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  • 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.




  • 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.




  • 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.


  • Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    Joseph Stalin

    WWII Finished in Europe

    Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    In April 1945, the Red Army seized Berlin, Hitler committed suicide, and Germany surrendered.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    Adolf Hitler

    Death

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    On 30 April 1945, Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery when Hitler shot himself in the head and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule.


  • Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    The Holocaust

    Ravensbrück was liberated

    Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    Ravensbrück was liberated by the Soviets on 30 April.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Hitler and Braun Committed Suicide

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    As Soviet forces continued to fight their way into the centre of Berlin, Hitler and Braun committed suicide on the afternoon of 30 April. Braun took cyanide and Hitler shot himself. Pursuant to Hitler's instructions, their bodies were carried up to the Reich Chancellery garden and burned.


  • Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    Martin Bormann

    Bormann was named as Party Minister

    Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    In accordance with Hitler's last wishes, Bormann was named as Party Minister, thus officially confirming his top position in the Party. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was appointed as the new Reichspräsident (President of Germany) and Goebbels became head of government and Chancellor of Germany. Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide later that day.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    World War II

    Hitler Committed Suicide

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    Two days later after Mussolini's assassination, Hitler committed suicide in besieged Berlin, and he was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels was depressed

    Berlin, Germany
    Monday Apr 30, 1945

    Goebbels was depressed and stated that he would walk around the Chancellery garden until he was killed by the Russian.


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