Directory

1945 CE

The Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastate Japan and force the Surrender of Japan, ending World War II; the Battle of Berlin brings the fall of Nazi Germany, the death of Adolf Hitler, and the end of World War II in Europe; the Battle of Iwo Jima sees the United States capture a vital island after fierce fighting; the Yalta Conference unites Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin to shape postwar Europe and establish the United Nations; the Bombing of Dresden levels the city with heavy civilian losses; the death of Benito Mussolini marks the collapse of Fascist Italy; the Bombing of Tokyo becomes one of the deadliest air raids of the war; the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt sees Harry S. Truman assume the U.S. presidency; 1945 Empire State Building B-25 crash in New York City, killing 14 people; A Sherman Firefly during the Battle of the Bulge, which ended in a decisive Allied victory; and Ho Chi Minh reading the declaration of independence, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 4–11 – WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.source
  • The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific War against Japan, once hostilities against Germany are concluded.source
  • March 1 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of the United States Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.source
  • March 6 – A Communist-led government is formed in Romania under Petru Groza, following Soviet intervention.source
  • March 11 – The Empire of Japan establishes the Empire of Vietnam, a puppet state which will last only until August 23, with Bảo Đại as its ruler.source
  • March 11 – The Sammarinese general election gives San Marino the world's first democratically elected communist government, which will hold power until 1957.source
  • April 27 – The provisional government of Austria headed by Karl Renner asserts its independence from Germany.source
  • The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British and Canadian forces.source
  • Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina Brigades from the Tenth Division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.source
  • Sarajevo is liberated from Nazi Germany and the Independent State of Croatia (a fascist puppet state) by Yugoslav Partisans.source
  • The US 11th Armored Division liberates the prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp, including Simon Wiesenthal.source
  • June 29 – Czechoslovakia cedes Carpathian Ruthenia to the Soviet Union.source
  • July 12 – Ben Chifley is elected leader of the Labor Party, and consequently becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Australia, defeating Frank Forde as well as Norman Makin and H.V. Evatt. As a result, Forde becomes the shortest-serving prime minister in Australian history; nevertheless, he retains his post as deputy leader.source
  • July 26 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election. Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister. It is the first time that Labour has governed Britain with a majority in the House of Commons.source
  • August 8 – The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States Senate.source
  • August 17 – Proclamation of Indonesian Independence: Indonesian nationalists Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declare the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, with Sukarno as president and Mohammad Hatta as vice-president, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.source
  • August 17 – Philippines President José P. Laurel issues an Executive Proclamation putting an end to the Second Philippine Republic, thus ending his term as President of the Philippines.source
  • August 25 – Bảo Đại abdicates as Emperor of Vietnam, ending 2,000 years of dynastic and monarchic rule in the country and 143 years of the Nguyễn dynasty.source
  • September 11 – The Batu Lintang camp in Sarawak, Borneo is liberated by Australian forces.source
  • October 22 – Rómulo Betancourt is named provisional president of Venezuela.source
  • October 24 – The United Nations is founded by ratification of its Charter, by 29 nations including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Canada, Egypt, Brazil, Haiti, Luxembourg, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and others.source
  • October 24 – The International Court of Justice ("World Court") is established by the United Nations Charter.source
  • November 1 – International Labour Organization's new constitution comes into effect.source
  • November 16 – Charles de Gaulle is unanimously elected president of France by the provisional government.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 12 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe, against the German Army.source
  • Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American prisoners of war from the Japanese-held camp in the city of Cabanatuan, in the Philippines.source
  • February 19 – WWII: Battle of Iwo Jima – About 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.source
  • The US Army 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free the captives of the Los Baños internment camp.source
  • Battle of Iwo Jima: A group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island, and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (taken by Joe Rosenthal), later wins a Pulitzer Prize.source
  • The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops. The suburb of Intramuros is devastated.source
  • March 29 – WWII: The Red Army almost destroys the German 4th Army in the Heiligenbeil Pocket in East Prussia.source
  • April 1 – WWII: Battle of Okinawa: The Tenth United States Army lands on Okinawa.source
  • American troops led by 2nd Infantry Division and 69th Infantry Division capture the city of Leipzig.source
  • German surrender at Lüneburg Heath: All German armed forces in northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands surrender unconditionally to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, effective on May 5 at 08:00 hours British Double (and German) Summer Time.source
  • The Soviet Union marks VE Day as the Red Army enters Prague, celebrated in the USSR as Victory Day.source
  • A Holocaust death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted under two kilometers west of Waakirchen by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion of the U.S. Army in southern Bavaria, saving several hundred prisoners.source
  • The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. The famous picture of Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is taken at this date.source
  • August 15 – The August Revolution in Vietnam begins, with the Viet Minh taking over the capital Hanoi, taking advantage of the collapse of Japanese power.source
  • August 19 – Chinese Civil War: Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek meet in Chongqing to discuss an end to hostilities between the Communists and the Nationalists.12source
  • August 28 – The American-led Allied Occupation of Japan effectively begins with General Douglas MacArthur's arrival at Atsugi Air Base.source
  • The Soviet–Japanese War opens: The Soviet Union begins its army offensive against Japan, in the northern part of the Japanese-held puppet region of Manchuria, including the 25th Army (Soviet Union)'s advance into the northern peninsula of Korea.source
  • Vietnam's capital Hanoi is taken by the Viet Minh, which ends the French occupation in what becomes North Vietnam, and thus the southern provinces become South Vietnam. This ends the August Revolution.source
  • September 4 – WWII: Japanese forces surrender on Wake Island, after hearing word of their country's surrender.source
  • September 9 – Japanese troops in Keijō (modern-day Seoul) formally relinquish control over Southern Korea to the United States Army Military Government in Korea, while Soviet forces control Northern Korea from Heijō (modern-day Pyongyang), effectively ending 35 years of Korea under Japanese rule and beginning the Division of Korea at the 38th parallel.source
  • October 19 – Members of the Indonesian People's Army attack Anglo-Dutch forces in Indonesia.source
  • October 27–November 20 – Indonesian National Revolution: Battle of Surabaya – Pro-independence Indonesian soldiers and militia fight British and British Indian troops in Surabaya.source
  • November 18 – The Tudeh party starts a bloodless coup, and will form Azerbaijan within days. Soviet troops prevent Iranian troops from getting involved.source
  • November 28 – British fascist John Amery pleads guilty to treason, and is condemned to death.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • American official Alger Hiss is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing the positions of the Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other at the Yalta Conference.source
  • The Australian government introduces an Assisted Passage Migration Scheme to encourage the immigration of British subjects, at a fare of £10, hence they become known as "Ten Pound Poms".source

Religion & Belief

  • March 22 – The Cathedral and the historic centre of Hildesheim in Germany are destroyed in a bombing of the city.source
  • May 12 – Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Meat Industry Workers Federation dissolved.source
  • October 2 – George Albert Smith becomes president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 2 – Former U.S. vice-president Henry A. Wallace starts his term of office as United States Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.source
  • November 26 – U.S. ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley resigns after he is unable to broker a deal between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung.source
  • December 2 – French banks (Bank of France, BNCI, CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais and Société Générale) are nationalized.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.source
  • March 4 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a truck driver/mechanic in London.source
  • March 7 – WWII: At the end of Operation Lumberjack, American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross; in the next 10 days, 25,000 troops with equipment are able to cross.source
  • March 15 – The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held, broadcast via radio in the United States for the first time. Best Picture goes to Going My Way.source
  • March 24 – WWII: Operation Varsity – Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the river Rhine to aid the Allied advance.source
  • Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historic Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.source
  • May 6 – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (the first was on December 11, 1941).source
  • May 12 – Rev. W. V. Awdry's children's book The Three Railway Engines, first of The Railway Series, is published in England.source
  • June 30 – John von Neumann's First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC is distributed, containing the first published description of the logical design of a computer, with stored-program and instruction data stored in the same address space within the memory (von Neumann architecture).source
  • July 29 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched in the United Kingdom, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.source
  • August 15 – The Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization is founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • September 11 – Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.source
  • November 1 – Telechron introduces the model 8H59 Musalarm, the first clock radio.source
  • November 29 – Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), is completed in the United States, covering 1800 sqft m2 of floor space, and the first set of calculations is run on it.source
  • The first geothermal milk pasteurization is done in Klamath Falls, Oregon, United States.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 21 – The last V-2 rocket is launched from Peenemünde.source
  • Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is evacuated at about this date.source
  • Numerous RAF Lancasters land in Germany to repatriate British prisoners of war. Some 4,500 ex-POWs are flown back to Great Britain over the next 24 hours.source
  • August 7 – U.S. President Harry Truman announces the successful atomic bombing of Hiroshima, while he is returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser , in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.source
  • October – Arthur C. Clarke puts forward the idea of a geosynchronous communications satellite, in a Wireless World magazine article.source
  • November 15 – Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee and Mackenzie King share nuclear information with the U.N. and call for a United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.source
  • November 16 – The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.source
  • A team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (led by Charles D. Coryell) discovers chemical element 61, the only one still missing between 1 and 96 on the periodic table, which they will name promethium. Found by analysis of fission products of irradiated uranium fuel, its discovery is not made public until 1947.source

Health & Medicine

  • January 18 – The Holocaust: The SS begins the evacuation of Auschwitz concentration camp. Nearly 60,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to other locations in Germany; as many as 15,000 die. The 7,000 too sick to move are left without supplies being distributed.source
  • February 8 – The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943.source
  • February 12 – A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.source
  • February – Raymond L. Libby of American Cyanamid's research laboratories, at Stamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic penicillin.source
  • August 31 – A team at American Cyanamid's Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, New York, led by Yellapragada Subbarow, announces they have obtained folic acid in a pure crystalline form. This vitamin is abundant in green leaf vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast.source
  • December 29 – Expulsion of Germans from Hungary is ordered by the Soviet-dominated Hungarian government.source

Crime & Justice

  • Chenogne massacre: German prisoners are allegedly killed by American forces near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.source
  • February 9 – Walter Ulbricht becomes leader of the German Communists in Moscow.source
  • March 8 – Nazi authorities kill 117 Dutch men in reprisal for the attempted murder of Hanns Albin Rauter.source
  • April 9 – Johann Georg Elser, would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler, is executed at Dachau concentration camp.source
  • April 9 – Abwehr conspirators Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Hans von Dohnányi are hanged at Flossenbürg concentration camp, along with pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other people associated with resistance groups.source
  • April 18 – American war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off Okinawa.source
  • April 28 – The bodies of Benito Mussolini, his mistress, Clara Petacci, and other followers are hung by their heels at a gas station in the public square of Milan, Piazzale Loreto, following their execution by Italian partisans after an attempt to flee the country.source
  • May 23 – The Flensburg Government is dissolved by the Allies, and German president Karl Dönitz and German chancellor Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by British RAF Regiment personnel at Flensburg. They are respectively the last German head of state and head of government until 1949.source
  • May 23 – Heinrich Himmler, former head of the Nazi SS, commits suicide in British custody.source
  • May 28 – U.S.-born Irish-raised William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is captured on the German border. He is later charged in London with high treason for his earlier English-language wartime broadcasts from German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January 1946.source
  • May 29 – Dutch painter Han van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with the Nazis, but the "Dutch Golden Age" paintings he has sold to Hermann Göring (Koch) are later proved to be his own fakes.source
  • German Protestant theologian Gerhard Kittel is arrested by the French forces in Tübingen, Germany.source
  • Expatriate American poet Ezra Pound is arrested by the Italian resistance movement but soon released by them as of no interest; on May 5 he turns himself in to the United States Army and is imprisoned as a traitor.source
  • Interpol (being headquartered in Berlin) effectively ceases to exist (it is recreated on June 3, 1946).source
  • A Japanese fire balloon kills six people, Elsie Mitchell and five children, near Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. These are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the American mainland during WWII.source
  • August 11 – The Holocaust: Kraków pogrom – Róża Berger is shot dead by Polish militia.source
  • September 5 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose", is arrested in Yokohama.source
  • September 5 – Russian code clerk Igor Gouzenko comes forward with numerous documents implicating the Soviet Union in many spy rings in North America, both in the United States and in Canada.source
  • September 10 – Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death for being a Nazi collaborator in Norway.source
  • October 9 – Former prime minister Pierre Laval is sentenced to death, for collaboration with the Nazis in Vichy France.source
  • October 24 – Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quisling is executed by firing squad, for treason against Norway.source
  • October 29 – At Gimbels Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.source
  • November 20 – The Nuremberg trials begin: Trials against 22 Nazis for war crimes of World War II start at the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg.source
  • December 1 – German general Anton Dostler is executed by firing squad in Italy for the war crime of ordering the summary execution of captured U.S. commandos. The U.S. military tribunal which has tried him has not accepted his plea of "superior orders", setting a precedent for future Allied war crimes trials.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 21–22 (night) – At the Grünhagen railroad station, located in East Prussia at this date, two trains, heading for Elbing, collide. At dawn the station is reached by Soviet Army infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing between 140 and 150 people.source
  • The Bombing of Wesel begins, destroying 97% of the town over three days.source
  • March 9–10 – WWII: Bombing of Tokyo: USAAF B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 citizens in the firebombing. It is the single most destructive conventional air attack of the war.source
  • Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.source
  • The Bombing of Würzburg, as part of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, destroys 89% of the city and causes 4,000 deaths.source
  • is sunk by Soviet submarine L-3 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German troops and civilians as part of Operation Hannibal; 7,000–8,000 drown.source
  • Mass suicide in Demmin: An estimated 700–2,500 suicides take place, after 80% of the town has been destroyed by the Soviets during the past three days.source
  • German auxiliary cruiser Orion is sunk on her way to Copenhagen carrying refugees, with a loss of over 3,800 lives.source
  • The prison ships Cap Arcona (5,000 dead), Thielbek (2,750 dead) and Deutschland (all survive) are sunk by the British Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.source
  • July 4 – Brazilian cruiser Bahia is sunk by an accidentally induced explosion, killing more than 300 and stranding the survivors in shark-infested waters.source
  • July 16 – A train collision near Munich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.source
  • July 27 – WWII: Bombing of Aomori – Two USAAF B-29s drop a total of 60,000 leaflets on the Japanese city of Aomori, warning civilians of an air raid and urging them to leave immediately.source
  • July 28 – Bombing of Aomori – The Japanese city of Aomori is firebombed by 63 USAAF B-29 heavy bombers, killing 1,767 civilians and destroying 18,045 homes.source
  • July 28 – 1945 Empire State Building B-25 crash: A North American B-25 Mitchell crashes into the Empire State Building in New York City, killing 14 people.source
  • August 6 – WWII: Atomic bombing of Hiroshima – United States Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drops a uranium-235 atomic bomb, codenamed "Little Boy", on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time, resulting in between 90,000 and 146,000 deaths.source
  • Atomic bombing of Nagasaki: United States B-29 Bockscar drops a plutonium-239 atomic bomb, codenamed "Fat Man", on the Japanese city of Nagasaki at 11:02 a.m. local time, resulting in between 39,000 and 80,000 deaths.source
  • December 5 – Flight 19 of United States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers disappears on a training exercise from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.source

Climate & Environment

  • June 11 – The Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan.source
  • July 16 – The Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico, the first of an atomic bomb, using about six kilograms of plutonium, succeeds in unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 22 kilotons of TNT.source
  • September 15–16 – 1945 Homestead hurricane: The ninth tropical storm of the season makes landfall in Florida, the first intense storm to do so in the state since 1935. It affects Key Largo and Dade County, killing 4 people in Florida and 22 others in the Bahamas and in the Turks and Caicos Islands.source
  • September 18 – Typhoon Makurazaki kills 3,746 people in Japan.source
  • November 28 – The 1945 Balochistan earthquake causes a tsunami and kills 4,000.source

