Edith Lieber Vonnegut, mother, commits suicide. Vonnegut captured during the Battle of the Bulge while a battalion scout with the 106 Infantry Division. 1945 February 13. Dresden, Germany bombed killing 135,000 citizens. Vonnegut and fellow Allied POWs take shelter in an underground meatlocker, the basis of Slaughterhouse-Five .
Soviet troops occupy Dresden.
Awarded the Purple Heart. U.S. bombs Hiroshima with the planet's first display of atomic weapons killing 71,379 people. Marries high school classmate Jane Marie Cox whom he first met in kindergarten. Enrolls in University of Chicago's M.A. program in anthropolgy. Works as a reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau.