Events 401 - 546 of 546
Election of Interest
Jul 26 After Labour landslide in general election, Clement Attlee becomes British Prime Minister
Potsdam Declaration
Jul 26 Declaration of Potsdam: US, Britain and China demand the unconditional surrender of Japan during WWII
- Jul 26 Japanese government disregards US ultimatum
Nuclear Bombing of Nagasaki
Jul 26 Physicist Raemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva depart Kirtland Army Air Field to transport the plutonium core for the Fat Man bomb (bombing of Nagasaki) to the island of Tinian where the bomb is assembled
- Jul 26 US cruiser Indianapolis reaches Tinian with atom bomb
Election of Interest
Jul 26 Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's Prime Minister after election defeat
- Jul 27 US Communist Party forms
- Jul 28 "Elevator girl" Betty Lou Oliver survives falling 75 stories after fog causes a US bomber plane to crash into the Empire State Building, breaking the cables supporting the elevator she was operating. This remains a world record for the longest survived elevator fall
- Jul 28 Japanese premier Suzuki disregards US ultimatum to surrender
Event of Interest
Jul 28 Physicist Raemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva arrive on the Pacific island of Tinian with the plutonium core used to assemble the Fat Man bomb used in the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9
- Jul 28 US Army B-25 crashes into 79th floor of Empire State Bldg, 14 die
United Nations Charter
Jul 28 US Senate ratifies United Nations charter 89-2
Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
Jul 30 After delivering the Atomic Bomb across the Pacific, the cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-58. 880 of the crew died, many after being attacked by sharks, the inspiration for the movie Jaws.
Victory in Battle
Jul 31 Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria
Potsdam Conference
Aug 2 Potsdam Conference between Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill (replaced by Clement Attlee after losing the 1945 general election) ends
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
Aug 6 Atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"
- Aug 8 England & Australian Services draw 4th Victory Test
United Nations
Aug 8 President Harry Truman signs the United Nations Charter
Nuremberg Trials
Aug 8 US, USSR, Britain and France sign Treaty of London which sets down procedures for the Nuremberg war trials of Nazi leaders
- Aug 8 USSR declares war against Japan in WW II
- Aug 8 USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea
- Aug 9 US drops second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city
Event of Interest
Aug 14 Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh movement launch a coordinated uprising against French rule across Vietnam following the Japanese surrender
- Aug 14 Japanese government notifies the Allies that it had accepted the Potsdam Declaration
Victory over Japan
Aug 14 V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
- Aug 15 A riot ensues in San Francisco while the city is celebrating the end of WW II
- Aug 15 US wartime rationing of gasoline & fuel oil ends
- Aug 15 Victory over Japan Day, the Japanese surrender and the end of WWII is announced in Japan (due to time zones 14th Aug in the Americas)
- Aug 15 World War II: Korean Liberation Day
- Aug 16 Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor and ruler of Manchukuo is captured by Soviet troops
- Aug 17 Korea is divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel
- Aug 18 Sukarno elected 1st President of Indonesia by the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (PPKI)
- Aug 20 Soviet troops occupy Harbin & Mukden
- Aug 21 US President Harry Truman ends Lend-Lease program
- Aug 22 Bob Cristofani scores 110 for Aust Services at Old Trafford
- Aug 22 Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup
- Aug 25 Jewish immigrants are permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine
- Aug 26 Japanese diplomats board USS Missouri to receive instructions on Japan's surrender at the end of WWII
- Aug 27 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender
- Aug 29 British liberate Hong Kong from Japan
- Aug 30 Hong Kong liberated from Japanese control
- Aug 30 US General Douglas MacArthur lands in Japan
Event of Interest
Aug 31 The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies
- Sep 2 Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independent from France (National Day)
Surrender of Japan
Sep 2 V-J Day, formal surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri marks the end of World War II (Japanese date, 1st September in US)
- Sep 2 V-J Day, formal surrender of Japan signed aboard USS Missouri marks the end of World War II (US date, 3rd September in Japan)
- Sep 3 World War II: Japanese forces in the Philippines surrender to the Allies
- Sep 4 US regains possession of Wake Island from Japan
- Sep 7 Joe Kuhel hits inside-the-park HR, only HR hit by a Senator all season at Washington's Griffith Stadium
- Sep 8 US invades Japanese-held Korea
Event of Interest
Sep 9 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log
- Sep 9 Japanese in South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indochina surrender to Allies
- Sep 9 Philadelphia A's Dick Fowler no-hits St Louis Browns, 1-0
- Sep 10 KLS-AM in Oakland, California changes call letters to KWBR (now KDIA)
Miracle Mike!
Sep 10 Mike the Headless Chicken is decapitated in Fruita, Colorado; he survives for another 18 months before choking to death.
