** 25 cent WWII ( Dutch coin )

** WWII: Forward elements of General Hoeppner's XVI Panzerkorps take up positions outside Warsaw.

** WWII: Polish troops on the Westerplatte are forced, due to lack of food and ammunition, to surrender.

** WWII – Sonderaktion Krakau: Germans take action against scientists from the University of Kraków and other Kraków universities at the beginning of WWII.

** WWII – Winter War: Soviet forces attack Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.

** WWII – Sweden declares non-belligerency in the Winter War.

** George Unwin, British fighter ace of WWII ( d. 2006 )

** WWII: The 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division is re-created, marking the start of Operation Tempest by the Polish Home Army.

** WWII: The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.

** WWII: A train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy ; 521 choke to death.

** WWII: Battle of Monte Cassino: Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.

** WWII: The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.

** Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.

** WWII: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U. S. Army bus.

** WWII: Over 500 Japanese prisoners-of-war attempt a mass breakout from the Cowra POW Camp.

** WWII: A Soviet patrol arrests Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary.

** WWII: The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw, Poland.

** WWII: " Black Friday ": A force of Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffers heavy casualties in an unsuccessful attack on German destroyer Z33 and escorting vessels sheltering in Førde Fjord, Norway.

** WWII – Operation Varsity: Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the Rhine River to aid the Allied advance.

** WWII: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.

** WWII – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two.

** V-E Day ( Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders ) commemorates the end of WWII in Europe, with the final surrender being to the Soviets in Berlin, attended by representatives of the Western Powers.

** WWII: Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio.

** WWII: Korea gains independence following Japan's surrender.

** Gustav Adolf Land

** The Holocaust, also known as The Shoah ( Hebrew:, Latinized ha ' shoah ; Yiddish:, Latinized churben or hurban ) is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, its allies, and collaborators.

** Geli Raubal commits suicide in Adolf Hitler's apartment.

** Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.

** Adolf Hitler concedes defeat in his underground Berlin bunker after learning Felix Steiner could not mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on the Soviets who had just broken through Germany.

** Adolf Hitler marries his longtime mistress Eva Braun in a closed civil ceremony in the Berlin Führerbunker.

** Adolf Brand, German writer ( b. 1874 )

** Adolf Hitler, German Nazi dictator ( suicide ) ( b. 1889 )

** Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler ( suicide ) ( b. 1912 )

** Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal ( d. 1962 )

** Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity by a panel of 3 Israeli judges.

** While working as a spy for the police, Adolf Hitler is ordered to monitor the German Workers Party.

** Adolf Friedrich V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ( d. 1914 )

** Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch ( he serves only 8 months ).

** Adolf Hitler makes his first public political speech, in Austria.

** World War II: In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring " living space " for the German people ( recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum ).

** Erich Kempka, German chauffeur and bodyguard of Adolf Hitler ( d. 1975 )

** King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates and is later exiled.

** Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi official ( executed ) ( b. 1906 )

** Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1959 )

** King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden ( b. 1882 )

** Adolf Friedrich VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ( d. 1918 )

** Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg.

** Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler prohibits trade unions.