1945.html



Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). It is most widely known for being the year in which World War II ended. It is also known as the beginning of the Information Age.^{citation needed}

Events of 1945

(Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)

January

Jan. 27: Soviet Union liberates Auschwitz.

• January - American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium
• January 5 - Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• January 7 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his contribution to the Battle of the Bulge.
• January 12 - WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
• January 13 - A Soviet patrol arrests Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary.
• January 16 - Adolf Hitler evacuates to his underground bunker, the Führerbunker.
• January 17 - WWII:
  • Soviet Union occupies Warsaw.
  • Holocaust: Nazis begin to evacuate from Auschwitz concentration camp.
• January 20
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States.
  • Hungary drops out of the Second World War, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
• January 24 - First successful launch of the German A4b-Rocket
• January 27 - The Red Army arrives at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland and find the Nazi concentration camp where 1.3 million people were murdered.
• January 28 - WWII: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
• January 30
  • The Wilhelm Gustloff ship with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in the Gdansk Bay is sunk by 3 torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea. Based on recent research, over 9,000 died.
  • 121 American Soldiers and other 200 Filipino guerrillas commence the Raid of Cabanatuan, freeing 513 American & British POWs from the Japanese-held camp at Cabanatuan City, Philippines.
• January 31 - Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad for desertion, the first American soldier since the American Civil War, and last to date to be executed for this offence.

February

February 2: The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.

• February 2 - WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill leave to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference.
• February 3 - WWII: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theater conflict against Japan.
  • United States forces capture Manila, Philippines against the Japanese Imperial Army.
• February 4 - WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin begin the Yalta Conference (ends February 11)
• February 6 - French writer Robert Brasillach executed for collaboration with the Germans
• February 7 - WWII: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila
• February 9 - Walter Ulbricht becomes the leader of German communists in Moscow
• February 10 - WWII: The SS General von Steuben sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13.
• February 13 - WWII:
  • Soviet Union forces capture Budapest, Hungary from the Nazis.
  • The Royal Air Force bombs Dresden, Germany.
• February 14 - Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru join the United Nations.
• February 16 - WWII:
  • American and Filipino forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
  • American and Filipino forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula
• February 19 - WWII: Battle of Iwo Jima - about 30,000 United States Marines landed on Iwo Jima starting the battle.
• February 21 - Last launch of an A4-rocket at Peenemünde
• February 23 - WWII:
  • During the 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 will later win a Pulitzer Prize.
  • The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American and Filipino forces.
  • The liberating Filipino and American troops entering in Intramuros, Manila by the attack from the Japanese forces.
  • Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Red Army and Polish forces.
• February 24 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

March

• Early March - Annelies Marie Frank, also called Anne Frank, dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Lower Saxony, Germany of typhus.
• March 1 - Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.
• March 2
  • Former US Vice-President Henry Agard Wallace starts his term of office as US Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Launch of the Bachem Ba 349 Natter from Stetten am kalten Markt. The Natter was the first manned rocket and developed as anti-aircraft weapon. The launch failed and the pilot died.^[1]
• March 3 - WWII:
  • Previously neutral Finland declares war on the Axis powers.
  • A possible experimental atomic test blast occurs at the Nazis' Ohrdruf military testing area.
  • The United States and Filipino troops take Manila.
• March 4 - In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Army as a driver.
• March 6 - Communist-led government formed in Romania
• March 7 - WWII: American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross.
• March 8 - Josip Broz Tito forms a government in Yugoslavia
• March 9-March 10 - WWII: American B-29 bombers attack Japan with incendiary bombs. Tokyo is fire-bombed killing 100,000 citizens.
• March 10 - WWII: The Battle of Mindanao founded to the battles of the American and Philippine Commonwealth troops together with the Allied Filipino Guerrillas against the Japanese.
• March 15 - 17th Academy Awards ceremony
• March 16 - WWII: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, with small pockets of guerrilla resistance persisting past the official conclusion of the battle.
• March 17 - WWII: Japanese city of Kobe is fire-bombed by 331 B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000.
• March 18 - WWII: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
• March 19 - WWII:
  • Adolf Hitler orders that all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
  • Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
• March 21 - WWII: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma
• March 22 - The Arab League is formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
• March 24 - WWII: Operation Varsity takes place, with two airborne divisions capturing bridges across the River Rhine to aid the Alied advance.
• March 29 - The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duelled at Madison Square Garden. OSU defeats DePaul 52-44.
• March 30 - WWII: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna. Alger Hiss congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing about the Western betrayal at the Yalta Conference.
• From February 14, 1936, to March 1, 1945, AG Weser launched a total of 162 U-boats.