Event of Interest
Sep 10 Vidkun Quisling sentenced to death for collaborating with Nazis
Event of Interest
Sep 11 Hideki Tojo, Japanese Prime Minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide rather than face war crimes tribunal but fails - later he is hanged
- Sep 11 Physician Willem J. Kolff performs the first successful kidney dialysis using his artificial kidney machine in the Netherlands
- Sep 15 A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond
- Sep 16 Barometric pressure at 856 mb (25.55") off Okinawa (record low)
- Sep 18 1000 whites walk out of Gary, Indiana, schools to protest integration
Event of Interest
Sep 19 Kim Il-sung arrives in harbor of Wonsan, Korea
Event of Interest
Sep 19 Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) sentenced to death in London
MacArthur Meets Hirohito
Sep 27 US General and head of the Allied occupation of Japan, Douglas MacArthur, meets Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo for the first time
- Sep 28 Canadian football's Calgary Bronks changes its name to Stampeders
- Sep 28 Robert T Duncan appears as Tonio in "I Pagliacci"
- Sep 30 Bourne End rail crash, Hertfordshire, England killed 43
- Oct 1 US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA, disbands
- Oct 3 World Federation of Trade Unions forms; CIO a member
- Oct 5 "Meet the Press" premieres on radio
- Oct 5 Indonesian army forms
Event of Interest
Oct 5 Queen Wilhelmina visits Rotterdam
- Oct 6 Memorial for executed unveiled in Terbregge
Event of Interest
Oct 6 US General Eisenhower welcomed in The Hague (on Hitler's train)
- Oct 7 Dutch author A M de Jong's murderer Ton van Gog escapes
- Oct 8 Microwave oven patented by US inventor Percy Spencer
- Oct 8 US President Harry Truman announces atomic bomb secret shared with Britain and Canada
- Oct 9 British troops occupy Andamanen in Gulf of Bengal
Event of Interest
Oct 11 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong's Communist Party
Event of Interest
Oct 17 Loyalty Day in Argentina, mass demonstrations held to release Juan Perón
Event of Interest
Oct 25 Japanese surrender Taiwan to General Chiang Kai-shek
Event of Interest
Oct 29 Getulio Vargas, President of Brazil, resigns
- Oct 30 US government announces end of shoe rationing
- Nov 1 First issue of Ebony magazine published by John H. Johnson
- Nov 5 Colombia joins the United Nations.
- Nov 6 House Committee on Un-American Activities begins investigation of 7 radio commentators
- Nov 6 The first landing of a jet on a carrier takes place on USS Wake Island when an FR-1 Fireball touches down
- Nov 8 Riverboat sinks off Hong Kong; kills 1,550
Event of Interest
Nov 10 General Enver Hoxha becomes leader of Albania
- Nov 10 Heavy battle in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
- Nov 12 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to American politician Cordell Hull (for establishing the UN)
- Nov 13 Australian Services draw 1st Victory Test against India
- Nov 14 H Lindsay and R Crouse's "State of the Union" premieres in NYC
- Nov 14 Java: Sutan Sjahrir appointed to form a government as Indonesia's first Prime Minister
Nobel Prize
Nov 15 Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral becomes the first Latin American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Nov 15 The rules are revised for election of modern players to the Hall of Fame
- Nov 16 Founding of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
- Nov 16 Two new elements discovered by Glenn Seaborg, James, Morgan and Albert Ghiorso were are announced: americium (atomic number 95) and curium (atomic number 96)
- Nov 16 Yeshiva College (University), chartered in NY, 1st US Jewish College
- Nov 17 New world air speed record 606 mph (975 kph) set by HJ Wilson of RAF
- Nov 20 Queen Wilhelmina opens Dutch parliament in Hague
Nuremberg War Trials Bring Nazis to Justice
Nov 20 The Nuremberg war trials begin as 24 Nazi leaders are put on trial before judges representing the victorious Allied powers
- Nov 21 General Motors workers go on strike
- Nov 23 Most US wartime rationing of foods, including meat & butter, ends
- Nov 26 During snow storm, school bus crashes, kills 15 (Washington)
- Nov 27 Dutch resistance fighter Hannie Schaft re-buried in presence of Queen Wilhelmina
Event of Interest
Nov 27 General George Marshall named special US envoy to China
- Nov 27 Trial against Dutch Fascist NSB leader Anton Mussert begins (later convicted and executed by firing squad)
- Nov 29 Yugoslavian Socialist Republic proclaimed
- Dec 4 Senate approves US participation in United Nations
- Dec 5 Flight 19 the "Lost Squadron" of 5 torpedo bombers and 14 airmen is lost east of Florida in the supposed Bermuda Triangle
- Dec 5 Special Council of Annulment affirms death sentence of Max Blokzijl
- Dec 10 Preston Tucker reveals plan to produce the Torpedo, a new 150 MPH car
- Dec 11 Het Parool publishes 1st Captain Rob-strip
- Dec 12 Special Court of justice convicts Dutch Nazi leader Mussert to death
Theater Premiere
Dec 14 Elmer Rice's play "Dream Girl" premieres in NYC
- Dec 15 John J "Cardinal" O'Connor, ordained as a priest
- Dec 18 Uruguay joins the United Nations
- Dec 19 Austrian Republic re-establishes
- Dec 19 Jean Giraudoux' "La Folle de Chaillot" premieres in Paris
- Dec 20 Rationing of auto tires ends in US
- Dec 22 Utrecht: Catholic People's party (KVP) established
Event of Interest
Dec 27 International Monetary Fund formally established by 29 member countries based on ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes
