January 9, 1945 -- U.S. forces land on Luzon, Phillipines. January 12, 1945 -- Russians open winter offensive with remarkable progress. January 16, 1945 -- U.S. 1^st and 3^rd army units close the bulge, but do not succeed in entrapping enemy forces.	January 14, 1945 -- Death marches to the interior of Germany begin, taking 250,000 Jewish lives. January 17, 1945 -- Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews, is last seen alive with Soviet troops. January 19, 1945 -- Approximately 800 prisoners remaining in the Lodz Ghetto are liberated by Soviet troops, after 74,600 have been deported to Auschwitz. January 25, 1945 -- Death march from Stutthoff concentration camp. January 26, 1945 -- Soviet troops arrive at Auschwitz to discover 7,600 survivors and 648 corpses. Most of the prisoners in Auschwitz had been sent out on a death march on January 18.

February 4-10, 1945 -- Yalta Conference. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet in the Ukraine to determine steps to be taken with Post-War Germany. February 27, 1945 -- U.S. troops land on Iwo Jima.	February 1945 -- The Gross-Rosen complex is evacuated. Thousands of the 40,000 prisoners who left for other camps are murdered en route. February 1945 -- Recha Sternbuch initiates the Musy-Himmler negotiations, releasing 1,210 Theresienstadt inmates. February 13, 1945 -- Soviet forces capture Budapest, saving 120,000 Jews.

March 5, 1945 -- Allied troops converge on the Rhine. March 24, 1945 -- 150 bombers fly 1,500 miles from Italy to bomb Berlin.	March 1945-- Anne Frank dies of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. March 1, 1945 -- Hitler orders the destruction of all Germany; it is unworthy of surviving him. His order mandates the destruction not only of military installations, but also of all stores, industries, and transportation and communication installations. Nothing is to fall into enemy hands.	March 1945 -- A TWA Lockheed Constellation sets a new New York-Paris record flight of 12 hours and 57 minutes. March 1945 -- Joan Crawford receives Best Actress award for her performance in "Mildred Pierce"; "The Lost Weekend" by Billy Wilder wins 3 Academy Awards.

April 1, 1945 -- Invasion of Okinawa begins. April 14, 1945 -- The German "Ruhr" garrison surrenders to General Bradley. 320,000 German soldiers are captured. April 25, 1945 -- U.S. and Red Army units meet near the Elbe River at Torgan, 75 miles south of Berlin. April 29, 1945 -- The German commanding officer in Italy surrenders to General Alexander of the U.S. 5^th Army unit. April 30, 1945 -- Munich is captured by Patch’s 7^th Army unit.	April 6, 1945 -- Most of the Jewish prisoners remaining at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany are forced out on death marches. April 10, 1945 -- On his last visit to Theresienstadt, Adolf Eichmann is heard to say, "I shall gladly jump into the pit, knowing that in the same pit there are 5 million enemies of the state." April 11, 1945 -- U.S. troops liberate approximately 20,000 prisoners from Buchenwald. April 14-15, 1945 -- British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen and then move on in pursuit of German forces. April 20, 1945 -- Hitler commits suicide after U.S. troops occupy Munich. April 29, 1945 -- Dachau is liberated by American troops. April 30, 1945 -- Germany surrenders; end of the Third Reich.	April 12, 1945 -- General Eisenhower is shown the first cave where the Nazis hoarded $250 million in captured treasures, one half-mile under the earth’s surface. April 13, 1945 -- President Roosevelt dies. Harry S Truman is sworn in as the new President. He promises to continue policies.

May 2, 1945 -- British Army enters Lubeck in the Baltic, sealing off German forces in Denmark. Berlin surrenders to the Soviet Army. May 4, 1945 -- Germans surrender in Denmark and Norway. May 6, 1945 -- German troops north of Italy surrender to General Devers of the U.S. 7^th Army division. May 7, 1945 -- Germany, under General Jodl, signs German unconditional surrender. May 8, 1945 -- In Berlin, the unconditional surrender is ratified, marking an end to twelve and a half years of the Nazi Third Reich.		May 1945 -- Tenessee William’s "The Glass Menagerie" opens in New York and is a smashing success.

June 1945 -- Zhukov establishes a military administration to organize the Soviet zone in eastern Germany. Pieck, Grobewohl and Ulbricht eventually bring the Communist Pary S.E.D. into control. June 5, 1945 -- Berlin council of Allied commanders begins.	June 1945 -- Allied coutries establish a tribunal at Nuremberg to try Axis leaders for war crimes.	June 1945 -- "Coke" tradmark of Coca Cola is registered in U.S. patent office. June 1945 -- Churchill’s political party is defeated in British summer elections.

July 17-August 2, 1945 -- The Potsdam Conference meets to implement agreements previously reached at the Yalta Conference, transferring authority to Truman, Stalin and Churchill. The Allies set up a new ruling system in Germany to prevent it from a military power again. The vague wording and tentative provisions allowing a wide range of interpretation are blamed for causing its ultimate failure.		July 29, 1945 -- Low-flying bomber hits the Empire State Building, setting it afire at the 79^th floor.

August 6, 1945 -- The first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, an explosion equal to 20,000 tons of TNT. August 9, 1945 -- A second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki; Soviets declare war on Japan, attacking Manchuria. August 14, 1945 -- End of the war with Japan.		August 1945 -- The most decorated World War II hero, Audie Murphy, returns home from North Africa, Italy and France. He is awarded fifteen citations including the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as Belgium and France awards. August 12, 1945 -- Stalin invites General Eisenhower to the National Sports Parade in Red Square, Moscow.

September 2, 1945 -- Formal surrender of Japan is signed. September 2, 1945 -- President Truman sets the date as V-J Day.		September 1945 -- Bebop music is at its peak while Dizzy Gillespie tours with his first big band.

		October 1945 -- The Detroit Tigers take the World Series in seven games. October 1945 -- Sternweiss of the New York Yankees wins the American League batting title with an average of only .309, the lowest batting average in history, due to the effects of World War II.

	November 1945 -- The Nuremberg War Crimes trial opens with voluminous evidence presented to prove the extermination of civilian populations, widespread use of slave labor, looting of captured countries and harsh mistreatment and murder of P.O.W.'s. Death sentences are given to Goering, Ribbentrop, Streicher and eight other Nazis.	November 30, 1945 -- Macy’s produces its first Thanksgiving Day Parade.

		December 1945 -- Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire dance in the film "Ziegfield Follies," their one and only film together.