.
(WSJ, 6/13/95, p.A-19)
1945 In Lithuania the 2nd
Communist invasion occurred.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1945 In the Philippines the US
recaptured the island of Corregidor and nearly 6,000 Japanese soldiers
leapt to their death off a ridge rather than face capture and dishonor.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.T6)
1945 Wladyslaw Szpilman published
his Warsaw ghetto memoir "The Pianist," right after the war. An English
edition was released in 1999.
(WSJ, 9/2/99,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wladyslaw_Szpilman)
1945 The allies settled on the
Oder-Neisse line as the new Western border of Poland. It cut through
the German city of Guben, called Gubin on the Polish side.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.50)
1945 The Portuguese returned after
WW II to run Roman Catholic East Timor.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)
1945 The Red Army took
Koenigsberg, dynamited the city and killed or expelled the German
population. They renamed it Kaliningrad after Mikhail Kalinin, the
Soviet figurehead president.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.7S)
1945 Russian code clerk Igor
Gouzenko defected to Canada and Elizabeth Bentley changed her role from
Soviet courier to FBI informant. They helped the West gain an
understanding of Soviet spy rings in North America. In 2003 Lauren
Kessler authored "Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered
in the McCarthy Era." Bentley provided the FBI with the names of 150
spies.
(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A22)(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.M2)(SSFC,
1/11/04, p.M6)
1945 Russia’s Operation
Tarantella, designed to reach emigres who fled after the Communist
takeover, turned Viktor Bogomolets back to Moscow. He became a double
agent passing British secrets to top-tier Soviet operatives. This was
made public in 2007.
(Reuters, 4/2/07)
1945 The Soviet Army adopted the
SKS-45, a semi-automatic rifle adopted. It fired the same 7.62x39mm
round as the AK-47, which was a shortened, lighter round that was the
standard Soviet cartridge of World War II. This meant the rifle firing
the round could be lighter, and the soldier could carry more
ammunition. Although Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
soldiers in Vietnam preferred the fully-automatic AK-47, the SKS was an
effective weapon that many of them carried during the Vietnam war.
(HNQ, 6/3/02)
1945 Carmen Laforet (23), Spanish
writer, authored her first novel “Nada” (Nothing). It was set in Spain
during the 1930s and conveyed the crushing weight of war through its
characters. An English translation became available in 2007.
(SFC, 3/2/07, p.E7)
c1945 After the war Sweden
returned about 14 tons of presumably looted gold to Belgium and the
Netherlands that it had received from the Nazis in payment for exports.
(SFC,1/22/97, p.A9)
1945 Switzerland agreed with the
US to freeze financial transactions with Germany in early 1945. The
agreement was violated.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A10)
1945 The Union Bank of Switzerland
took over the Eidgenoessische Bank which had built up an extensive
business with Germany during the Third Reich.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A1)
1945 The island of Taiwan was
returned to Chinese control following the Japanese occupation during WW
II.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A8)
1945 At the end of World War II
Thailand was compelled to return territory it had seized from Laos,
Cambodia and Malaya. The exiled King Ananda returned.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1945 A secret internal US Treasury
Dept. document, hidden for 50 years, revealed in 1997 that the Vatican
held some 200 million Swiss francs plundered from Serbs and Jews by the
Nazi puppet government of Croatia after WW II.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A8)
1945 In Vietnam Bao Dai abdicated
his throne in the city of Hue with the approach of the Viet Minh
guerrillas. He moved to China and then became an advisor to Ho Chi Minh
in Hanoi until 1949 when the French set him up as chief of state of
Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1945 In Vietnam Ho Chi Minh united
the north and south. He was known to have written letters to President
Truman asking for humanitarian assistance and advocated political
rather than military action. His letters went unanswered.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)
1945 The Viet Minh in Vietnam
formed a provisional government in a bid for independence and Pham Van
Dong served as finance minister.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1945-1946 Picasso painted his purposely unfinished
"Charnel House."
(SFC, 10/10/98,
p.E8)(www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso45.html)
1945-1946 France underwent another round of
nationalization. Similar rounds of nationalization again took place in
1936 and 1981.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.18)
c1945-1946 After the war the US and its allies made a
deal with the Swiss to accept repayment of $60 million and waived
further claims. The claims were for gold acquired from the Nazis during
the war. Much of the gold was from occupied countries and Jews.
(FB, 9/12/96, p.A9)
1945-1946 In India the British government organized
elections for a constituent assembly.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)
1945-1947 The US West Coast sardine industry
plummeted from abundance to empty nets.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.2)
1945-1947 A nutrition study at Vanderbilt Univ. gave
a radioactive iron tracer to 829 women. Four of their children later
died of childhood cancers. In 1998 a $10.3 million settlement was
awarded to the women.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A2)
1945-1949 A series of wars for independence during
this period spread from India to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and
Singapore. In 2007 Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper authored “Forgotten
Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia.”
(WSJ, 8/9/07, p.D7)
1945-1950 In 2002 Ruth Gay authored "Safe Among the
Germans," an account of Eastern European Jews in the post-war refugee
camps.
(SFC, 9/19/02, p.D12)
1945-1952 Lithuanian Freedom Fighters (partizanai)
continued resistance against Soviet occupation.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.6)
1945-1953 Harry S. Truman became the 33rd President
of the US. He was elected Vice-President under FD Roosevelt in 1945,
and assumed the presidency upon Roosevelt’s death. "Make no little
plans," advised Harry. "Make the biggest one you can think of and spend
the rest of your life carrying it out."
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo,171)(SFEC, 11/17/96, Z1
p.2)
1945-1970 Norris Bradbury directed the Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Bradbury Science Museum in Los
Alamos was later named after him.
(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D6)
1945-1970 Some 47,000 55-gallon drums of radioactive
waste, from US government research programs, was dumped near the
northern California Farallon Islands.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F2)
1945-1971 William Tubman, president of Liberia, began
to address the inequalities between the Americo-Liberians and the
native tribes.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1945-1973 The modern American middle class was
created thanks to favorable economic trends and government policies
that encouraged investments in education and home ownership.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.21)
1945-1974 This period in US history is covered in a
book by James T. Patterson. It is the 3rd volume of the Oxford History
of the US and is titled: "Grand Expectations: The United States,
1945-1974."
(WSJ, 6/7/96, p.A12)
1945-1980 Moose hunting during this period was banned
in Maine due to their scarce numbers.
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.41)
1945-1988 The Swiss maintained contingency plans for
building 400 nuclear warheads. A supply of uranium was maintained in
Wimmis, 21 miles southeast of Berne.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A12)
1945-2002 Some 100,000 nuclear bombs were
manufactured over this period.
(SSFC, 12/15/02, p.E6)
Go to 1946