April

• April 1 - WWII: United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war. The Battle of Okinawa starts.
• April 4 - WWII: American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
• April 7 - WWII:
  • The first and only flight of the German ramming unit known as the Sonderkommando Elbe took place, resulting in the loss of some 24 B-17s and B-24s of the United States Eighth Air Force.
  • The Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while enroute on a suicide mission.
  • Visoko was liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
  • Kantaro Suzuki becomes the Prime Minister of Japan
• April 9
  • Abwehr conspirators Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Hans Dohanyi are hanged at Flossenberg concentration camp along with pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
  • WWII: Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
• April 10 - The Allied Forces liberate the Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald.
• April 12 - United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) dies suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) becomes the 33rd President.
• April 15 - Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberated.
• April 16 - WWII: The Goya sunk by the Soviet submarine L-3.
• April 18 - U.S. war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off Okinawa.
• April 19 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, a musical play based on Ferenc Molnar's Liliom, opens on Broadway and becomes their second long-running stage classic.
• April 20- The League of Nations officially ceases to exist.
• April 24 - Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historical Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.
• April 25
  • Founding negotiations of United Nations in San Francisco
  • WWII: Elbe Day, United States and Soviet troops link up at the Elbe River, cutting Germany in two
• April 26 - Battle of Bautzen (World War II) - last "successful" German panzer-offensive in Bautzen, the city is recaptured
• April 27 - U.S. Ordinance troops find the coffins of Frederick Wilhelm I, Frederick the Great, Paul Von Hindenburg, and his wife
• April 28 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are executed by Italian partisans as they attempt to flee the country. Their bodies are then hung by their heels in the public square of Milan.
• April 29 - Start of Operation Manna: British Lancaster bombers drop food into the Netherlands to prevent the starvation of the civilian population.
• April 30 - Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as Red Army approaches Führerbunker in Berlin. Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany. Joseph Goebbels succeeds Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

