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.

Events of 1945

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

January

Jan. 27: The Soviet Union liberates Auschwitz.

• January - American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium.
• January 5 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• January 7 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his supporting role at 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 Führerbunker.
• January 17 - WWII:
  • The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw.
  • Holocaust: The Nazis begin to evacuate from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
• January 20 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented 4th term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, has ever reached a third term in office.
• January 20 - Hungary drops out of World War II, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
• January 24 - The German A4b-Rocket is first successfully launched.
• January 27 - The Red Army arrives at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland, and finds 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; 9,000 die.
• January 30 - Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and other 200 Filipino guerrillas free 513 American 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: The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theater conflict against Japan.
  • United States forces capture Manila, Philippines from 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 is executed for collaboration with the Germans.
• February 7 - WWII: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
• February 9 - Walter Ulbricht becomes leader of the German Communists in Moscow.
• February 10 - WWII: The SS General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13.
• February 13 - WWII:
  • Soviet 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 land on Iwo Jima.
• February 21 - The last A4-rocket is launched at Peenemünde.
• February 23 - WWII:
  • 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), later wins a Pulitzer Prize.
  • The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American and Filipino forces.
  • The liberating Filipino and American troops enter Intramuros, Manila.
  • The German garrison in Pozna? capitulates to Red Army and Polish forces.
• February 24 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

March

• 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 U.S. Vice-President Henry Agard Wallace starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• March 2 - The Bachem Ba 349 Natter is launched from Stetten am kalten Markt. The Natter is the first manned rocket, developed as anti-aircraft weapon. The launch fails and the pilot dies.^[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 - A Communist-led government is 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?10 - WWII: American B-29 bombers attack Japan with incendiary bombs; Tokyo is fire-bombed killing 100,000 citizens.
• March 10 - WWII - Battle of Mindanao: American and Philippine Commonwealth troops together with Filipino guerrillas battle the Japanese.
• March 15 - The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
• 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: Kobe, Japan 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: 2 airborne divisions capture bridges across the River Rhine to aid the Alied advance.
• March 29 - The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel 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.

April

• April 1 - WWII - Battle of Okinawa: United States troops land on Okinawa.
• April 4 - WWII: American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
• April 7 - WWII:
  • The only flight of the German ramming unit known as the Sonderkommando Elbe takes 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 is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina Brigades from the Tenth Division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
  • Kantaro Suzuki becomes 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.
• April 9 - WWII: The 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 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
• April 16 - WWII: The Goya is 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 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 for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
• April 25 - 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): The last "successful" German panzer-offensive in Bautzen ends with the city 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 - 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 the Red Army approaches the 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 the Yugoslav 4th Army, together with the 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 the New Zealand Army 2nd Division enter Trieste a day after the Yugoslavs; the German Army in Trieste surrenders to the New Zealand Army.
  • The last postage stamp utilized by Manzhouguo is issued.
  • Lübeck is liberated by the British Army.
• May 3 - WWII:
  • The prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland are sunk by the RAF in Lübeck Bay.
  • Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrender to U.S. forces (later helping to start the U.S. space program).
• May 4 - WWII:
  • The concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
  • The North German army surrenders to Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
  • Holland is liberated by Canadian troops. http://www-lib.usc.edu/~anthonya/war/lib.htm German troops officially surrender one day later.
• May 5 - WWII:
  • Prague rises up against the Nazis.
  • Ezra Pound, poet and author, is arrested by American soldiers in Italy for treason.
  • The US 11th Armored Division liberates the 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 kills 5 children and a woman, Elsie Mitchell, near Bly, Oregon, when it explodes as they drag it from the woods. They are the only people killed by an enemy attack on the United States mainland during World War II.
• May 6 - WWII: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (the first 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 takes 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.
  • The British 8th Army, together with Slovene partisan troops and a motorized detachment of the Yugoslav 4th Army, arrives in Carinthia and Klagenfurt.
• May 8?29 - Sétif massacre: In Algeria, thousands die as French troops and released Italian POW's kill an estimated 6,000 Algerian citizens.
• May 9 - WWII:
  • The Soviet Union marks V-E Day.
  • Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army; Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling.
  • The Red Army enters Prague.
  • General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topol?ica, Slovenia, signs the capitulation of German occupation troops.
  • The German occupation of the Channel Islands ends with the liberation by British troops. **Alderney, annex of the concentration camp Neuengamme, is liberated.
• May 14?15 - WWII - 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 are respectively the last German Head of state and Head of government until 1949.
• May 23 - Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide in British custody.
• May 28 - William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, and hanged in January 1946.
• May 29 - German communists, led by Walther Ulbricht, arrive in Berlin.
• May 30 - The Iranian government demands that Soviet and British troops leave the country.

