* 1939 – 1945, the Second Battle of the Atlantic.

* 1945 – World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.

* 1945 – World War II: the Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville comes to an end.

* 1945 – Neal Boortz, American radio personality

* 1945 – U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office ; vice-president Harry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.

* 1945 – Lee Jong-wook, Korean Director-General of the World Health Organization ( d. 2006 )

* 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day.

* 1945 – Annie Dillard, American writer

* 1945 – Mimi Fariña, American singer-songwriter, musician, and activist ( d. 2001 )

* 1945 – Michael J. Smith, American astronaut ( d. 1986 )

* 1871 – Theodore Dreiser, American author ( d. 1945 )

* 1905 – Aris Velouchiotis, Greek military leader ( d. 1945 )

* 1945 – Jan Sloot, Dutch inventor ( d. 1999 )

* 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb " Little Boy " is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay.

* 1945 – Ron Jones, English director ( d. 1993 )

* 1945 – Andy Messersmith, American baseball player

* 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki, Japan is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar.

* 1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.

* 1945 – Barbara Delinsky, American author

* 1945 – Aleksandr Gorelik, Russian figure skater ( d. 2012 )

* 1945 – Posy Simmonds, English cartoonist

* 1866 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian businessman, founded Fiat S. p. A ( d. 1945 )

* 1945 – Lars Engqvist, Swedish politician

* 1945 – Robin Jackman, English cricketer

* 1897 – Karl-Otto Koch, German SS officer ( d. 1945 )

* 1945 – World War II: Japan surrenders to end the war.

* Liberation Day, celebrates the independence of Korea from Japan in 1945:

* Independence Day, celebrates the proclamation of Indonesia's independence from Japan in 1945.

* 1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.

The southern half of Sakhalin was acquired by Japan as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 – 05, but at the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviets declared war on Japan and took possession of the Kuril islands and southern Sakhalin.

* 1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.

Category: 1945 in Japan

Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, the war between the KMT and the CPC resumed, after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement.

Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Attlee and Churchill wanted the coalition government to last until Japan had been defeated.

Despite some early cooperative military successes against Japan, by the time that the Japanese surrendered in 1945 neither the CPC nor the KMT trusted each other or were actively cooperating.

In 1945, when Japan surrendered, Chiang's Chongqing government was ill-equipped and ill-prepared to reassert its authority in formerly Japanese-occupied China, and asked the Japanese to postpone their surrender until Kuomintang ( KMT ) authority could arrive to take over.

For some, Chiang was a national hero who led the victorious Northern Expedition against the Beiyang Warlords in 1927, achieving Chinese unification, and who subsequently led China to ultimate victory against Japan in 1945.

* Order of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek supplementing the Act of Surrender – by Japan on September 9, 1945

* 1945 – Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.

Danny Kaye on USO tour at Sasebo, Japan, 25 October 1945.

Japan took Vietnam from France and the Axis-occupied Vietnam was declared an empire by the Japanese in March 1945.

The completed films included the seven-episode Why We Fight series — consisting of Prelude to War ( 1942 ), The Nazis Strike ( 1942 ), Divide and Conquer ( 1943 ), The Battle of Britain ( 1943 ), The Battle of Russia ( 1943 ), The Battle of China ( 1944 ), War Comes to America ( 1945 ) – plus Know Your Enemy: Japan ( 1945 ), Tunisian Victory ( 1945 ), and Two Down and One to Go ( 1945 ) that do not bear the Why We Fight banner ; as well as the African-American related, The Negro Soldier ( 1944 ).