May

• May 1 - WWII:
  • Hamburg Radio announces that Hitler has died in battle, "...fighting up to his last breath against Bolshevism."
  • Joseph Goebbels and his wife commit suicide after killing their 6 children. Karl Dönitz appoints Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk as the new Chancellor of Germany.
  • Troops of Yugoslav 4th Army together with Slovene 9th Corpus NOV enter Trieste.
• May 2 - WWII:
  • The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin. Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reich Chancellery.
  • Troops of New Zealand Army 2nd Division enter Trieste a day after the Yugoslavs. German Army in Trieste surrenders to the New Zealand Army.
  • The last postage stamp utilized by Manzhouguo is issued.
  • Liberation of Lübeck by British Army.
• May 3 - WWII:
  • Sinkings of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the RAF in the Lübeck Bay.
  • Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to US forces. They later help start the US space program.
• May 4 - WWII:
  • Liberation of the concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg by the British army.
  • Reddition of the North Germany army by Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
  • Holland liberated by Canadian troops. [1] German troops officially surrender one day later.
• May 5 - WWII:
  • Prague uprising against the Nazis.
  • Ezra Pound, poet and author, is arrested by American soldiers in Italy for treason.
  • US 11th Armored Division liberates prisoners of Mauthausen concentration camp - including Simon Wiesenthal
  • Canadian soldiers liberate the city of Amsterdam from Nazi occupation.
    • Admiral Karl Dönitz orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.
  • A Japanese balloon bomb killed five children and a woman, Elsie Mitchell near Bly, Oregon, when it exploded as they dragged it from the woods. They were the only people killed by enemy attack on the United States mainland during World War II.
• May 6 - WWII: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
• May 7 - WWII: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Rheims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document will take effect the next day.
• May 8 - WWII:
  • V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of World War II in Europe.
  • British 8th Army together with Slovene partisan troops and motorized detachment of Yugoslav 4th Army arrives to Carinthia and Klagenfurt.
• May 8-May 29 - In Algeria, thousands die as French troops and released Italian POW's kill an estimated 6 thousand Algerian citizens (Sétif rebellion).
• May 9 - WWII:
  • Russian V-E day and Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army; Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling; Soviet Union marks V-E Day.
  • Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of German occupation troops)
  • General Alexander Löhr Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signs capitulation of German occupation troops.
  • Occupation of the Channel Islands ends with the liberation by British troops. Alderney, annex of the concentration camp Neuengamme liberated.
• May 14 - May 15 - WWII: the Battle of Poljana: the last battle of WWII in Europe is fought at Poljana near Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia
• May 23
  • President of Germany Karl Dönitz and Chancellor of Germany Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk are arrested by British forces at Flensburg. They would respectively be the last German Head of state and Head of government until 1949.
  • Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide in British custody.
• May 28 - William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. He is hanged in January 1946.
• May 29 - Group of German communists, Ulbricht in the lead, arrive in Berlin.
• May 30 - Iranian government demands that Soviet and British troops leave the country.

June

• June 1 - British take over Lebanon and Syria
• June 5 - Allied Control Council, military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power.
• June 6 - King Haakon VII of Norway returns to Norway
• June 11 - William Lyon Mackenzie King is re-elected as Canadian prime minister. Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan. [2]
• June 12 - Yugoslav Army leaves Trieste, leaving the New Zealand Army in control.
• June 21 - WWII: The Battle of Okinawa ends.
• June 24 - WWII: Victory parade in Red Square
• June 25 - Seán T. O'Kelly is elected the second President of Ireland.
• June 26 - United Nations charter signed.
• June 29 - Czechoslovakia cedes Ruthenia to Soviet Union

July

July 16: Trinity Test at night in Nevada.

• July 1 - WWII: Germany is divided between Allied occupation forces
• July 5 - WWII: Liberation of the Philippines declared.
• July 8 - WWII: Harry S. Truman was informed that Japan will talk peace if she can keep the Emperor. [3]
• July 9 - A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn, the third fire in that area since 1933.
• July 15 - Philippines fully independent in United States.
• July 16 - Nuclear testing: The Trinity Test, the first test of an atomic bomb, using 6 kilograms of plutonium, succeeds in detonating, unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 19 kilotons of TNT.
• July 16 - WWII: A train collision near Munich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.
• July 17 - WWII: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.
• July 21 - WWII: Harry S. Truman approves order for atomic bombs to be used. [4]
• July 23 - WWII: French marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the Vichy government during World War II goes on trial, charged with treason.
• July 26
  • Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's prime minister after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election. Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister.
  • Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12 permitting Japan to retain the Emperor had been deleted by Truman. [5]
• July 28
  • An Army Air Forces B-25 bomber accidentally crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
  • WWII: Japan rejects Potsdam Declaration [6].
• July 29 - The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.
• July 30 - WWII: The USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for 4 days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain Charles B. McVay III is later court-martialed.
• July 31 - Death of Artemio Ricarte

August

August 9: The mushroom cloud from the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air.

September 2: Japan signs the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

• August 6 - WWII: the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan at 8:15 a.m. (local time).
• August 7 - President Harry Truman announces the successful bombing of Hiroshima with an atomic bomb while returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
• August 8 - The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation becomes the third to join the new international organization. Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
• August 9 - WWII:
  • The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" over the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11:02 a.m. (local time).
  • The Soviet Union begins its offensive against Japan in the then Japanese controlled Chinese region of Manchuria. [7]
• August 10 - WWII:
  • Japan offers to surrender to the Allies, "...provided this does not prejudice the sovereignty of the Emperor."
  • US drops warning leaflets on Nagasaki. [8]
• August 11 - WWII: Allies reply to the Japanese surrender offer by saying that Emperor Hirohito would be subject to the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
• August 13 - Zionist World Congress approaches British government to talk about founding of Israel.
• August 14 - WWII: Emperor Hirohito accepts the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
• August 15 - WWII:
  • Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio. The United States called this day V-J Day (Victory in Japan). This ends the period of Japanese expansionism and begins the period of Occupied Japan.
  • Korea gains independence following Japan's surrender
• August 17 - Indonesian nationalists Soekarno and Mohammed Hatta declare the independence of Republic of Indonesia, Soekarno as a president. Dutch colonial authorities do not approve. Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published by Fredric Warburg
• August 19 - Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
• End of August - Chinese Civil War: Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek meet in Chongqing to discuss an end to hostilities between the Communists and the Nationalists.

September

• September 2
  • The Commanding of the Imperial Japanese Army general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrendered to the Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
  • World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan was accepted by Supreme Allied Commander General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. But in Japan August 14 is well recognized as the day the Pacific War ended.
  • Ho Chi Minh promulgates the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, and unity from the north to the south.
• September 4 - WWII: Japanese forces surrender on Wake Island after hearing word of their nation's surrender.
• September 5 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose," is arrested in Yokohama.
• September 5 - Russian code clerk Igor Gouzenko comes forward with numerous documents implicating the Soviet Union of having numerous spy rings in North America.
• September 8
  • US troops occupy southern Korea, Soviet Union occupy the north. This arrangement proves to be the beginning of a divided Korea.
• *Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide to avoid facing a war crimes tribunal.
• September 9 - "First actual case of (a computer) bug being found" - a moth lodged in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at the Naval Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.
• September 11
  • Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.
  • Batu Lintang camp in Sarawak, Borneo liberated by Australian forces.
• September 12 - Japanese army formally surrendered in Singapore.
• September 18 - Typhoon Makurazaki in Japan kills 3,746.
• September 20 - Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru demand that British troops leave India

October

October 24: The United Nations is formed. This was its flag. The modern version is slightly retouched.

October 18: Nuremberg trials begin, after Buchenwald closed.

• October 1 - to October 15 - Launch of three A4 rockets near Cuxhaven in order to show Allied forces the rocket with liquid fuel (Operation Backfire)
• October 3 - to October 10 - Detroit Tigers won the World Series against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs haven't made it to the World Series since.
• October 4 - Established Partizan, sports society from Belgrade, Serbia.
• October 5 - A strike by the Set Decorator's Union in Hollywood results in riot
• October 15 - WWII: Former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed by firing squad for treason.
• October 17 - A massive number of people, headed for CGT, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty) or San Perón (Saint Perón). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.
• October 18
  • The first German war crimes trial begins in Nuremberg.
  • Isaías Medina Angarita, president of Venezuela, is overthrown by a military coup.
• October 21 - Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
• October 23 - Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals.
• October 24
  • United Nations founded.
  • Norwegian Nazi leader, Vidkun Quisling, is shot by firing squad for treason.
• October 27 - Indonesian separatists riot and fight Dutch and British security forces.
• October 29
  • Getúlio Vargas, president of Brazil, resigns.
  • At Gimbel's Department Store in New York City, the first ballpoint pens go on sale at $12.50 each.