June

• June 1 - The British take over Lebanon and Syria.
• June 5 - The 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.
  • The Franck Committee recommends against a surprise nuclear bombing of Japan. http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm
• June 12 - The Yugoslav Army leaves Trieste, leaving the New Zealand Army in control.
• June 21 - WWII: The Battle of Okinawa ends.
• June 24 - WWII: A victory parade is held in Red Square in Moscow.
• June 25 - Seán T. O'Kelly is elected the second President of Ireland.
• June 26 - The United Nations Charter is signed.
• June 29 - Czechoslovakia cedes Ruthenia to the Soviet Union.

July

July 16: Trinity Test at night in Nevada.

• July 1 - WWII: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.
• July 5 - WWII: The Philippines are declared liberated.
• July 8 - WWII: Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if she can keep the Emperor. http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm
• July 9 - A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn (the third in that area since 1933).
• July 16 - The Trinity Test, the first of an atomic bomb, using 6 kilograms of plutonium, succeeds in 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 3 main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war (meeting ends August 2).
• July 21 - WWII: Harry S. Truman approves the order for atomic bombs to be used against Japan. http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm
• July 23 - WWII: French marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the Vichy government during World War II, goes on trial for 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.
• July 26 - The Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12 permitting Japan to retain the Emperor has been deleted by Truman. http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm
• July 28 - An Army Air Forces B-25 bomber accidentally crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
• July 28 - WWII: Japan rejects the Potsdam Declaration. http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm.
• July 29 - The BBC Light Programme radio station is 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.

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: 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.
  • The 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 Japanese-controlled Chinese region of Manchuria. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1986/RMF.htm
• August 10 - WWII:
  • Japan offers to surrender to the Allies, "provided this does not prejudice the sovereignty of the Emperor."

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm

• August 11 - WWII: The Allies reply to the Japanese surrender offer by saying that Emperor Hirohito will be subject to the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
• August 13 - Zionist World Congress approaches the British government to discuss the 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 calls 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 the Republic of Indonesia, with Soekarno as president. Dutch colonial authorities do not approve.
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published by Fredric Warburg.
• August 19 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh (led by Ho Chi Minh) take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
• 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 - Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
• September 2 - World War II ends: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted by Supreme Allied Commander General 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 recognized as the day the Pacific War ended).
• September 2 - 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 in numerous spy rings in North America.
• September 8 - U.S. troops occupy southern Korea, while the Soviet Union occupies the north. This arrangement proves to be the beginning of a divided Korea.
• September 8 - Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide to avoid facing a war crimes tribunal.
• September 9 - The first actual case of (a computer) bug being found, is 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.
• September 11 - The Batu Lintang camp in Sarawak, Borneo is liberated by Australian forces.
• September 12 - The Japanese Army formally surrenders 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?15 - Operation Backfire: Three A4 rockets are launched near Cuxhaven in order to show Allied forces the rocket with liquid fuel.
• October 3?10 - The Detroit Tigers win the World Series against the Chicago Cubs, who haven't made it to the World Series since.
• October 4 - The Partizan Belgrade sports society is founded in Belgrade, Serbia.
• October 5 - A strike by the Set Decorator's Union in Hollywood results in a riot.
• October 15 - WWII: Pierre Laval, former premier of Vichy France, 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) (considered the birthday of Peronism).
• October 18 - 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 - The United Nations is founded.
• October 24 - 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, resigns as president of Brazil.
• October 29 - 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.
• November 1 - Telechron introduces the model 8H59 "Musalarm", the first clock radio.
• November 13 - Charles De Gaulle is elected head of a French provisional government
• November 15 - Harry S. Truman, Clement Attlee, and Mackenzie King call for a U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1940/1945.htm
• November 16 - Cold War: The United States controversially imports 88 German scientists to help in the production of rocket technology.
• November 16 - The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to that time, it 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.
• November 16 - Yeshiva College is founded.
• November 20 - The Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
• November 28 - An earthquake in Balochistan (Pakistan) causes a tsunami and kills 4,000.
• November 29 - The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (this day is celebrated as Republic Day until the 1990s). Marshal Tito is named president.
• November 29 - Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), is completed. It covers 1,800 square feet of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.

