- January 6
- Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Quemadmodum. [1]
- January 7
- Cambodia becomes autonomous state inside French Union. [1]
- The recently elected government of Austria is recognized by the US, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. [10]
- In Budapest, Hungary, former Hungarian Premier Laszlo de Bardossy is hanged. He had been sentenced to death for high treason by the Budapest Peoples Court in November. [10]
- In Budapest, Hungary, the People's Court sentences to death Dr. Vitez Laszlo Endre, former Under-Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Laszlo Vaky, former chief of gendarmes, and Andor Jaross, former Minister of the Interior. They were found responsible for the expulsion or extermination of 600,000 Jews and other crimes. [10]
- January 10
- United Nations General Assembly convenes for first time (London, England). [1]
- US Army establishes first radar contact with Moon, from Belmar, New Jersey. [1]
- January 11
- Enver Hoxha declares People's Republic of Albania with himself dictator. [1]
- January 13
- India announces its total expenditure during the war: US$12 billion, with US$1.1 billion directly against Germany. Total casualties: 180,000. [10]
- January 14
- The United States announces its total expenditure during the war: US$200 billion. [10]
vvv advertisement vvv
^^^ advertisement ^^^
- Two jetties collapse in Ganges - 160 Hindu pilgrims are crushed. [1]
- The Soviet-Polish border treaty of August 1945 is ratified by the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union. [10]
- January 17
- United Nations Security Council holds its first meeting. [1]
- In Niemodlin, Lower Silesia, the bodies of 40,000 murdered Allied prisoners are found in a mass grave. The prisoners were killed in the Lambinowice concentration camp. [10]
- In Nikolayev, Russia, seven Germans are hanged for the killing of 105,000 Russians during the war. Two others are sentenced to twenty years in prison. [10]
- January 20
- F Gouin follows Charles De Gaulle as temporary leader of French government. [1]
- January 22
- US President sets up Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. [1] [5]
- January 23
- In Paris, France, the Court of Justice condemns Jean Luchaire to death for collaborating with Germans for personal gain. [10]
- January 29
- In Kiev, a military tribunal senetences twelve German officers and soldiers to hanging for the murder of Soviets. Four others receive prison sentences of 15-20 years. [10]
- The government of Canada announces that all German war prisoners in the country will be moved to Great Britain. [10]
- January 30
- The Austrian government submits to the European Advisory Council its claims of reparations from Germany, totaling US$7.65 billion. [10]
- January 31
- Yugoslavia, consisting of Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, becomes a federal republic, headed by Communist leader Marshal Tito. [1] [129]
- February 1
- Republic of Hungary proclaimed, Zolt n Tildy as communist president. [1]
- Trygve Lie, a Norwegian socialist, becomes first Secretary-General of United Nations. [1]
- February 2
- An Austrian court sentences former Finance Minister Rudolf Neumayer to life imprisonment for treason, for voting in favor of annexation with Germany. [10]
- Two Italian archaeological libraries stolen by Germany during the war are returned to Rome. [10]
- The Supreme Allied Headquarters reports casualties of the Hiroshima blast: 78,150 dead, 13,983 missing, 9,428 serious and 27,997 minor injuries, 176,987 general sufferers. [10]
- The US Navy Department announces US submarine fleet sunk 1,944 Japanese major vessels during the war, including 194 warships, killing 276,000. The Navy also admits that the US violated the 1930 London Naval Treaty in ordering unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan. [10]
- February 5
- The United States recognizes the government of Romania. [10]
- February 8
- Premier Salazar of Portugal forbids opposition parties. [1]
- At the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Soviet Lieutenant General Roman Rudenko lists a summary of German property damages against the Soviet Union: complete or partial destruction of 2508 church buildings, 1710 towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 miles of railroad, 4100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries. 7 million horses, and 17 million sheep and goats were slaughtered or driven off. Total damage is estimated at 679 billion rubles. [10]
