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  • Vietnam
    1945
    First Indochina War

    The Vietnamese Famine

    Vietnam
    1945

    During the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, Hồ Chí Minh blamed ruthless Japanese exploitation and poor weather for up to two million Vietnamese deaths. The Việt Minh arranged a relief effort in the north, winning wide support there as a result.




  • French Indochina (Now Vietnam)
    1945
    First Indochina War

    The Provisional Government of the French Republic wanted to restore its colonial rule in French Indochina

    French Indochina (Now Vietnam)
    1945

    An armistice was signed between Japan and the United States on August 20, 1945. The Provisional Government of the French Republic wanted to restore its colonial rule in French Indochina as the final step of the Liberation of France.




  • Israel
    1945
    Shimon Peres

    Marriage

    Israel
    1945

    In 1945, Peres married Sonya Gelman, who preferred to remain outside the public eye. They had three children.




  • Norway
    1945
    Harald V

    Returning to Norway

    Norway
    1945

    Prince Harald returned to Norway with his family at the war's end in 1945.




  • Smestad Skole, Konventveien, Oslo, Norway
    1945
    Harald V

    The First Member of The Royal Family To attend Public School

    Smestad Skole, Konventveien, Oslo, Norway
    1945

    In the autumn of 1945, he was enrolled in third grade of Smestad skole as the first member of the royal family to attend public school.




  • Brünnlitz, Czech Republic
    Jan, 1945
    Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List)

    Bribes for Lives

    Brünnlitz, Czech Republic
    Jan, 1945

    In January 1945 a trainload of 250 Jews who had been rejected as workers at a mine in Goleschau in Poland arrived at Brünnlitz. The boxcars were frozen shut when they arrived, and Emilie Schindler waited while an engineer from the factory opened the cars using a soldering iron. Twelve people were dead in the cars, and the remainder were too ill and feeble to work. Emilie took the survivors into the factory and cared for them in a makeshift hospital until the end of the war. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the slaughter of his workers as the Red Army approached.




  • Czech Republic
    1945
    Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List)

    After the war

    Czech Republic
    1945

    As a member of the Nazi Party and the Abwehr intelligence service, Schindler was in danger of being arrested as a war criminal. Bankier, Stern, and several others prepared a statement he could present to the Americans attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives. He was also given a ring, made using gold from dental work taken out of the mouth of Schindlerjude Simon Jeret. The ring was inscribed "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."


  • Japan
    1945
    Chinese Civil War

    Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation

    Japan
    1945

    In the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched the huge Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to attack the Japanese 2 million strong Kwantung Army in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border.


  • University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
    1945
    Computer

    The First Electronic Programmable Computer built In The U.S.

    University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
    1945

    The ENIAC(Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable computer built in the U.S. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus, it was much faster, more flexible, and it was Turing-complete. It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes). Built under the direction of John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge, weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors.


  • China
    1945
    Chinese Civil War

    Communist Party Liberated Zone

    China
    1945

    By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the power of the Communist Party grew considerably. Their main force grew to 1.2 million troops, backed with additional militia of 2 million, totalling 3.2 million troops. Their "Liberated Zone" in 1945 contained 19 base areas, including one-quarter of the country's territory and one-third of its population; this included many important towns and cities.


  • Tokyo, Japan
    1945
    Hirohito

    Emperor Hirohito began a series of individual meetings to consider the progress of the war

    Tokyo, Japan
    1945

    In early 1945, in the wake of the losses in Battle of Leyte, Emperor Hirohito began a series of individual meetings with senior government officials to consider the progress of the war. All but ex-Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe advised continuing the war. Konoe feared a communist revolution even more than defeat in war and urged a negotiated surrender.


  • Tokyo, Japan
    1945
    Hirohito

    The Cabinet had agreed on a Negotiated Surrender

    Tokyo, Japan
    1945

    By mid-June 1945 the cabinet had agreed to approach the Soviet Union to act as a mediator for a negotiated surrender but not before Japan's bargaining position had been improved by repulse of the anticipated Allied invasion of mainland Japan.


  • Poland
    Jan, 1945
    The Holocaust

    Death marches to camps in Germany and Austria

    Poland
    Jan, 1945

    As the Soviet armed forces advanced, the SS closed down the camps in eastern Poland and made efforts to conceal what had happened. The gas chambers were dismantled, the crematoria dynamited, and the mass graves dug up and corpses cremated. From January to April 1945, the SS sent inmates westward on "death marches" to camps in Germany and Austria.