November

• November 1
  • John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of the magazine Ebony.
  • Telechron introduces the model 8H59 "Musalarm", the first clock radio.
• November 11 - Musical theatre composer Jerome Kern dies after suffering a stroke a week before.
• November 13 - Charles De Gaulle elected head of a French provisional government
• November 15 - Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee, and Mackenzie King call for a UN Atomic Energy Commission.[9]
• November 16
  • Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
  • The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, is released. It is the most realistic film portrayal of an alcoholic up to that time, and wins several Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director (Billy Wilder) and Best Actor (Ray Milland). Billy Wilder wins his first Oscar for the film; Milland his only one. After his Oscar win, Ray Milland, who has usually starred in light comedies and adventure films, will be given more heavily dramatic roles.
  • Yeshiva College founded
• November 20 - Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
• November 28 - Earthquake in Balochistan (Pakistan) caused a tsunami and killed 4000.
• November 29
  • The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day was celebrated as Republic Day until 1990s). Marshal Tito is named president.
  • Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), is completed. It covers 1800 feet of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.

December

• December 2 - General Eurico Gaspar Dutra elected president of Brazil
• December 3 - Communist demonstrations in Athens - preliminary of the Greek Civil War
• December 4 - By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations.
• December 5 - A flight of USAF Avenger torpedo bombers known as Flight 19 disappears on a training exercise.
• December 21 - General George S. Patton dies from injuries sustained in a car accident on December 9.
• December 27
  • Twenty-eight nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank.
  • Terror strikes against British military bases in Palestine.

Undated

1945: Nag Hammadi texts found.

• Foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
• Poland has two rival governments.
• Discovery of Nag Hammadi scriptures.
• Dutch painter Han van Meegeren is arrested for collaboration with Nazis but the paintings he had sold to Hermann Göring are found to be his fakes.
• Female suffrage in Guatemala and Japan
• Saskatchewan Government Insurance, the first state-owned automobile insurance company in North America, is created.
• Denmark recognizes independent Iceland
• US House of Representatives calls for unrestricted Jewish immigration to Palestine in order to establish a Jewish commonwealth there
• Berklee College of Music founded

Science and technology

• The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, the first chiropractic college in Canada, initiates its four year doctoral program.
• Arthur C. Clarke puts forward the idea of a communications satellite in a Wireless World magazine article.
• At the Mayo Clinic, streptomycin is first used to treat tuberculosis.
• Percy Spencer accidentally discovers that microwaves can heat food. Invention of the microwave oven follows.
• Grand Rapids, Michigan and Newburgh, New York become the first cities to add fluoride to drinking water.
• The first nuclear reactor outside of the U.S. is built in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada.
• High-altitude, west-to-east winds across the Pacific Ocean—discovered by the Japanese in 1942 and by Americans in 1944—are dubbed the jet stream.
• Salvador Edward Luria and Alfred Day Hershey independently recognize that viruses undergo mutations.
• The herbicide 2,4-D is introduced; it is later used as a component of Agent Orange.
• A team led by Charles DuBois Coryell discovers chemical element 61, the only one still missing between 1 and 96 on the periodic table. The new element is called promethium.
• Raymond Libby develops oral penicillin.
• American Canamid discovers folic acid, a vitamin abundant in green leafy vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast.
• The first geothermal milk pasteurization occurs in Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA.

Births

January

• January 3 - Stephen Stills, American singer and songwriter (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)
• January 3 - Abbas Khattak, Commander of Pakistan Air Force
• January 4 - Richard R. Schrock, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 10 - Jennifer Moss, British actress (d. 2006)
• January 10 - Rod Stewart, British singer
• January 14 - Einar Hakonarson, Painter
• January 15 - Princess Michael of Kent
• January 15 - Vince Foster, a deputy White House counsel during the first term of President Bill Clinton (d.1993)
• January 20 - Robert Olen Butler, American writer
• January 26 - Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
• January 27 - Harold Cardinal, Cree political leader, writer, and lawyer (d. 2005)
• January 29 - Jim Nicholson, Northern Irish politician
• January 29 - Tom Selleck, American actor
• January 30 - Michael Dorris, American author (d. 1997)
• January 31 - Joseph Kosuth, American artist

