1945

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1940–1949	USA [statistics and demography]	Immigration into the USA for the period 1940–49 stands at 856,608.
1942–1945	USA [World War II (1939–45)]	During the war, US women are recruited on a large scale for the war effort; between 1942 and 1945 the number of working women increases by 50%.
1945	Canada [energy]	A nuclear reactor using natural uranium and heavy water as both coolant and moderator (a material that slows down the fission process) begins operating at Chalk River, Ontario, Canada; a second reactor starts operation two years later.
1945	UK [World War II (1939–45)]	William Joyce, the Nazi propagandist known as ‘Lord Haw-Haw’, is captured and convicted in the UK of treason; he is hanged on 3 January 1946.
1945	UK [schools]	Fees are abolished in state-maintained secondary schools in England and Wales.
1945	Austria, UK [social theory]	The Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper publishes The Open Society and its Enemies.
1945	USA [television]	Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in the USA is televised for the first time.
1945	USA [television]	After a delay caused by the war, television broadcasting in the USA begins on a regular basis.
1945	England [fiction]	The English writer George Orwell publishes his novel Animal Farm, a satire directed against Stalinist Russia in particular, and totalitarianism in general.
1945	France [fiction]	The French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre publishes his novels L'Age de raison/The Age of Reason and Le Sursis/The Reprieve. They form the first two parts of his novel sequence Les Chemins de la liberté/The Roads to Freedom.
1945	England [fiction]	The English novelist Evelyn Waugh publishes his novel about the Catholic English aristocracy, Brideshead Revisited.
1945	Italy [fiction]	The Italian writer Carlo Levi publishes Cristo si èfermato ad Eboli/Christ Stopped at Eboli, a lyrical account of his political exile in southern Italy.
1945	USA [art]	The Polish-born US photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt takes The Kiss (V-J Day).
1945	France [cinema and film]	The film Les Enfants du Paradis, directed by Marcel Carné, is released, starring Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Pierre Brasseur. Filmed in France during the German occupation, its treatment of passion and sacrifice embody the French spirit in wartime.
1945	USA [cinema and film]	The film The Lost Weekend, directed by Billy Wilder, is released. Based on the 1944 novel of the same name by Charles Reginald Jackson, and focusing on the social problems caused by alcoholism, it stars Ray Miland, Jane Wyman, and Philip Terry.
1945	USA [everyday life]	The US chemist Earl W Tupper invents a range of sealable plastic bowls and containers – Tupperware – that will be sold through Tupperware parties in the home.
1945	UK [media and communication]	The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) extends its range of radio programmes with the establishment of the Home Service and the Light Programme.
1945	England [opera]	The opera Peter Grimes by the English composer Benjamin Britten is first performed, at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, England.
1945	Czechoslovakia [orchestral music]	The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu completes his Symphony No. 4 and his Cello Concerto No. 2.
1945	France [painting]	The French artist Henri Matisse paints The Romanian Blouse.
1945	France [philosophy]	The French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty publishes Phénoménologie de la perception/Phenomenology of Perception.
1945	USA [telephone services]	There are 27.8 million telephones in the USA, or one telephone for every five people. 45% of homes have telephones.
1945	USA [plays]	The play The Glass Menagerie, by the US writer Tennessee Williams, is first performed, at the Plymouth Theater in New York City.
1945	USA [popular music]	The first recorded music album sales chart is released, in the USA.
1945	USA [public health]	Grand Rapids, Michigan, begins adding fluoride to its water to help prevent tooth decay; other cities in the USA soon follow.
3 January 1945	Burma, UK [World War II (1939–45)]	The British 14th Army begins a new offensive in Burma, aimed at clearing Japanese forces from the remainder of the country.
4 February - 11 February 1945	USSR, USA, UK, Germany [diplomacy]	At the Yalta Conference in the Crimea, USSR, the US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, and the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, plan for the division of post-war Germany into four occupied zones, with four zones in Berlin, the capital.
13 February - 15 February 1945	Germany, UK, USA [World War II (1939–45)]	British and US aircraft bomb the city of Dresden in eastern Germany, ostensibly to disrupt the transfer of German troops to the Soviet front. Over 60,000 people are killed and the city's historic centre is destroyed.
19 February - 24 March 1945	Japan, USA [World War II (1939–45)]	US marines capture the Japanese island of Iwo Jima after fierce fighting, which results in over 21,000 US casualties.
March 1945	Germany, Netherlands [births and deaths]	Anne Frank, German Jew whose diary written while hiding from the Nazis has been translated into over 30 languages, dies in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hanover, Germany (15).
26 March 1945	Wales [births and deaths]	David Lloyd George, Welsh Liberal politician, British prime minister 1916–22, dies in Ty-newydd, Caernarvonshire, Wales (82).