  • Germany
    Monday Jan 1, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Operation North Wind

    Germany
    Monday Jan 1, 1945

    On 1 January 1945, Hitler and his generals launched Operation North Wind. The goal was to break through the lines of the US 7th Army and French 1st Army to support the southern thrust in the Ardennes offensive, the final major German offensive of the war. After limited initial gains by the Germans, the Americans halted the offensive. By 25 January, Operation North Wind had officially ended.


  • Hampton, London, England
    1945
    Alan Turing

    Working on The Design of The ACE

    Hampton, London, England
    1945

    Between 1945 and 1947, Turing lived in Hampton, London, while he worked on the design of the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).


  • U.S.
    1945
    Rosa Parks

    Rosa succeeded in registering to Vote

    U.S.
    1945

    In 1945, despite the Jim Crow laws and discrimination by registrars, she succeeded in registering to vote on her third try.


  • West Hollywood, California, U.S.
    1945
    Igor Stravinsky

    Stravinsky became a Naturalized United States Citizen

    West Hollywood, California, U.S.
    1945

    Stravinsky settled in West Hollywood. He spent more time living in Los Angeles than any other city. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1945.


  • U.S.
    1945
    Nuclear Power

    Little Boy

    U.S.
    1945

    The Little Boy was 120 inches (300 cm) in length, 28 inches (71 cm) in diameter and weighed approximately 9,700 pounds (4,400 kg).


  • Paris, France
    1945
    Charles de Gaulle

    Winston Churchill made his first visit to France since the liberation

    Paris, France
    1945

    On Armistice Day in 1945, Winston Churchill made his first visit to France since the liberation and received a good reception in Paris where he laid a wreath to Georges Clemenceau.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Tuesday Jan 16, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Hitler Transferred His Headquarters To The Führerbunker

    Berlin, Germany
    Tuesday Jan 16, 1945

    Hitler transferred his headquarters to the Führerbunker ("Leader's bunker") in Berlin on 16 January 1945, where he (along with Bormann, his secretary Else Krüger, and others) remained until the end of April.


  • Karkow, Poland
    Wednesday Jan 17, 1945
    Pope John Paul II

    Germans fled the City

    Karkow, Poland
    Wednesday Jan 17, 1945

    On the night of 17 January 1945, the Germans fled the city, and the students reclaimed the ruined seminary. Wojtyła and another seminarian volunteered for the task of clearing away piles of frozen excrement from the toilets. Wojtyła also helped a 14-year-old Jewish refugee girl named Edith Zierer, who had escaped from a Nazi labour camp in Częstochowa.


  • U.S.
    Saturday Jan 20, 1945
    Harry S. Truman

    A Vice President

    U.S.
    Saturday Jan 20, 1945

    Truman's nomination was dubbed the "Second Missouri Compromise" and was well received. The Roosevelt–Truman ticket achieved a 432–99 electoral-vote victory in the election, defeating the Republican ticket of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and running mate Governor John Bricker of Ohio. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1945.


  • Germany
    Sunday Jan 21, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels noted in his diary millions of Germans were fleeing westward

    Germany
    Sunday Jan 21, 1945

    Goebbels noted in his diary on 21 January that millions of Germans were fleeing westward.


  • Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Germany
    Tuesday Jan 23, 1945
    Max Planck

    Erwin (His son) was hanged

    Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Germany
    Tuesday Jan 23, 1945

    In 1944, Planck's son Erwin was arrested by the Gestapo following the attempted assassination of Hitler in the 20 July plot. He was tried and sentenced to death by the People's Court in October 1944. Erwin was hanged at Berlin's Plötzensee Prison in January 1945. The death of his son destroyed much of Planck's will to live.


  • Pomerania, Poland
    Thursday Jan 25, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Commander of the Hastily formed Army Group Vistula

    Pomerania, Poland
    Thursday Jan 25, 1945

    On 25 January 1945, despite Himmler's lack of military experience, Hitler appointed him as commander of the hastily formed Army Group Vistula (Heeresgruppe Weichsel) to halt the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder Offensive into Pomerania. Himmler established his command center at Schneidemühl, using his special train, Sonderzug Steiermark, as his headquarters.


