| January |
| 1st |
Germans begin to withdraw from the Ardennes |
| 16th |
U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge |
| 17th |
Soviet troops capture Warsaw |
| 26th |
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz |
| February |
| 4th |
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta |
| 13th |
Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids |
| March |
| 6th |
Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary |
| 7th |
Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen |
| 30th |
Soviet troops capture Danzig |
| April |
| 1st |
U.S. troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr
|
| 1st |
Allied Offensive in Northern Italy |
| 12th |
Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps |
| 12th |
President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes President |
| 16th |
Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg |
| 18th |
German forces in the Ruhr surrender |
| 21st |
Soviets reach Berlin |
| 28th |
Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans |
| 28th |
The Allied forces retake Venice |
| 29th |
U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau |
| 30th |
Adolf Hitler commits suicide |
| May |
| 2nd |
German troops in Italy surrender |
| 7th |
Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies |
| 8th |
V-E (Victory in Europe) Day |
| 9th |
Hermann Göring is captured by members of the U.S. 7th Army |
| 23rd |
SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide |
| 23rd |
German High Command and Provisional Government imprisoned |
| June |
| 5th |
Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government |
| 26th |
United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco |
| July |
| 1st |
U.S., British, and French troops move into Berlin |
| 16th |
First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins |
| 26th |
Clement Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister |
| August |
| 6th |
First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan |
| 8th |
Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria |
| 9th |
Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan |
| 14th |
Japanese agree to unconditional surrender |
| September |
| 2nd |
Japanese sign the surrender agreement |
| 2nd |
V-J (Victory over Japan) Day |
| October |
| 24th |
The United Nations is officially born |
| November |
| 20th |
Nuremberg war crimes trials begin |
| December |
| 2nd |
General Eurico Gaspar Dutra elected president of Brazil |
| 3rd |
Communist demonstrations in Athens - preliminary of the Greek Civil War |
| 4th |
By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations |
| 5th |
A flight of USAF Avenger torpedo bombers known as Flight 19 disappears on a training exercise |
| 21st |
General George S. Patton dies from injuries sustained in a car accident on December 9 |
| 27th |
Twenty-eight nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank |