WORLD HISTORY · 1945 日本語
Events of 1945Showa 20 (Japan) · Year of the Rooster
What happened in 1945?
In 1945, U.S. forces landed on the main island of Okinawa, and atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration, and the United Nations was founded in October.
- U.S. forces land on OkinawaAsia
- Fighting ends on Europe's Western FrontEurope
- U.S. conducts first atomic bomb testNorth America
- U.S., Britain, China issue Potsdam DeclarationEurope
- Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and NagasakiAsia
- Imperial Conference decides to accept Potsdam DeclarationAsia
- United Nations founded with 51 membersNorth America
- Revised election law grants women the voteAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1945 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 20 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Rooster |
| Age of people born in 1945 | Turn 81 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1944 (Showa 19) ／ 1946 (Showa 21) |
| Events | 248 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 8 |
Famous people born in 1945
Our birthday pages list 699 people born in 1945. Here are some of them.
- Rod StewartBorn January 10 · turns 81 this year · British rock singer with a famous raspy voice, known for hits like "Maggie May"…
- Bob MarleyBorn February 6 · turns 81 this year · Jamaican singer-songwriter who brought reggae music to a worldwide audience wit…
- Pete TownshendBorn May 19 · turns 81 this year · English guitarist and songwriter, the main creative force of The Who and compos…
- Jim DavisBorn July 28 · turns 81 this year · American cartoonist who created Garfield, the lasagna-loving cat of the world-f…
- Steve MartinBorn August 14 · turns 81 this year · American comedian, actor, writer and banjo player known for The Jerk, Father of…
- John LithgowBorn October 19 · turns 81 this year · American actor known for his wide range, from 3rd Rock from the Sun to films li…
- Henry WinklerBorn October 30 · turns 81 this year · American actor, producer, and author famous as the Fonz on Happy Days and an Em…
- Neil YoungBorn November 12 · turns 81 this year · Canadian-born rock singer-songwriter known for Harvest, "Heart of Gold," and hi…
- Goldie HawnBorn November 21 · turns 81 this year · American actress and producer known for Laugh-In and comedies such as Private B…
- Bette MidlerBorn December 1 · turns 81 this year · American singer and actress, nicknamed "The Divine Miss M," famed for "Wind Ben…
- Diane SawyerBorn December 22 · turns 81 this year · American TV journalist who was the first woman correspondent on 60 Minutes and…
- Fusako ShigenobuBorn September 28 · turns 81 this year
Show 28 more
- Dennis RaderBorn March 9 · turns 81 this year
- Jacky IckxBorn January 1 · turns 81 this year
- Jimmy JonesBorn January 1 · turns 81 this year
- Victor AsheBorn January 1 · turns 81 this year
- Stephen StillsBorn January 3 · turns 81 this year
- Richard R. SchrockBorn January 4 · turns 81 this year
- Vesa-Matti LoiriBorn January 4 · turns 81 this year
- Barry JohnBorn January 6 · turns 81 this year
- Jayanthi (actress)Born January 6 · turns 81 this year
- Peter SchowtkaBorn January 7 · turns 81 this year
- Raila OdingaBorn January 7 · turns 81 this year
- Tony ConigliaroBorn January 7 · turns 81 this year
- Kathleen NooneBorn January 8 · turns 81 this year
- Nancy BondBorn January 8 · turns 81 this year
- Phil BealBorn January 8 · turns 81 this year
- John DomanBorn January 9 · turns 81 this year
- Levon Ter-PetrosyanBorn January 9 · turns 81 this year
- Gunther von HagensBorn January 10 · turns 81 this year
- John FaheyBorn January 10 · turns 81 this year
- Christine KaufmannBorn January 11 · turns 81 this year
- Maggie BellBorn January 12 · turns 81 this year
- Gordon McVieBorn January 13 · turns 81 this year
- Peter SimpsonBorn January 13 · turns 81 this year
- Kathleen ChalfantBorn January 14 · turns 81 this year
- Maina GielgudBorn January 14 · turns 81 this year
- David PleatBorn January 15 · turns 81 this year
- Ko Chun-hsiungBorn January 15 · turns 81 this year
- Princess Michael of KentBorn January 15 · turns 81 this year
Events of 1945 (timeline · 248)
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On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Operation Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed, attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland.
World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack invading Japanese Imperial forces.
World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.
The SS-Totenkopfverbände begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as the Red Army closes in.
World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, fewer than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.
World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.