  • Poland
    Saturday Jan 27, 1945
    The Holocaust

    Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviets

    Poland
    Saturday Jan 27, 1945

    On 17 January 1945, 58,000 Auschwitz inmates were sent on a death march westwards; when the camp was liberated by the Soviets on 27 January, they found just 7,000 inmates in the three main camps and 500 in subcamps.


  • Germany
    Saturday Jan 27, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels and his wife discussed suicide

    Germany
    Saturday Jan 27, 1945

    He and Magda may have discussed suicide and the fate of their young children in a long meeting on the night of 27 January.


  • Malta
    Tuesday Jan 30, 1945
    Winston Churchill

    Malta Conference

    Malta
    Tuesday Jan 30, 1945

    From 30 January to 2 February 1945, Churchill and Roosevelt met for their Malta Conference.


  • Tokyo, Japan
    Feb, 1945
    Hirohito

    The First Private audience with The Emperor

    Tokyo, Japan
    Feb, 1945

    In February 1945 during the first private audience with the Emperor which he had been allowed in three years, Konoe advised Hirohito to begin negotiations to end the war.


  • Germany
    1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Planning secret Peace Negotiation

    Germany
    1945

    In early 1945, the German war effort was on the verge of collapse and Himmler's relationship with Hitler had deteriorated. Himmler considered independently negotiating a peace settlement. His masseur, Felix Kersten, who had moved to Sweden, acted as an intermediary in negotiations with Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross. Letters were exchanged between the two men, and direct meetings were arranged by Walter Schellenberg of the RSHA.


  • Poland and Eastern Germany
    Friday Feb 2, 1945
    World War II

    Vistula–Oder Offensive ended

    Poland and Eastern Germany
    Friday Feb 2, 1945

    The Vistula–Oder Offensive was a Red Army operation on the Eastern Front in January 1945. The army made a major advance into German-held territory, capturing Kraków, Warsaw and Poznań. The offensive lasted from 12 January till 2 February 1945. As result, most of Poland occupied by the Soviet Union.


  • London, United Kingdom
    Feb, 1945
    Queen Elizabeth II

    Elizabeth appointed as an honorary second subaltern

    London, United Kingdom
    Feb, 1945

    In February 1945, she was appointed as an honorary second subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service with the service number of 230873.


  • Yalta, Crimea, U.S.S.R.
    Sunday Feb 4, 1945
    World War II

    Yalta Conference

    Yalta, Crimea, U.S.S.R.
    Sunday Feb 4, 1945

    On 4 February, Soviet, British, and US leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.


  • Yalta, Crimea
    Sunday Feb 4, 1945
    Winston Churchill

    Yalta Conference

    Yalta, Crimea
    Sunday Feb 4, 1945

    Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin had been met at the Yalta Conference, February 1945.


  • Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica
    Tuesday Feb 6, 1945
    Bob Marley

    Born

    Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica
    Tuesday Feb 6, 1945

    Bob Marley was born on 6 February 1945 at the farm of his maternal grandfather in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica.


  • Italy
    Wednesday Feb 7, 1945
    08:38:00 PM
    Benito Mussolini

    The Porzûs massacre

    Italy
    Wednesday Feb 7, 1945
    08:38:00 PM

    The Porzûs massacre was an intra-partisan massacre of the Italian resistance during late World War II, on 7 February 1945.


  • Dresden, Germany
    Tuesday Feb 13, 1945
    Winston Churchill

    Bombing of Dresden

    Dresden, Germany
    Tuesday Feb 13, 1945

    On the nights of 13–15 February 1945, some 1,200 British and US bombers attacked the German city of Dresden, which was crowded with wounded and refugees from the Eastern Front. The attacks were part of an area bombing campaign that was initiated by Churchill in January with the intention of shortening the war. Churchill came to regret the bombing because initial reports suggested an excessive number of civilian casualties close to the end of the war, though an independent commission in 2010 confirmed a death toll between 22,700 and 25,000.


  • Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
    Tuesday Feb 13, 1945
    World War II

    Fall of Budapest

    Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
    Tuesday Feb 13, 1945

    The Siege of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest. The city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945. It was a strategic victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin.


  • Northern Italy
    Mar, 1945
    World War II

    Gothic Line

    Northern Italy
    Mar, 1945

    In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line. The Gothic Line was a German defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War II. It formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defense along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander (25 August 1944 – Early March 1945).


