Events from the year 1945 in the United States. World War II ended during this year following the surrender of Germany in May and that of Japan in September.
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.
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.
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.
May 3 – Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to U.S. forces (later he becomes at the forefront and a pioneer of the U.S. space program).
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.
July 30 – WW 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; in 2000, he is posthumously exonerated.[5]
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.
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 14 (August 15 in Japan) – 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.
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.
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.
October 5 – Hollywood Black Friday: 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, making him the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s.
October 29 – At Gimbel's Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.
November 29 – Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), is completed, covering 1,800 square feet (170 m2) of floor space, and the first set of calculations is run on it.
^"Hungary: Recovery of Crown Jewels 1945". Retrieved 2008-12-17.
^Killen, John (2003). The Luftwaffe: A History. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. pp. 299–300. ISBN 978-1-78159-110-9.
^ abc"Nuclear Files: Timeline of the Nuclear Age: 1945". Archived from the original on 2010-04-06. Retrieved 2005-12-17.
^"USS Indianapolis sinking: 'You could see sharks circling'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
^Angier, R. B.; Boothe, J. H.; Hutchings, B. L.; Mowat, J. H.; Semb, J.; Stokstad, E. L. R.; Subbarow, Y.; Waller, C. W.; Cosulich, D. B.; Fahrenbach, M. J.; Hultquist, M. E.; Kuh, E.; Northey, E. H.; Seeger, D. R.; Sickels, J. P.; Smith Jr, J. M. (1945). "Synthesis of a Compound Identical with the L. Casei Factor Isolated from Liver". Science. 102 (2644): 227–28. Bibcode:1945Sci...102..227A. doi:10.1126/science.102.2644.227. PMID 17778509.
^Hoffbrand, A. V.; Weir, D. G. (2001). "The history of folic acid". British Journal of Haematology. 113 (3): 579–589. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2141.2001.02822.x. PMID 11380441. S2CID 22925228.
^Jessup, John E. (1989). A Chronology of Conflict and Resolution, 1945-1985. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-24308-5.
^"On This Day", New York Times, retrieved 24 August 2016
^Galleries Maurice Sternberg.Galleries Maurice Sternberg. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
^‘Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-associate Steven Hoffenberg found dead in apartment’
^"Susan Rothenberg". FAMSF Search the Collections. 10 May 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
^Sharp, Michael D. (2006-09-01). Popular Contemporary Writers: Index Volume. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 551–. ISBN 9780761476016. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
^Richard Taruskin, provocative scholar of classical music, dies at 77
^"Gammons in ICU after surgery for brain aneurysm". ESPN.com. 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
^The Town of Chesapeake Beach Honors George W. Owings, III
^Joan Acocella, Dance Critic for The New Yorker, Dies at 78
^"Space Shuttle Challenger Fast Facts". CNN. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
^Red Sox mourn passing of former club president Lucchino
^Marlin Briscoe, the 1st Black starting quarterback in the AFL, dies at 76
^Charlie Smithgall, former Lancaster Mayor, dies at 77
^Don Michael Randel (1996). "Spiegel, Laurie". Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press. p. 857. ISBN 0674372999.
^Paz, Isabella Grullón (2021-07-13). "Charlie Robinson, Actor Best Known for 'Night Court,' Dies at 75". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-07-14. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
^Staff (May 6, 1945). "GEORGE GARY DIES NOTED ARCHITECT Former Head of the American Institute Was a Founder of Beaux-Arts Here". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
^(2 September 1945). Frank Craven, 65, Noted Actor, Dies; Playwright and Director Won Equal Success in His Many Stage and Film Chores, The New York Times
^"Dr. W.B. Cannon, 73, Neurologist, Dead. Harvard Psychology Professor for 36 Years Noted for His Work on Traumatic Shock Became Professor in 1906". New York Times. October 2, 1945. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
^Hugh Fordin, Stephen Sondheim (1995). Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. Da Capo Press. p. 237. ISBN 0-306-80668-1.[permanent dead link]
^Theodore Dreiser Recalled. Clemson University Press. 2017. p. 311. ISBN 9781942954446.
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