[[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|200px|''August 9'': The mushroom cloud from the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki]] rising 18 km into the air.]]
[[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|200px|''August 9'': The mushroom cloud from the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki]] rising 18 km into the air.]]
[[File:Shigemitsu-signs-surrender.jpg|thumb|200px|''September 2'': Japan signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Instrument of Surrender]] aboard the [[USS Missouri (BB-63)|USS ''Missouri'']].]]
[[File:Shigemitsu-signs-surrender.jpg|thumb|200px|''September 2'': Japan signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Instrument of Surrender]] aboard the [[USS Missouri (BB-63)|USS ''Missouri'']].]]
The Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (
Gdynia) in the
Gdansk Bay, is sunk by three
torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the
Baltic Sea; up to 9,400 are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in war action in history..
February 28 – In
Bucharest, a violent demonstration takes place, during which the bolşevic group opens fire on the army and protesters. In response,
Andrei Y. Vishinsky,
USSR vice commissioner of foreign affairs and president of the Allied Control Commission for
Romania, travels to Bucharest to compel
Nicolae Rădescu to resign as premier.
March 16 – WWII: The
Battle of Iwo Jima unofficially ends, with small pockets of guerrilla resistance persisting past the official conclusion of the battle.
Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in
Germany be destroyed.
U.S. Ordinance troops find the coffins of Frederick Wilhelm I, Frederick the Great,
Paul von Hindenburg, and his wife.
The Western Allies flatly reject any offer of surrender by Germany other than unconditional on all fronts.
April 28 –
Benito Mussolini and his mistress,
Clara Petacci, are executed by Italian partisans as they attempt to flee the country. Their bodies are then hung by their heels in the public square of
Milan.
A Japanese
balloon bomb kills five children and a woman,
Elsie Mitchell, near
Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. They are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the American mainland during WWII.
May 7 – WWII: General
Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at
Reims,
France, ending
Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as
Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of WWII in
Europe, with the final surrender being to the Soviets in
Berlin, attended by representatives of the Western Powers.
Canadian troops move into
Amsterdam, after German troops surrender.
May 28 –
William Joyce ("
Lord Haw-Haw") is captured. He is later charged with high treason in
London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January
1946.
German communists, led by Walther Ulbricht, arrive in
Berlin.
Dutch painter
Han van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with the Nazis, but the paintings he had sold to
Hermann Göring (Koch) are later found to be his fakes.
May 30 – The
Iranian government demands that all Soviet and British troops leave the country.
July 16 – The
Trinity Test, the first of an
atomic bomb, using about six kilograms of
plutonium, succeeds in unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 19 kilotons of TNT.
July 26 – The
Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12 permitting Japan to retain the reign of the Emperor has been deleted by President Truman.
[5]
July 30 – WWII: The heavy cruiser
USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 in the
Philippine Sea. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for up to four days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain
Charles B. McVay III of the cruiser is later court-martialed and convicted.
August 7 – President Harry Truman announces the successful bombing of Hiroshima with the
atomic bomb, while returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser
USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean.
WWII: Emperor
Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio. The United States calls this day
V-J Day (Victory in Japan). This ends the period of
Japanese expansionism and begins the period of
Occupied Japan.
WWII:
Korea gains independence following Japan's surrender.
Indonesian nationalists
Soekarno and
Mohammad Hatta declare the independence of the Republic of
Indonesia, with Soekarno as president. Dutch colonial authorities do not approve.
The Russian code clerk
Igor Gouzenko comes forward with numerous documents implicating the Soviet Union in numerous spy rings in
North America: both in the United States and in
Canada.
American troops occupy southern
Korea, while the
Soviet Union occupies the north, with the dividing line being the 38th parallel of latitude. This arrangement proves to be the indirect beginning of a divided
Korea.
Hideki Tōjō, Japanese prime minister during most of WWII, attempts suicide to avoid facing a
war crimes tribunal.
September 9 – The first case of a computer
bug is found: a
moth lodged in a
relay of a
Harvard Mark II computer at the Naval Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.
The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring
Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to that time, it wins several Oscars in the following year.
Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (
ENIAC), is completed. It covers 1,800 square feet (170 m2) of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.
August 24 –
Vince McMahon, is an American professional wrestler, promoter, in-ring announcer, play-by-play commentator and film producer. He currently serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of
World Wrestling Entertainment
[[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|200px|''August 9'': The mushroom cloud from the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki]] rising 18 km into the air.]]