  • U.S.
    Thursday Mar 1, 1945
    John F. Kennedy

    Kennedy Retired

    U.S.
    Thursday Mar 1, 1945

    On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant.


  • Manila, Philippines
    Mar, 1945
    World War II

    U.S. forces recaptured Manila

    Manila, Philippines
    Mar, 1945

    U.S. forces landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March.


  • Serbia (Yugoslavia)
    Wednesday Mar 7, 1945
    Josip Broz Tito

    The provisional government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (Demokratska Federativna Jugoslavija, DFY) was assembled in Belgrade

    Serbia (Yugoslavia)
    Wednesday Mar 7, 1945

    On 7 March 1945, the provisional government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (Demokratska Federativna Jugoslavija, DFY) was assembled in Belgrade by Josip Broz Tito, while the provisional name allowed for either a republic or monarchy.


  • France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Germany
    Thursday Mar 8, 1945
    World War II

    The Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine

    France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Germany
    Thursday Mar 8, 1945

    The Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine (25 August 1944–7 March 1945), also known as the Siegfried Line campaign, was a phase in the Western European campaign of the World War.


  • Tokyo, Japan
    Thursday Mar 8, 1945
    World War II

    Bombing of Tokyo

    Tokyo, Japan
    Thursday Mar 8, 1945

    A devastating bombing raid on Tokyo of 9–10 March was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.


  • French Indochina (Now Vietnam)
    Friday Mar 9, 1945
    First Indochina War

    The Second French Indochina Campaign

    French Indochina (Now Vietnam)
    Friday Mar 9, 1945

    In March 1945, Japan launched the Second French Indochina Campaign to oust the Vichy French and formally installed Emperor Bảo Đại as head of the nominally independent Empire of Vietnam. The Japanese arrested and imprisoned most of the French officials and military officers remaining in the country.


  • Australia
    Thursday Mar 15, 1945
    Penicillin

    Australia was the first country to make the drug available for civilian use

    Australia
    Thursday Mar 15, 1945

    After World War II, Australia was the first country to make the drug available for civilian use. In the U.S., penicillin was made available to the general public on March 15, 1945.


  • Nassau, Bahamas
    Friday Mar 16, 1945
    Edward VIII

    Resignation

    Nassau, Bahamas
    Friday Mar 16, 1945

    He resigned from the post on 16 March 1945.


  • Poland
    1945
    Itzak Stern

    Marriage

    Poland
    1945

    In 1938, Stern was engaged to Sophia Backenrot, who survived the war due to her Aryan appearance in the Drohobycz ghetto. Their marriage was postponed until the end of the war in 1945.


  • United Kingdom
    Wednesday Mar 28, 1945
    Winston Churchill

    Churchill decided to restrict area bombing and sent a memorandum to General Ismay

    United Kingdom
    Wednesday Mar 28, 1945

    On 28 March, he decided to restrict area bombing and sent a memorandum to General Ismay for the Chiefs of Staff Committee: The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing..... I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives..... rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.


  • Northern Burma and Western Yunnan, China
    Mar, 1945
    World War II

    Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan

    Northern Burma and Western Yunnan, China
    Mar, 1945

    Chinese forces invaded northern Burma.


  • Upper Silesia, Germany
    Saturday Mar 31, 1945
    World War II

    Upper Silesian Offensive

    Upper Silesia, Germany
    Saturday Mar 31, 1945

    In February, the Soviets entered Upper Silesia.


  • India
    Apr, 1945
    Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

    Gandhi's letter to Birla

    India
    Apr, 1945

    Gandhi tried to test and prove to himself his brahmacharya. The experiments began some time after the death of his wife in February 1944. At the start of his experiment, he had women sleep in the same room but in different beds. He later slept with women in the same bed but clothed, and finally, he slept naked with women. In April 1945, Gandhi referenced being naked with several "women or girls" in a letter to Birla as part of the experiments.


  • Germany
    1945
    Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List)

    Separation and reunion

    Germany
    1945

    To escape being captured by the Russians, Schindler and his wife departed westward in their vehicle, a two-seater Horch, initially with several fleeing German soldiers riding on the running boards. A truck containing Schindler's mistress Marta, several Jewish workers, and a load of black market trade goods followed behind. The Horch was confiscated by Russian troops at the town of Budweis, which had already been captured by Russian troops. The Schindlers were unable to recover a diamond that Oskar had hidden under the seat. They continued by train and on foot until they reached the American lines at the town of Lenora, and then traveled to Passau, where an American Jewish officer arranged for them to travel to Switzerland by train. They moved to Bavaria in Germany in the fall of 1945.