February

• February 2 - David Friedman, American economist
• February 3 - Bob Griese, American football player
• February 3 - Philip Waruinge, Kenyan boxer
• February 5 - Charlotte Rampling, English actress
• February 6 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1981)
• February 7 - Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player
• February 7 - Pete Postlethwaite, English actor
• February 9 - Mia Farrow, American actress
• February 12 - Maud Adams, Swedish actress
• February 16 - Frank Welker, American voice actor
• February 14 - Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein
• February 17 - Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
• February 24 - Barry Bostwick, American actor
• February 25 - Elkie Brooks, English singer
• February 25 - Roy Saari, American swimmer
• February 26 - Marta Kristen, Norwegian actress
• February 27 - Carl Anderson, American singer and actor (d. 2004)
• February 28 - Bubba Smith, American football player and actor

March

• March 1 - Dirk Benedict, American actor
• March 3 - Hattie Winston, American actress
• March 4 - Dieter Meier, Swiss singer and children's writer
• March 4 - Tommy Svensson, Swedish football manager and former player
• March 4 - Gary Williams, American basketball coach
• March 6 - Rob Reiner, American actor, comedian and director
• March 7 - John Heard, American actor
• March 8 - Jim Chapman, American politician
• March 8 - Micky Dolenz, American actor, director, and musician (The Monkees)
• March 8 - Anselm Kiefer, German painter
• March 9 - Dennis Rader, American serial killer
• March 13 - Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician
• March 15 - A. K. Faezul Huq, Bangladeshi lawyer and Politician (d. 2007)
• March 17 - Katri Helena, Finnish singer
• March 19 - Cem Karaca, Turkish musician (d. 2004)
• March 20 - Jay Ingram, television host, author and journalist
• March 20 - Pat Riley, American basketball coach
• March 24 - Sylvester the Cat, Looney Tunes cartoon character
• March 26 - Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast (d. 2004)
• March 29 - Walt Frazier, American basketball player
• March 30 - Eric Clapton, English guitarist
• March 31 - Gabe Kaplan, American actor, comedian, and professional poker player

April

• April 2 - Linda Hunt, American actress
• April 4 - Daniel Cohn-Bendit, French activist
• April 7 - Werner Schroeter, German film director
• April 9 - Peter Gammons, baseball sportswriter
• April 9 - Steve Gadd, American session drummer
• April 12 - Lee Jong-wook, Korean Director-General of the World Health Organization (d. 2006)
• April 13 - Tony Dow, American actor, producer, and director
• April 13 - Lowell George, American musician (Little Feat)
• April 13 - Bob Kalsu, American football player (d. 1970)
• April 14 - Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist (Deep Purple 1968-1975 & 1984-1993)
• April 20 - Frank DiLeo, American actor
• April 21 - Diana Darvey, British actress, singer and dancer (d. 2000)
• April 25 - Björn Ulvaeus, Swedish songwriter (ABBA)
• April 27 - August Wilson, American playwright (d. 2005)
• April 29 - Tammi Terrell, American soul singer (d. 1970)

May

• May 1 - Rita Coolidge, American singer
• May 2 - Judge Dread, English musician
• May 2 -Sarah Weddington, American attorney
• May 4 - Narasinham Ram, Indian journalist
• May 5 - Kurt Loder American film critic, author, and television personality.
• May 6 - Jimmie Dale Gilmore, American musician
• May 6 - Bob Seger, American singer
• May 8 - Keith Jarrett, American musician
• May 14 - George Nicholls, British rugby league footballer
• May 14 - Yochanan Vollach, former Israeli football player and president of Maccabi Haifa, CEO
• May 15 - Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, heir to the Portuguese crown
• May 16 - Nicky Chinn, English songwriter (The Sweet and Suzi Quatro)
• May 17 - Tony Roche, Australian tennis player
• May 19 - Pete Townshend, English guitarist and lyricist (The Who)