[[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|200px|''August 9'': The mushroom cloud from the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki]] rising 18 km into the air.]]
[[File:Shigemitsu-signs-surrender.jpg|thumb|200px|''September 2'': Japan signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Instrument of Surrender]] aboard the [[USS Missouri (BB-63)|USS ''Missouri'']].]]
[[File:Shigemitsu-signs-surrender.jpg|thumb|200px|''September 2'': Japan signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Instrument of Surrender]] aboard the [[USS Missouri (BB-63)|USS ''Missouri'']].]]
The Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (
Gdynia) in the
Gdansk Bay, is sunk by three
torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the
Baltic Sea; up to 9,400 are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in war action in history..
February 28 – In
Bucharest, a violent demonstration takes place, during which the bolşevic group opens fire on the army and protesters. In response,
Andrei Y. Vishinsky,
USSR vice commissioner of foreign affairs and president of the Allied Control Commission for
Romania, travels to Bucharest to compel
Nicolae Rădescu to resign as premier.
March 16 – WWII: The
Battle of Iwo Jima unofficially ends, with small pockets of guerrilla resistance persisting past the official conclusion of the battle.
Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in
Germany be destroyed.
U.S. Ordinance troops find the coffins of Frederick Wilhelm I, Frederick the Great,
Paul von Hindenburg, and his wife.
The Western Allies flatly reject any offer of surrender by Germany other than unconditional on all fronts.
April 28 –
Benito Mussolini and his mistress,
Clara Petacci, are executed by Italian partisans as they attempt to flee the country. Their bodies are then hung by their heels in the public square of
Milan.
A Japanese
balloon bomb kills five children and a woman,
Elsie Mitchell, near
Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. They are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the American mainland during WWII.
May 7 – WWII: General
Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at
Reims,
France, ending
Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as
Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of WWII in
Europe, with the final surrender being to the Soviets in
Berlin, attended by representatives of the Western Powers.
Canadian troops move into
Amsterdam, after German troops surrender.
May 28 –
William Joyce ("
Lord Haw-Haw") is captured. He is later charged with high treason in
London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January
1946.
German communists, led by Walther Ulbricht, arrive in
Berlin.
Dutch painter
Han van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with the Nazis, but the paintings he had sold to
Hermann Göring (Koch) are later found to be his fakes.
May 30 – The
Iranian government demands that all Soviet and British troops leave the country.
July 16 – The
Trinity Test, the first of an
atomic bomb, using about six kilograms of
plutonium, succeeds in unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 19 kilotons of TNT.
July 26 – The
Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12 permitting Japan to retain the reign of the Emperor has been deleted by President Truman.
[5]
July 30 – WWII: The heavy cruiser
USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 in the
Philippine Sea. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for up to four days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain
Charles B. McVay III of the cruiser is later court-martialed and convicted.
August 7 – President Harry Truman announces the successful bombing of Hiroshima with the
atomic bomb, while returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser
USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean.
WWII: Emperor
Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio. The United States calls this day
V-J Day (Victory in Japan). This ends the period of
Japanese expansionism and begins the period of
Occupied Japan.
WWII:
Korea gains independence following Japan's surrender.
Indonesian nationalists
Soekarno and
Mohammad Hatta declare the independence of the Republic of
Indonesia, with Soekarno as president. Dutch colonial authorities do not approve.
The Russian code clerk
Igor Gouzenko comes forward with numerous documents implicating the Soviet Union in numerous spy rings in
North America: both in the United States and in
Canada.
American troops occupy southern
Korea, while the
Soviet Union occupies the north, with the dividing line being the 38th parallel of latitude. This arrangement proves to be the indirect beginning of a divided
Korea.
Hideki Tōjō, Japanese prime minister during most of WWII, attempts suicide to avoid facing a
war crimes tribunal.
September 9 – The first case of a computer
bug is found: a
moth lodged in a
relay of a
Harvard Mark II computer at the Naval Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.
The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring
Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to that time, it wins several Oscars in the following year.
Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (
ENIAC), is completed. It covers 1,800 square feet (170 m2) of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.
August 24 –
Vince McMahon, is an American professional wrestler, promoter, in-ring announcer, play-by-play commentator and film producer. He currently serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of
World Wrestling Entertainment