  • Vietnam
    Apr, 1945
    Ho Chi Minh

    Ho met with the OSS agent Archimedes Patti

    Vietnam
    Apr, 1945

    In April 1945, he met with the OSS agent Archimedes Patti and offered to provide intelligence to the allies provided that he could have "a line of communication with the allie". The OSS agreed to this and later sent a military team of OSS members to train his men and Hồ Chí Minh himself was treated for malaria and dysentery by an OSS doctor.


  • Moscow, Russia (then Soviet Union)
    Apr, 1945
    Hirohito

    The Soviet Union issued notice that it would not renew its neutrality agreement

    Moscow, Russia (then Soviet Union)
    Apr, 1945

    With each passing week victory became less likely. In April the Soviet Union issued notice that it would not renew its neutrality agreement. Japan's ally Germany surrendered in early May 1945.


  • Pomerania, Danzig-West Prussia inside Germany
    Wednesday Apr 4, 1945
    World War II

    East Pomeranian Offensive

    Pomerania, Danzig-West Prussia inside Germany
    Wednesday Apr 4, 1945

    Soviets entered Pomerania. The offensive lasted from 24 February to 4 April 1945.


  • Zhijiang, Huaihua, Hunan, China
    Friday Apr 6, 1945
    Second Sino-Japanese War

    Battle of West Hunan

    Zhijiang, Huaihua, Hunan, China
    Friday Apr 6, 1945

    In Spring 1945 the Chinese launched offensives that retook Hunan and Guangxi.


  • Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
    1945
    Penicillin

    Florey and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine

    Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
    1945

    Florey and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Fleming for their work.


  • Königsberg, East Prussia (Present Day Kaliningrad, Russia)
    Sunday Apr 8, 1945
    World War II

    Fall of Königsberg

    Königsberg, East Prussia (Present Day Kaliningrad, Russia)
    Sunday Apr 8, 1945

    The Battle of Königsberg was one of the last operations of the East Prussian Offensive. The siege started in late January 1945 when the Soviets initially surrounded the city. The battle ended when the German garrison surrendered to the Soviets on 9 April after a three-day assault made their position untenable. As result, Königsberg and its surrounding areas are annexed by the Soviet Union.


  • Weimar, Germany
    Wednesday Apr 11, 1945
    The Holocaust

    Buchenwald was liberated

    Weimar, Germany
    Wednesday Apr 11, 1945

    Buchenwald was liberated by the Americans on 11 April.


  • U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    Harry S. Truman

    Truman's brief vice-presidency was relatively uneventful

    U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945

    Truman had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.


  • U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    Harry S. Truman

    A President

    U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945

    33rd President of the United States.


  • Germany
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels knew how to play on Hitler's fantasies

    Germany
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945

    Goebbels knew how to play on Hitler's fantasies, encouraging him to see the hand of providence in the death of the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on 12 April.


  • U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    World War II

    Roosevelt death

    U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945

    Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry S. Truman.


  • Warm Springs, Georgia, U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    03:35:00 PM
    Franklin D. Roosevelt

    Death

    Warm Springs, Georgia, U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    03:35:00 PM

    On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific headache." He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed the medical emergency as a massive cerebral hemorrhage. At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died at the age of 63.


  • U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945
    Charles de Gaulle

    Roosevelt died

    U.S.
    Thursday Apr 12, 1945

    On 12 April 1945, Roosevelt died, and despite their uneasy relationship de Gaulle declared a week of mourning in France and forwarded an emotional and conciliatory letter to the new American president, Harry S. Truman, in which he said of Roosevelt, "all of France loved him".


  • Lake Balaton, Kingdom of Hungary
    Sunday Apr 15, 1945
    World War II

    Operation Spring Awakening - Last German major offensive

    Lake Balaton, Kingdom of Hungary
    Sunday Apr 15, 1945

    In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and to retake Budapest, Germany launched its last major offensive against Soviet troops near Lake Balaton. In two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed. The operation lasted from 6 to 16 March, while the Soviet counter attack took place between 16 March to 15 April 1945.