Culture & Society

  • March 24 – The cartoon character Sylvester the cat debuts in Life with Feathers.source
  • March 29 – The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden in New York, as Oklahoma State University defeats DePaul 52–44 in basketball.source
  • April 12 – Richard Strauss completes composition of his Metamorphosen.source
  • April 19 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, a musical play based on Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, opens on Broadway, and becomes their second long-running stage classic. It includes the standard "You'll Never Walk Alone".source
  • April 29 – Adolf Hitler marries his longtime mistress Eva Braun, in a closed civil ceremony in the Berlin Führerbunker, and signs his last will and testament.source
  • The Holy Crown of Hungary is found in Mattsee, Austria, by the United States Army 86th Infantry Division. The U.S. government keeps the crown in Fort Knox for safekeeping from the Soviets until it is returned to Hungary on January 6, 1978.source
  • June 24 – WWII: A victory parade is held in Red Square in Moscow.source
  • July 5 – The 1945 United Kingdom general election is held, though some constituencies delay their polls for local holiday reasons. Counting of votes and declaration of results are delayed until July 26 to allow for voting by the large number of service personnel still overseas.source
  • August 25 – Paris marks the first anniversary of its liberation.source
  • October 4 – The JSD Partizan sports club is founded in Belgrade, Serbia.source
  • October 16 – The Food and Agriculture Organization is established at a meeting in Quebec City as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • November 9 – Soo Bahk Do and Moo Duk Kwan martial arts are founded in Korea.source
  • November 16 – The foundation of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is agreed at a meeting in London.source

Births

  • February 6 – Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1981)source
  • March 28 – Rodrigo Duterte, 16th President of the Philippinessource
  • March 31 – Edwin Catmull, American computer scientist, President of Walt Disney Animation Studiossource
  • May 14 – Yochanan Vollach, Israeli footballer and president of Maccabi Haifa, CEOsource
  • May 20 – Anton Zeilinger, Austrian quantum physicist, Nobel Prize laureatesource
  • June 5 – Nechama Rivlin, Israeli socialite, 10th First lady of Israel (d. 2019)source
  • August 15 – Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh politician, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (d. 2025)source
  • August 24 – Vincent K. "Vince" McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter, chairman and CEO of WWEsource
  • September 8 – Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, American musician (Grateful Dead) (d. 1973)source
  • September 18 – John McAfee, British-American computer programmer and businessman (d. 2021)source
  • October 30 – Henry Winkler, American actor, producer and director (Happy Days)source
  • November 8 – Joseph James DeAngelo, American serial killer and serial rapistsource
  • November 11 – Daniel Ortega, 58th and 62nd President of Nicaraguasource
  • November 18 – Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan politician, 6th President of Sri Lankasource

Deaths

  • January 23 – Eugen Bolz, German politician, 20 July Plotter (executed) (b. 1881)source
  • February 2 – Alfred Delp, German Jesuit priest and philosopher of the German Resistance, 20 July plotter (executed) (b. 1907)source
  • Bombing of Dresden (Germany) by the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces; 25,000-35,000 are estimated to have died.source
  • February (or March) – Anne Frank, German-born Jewish diarist, writer (typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp) (b. 1929)source
  • March 22 – Heinrich Maier, Austrian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1908)source
  • March 26 – David Lloyd George, British politician and statesman, 51st Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1863)source
  • April 9 – Wilhelm Canaris, German admiral, head of the Abwehr (executed) (b. 1887)source
  • April 12 – Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd president of the United States upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia of an intracerebral hemorrhage.source
  • July 12 – Wolfram von Richthofen, German field marshal (brain tumor) (b. 1895)source
  • August 18 – WWII: Death of Subhas Chandra Bose – Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose is killed as a result of his overloaded Japanese plane crashing in Japanese Taiwan.source
  • September 15 – Anton Webern, Austrian composer (b. 1883)source
  • October 19 – Plutarco Elías Calles, Mexican general, politician and 40th President of Mexico (b. 1877)source
  • December 5 – Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1864)source
  • December 16 – Fumimaro Konoe, Japanese general, politician, and 23rd Prime Minister of Japan (suicide) (b. 1891)source