December

• December 2 - General Eurico Gaspar Dutra is elected president of Brazil.
• December 3 - Communist demonstrations in Athens presage the Greek Civil War.
• December 4 - By a vote of 65-7, 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.
• December 27 - Terror strikes are carried out against British military bases in Palestine.

Undated

1945: Nag Hammadi texts found.

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

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 rock singer and songwriter (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)
• January 3 - Abbas Khattak, Commander of the 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 rock singer (Maggie May)
• January 14 - Einar Hakonarson, Icelandic painter
• January 15 - Princess Michael of Kent
• January 15 - Vince Foster, 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 (Magnum, P.I.)
• 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 reggae singer and musician (d. 1981)
• February 7 - Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player
• February 7 - Pete Postlethwaite, English actor
• February 9 - Mia Farrow, American actress (Rosemary's Baby)
• 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 (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
• February 25 - Elkie Brooks, English singer
• February 25 - Roy Saari, American swimmer
• February 26 - Marta Kristen, Norwegian actress (Lost In Space)
• February 27 - Carl Anderson, African-American singer and actor (Jesus Christ Superstar) (d. 2004)
• February 28 - Bubba Smith, African-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 7 - John Heard, American actor
• March 8 - Jim Chapman, American politician
• March 8 - Micky Dolenz, American actor, director, and rock musician (The Monkees)
• March 8 - Anselm Kiefer, German painter
• March 9 - Dennis Rader, American serial killer (BTK)
• 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, Canadian television host, author and journalist
• March 20 - Pat Riley, American basketball coach
• March 26 - Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast (d. 2004)
• March 29 - Walt Frazier, African-American basketball player
• March 30 - Eric Clapton, English rock guitarist (Cocaine)
• March 31 - Gabe Kaplan, American actor, comedian, and professional poker player (Welcome Back, Kotter)

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, American baseball sportswriter
• April 9 - Steve Gadd, American session drummer
• April 12 - Antonio Lujan, member of the New Mexico House of Representatives
• April 12 - Lee Jong-wook, Korean Director-General of the World Health Organization (d. 2006)
• April 13 - Tony Dow, American actor, producer, and director (Leave It To Beaver)
• April 13 - Lowell George, American rock musician (Little Feat)
• April 13 - Bob Kalsu, American football player (d. 1970)
• April 14 - Ritchie Blackmore, English rock guitarist (Deep Purple)
• April 20 - Frank DiLeo, American actor
• April 21 - Diana Darvey, British actress, singer and dancer (d. 2000)
• April 25 - Björn Ulvaeus, Swedish rock songwriter (ABBA)
• April 27 - August Wilson, American playwright (d. 2005)
• April 29 - Tammi Terrell, African-American soul singer (d. 1970)

May

• May 1 - Rita Coolidge, American pop singer (We're All Alone)
• 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 rock singer (Old Time Rock and Roll)
• 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 rock songwriter (The Sweet, Suzi Quatro)
• May 17 - Tony Roche, Australian tennis player
• May 19 - Pete Townshend, English rock guitarist and lyricist (The Who)
• May 21 - Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
• May 23 - Doris Mae Oulton, Canadian community developer
• May 24 - Priscilla Presley, American actress
• May 28 - John Fogerty, American rock singer (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• May 28 - Gary Stewart, American singer (d. 2003)
• May 31 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German film director (d. 1982)

June

• June 1 - Frederica von Stade, American mezzo-soprano
• June 8 - Steven Fromholz, American singer-songwriter
• June 9 - Nike Wagner, German woman of the theater
• June 11 - Adrienne Barbeau, American film and television actress (Maude)
• June 12 - Pat Jennings, Northern Irish footballer player
• June 14 - Jörg Immendorff, German painter
• June 15 - Françoise Chandernagor, French writer
• June 16 - Claire Alexander, Canadian ice hockey player
• June 17 - P. D. T. Acharya, Secretary General Lok Sabha
• June 17 - Frank Ashmore, American actor
• June 17 - Art Bell, American radio talk show host
• June 17 - Anupam Kher, Indian actor
• June 17 - Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
• June 19 - Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar poet, politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• June 19 - Radovan Karad?i?, Serbian politician
• June 24 - George Pataki, former New York State Governor
• June 25 - Carly Simon, American singer and songwriter (You're So Vain)
• June 26 - Dwight York, American musician, fashion consultant, cult leader, and child molester

July

• July 1 - Debbie Harry, American rock singer (Blondie)
• July 5 - Lu Sheng-yen, leader of the True Buddha School
• July 6 - Burt Ward, American actor (Batman)
• July 7 - Michael Ancram, British politician
• July 8 - Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss Federal Councilor
• July 9 - Dean R. Koontz, American writer
• July 11 - Richard Wesley, American playwright and screenwriter
• July 15 - Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (d. 2003)
• July 16 - Victor Sloan, Irish artist
• July 17 - Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia
• July 20 - Kim Carnes, American singer-songwriter (Bette Davis Eyes)
• July 20 - Larry Craig, U.S. senator from Idaho
• July 21 - John Lowe, English darts player
• July 24 - Azim Premji, Indian businessman
• July 26 - Dame Helen Mirren, British actress
• July 28 - Jim Davis, American cartoonist (Garfield)

August

• August 1 - Laila Morse, American actress
• August 1 - Douglas D. Osheroff, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 4 - Alan Mulally, American businessman, current CEO of the Ford Motor Company
• August 5 - Loni Anderson, American actress (WKRP in Cincinnati)
• August 6 - Ron Jones, British director (d. 1995)
• August 7 - Alan Page, American football player
• August 9 - Posy Simmonds, English cartoonist
• August 14 - Steve Martin, American actor and comedian (The Jerk)
• August 14 - Eliana Pittman, Brazilian singer and actress
• August 19 - Ian Gillan, English rock singer (Deep Purple)
• August 22 - Ron Dante, American rock singer, songwriter, and record producer (The Archies)
• August 24 - Vince McMahon, American wrestling promoter
• August 31 - Van Morrison, Irish rock musician (Brown Eyed Girl)
• August 31 - Itzhak Perlman, Israeli-American violinist and conductor

September

• September 1 - Mustafa Balel, Turkish writer
• September 5 - Al Stewart, Scottish singer-songwriter (Year of the Cat)
• September 8 - Jose Feliciano, Puerto Rican singer
• September 11 - Franz Beckenbauer, German soccer player and coach
• September 14 - Martin Tyler, British sports broadcaster
• September 15 - Jessye Norman, American soprano
• September 17 - Phil Jackson, American basketball coach
• September 19 - Randolph Mantooth, American actor (Emergency!)
• September 21 - Shaw Clifton, General of The Salvation Army
• September 27 - Kay Ryan, American poet
• September 30 - Ehud Olmert, 12th Prime Minister of Israel

October

• October 2 - Don McLean, American rock singer-songwriter (American Pie)
• October 3 - Kay Baxter, American bodybuilder (d. 1988)
• October 12 - Aurore Clément, French actress
• October 12 - Dusty Rhodes, American professional wrestler
• October 15 - Jim Palmer, American baseball player
• October 18 - Y?ldo, Turkish showman, football player
• October 19 - John Lithgow, American actor (Third Rock From The Sun)
• October 22 - Yvan Ponton, Canadian actor and sportscaster
• October 24 - Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education
• October 25 - David Schramm, American astrophysicist
• October 25 - Peter Ledger, Australian artist (d. 1994)
• October 27 - Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil
• October 27 - John Kane, British actor/writer
• October 30 - Henry Winkler, American actor (Happy Days)
• October 31 - Brian Doyle-Murray, American actor (Saturday Night Live)

November

• November 3 - Gerd Muller, German footballer
• November 5 - Jacques Lanctôt, Canadian terrorist
• November 11 - Chris Dreja, British rock musician (The Yardbirds)
• November 12 - Michael Bishop, American author
• November 12 - Tracy Kidder, American journalist and author
• November 12 - Neil Young, Canadian rock singer (Heart of Gold)