1945

Events from the year 1945 in the United States. World War II ends. Cold War begins.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY) (until April 12), Harry S. Truman (D-MO) (starting April 12)
* Vice President:
** until January 20: Henry A. Wallace (D-IA)
** January 20–April 12: Harry S. Truman (D-MO)
** starting April 12: vacant
* Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone (NY)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
* Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley (D-KY)
* Congress: 78th (until January 3), 79th (starting January 3)
==Events==
===January===
* January 1 – World War II: Operation Bodenplatte.
* January 2 – American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium.
* January 6
** Naval lieutenant George H. W. Bush, future President of the United States, and future First Lady Barbara Pierce marry in Rye, New York.
** Le Pew makes his debut as the first major Looney Tunes character, in "Odor-able Kitty"
* January 20 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, reaches a third term in office. Harry S. Truman is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
* January 25 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge ends.
* January 30 – Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American POWs from the Japanese-held camp at Cabanatuan City, Philippines.
* January 31 – Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad for desertion, the first American soldier since the American Civil War, and last to date to be executed for this offense.
===February===
* February 2 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill leave to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference.
* February 3
** World War II: United States forces capture Battle of Manila, Philippines from the Japanese Imperial Army.
** Walt Disney Productions' seventh feature film, The Three Caballeros, is released. It is Disney's second of six package films to be released through the 1940s and the first feature film to incorporate traditional animation with live-action actors.
* February 4 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin begin the Yalta Conference (ends February 11).
* February 7 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
* February 16
** Combined American and Filipino forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
** American and Filipino ground forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
* February 19 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima begins: About 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
* February 23
** The American and Filipino troops enter Intramuros, Manila.
** The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops.
** Battle of Iwo Jima: A group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (taken by Joe Rosenthal), later wins a Pulitzer Prize.
===March===
* March 1
** President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.
** World War II: Gothic Line ends.
* March 2 – Former Vice President Henry Agard Wallace starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Roosevelt.
* March 3 – World War II: United States and Filipino troops take Battle of Manila, Philippines.
* March 4 – World War II: Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan ends.
* March 7 – World War II: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.
* March 15 – The 17th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by John Cromwell and Bob Hope, is held at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles, broadcast via radio for the first time. Leo McCarey's Going My Way wins Outstanding Motion Picture. The film also wins the most awards overall with seven, including McCarey's second win for Best Director, and ties for the most nominations with Henry King's Wilson, both with ten.
* March 19 – World War II: Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.
* March 20 – Project Hula begins.
* March 22 – World War II: Western Allied invasion of Germany begins.
* March 24 – The cartoon character Sylvester the cat debuts in Life with Feathers.
* March 26 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima ends.
* March 29 – The "Clash of Titans" in basketball: George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden as OSU defeats DePaul 52–44.
===April===
* April 1 – World War II: Battle of Okinawa: United States troops land on Okinawa.
* April 4 – World War II: American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
* April 6
** World War II: Spring 1945 offensive in Italy begins.
** World War II: Battle of West Hunan begins.
* April 7 – The only flight of the German ramming unit known as the Sonderkommando Elbe takes place, resulting in the loss of some 24 B-17s and B-24s of the United States Eighth Air Force.
* April 12
** President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President.
** World War II: Combined Bomber Offensive ends.
* April 18 – The American war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off Okinawa.
* April 19 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, a musical play based on Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, opens on Broadway and becomes their second long-running stage classic.
* April 25
** World War II: Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two.
** Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
* April 27 – U.S. Ordnance troops find the coffins of 18th-century Prussian kings Frederick Wilhelm I and Frederick the Great, in addition to German President Paul Von Hindenburg and his wife.
===May===
* May 1 – World War II: Borneo campaign begins.
* May 2
** World War II: Operation Crossbow ends.
** World War II: Spring 1945 offensive in Italy ends.
* May 3 – Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to U.S. forces (later he became at the forefront and a pioneer of the U.S. space program).
* May 5
** A Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb kills five children and a grown 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 World War II.
** The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp, including Simon Wiesenthal.
** Ezra Pound, the poet and author, is arrested by American soldiers in Italy for treason.
** The cartoon character Yosemite Sam debuts in Hare Trigger.
* May 8 – Victory in Europe Day: The Allies accept Germany's unconditional surrender.
* May 9 – Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army; Norway arrests the traitor Vidkun Quisling.
* May 31 – World War II: Raid on Taipei.
===June===
* June 9 – World War II: Battle of West Hunan ends.
* June 22 - World War II: Battle of Okinawa ends.
===July===
* July 8 – World War II: President Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if it can retain the Emperor.
