istoryworld
All Events
Heinrich Himmler, escaping in disguise, takes poison when he is identified
The Sudetenland is restored to Czechoslovakia, seven years after its transfer to Germany under the Munich Agreement
After a ferocious three-month battle, Okinawa is in US hands
The four Allied powers (USA, UK, France, USSR) provide occupation forces for separate zones of Austria, Germany and Berlin
US scientists succeed in exploding an atom bomb at Alamogordo, a test site in the New Mexican desert
Truman, Stalin and Churchill meet for a summit conference in Potsdam
The Japanese emperor Hirohito argues the case for surrender but fails to persuade the military
The British electorate dismisses Winston Churchill, giving the Labour party and Clement Attlee a landslide victory
Winston Churchill, losing the postwar general election in Britain, has to yield his seat at Potsdam in mid-conference to Clement Attlee
An atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, destroying four square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people
The USSR declares war on Japan, two days after an atom bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima
A second atom bomb is dropped from a US plane, this time over Nagasaki
The Japanese in Korea surrender to the Russians in the north and to the Americans in the south
The emperor Hirohito, on the first occasion that his people have heard his voce, declares on radio that defeat must be accepted
TheAllies celebrate V-J Day – victory over Japan and the end of the war
A death sentence for the 89-year-old Vichy leader Philippe Pétain is commuted by de Gaulle to life imprisonment
With the surrender of the Japanese, Vietminh guerrillas seize the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi
Douglas MacArthur – in his role as Supreme Commander, Allied Powers – is appointed to administer postwar Japan
Ho Chi Minh proclaims the democratic republic of Vietnam, independent of the colonial power, France
World War II ends officially with the surrender of Japan, formally accepted by Douglas MacArthur
[1939-1945] - the death toll in World War II, double that of World War I, includes 17 million Russians and 8 million Chinese
By the end of the war the total number of Jews killed by the Nazis is around 6 million
[1939-1945] - in addition to 6 million Jews, the Nazi death camps have killed some 400,000 Gypsies and 100,000 'useless defectives'
Wernher von Braun and his team of scientists are taken to the USA to develop the German V-2 rocket into an intercontinental ballistic missile
Vichy leader Pierre Laval, sentenced in a French court as a collaborator, is executed