- February 9
- Soviet Premier Josef Stalin announces a new Five-Year Plan for the Soviet Union to guarantee the country's future security. Stalin blames World War I and II on the capitalistic world economy, due to the imbalance of raw materials and markets. [10]
- In London, England, a representative of the Soviet Union presents its reparations demands on Italy: the equivalent of US$100 million of industrial plants of northern Italy. [10]
- Greece demands Italian reparations of US$3 billion in sulphur, textiles and agricultural machinery, automobiles, and reconstruction equipment. [10]
- Dutch Labor Party (Dutch Social Democratic Party) forms. [1]
- February 11
- The U.S. Military Tribunal in Japan convicts Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma of the Japanese Army of ordering the Bataan Death March and condoning other wartime atrocities. He is sentenced to death by firing squad. [10]
- The secret agreement by the Allies made in Yalta is published publicly. The terms of the Soviet Union joining the war versus Japan included maintaining the status quo in Outer Mongolia, the restoration of southern Sakhalin and adjacent islands to the Soviet Union, and the gain to the Soviet Union of the Kurile Islands. [10]
- February 13
- The first general-purpose electronic computer, ENIAC is announced to the public in the USA. The 30-ton computer is eighty feet long, eight feet high, and consists of 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, and 1500 relays, to provide twenty words of memory. It is programmed by 6000 dials and switches. ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The project was initiated in 1943, to improve calculations of artillery shell trajectories. It was built at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering in Philadelphia. It cost about US$400,000 to build. [11.58] ("Calculator" [1306.3]) (cost US$500,000 [1306.3]) (February 14, turned on [1306.3]) (February 15, unveiled [5])
- February 14
- The Bank of England is nationalized. [688.30]
- February 17
- Humanistic Covenant forms in Amsterdam. [1]
- February 19
- In Canada, a surplus Landing Ship loaded with $2 million worth of liquid mustard gas is intentionally sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, off Nova Scotia. The gas had been acquired from the United States in 1942. [10]
- In New York, Prince Albert Carl Johan of Sweden marries Kirstin Wijkmark, becoming Mr. and Mrs. Carl J. Bernadotte. [7]
- February 21
- A special people's court in Helsinki, Finland, finds former President Rysto Ryti guilty of leading Finland into war against Russia at the side of Germany. He is sentenced to ten years of hard labor in prison. Seven other former Government officials are also convicted, with sentences of 2 to 5 1/2 years. [10]
- Anti-British demonstrations in Egypt. [1]
- February 24
- Juan Peron elected President of Argentina. [1]
- February 26
- Two killed and ten wounded in race riot in Columbia, Tennessee, USA. [1]
- February 28
- Combined Chiefs of Staff reveal that the American, Canadian, and British Governments had experimented with building ice ships during 1942-43. The Habbakuk project was to create a two-million-ton ship made of ice and wood pulp, 2000 feet long, 300 feet wide, as a floating aircraft base. [10]
- March 1
- In Budapest, Hungary, former Premier Ferenc Szalasi and six other cabinet ministers are convicted of war crimes, to be hanged March 4. [10]
- Panamá accepts its new constitution. [1]
- March 2
- Dutch troops land on East Bali. [1]
- Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam. [1]
- March 5
- Winston Churchill delivers a "Sinews of Peace" address at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, USA. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended cross the continent..." first time said, generally considered to mark the start of the Cold War. [1] [921.201] [922.17]
- March 6
- France recognizes Vietnam statehood within Indo-Chinese federation. [1]
- March 7
- British and American governments jointly announce the total score of enemy submarine kills during the war. Total enemy submarine losses from all causes: 996. Germany lost 781, Italy lost 85, and Japan lost 130. [10]