World War II: The provisional government of Béla Miklós in Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
World War II: German admiral Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal, the evacuation of areas along the eastern Baltic coast.
World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor.
World War II: The Soviet 322nd Rifle Division liberates the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: One hundred and twenty-six American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan POW camp.
World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people.
World War II: About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp are forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia) and executed.
US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.
World War II: The end of fighting in the Battle of Hill 170 during the Burma Campaign, in which the British 3 Commando Brigade repulsed a Japanese counterattack on their positions and precipitated a general retirement from the Arakan Peninsula.
World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 and 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations.
World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
World War II: Mikhail Devyataev escapes with nine other Soviet POWs from a Nazi concentration camp in Peenemünde, Usedom.
World War II: British and Canadian forces commence Operation Veritable to occupy land between the Maas and Rhine rivers.
World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attack a German destroyer in Førdefjorden, Norway.
A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.
World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by a United States Army Air Forces squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder Offensive.
World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden.
The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, was signed into law.
World War II: American and Brazilian troops kick off Operation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the Northern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of the Allied Spring offensive.
World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.
World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.
World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as "the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies".
World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
World War II: US troops reclaim the Philippine island of Corregidor from the Japanese.
World War II: In poor visibility, the RAF mistakenly bombs the Bezuidenhout area of The Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
World War II: Cologne is captured by American troops. On the same day, Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of the war, begins.
World War II: The American 9th Armored Division unexpectedly captures an intact bridge over the Rhine.
World War II: A coup d'état by Japanese forces in French Indochina removes the French from power.
World War II: Allied forces carry out firebombing over Tokyo, destroying most of the capital and killing over 100,000 civilians.
World War II: The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting conflagration kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
World War II: The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived Japanese puppet state, is established.
The R.A.F. drop the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany.
World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
World War II: Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in at least 4,000 deaths.
World War II: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture.
World War II: 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in Tigbauan, forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General Macario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.
World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the US under her own power.
World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians.
World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.
World War II: The city of Hildesheim, Germany, is heavily damaged in a British air raid, though it had little military significance and Germany was on the verge of final defeat.
World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces.
World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins. Argentina declares war on the Axis Powers.
World War II: Soviet forces invade Austria and capture Vienna. Polish and Soviet forces liberate Danzig.
World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.
World War II: The Tenth United States Army attacks the Thirty-Second Japanese Army on Okinawa.
World War II: United States Army troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory".
World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by United States Navy aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, is executed by the Nazi regime.
World War II: The German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer is sunk by the Royal Air Force.
World War II: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reaches Tangermünde—only 80 kilometres from Berlin.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman succeeds him.
World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
World War II: In what becomes known as the Razing of Friesoythe, the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroys the German town of Friesoythe on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes.
World War II: More than 7,000 die when the German transport ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine.
World War II: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.
World War II: The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).
Historian Tran Trong Kim is appointed the Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam.
Italian resistance movement: In Turin, despite the harsh repressive measures adopted by Nazi-fascists, a great pre-insurrectional strike begins.
World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.
World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
World War II: Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by soldiers of the Red Army and Polish First Army.
World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and around eighty escape.
World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Göring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of Nazi Germany. Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advise Göring that the telegram is treasonous.
World War II: The last German troops retreat from Finnish soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military actions of the Second World War end in Finland.
World War II: United States and Soviet reconnaissance troops meet in Torgau and Strehla along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two. This would be later known as Elbe Day.
United Nations Conference on International Organization: Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
World War II: Liberation Day (Italy): The National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy calls for a general uprising against the German occupation and the Italian Social Republic.
World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army liberate Baguio as they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
The Holocaust: Nazi Germany carries out its final use of gas chambers to execute 33 Upper Austrian socialist and communist leaders in Mauthausen concentration camp.
Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance movement.
World War II: The Surrender of Caserta is signed by the commander of German forces in Italy.
World War II: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.
World War II: Allied airdrops of food begin over German-occupied regions of the Netherlands.
World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours.
World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9,000 American and British airmen.
World War II: Soviet soldiers raise the first Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The Victory Banner will be raised the next day.
World War II: German radio broadcasts news of Adolf Hitler's death, falsely stating that he has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin. Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army.
World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.
World War II: The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1,000 dead prisoners, most of whom starved to death.
World War II: The surrender of Caserta comes into effect, by which German troops in Italy cease fighting.
World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay, resulting in more than 7,000 deaths.
World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany.
World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation.