  • Germany
    Sunday Apr 15, 1945
    The Holocaust

    Bergen-Belsen was liberated

    Germany
    Sunday Apr 15, 1945

    Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British on 15 April.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 16, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    The Battle of Berlin

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 16, 1945

    The Battle of Berlin, the final major Soviet offensive of the war, began on 16 April 1945.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 16, 1945
    World War II

    Fall of Berlin

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 16, 1945

    Soviet forces stormed and captured Berlin in late April. The battle started on 16 April 1945.


  • Ruhr Area, Germany
    Wednesday Apr 18, 1945
    World War II

    Ruhr Pocket

    Ruhr Area, Germany
    Wednesday Apr 18, 1945

    By April, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B. The battle of encirclement took place from 1 to 18 April.


  • Germany
    Wednesday Apr 18, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels burned his private papers

    Germany
    Wednesday Apr 18, 1945

    He knew how the outside world would view the criminal acts committed by the regime, and had no desire to subject himself to the "debacle" of a trial. He burned his private papers on the night of 18 April.


  • Japan
    Wednesday Apr 18, 1945
    World War II

    Air raids on Japan

    Japan
    Wednesday Apr 18, 1945

    United States Army Air Forces launched a massive firebombing campaign of strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale.


  • United Kingdom
    Thursday Apr 19, 1945
    The Holocaust

    Belsen report "Victims of The Holocaust on Belsen"

    United Kingdom
    Thursday Apr 19, 1945

    The British 11th Armoured Division found around 60,000 prisoners (90 percent Jews) when they liberated Bergen-Belsen, as well as 13,000 unburied corpses; another 10,000 people died from typhus or malnutrition over the following weeks. The BBC's war correspondent Richard Dimbleby described the scenes that greeted him and the British Army at Belsen, in a report so graphic the BBC declined to broadcast it for four days, and did so, on 19 April, only after Dimbleby threatened to resign.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Thursday Apr 19, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    The Red Army started to Encircle Berlin

    Berlin, Germany
    Thursday Apr 19, 1945

    By 19 April the Red Army started to encircle the city.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945
    Adolf Hitler

    Last trip from the Führerbunker

    Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945

    On 20 April, his 56th birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the Führerbunker (Führer's shelter) to the surface.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Last Meeting

    Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945

    Himmler and Hitler met for the last time on 20 April 1945—Hitler's birthday—in Berlin, and Himmler swore unswerving loyalty to Hitler. At a military briefing on that day, Hitler stated that he would not leave Berlin, in spite of Soviet advances. Along with Göring, Himmler quickly left the city after the briefing.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Hitler's 56th Birthday

    Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945

    On 20 April, Hitler's 56th birthday, he made his last trip to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery, he awarded Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth. That afternoon, Berlin was bombarded by Soviet artillery for the first time.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Most of Hitler's inner circle to leave Berlin

    Berlin, Germany
    Friday Apr 20, 1945

    Most of Hitler's inner circle, including Göring, Himmler, Ribbentrop, and Speer, prepared to leave Berlin immediately after Hitler's birthday celebration on 20 April.


  • Seelow Heights, Province of Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany
    Saturday Apr 21, 1945
    Adolf Hitler

    Battle of the Seelow

    Seelow Heights, Province of Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany
    Saturday Apr 21, 1945

    By 21 April, Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the defenses of General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula during the Battle of the Seelow Heights and advanced to the outskirts of Berlin.


  • Germany
    Saturday Apr 21, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Release of Jewish Concentration Camp

    Germany
    Saturday Apr 21, 1945

    On 21 April, Himmler met with Norbert Masur, a Swedish representative of the World Jewish Congress, to discuss the release of Jewish concentration camp inmates.


  • Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, Germany
    Monday Apr 23, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Albert Bormann Left The Bunker complex and flew to the Obersalzberg

    Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, Germany
    Monday Apr 23, 1945

    On 23 April, Albert Bormann left the bunker complex and flew to the Obersalzberg. He and several others had been ordered by Hitler to leave Berlin.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 23, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels made the last proclamation to the people of Berlin

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 23, 1945

    On 23 April, Goebbels made the following proclamation to the people of Berlin: I call on you to fight for your city. Fight with everything you have got, for the sake of your wives and your children, your mothers, and your parents. Your arms are defending everything we have ever held dear, and all the generations that will come after us. Be proud and courageous! Be inventive and cunning! Your Gauleiter is amongst you. He and his colleagues will remain in your midst. His wife and children are here as well. He, who once captured the city with 200 men, will now use every means to galvanize the defense of the capital. The battle for Berlin must become the signal for the whole nation to rise up in battle ...".