* July 9 – A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn (the third in that area of Oregon since 1933).
* July 14 - World War II: Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II begins.
* July 15 – The Scott Morrison Award of Minor Hockey Excellence is first given; the first recipient is Gordie Howe.
* July 16 – The Trinity test detonates the world's first atomic bomb.
* July 21 – World War II: President Harry S. Truman approves the order for atomic bombs to be used against Japan.
* July 28 – A U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people, including all on board.
* July 30 – World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from the 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===
* August 1 - World War II: Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II ends.
* August 6 – World War II: Atomic bombing of Hiroshima: The United States drops an atomic bomb (nicknamed "Little Boy") on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m. (local time). This sent shockwaves throughout the world as the first atomic bomb used on civilians.
* 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 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
** World War II: Burma campaign ends.
* August 8 – The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States Senate, and this nation becomes the third one to join the new international organization.
* August 9 – The United States drops an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan, at 11:02 a.m. (local time).
* August 14 – Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio. The United States calls this day V-J Day (Victory over Japan). This ends the period of Japanese expansionism and begins the period of Occupied Japan.
* August 15 – World War II: Philippines campaign ends.
* August 17 – The United States and the U.S.S.R. split up the Korean Peninsula making North Korea and South Korea.
* August 30 – World War II: Borneo campaign ends.
===September===
* September 2
** World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States, and delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, China, and others from a Japanese delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, on board the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay (but in Japan August 14 is recognized as the day the Pacific War ended).
** Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
* September 5
** 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.
** Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose", is arrested in Yokohama.
* September 8 – 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.
* September 9 – The first actual case of a (computer) bug being found, is a moth lodged in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at the Naval Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.
* September 13 – Burma campaign ends.
* September 20 – The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) is disbanded and split up among several other agencies.
* September 30 – Project Hula ends.
===October===
* October 3 – The Detroit Tigers win the World Series against the Chicago Cubs.
* October 5 – A strike by the Set Decorator's Union in Hollywood results in a riot.
* October 23 – Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals.
* October 29 – At Gimbel's Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.
===November===
* November 15 – Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee, and Mackenzie King call for a U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.
* November 16
** Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
** The cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost debuts, in The Friendly Ghost.
** The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to this time, it wins several Academy Awards the following year.
** Yeshiva College is founded in New York City.
===December===
* December 4 – By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations.
* December 21 – General George S. Patton dies from injuries sustained in a car accident on December 9.
* December 24 – Sodder children disappearance: Five of nine children go missing after their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is burned down.
==Memoriam==
* January 3 – Edgar Cayce, mysticist (aged 67; Virginia Beach, VA, USA)
* January 6 – William Noble, missionary (aged 78; Stockton, CA, USA)
* January 7
** Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor (aged 74; New York City, NY, USA)
** Thomas McGuire, fighter ace (aged 24; Negros, Philippines)
* January 13 – Margaret Deland, novelist (aged 87; Boston, MA, USA)
* January 23 – Newton E. Mason, U.S. Navy rear admiral (aged 94; Coronado, CA, USA)
* January 25 – Volga Hayworth, showgirl (aged 47; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 30 – Herbert L. Clarke, cornet virtuoso (aged 77; Long Beach, CA, USA)
* January 31 – Eddie Slovik, soldier (aged 24; Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France)
* February 2
** Joe Hunt, tennis player (aged 25; Daytona Beach, FL, USA)
** William E. Johnson, leader of the Anti-Saloon League (aged 82; Chenango County, NY, USA)
* February 11 – Al Dubin, songwriter (aged 53; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 18 – Jimmy Butler, actor (killed in action) (aged 23; Theding, France)
* February 26
** James Roy Andersen, general (killed in action) (aged 40; Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands)
** Millard Harmon, general (lost on active service) (aged 57; Marshall Islands)
* March 1