- March 8
- The International Monetary Conference is held in Savannah, Georgia, USA. [785.56]
- March 9
- Dutch troops land at Batavia/Semarang. [1]
- March 10
- Train derailment kills 185 near Aracaju, Brazil. [1]
- March 12
- Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland. [1]
- In Budapest, Hungary, former Premier Ferenc Szalasi and four former Ministers are hanged as war criminals. [10]
- In Paris, France, the High Court sentences former Vichy Government Minister Jacques Chevalier to twenty years hard labor and national unworthiness for life. [10]
- March 14
- Belgian government of Spaak forms. [1]
- March 15
- British premier Clement Attlee agrees with India's right to independence. [1]
- In Transylvania, Rumania, the People's Tribunal of Cluj sentences 43 officers and men of the former Hungarian army to varying penalties for crimes committed during the war: 23 to death, eight to life in prison, six to 25 years, and six to 20 years hard labor. [10]
- March 16
- In The Hague, Netherlands, Maximilien Blokzijl is executed by firing squad, for betraying the nation as announcer of Nazi radio system in the Netherlands during the occupation. This is the first execution in the Netherlands since 1854. [10]
- Rudolf Hoess, former commandant of the Oswiecim concentration camp, signs a statement saying that he gassed two million persons between June 1941 to end of 1943 under orders from Heinrich Himmler. [10]
- March 19
- French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas departments. [1]
- In Budapest, Hungary, three members of Premier Ferenc Szalasy's government of October 1944 are hanged in the jail courtyard: Deputy Prime Minister Eugen Szoelloesi, Foreign Minister Baron Gabriel Kemeny, and Regent Council member Sandor Csia. [10]
- In Paris, France, Marcel Bucard, leader of the French Blue Shirt Fascists, is executed by firing squad. [10]
- Nicolai Schwernik succeeds Kalinin as President of USSR. [1]
- March 20
- The US Military Government in Berlin announces the capture of Mildred Gillars of Maine. Gillars was known as Axis Sally for her Berlin radio broadcasts to US troops in North Africa and Europe, describing the comforts of home and the folly of war with Germany. [10]
- Belgian government of Spaak resigns. [1]
- March 21
- United Nations sets up temporary headquarters at Hunter College (Bronx). [1]
- March 22
- First US rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere (50 miles up). [1]
- Britain signs treaty granting independence to Jordan. [1]
- March 31
- Belgian government of Acker forms. [1]
- April 1
- 400,000 US mine workers strike. [1]
- Tsunamis generated by an earthquake in Aleutian Trench strike Hilo, Hawaii. [1]
- Van Acker forms Belgian government (without CVP). [1]
- US notifies Cuba it will withdraw from military bases in Cuba. [242.4]
- Singapore becomes a separate British colony on the dissolution of the Straits Settlements colony. [278.1144]
- April 3
- Netherlands-German postal relations resume. [1]
- April 7
- Part of East Prussia incorporated into Russian SFSR. [1]
- April 8
- The assembly of the League of Nations meets for last time, voting that "from this day the League of Nations shall cease to exist". [1] [423.307]
- April 10
- First election for Japanese Diet. [1]
- April 12
- August Borms, Flemish Nazi collaborator, is executed at age 67. [1]
- April 13
- Belgian premier Acker proclaims end of wage and price freeze. [1]
- April 16
- Syria gains independence from France. [1] [5]
- First US launch of captured German V-2 rocket, White Sands New Mexico; 8 km altitude. [1]
- FE Müller, NSB mayor of Rotterdam, Netherlands, sentenced to 100 years in jail. [1]
- April 17
- Last French troops leave Syria. [1]
- April 18
- League of Nations dissolves (three months after the United Nations starts). [1]
- US recognizes Tito's Yugoslavia government. [1]
- April 22
- Sozialistic Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) party forms in Soviet Union-occupied part of Germany. [1]
- April 25
- Exposition Flyer rammed at Napierville, Illinois, USA killing 48. [1]
- April 27
- First radar installation aboard a commercial ship is installed. [1]
- April 29
- 28 former Japanese leaders indicted in Tokyo as war criminals. [1]
|