January 20 - Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for his 4th term as U.S President.
February 1 - 1,000 American bombers raid Berlin.
February 4 - The Yalta Conference between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt is held.
February 5 - Under General MacArthur, U.S. troops enter Manila.
February 23 - Associated Press photographer, Joe Rosenthal, takes the famous picture of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.
March 7 - American forces cross the Rhine River into Germany.
March 31 - U.S. forces begin landings on the Pacific island of Okinawa.
April 10 - U.S. troops reach the Elbe River in central Europe.
April 10 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia and is succeeded by Harry Truman.
May 7 - The Germans formally surrender to General Eisenhower at Rheims, France.
May 8 - WW II in Europe ends (V-E Day).
June 5 - The U.S., Russia, England and France agree to split occupied Germany into Eastern and Western halves.
June 21 - Okinawa falls to the U.S.
July 6 - The Medal of Freedom is established by President Truman to be awarded to civilians for meritorious service.
July 16 - The first atomic bomb is successfully detonated at Trinity Site, near Alamogordo, in New Mexico.
July 26 - The Potsdam Conference closes as the U.S. and Great Britain, in association with China, sign the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of Japan. Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union was also in attendance at the conference, but his nation did not declare war on Japan until August eighth.
July 28 - A B-25 bomber accidentally crashes into the Empire State Building in New York City.
August 6 - The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
August 9 - U.S. bombers drop an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
August 14 - President Truman accepts the unconditional surrender of Japan, thus ending the fighting in World War II.
August 17 - Korea is divided at the 38th parallel, and the U.S. occupies the southern portion.
August 28 - U.S. forces land in Japan.
August 29 - General MacArthur is named Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan.
September 1 - The Japanese sign the World War II surrender agreement.
September 2 - The Japanese formally surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri.
September 9 - U.S. troops land in South Korea, as Soviet forces begin to occupy the northern half of the country. The 38th parallel officially begins to serve as the boundary between the two new nations.
September 30 - The U.S. returns to Standard Time after War Time.
October 19 - President Harry Truman becomes the only U.S. President to become a 33rd degree Mason.
October 30 - Shoe rationing in the U.S. ends.
November 19 - General Eisenhower is appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.
November 23 - Meat and butter rationing in the U.S. ends.