** Harlon Block (aged 20; Iwo Jima, Japan)
** Henry Oliver Hansen (aged 25; Iwo Jima, Japan)
** Michael Strank (aged 25; Iwo Jima, Japan)
* March 3 – Bessie Alexander Ficklen, doggerel poet and hand puppet specialist (aged 83; Chatham County, GA, USA)
* March 4
** Charles W. Bryan, 20th and 23rd Governor of Nebraska (aged 78; Lincoln, NE, USA)
** Lucille La Verne, actress (aged 72; Culver City, CA, USA)
** Mark Sandrich, film director (aged 44; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 8 – Jack Lummus, athlete and Medal of Honor recipient (killed in action) (aged 29; Iwo Jima, Japan)
* March 21 – Franklin Sousley, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (killed in Battle of Iwo Jima) (aged 19; Iwo Jima, Japan)
* March 22 – John Hessin Clarke, Supreme Court Justice (aged 87; San Diego, CA, USA)
* March 30 – Maurice Rose, U.S. Army general (aged 45; Paderborn, Germany)
* March 31 – Harriet Boyd Hawes, archaeologist (aged 73; Washington, DC, USA)
* April 10 – Gloria Dickson, actress (aged 27; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 12 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (aged 63; Warm Springs, GA, USA)
* April 17 – Ernie Pyle, journalist (aged 44; Iejima, Japan)
* April 29 – Malcolm McGregor, silent film actor (aged 52; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* April 30 – William Orlando Darby, U.S. Army colonel, creator of the Rangers (aged 34; Torbloe, Italy)
* May 5 – George Cary, architect (aged 86; Buffalo, NY, USA)
* May 14 – Heber J. Grant, 7th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aged 88; Salt Lake City, UT, USA)
* May 17 – Bobby Hutchins, Our Gang films child actor (aged 20; Merced, CA, USA)
* May 18 – William Joseph Simmons, founder of the second Ku Klux Klan (aged 65; Atlanta, GA, USA)
* May 21
** Horace B. Carpenter, actor (aged 70; Hollywood, CA, USA)
** Frank Cable, naval architect (aged 81; New London, CT, USA)
* June 16 – Henry Bellamann, author (aged 63; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 18 – Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., U.S. Army general (aged 58; Okinawa, Japan)
* June 20 – Bruno Frank, German author, poet, dramatist and humanist (aged 58; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* July 8 – Victor Murdock, politician and newspaper editor (aged 74; Wichita, KS, USA)
* July 13 – Alla Nazimova, scriptwriter and actress (aged 66; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 16 – Jack Randall, Western film actor (aged 39; Canoga Park, CA, USA)
* July 19 – George Barbier, actor (aged 80; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* July 25 – Charles Gilman Norris, novelist (aged 64; Palo Alto, CA, USA)
* August 6 – Hiram Johnson, attorney and politician (aged 78; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* August 9 – Harry Hillman, track athlete (aged 63; Hanover, NH, USA)
* August 10 – Robert H. Goddard, rocket scientist (aged 62; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* August 25 – Willis Augustus Lee, U.S. Navy admiral and Olympic shooter (aged 57; ME, USA)
* September 1 – Frank Craven, actor (aged 70; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* September 6 – John S. McCain Sr., U.S. Navy admiral (aged 61; Coronado, CA, USA)
* September 15 – Harry Daghlian, physicist (aged 24; Los Alamos, NM, USA)
* September 18 – Blind Willie Johnson, African American gospel singer and guitarist (aged 48; Beaumont, TX, USA)
* September 20 – Jack Thayer, survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (aged 50; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* September 26 – A. Peter Dewey, soldier, first American casualty in Vietnam (aged 28; Saigon, Vietnam)
* October 1
** Walter Bradford Cannon, physiologist (aged 73; Franklin, NH, USA)
** George Van Haltren, baseball player (aged 79; Oakland, CA, USA)
* October 11 – Max S. Hayes, newspaper editor, trade union activist, and politician (aged 79; Cleveland, OH, USA)
* October 13 – Milton S. Hershey, chocolate tycoon (aged 88; Hershey, PA, USA)
* October 24 – Charles D. Barney, stockbroker (aged 101; Elkins Park, PA, USA)
* October 28 – Gilbert Emery, film actor and author (aged 70; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 7 – Gus Edwards, songwriter (aged 67; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* November 11 – Jerome Kern, popular composer (aged 61; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* November 21
** Robert Benchley, humorist, theater critic and actor (aged 56; New York City, NY, USA)
** Ellen Glasgow, novelist (aged 72; Richmond, VA, USA)
** Alexander Patch, U.S. Army general (aged 55; Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA)
* November 23 – Charles Armijo Woodruff, U.S. Navy officer and 11th Governor of American Samoa from 1914 to 1915 (aged 61; Brooklyn, NY, USA)
* November 25 – Doris Keane, stage actress (aged 63; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 26 – Johnny Jenkins, auto racing driver (aged 70; Brownsville, TX, USA)
* November 28 – Dwight F. Davis, tennis player (aged 66; Washington, DC, USA)
* December 4 – Thomas Hunt Morgan, biologist, geneticist and embryologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 (aged 79; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* December 21 – George S. Patton, U.S. Army general (aged 60; Heidelberg, Germany)
* December 26 – Russell Gleason, actor (aged 37; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 28 – Theodore Dreiser, novelist (aged 74; Hollywood, CA, USA)
==External links==
* 1945 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 17