  • Germany
    Monday Apr 23, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Himmler met directly with Bernadotte

    Germany
    Monday Apr 23, 1945

    On 23 April, Himmler met directly with Bernadotte at the Swedish consulate in Lübeck. Representing himself as the provisional leader of Germany, he claimed that Hitler would be dead within the next few days. Hoping that the British and Americans would fight the Soviets alongside what remained of the Wehrmacht, Himmler asked Bernadotte to inform General Dwight Eisenhower that Germany wished to surrender to the Western Allies, and not to the Soviet Union.


  • East Prussia (Present Day in Poland)
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945
    World War II

    East Prussian Offensive

    East Prussia (Present Day in Poland)
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945

    The East Prussian Offensive was a strategic offensive by the Soviet Red Army against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front (World War II). It lasted from 13 January to 25 April 1945, though some German units did not surrender until 9 May. The Battle of Königsberg was a major part of the offensive, which ended in victory for the Red Army.


  • San Francisco, California, U.S.
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945
    W. E. B. Du Bois

    United Nations Conference on International Organization

    San Francisco, California, U.S.
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945

    Du Bois was a member of the three-person delegation from the NAACP that attended the 1945 conference in San Francisco at which the United Nations was established.


  • Italy
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Gerda Bormann and the Children fled Obersalzberg for Italy

    Italy
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945

    Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.


  • Spain
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945
    Benito Mussolini

    Escaping to Spain

    Spain
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945

    On 25 April 1945, Allied troops were advancing into northern Italy, and the collapse of the Salò Republic was imminent. Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci set out for Switzerland, intending to board a plane and escape to Spain.


  • San Francisco, California, U.S.
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945
    United Nations

    United Nations Conference on International Organization

    San Francisco, California, U.S.
    Wednesday Apr 25, 1945

    After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the UN Charter.


  • Germany
    Friday Apr 27, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Himmler's SS representative was caught and brought back to the Führerbunker

    Germany
    Friday Apr 27, 1945

    On 27 April, Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin, Hermann Fegelein, was caught in civilian clothes preparing to desert; he was arrested and brought back to the Führerbunker.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Saturday Apr 28, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Negotiations with the western Allies

    Berlin, Germany
    Saturday Apr 28, 1945

    On the evening of 28 April, the BBC broadcast a Reuters news report about Himmler's attempted negotiations with the western Allies. Hitler had long considered Himmler to be second only to Joseph Goebbels in loyalty; he called Himmler "the loyal Heinrich".


  • Italy
    Saturday Apr 28, 1945
    World War II

    Benito Mussolini was killed

    Italy
    Saturday Apr 28, 1945

    Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April.


  • Italy
    Saturday Apr 28, 1945
    Benito Mussolini

    Mussolini's death

    Italy
    Saturday Apr 28, 1945

    Mussolini was dead by execution by firing squad at Giulino di Mezzegra, Kingdom of Italy.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    Adolf Hitler

    Hitler removed Göring from all government positions

    Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Göring should assume leadership of Germany. Göring set a deadline, after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated. Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament of 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    Adolf Hitler

    Marriage

    Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    After midnight on the night of 28–29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in the Führerbunker.


  • Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Bormann was Named Executor of The Estate

    Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    In the early morning hours of 29 April 1945, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Goebbels, Hans Krebs, and Bormann witnessed and signed Hitler's last will and testament. Bormann was named executor of the estate. That same night, Hitler married Eva Braun in a civil ceremony.


  • Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    Heinrich Himmler

    Himmler and Göring are traitors

    Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    On 29 April—one day prior to his suicide—Hitler declared both Himmler and Göring to be traitors. He stripped Himmler of all of his party and state offices and expelled him from the Nazi Party.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels and Bormann were witnesses to Hitlers

    Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    Hitler then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament. Goebbels and Bormann were two of the witnesses.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    World War II

    German forces surrender

    Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    Soviet and Polish forces stormed and captured Berlin in late April. In Italy, German forces surrendered on 29 April. On 30 April, the Reichstag was captured, signaling the military defeat of Nazi Germany, Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 May.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Hitler married Eva Braun before his suicide

    Berlin, Germany
    Sunday Apr 29, 1945

    After midnight on 29 April, with the Soviets advancing ever closer to the bunker complex, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony within the Führerbunker.


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