World War II: Battle of Castle Itter, one of only two battles in that war in which American and German troops fought cooperatively.
World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon.
World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland.
The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.
World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect. This is commemorated as Victory in Europe Day.
World War II: Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is published in Ogonyok magazine.
World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe, is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria. The latter try to quell nationalist protests but backs down after threat of military action by the British.
Syrian demonstrators in Damascus are fired upon by French troops injuring twelve, leading to the Levant Crisis.
World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
World War II: Germany's Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.
The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
King Haakon VII of Norway returns from exactly five years in exile during World War II.
World War II: Filipino troops of the Philippine Commonwealth Army liberate the captured in Ilocos Sur and start the Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon.
William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II.
The Smoke Tragedy leaves 355 workers dead in the underground copper mine of El Teniente, Chile.
The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.
World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
World War II: The Battle of Okinawa comes to an end with an American flag-raising ceremony.
The first Victory Day Parade takes place on Red Square in Moscow, Soviet Union, symbolizing the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany.
The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.
Poland's Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity is formed over a month after V-E Day.
The United Kingdom holds its first general election in 10 years, which would be won by Clement Attlee's Labour Party.
Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, hold the Potsdam Conference in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain, the former president of Vichy France begin.
The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
World War II: The USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with components and enriched uranium for the Little Boy nuclear bomb.
World War II: HMS Vestal is the last British Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the war.
A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.
World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. Most die during the following four days, until an aircraft notices the survivors.
Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
The London Charter is signed by France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, establishing the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg trials.
World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese government announced that a message had been sent to the Allies accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration provided that it "does not comprise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of the Emperor as sovereign ruler."
Poles in Kraków engage in a pogrom against Jews in the city, killing one and wounding five.
Emperor Hirohito broadcasts his declaration of surrender following the effective surrender of Japan in World War II; Korea gains independence from the Empire of Japan.
The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương.
Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
Evacuation of Manchukuo: At Talitzou by the Sino-Korean border, Puyi, then the Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo, formally renounces the imperial throne, dissolves the state, and cedes its territory to the Republic of China.
Soviet-Japanese War: Battle of Shumshu: Soviet forces land at Takeda Beach on Shumshu Island and launch the Battle of Shumshu; the Soviet Union's Invasion of the Kuril Islands commences.
Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day.
Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
World War II: Soviet–Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no. 9898cc "About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War".
Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.
The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being.
World War II: The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed by Japan and the major warring powers aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, thus marking the official end to the war.
Communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam after the end of the Nguyễn dynasty.
A three-day celebration begins in China, following the Victory over Japan Day on September 2.
Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American who broadcast under the name Orphan Annie during World War II, is arrested in Yokohama by U.S. military authorities amid widespread speculation of her being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose.
Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
World War II: Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
World War II and Second Sino-Japanese War: The Empire of Japan formally surrenders to China.
World War II: Batu Lintang camp, a Japanese-run POW and civilian internment camp on the island of Borneo, is liberated by Australian 9th Division forces.
A hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond.
A six-month strike by Hollywood set decorators turns into a bloody riot at the gates of the Warner Brothers studio.
The Double Tenth Agreement is signed by the Communist Party and the Kuomintang about the future of China.
The Lao Issara took control of Laos' government and reaffirmed the country's independence.
World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, stages a coup d'état against president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.
The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Duarte.
Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodger's minor league team, the Montreal Royals, breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier.
Fifty years of Japanese administration of Taiwan formally ends when the Republic of China assumes control.
The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro.
Heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, today celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
FC Dynamo Moscow open their exhibition tour of the United Kingdom with a 3–3 draw against Chelsea, breaking the record attendance for a British club football match.
Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.
The United Auto Workers strike 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30-percent raise.
CARE (then the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) is founded to send CARE Packages of food relief to Europe after World War II.
By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations. (The UN had been established on October 24, 1945.)
The People's Republic of Korea is outlawed in the South, by order of the United States Army Military Government in Korea.
Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
Kurdistan flag day, the flag of Kurdistan is raised for the first time in Mahabad in eastern Kurdistan.
John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order giving World War II refugees precedence in visa applications under U.S. immigration quotas.
Five of nine children become missing after their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is burned down.
The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1945 in the Japanese calendar?
1945 was Showa 20 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1945?
1945 is the Year of the Rooster.
How old is someone born in 1945?
They turn 81 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1945?
In 1945, U.S. forces landed on the main island of Okinawa, and atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration, and the United Nations was founded in October.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.