12 April 1945	USA [births and deaths]	Franklin Delano Roosevelt, US statesman, 32nd president of the USA 1933–45 (re-elected three times), a Democrat, dies in Warm Springs, Georgia (63).
12 April 1945	USA [political events]	Following the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the USA, he is succeeded by Vice-President Harry S Truman.
25 April 1945	USA [international organizations]	The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) in San Francisco, California, attended by representatives of 50 nations, drafts the Charter of the United Nations (UN).
28 April 1945	Italy [political events]	Benito Mussolini, Italian prime minister 1922–43, first of Europe's fascist dictators, is shot by the Italian Resistance in Dongo, Italy (61). His mistress, Clara Petacci, and members of his entourage are also shot.
29 April 1945	Germany [World War II (1939–45)]	The German Führer Adolf Hitler marries his mistress, Eva Braun, in their Berlin bunker.
30 April 1945	Germany [political events]	Adolf Hitler, German fascist leader of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, dictator of Germany 1933–45, commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin, Germany (56). His mistress, Eva Braun, takes poison.
8 May 1945	Germany, France [World War II (1939–45)]	General Alfred Jodl signs the official surrender of Germany in World War II in Reims, France, at 2:41 a.m., in the presence of US general Dwight D Eisenhower and other Allied officers. 8 May is celebrated as VE (Victory in Europe) Day in Western Europe and the USA.
23 May 1945	Germany [births and deaths]	Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader, head of the SS, and organizer of the Nazi death camps, commits suicide after being captured in Lüneberg, Germany (44).
16 July 1945	USA, Japan [energy]	The first atomic explosion occurs when the nuclear device code-named ‘Trinity’ is exploded near Alamogordo, New Mexico. On 6 August and 9 August similar devices are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
17 July - 2 August 1945	Germany, USSR, USA, UK [diplomacy]	At the Potsdam Conference in Germany, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the US president Harry S Truman, and the British prime minister (first Winston Churchill, then Clement Attlee after the Labour election victory of 26 July) organize the occupation of Germany following its surrender in World War II.
26 July 1945	UK [elections]	Labour wins a landslide victory in the British general election, with 393 seats against the Conservatives' 199. Clement Attlee becomes prime minister, Ernest Bevin foreign secretary, and Hugh Dalton chancellor of the Exchequer.
6 August 1945	Japan, USA [World War II (1939–45)]	The US B-29 bomber Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, destroying two-thirds of the city.
9 August 1945	Japan, USA [World War II (1939–45)]	The US B-29 bomber Bock's Car drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying half the city.
10 August 1945	USA [births and deaths]	Robert Goddard, US astronautics pioneer who developed modern rockets used for launching spacecraft, dies in Baltimore, Maryland (62).
14 August 1945	Japan [World War II (1939–45)]	The Japanese emperor Hirohito proclaims Japan's acceptance of the Allies' terms for ending World War II in the Pacific and urges his people to accept the surrender.
15 August 1945	USA [World War II (1939–45)]	Rationing of petrol and fuel oil in the USA comes to an end.
17 August 1945	Indonesia, Netherlands [political events]	Indonesian leaders proclaim their country's independence from Dutch rule, but this is rejected by the Netherlands.
2 September 1945	Japan, Pacific, USA [treaties]	Japan signs its capitulation on board the USS Missouri, marking the end of World War II.
8 October 1945	USA [technology]	In Waltham, Massachusetts, Percy LeBaron Spencer patents the first microwave oven, which is used in restaurants and institutions.
24 October 1945	USA [international organizations]	The United Nations (UN), with headquarters in New York City, comes into formal existence on the ratification of its Charter by 29 nations.
13 November 1945	France [political events]	General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France's post-World War II provisional government in Paris.
20 November 1945	Germany [crime and punishment]	The trials of 24 leading Nazis opens before the Allied International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. The Tribunal rules that an individual's obedience to orders is an insufficient defence for crimes committed against humanity. The trials continue until 31 August 1946.
21 November 1945 - 13 March 1946	USA [unions and associations]	United Auto Workers at the General Motors plant in Detroit strike for 113 days before gaining better wages and benefits; the strike is the first sign of post-war labor trouble.
23 November 1945	USA [World War II (1939–45)]	All rationing stops in the USA, with the exception of sugar. Food remains scarce everywhere else and the black market continues to exist throughout Europe.
29 November 1945	Yugoslavia [political events]	The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed, under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, leader of the communist resistance against Germany during World War II.
15 December 1945	Japan [suffrage]	The Japanese parliament, under pressure from Allied occupation forces, grants women voting rights.