Historical Events
Events 501 - 600 of 698
Goering Captured
1945-05-09 World War II: Hermann Goering is captured by the United States Army
- 1945-05-09 World War II: Partisans liberate Ljubljana.
- 1945-05-09 World War II: The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British
- 1945-05-15 World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia
Himmler Captured
1945-05-21 Nazi SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler captured
- 1945-07-05 World War II: Liberation of the Philippines declared
- 1945-08-08 USSR declares war against Japan in WW II
- 1945-08-15 World War II: Korean Liberation Day
Hideki Tojo Attempts Suicide
1945-09-11 Hideki Tojo, Japanese Prime Minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide rather than face war crimes tribunal but fails - later he is hanged
Chinese Civil War Begins
1945-10-11 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong's Communist Party
- 1945-11-10 Heavy battle in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
Bradman's 1st Post-war Century
1945-12-31 Before the biggest Adelaide Oval crowd of the season, batting maestro Don Bradman scores his first post-WWII century; 112 for South Australia v Australian Services
- 1946-02-11 World War II: The Royal Navy's Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 116 of 156 captured German U-boats
- 1946-03-31 First election is held in Greece after World War II
- 1946-04-29 28 former Japanese leaders indicted in Tokyo as war criminals
- 1946-06-03 International Military Tribunal opens in Tokyo against 28 Japanese war criminals
Nuremberg War Trials
1946-09-30 Twenty-two Nazi leaders, including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hermann Goering, are found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death or prison at the Nuremberg war trials
- 1946-10-01 12 Nazi war criminals sentenced to death in Nuremberg
Conference of Interest
1946-10-16 10 Nazi leaders are hanged as war criminals after Nuremberg war trials, including Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Alfred Jodl
Ho Chi Minh Attacks French
1946-12-19 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
Post-War Constitution
1947-05-03 Japan's post-war constitution goes into effect, granting universal suffrage, stripping Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power and outlawing Japan's right to make war
- 1948-05-28 Israeli Air Force is officially founded shortly after the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- 1948-06-21 Rhodes conference on Israeli-Arab war opens
- 1948-09-05 In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
- 1948-09-10 Bijz Criminal division sentences war criminal Jacob Folks to life
- 1948-11-12 Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo sentenced to death by war crimes tribunal
Radio History
1949-02-12 Panic in Quito, Ecuador, after "War of the Worlds" played on radio
- 1949-07-20 Israel's 19 month war of independence ends
- 1949-11-06 Greek civil war ends after 3 years with defeat of communist factions
- 1950-02-01 USSR demands condemnation of Emperor Hirohito for war crimes
- 1950-07-12 Hague Council of Annulment convicts German war criminals W Lages, FH Van de Funten and F Fischer to death
- 1950-09-26 UN troops in Korean War recapture South Korean capital of Seoul
- 1950-11-24 UN troops begin an assault intending to end Korean War by Christmas
- 1951-02-01 Arms manufacturer Alfred Krupp (43) and 28 other convicted German war criminals granted amnesty
- 1951-05-21 The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition - a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School.
Truman Asks to End State of War
1951-07-09 US President Harry Truman asks Congress to formally end state of war with Germany
- 1951-07-26 Netherlands ends state of war with Germany
- 1951-10-19 US President Harry Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
- 1951-10-25 Peace talks aimed at ending Korean War resumed in Panmunjom
- 1952-09-24 Dutch Minister of Justice Leendert Donker commutes Nazi war criminal Willy Lages execution sentence to life in prison; Lages is released in 1966 due to failing health, he lives for 5 more years
- 1953-08-05 Operation "Big Switch"; Korean War prisoner exchanged at Panmunjom
- 1954-11-01 The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence against France.
- 1955-01-15 USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic
- 1955-01-25 Russia ends state of war with Germany
- 1955-11-05 The rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens after it was destroyed in World War II, with Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio"
- 1956-02-01 Hague Daily Newspaper reveals war crimes of Hague mayor Schokking
- 1956-04-03 German war criminals Hinrichsen, Ruhl, Siebens and Viebahn freed
- 1956-07-05 France raises tobacco tax 20% due to war in Algeria
- 1958-05-30 Unidentified soldiers killed in WW II & Korean War buried in Arlington
- 1958-09-14 Two rockets designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, the first German post-war rockets, reach the upper atmosphere.
- 1960-04-08 Netherlands and Germany sign accord concerning war casualties
- 1961-09-01 The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate
Adolf Eichmann Guilty
1961-12-12 Nazi German army officer Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes in Israel
- 1962-03-18 Algerian War of Independence ends in a ceasefire after 7½ yrs and 250,000 dead, Ahmed Ben Bella flees
War Requiem
1962-05-30 Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" incorporating the poems of Wilfred Owen premieres, marking the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral
- 1962-08-30 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war
- 1963-03-22 British Minister of War John Profumo denies having sex with Christine Keeler
- 1963-06-05 British Minister of War John Profumo resigns due to Christine Keeler scandal
"War on Poverty"
1964-01-08 President Lyndon B. Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
- 1964-03-16 LBJ asks Congress to pass Economic Opportunity Act as part of his War on Poverty
- 1965-03-25 West German Bondsdag extends war crimes retribution
- 1965-11-27 15-25,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam in Washington, D.C.
- 1966-03-26 Large-scale anti-Vietnam War protests take place in the United States, including in New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago
- 1966-03-31 25,000 anti war demonstrators march in NYC
- 1966-08-06 US citizens demonstrate against war in Vietnam
- 1967-05-20 10,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam
Six-Day War
1967-06-05 Six-Day War begins between Israel and the neighboring Arab states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria
- 1967-07-06 Nigerian Civil War erupts as Nigerian forces invade the secessionist state of Biafra
- 1967-10-21 Tens of thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters march on the Pentagon, besieging the military headquarters for two days
- 1968-01-21 The Battle of Khe Sanh - one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War - begins at the Khe Sanh Air Base
- 1968-02-18 Thousands of people in West Berlin demonstrate against US involvement in the Vietnam War
- 1968-08-28 Police & anti-war demonstrators clash at Chicago's Democratic National Convention
- 1969-04-03 Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start a policy of "Vietnamization", reducing American involvement
- 1969-04-05 Massive anti-Vietnam War demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities
- 1969-07-07 German newspaper Der Spiegel reveals Bishop Defregger of Munich is a war criminal
War is Over! If You Want It
1969-12-16 "War is Over! If You Want It, Happy Christmas from John & Yoko" posters begin appearing
- 1970-01-13 Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu flees Biafra into exile, leaving his deputy Philip Effiong to surrender to the Nigerian army, unofficially ending the Nigerian Civil War
- 1970-05-08 Construction workers break up an anti-war rally in NYC's Wall Street
Event of Interest
1970-09-28 Anwar Sadat replaces the late Gamal Abdel Nasser as acting Egyptian President; elected president in October 1970
- 1970-10-15 Anwar Sadat elected 3rd President of Egypt, succeeding the late Gamal Abdel Nasser
- 1970-10-17 Anwar Sadat sworn in as the 3rd President of Egypt
- 1970-11-09 Trial of Seattle 8 anti-war protesters begins
- 1971-01-26 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts law against limitation of war crimes
- 1971-04-25 About 200,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters march on Washington, D.C.
- 1971-05-03 US President Nixon administration authorizes arrest of 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
1971-10-28 John Lennon and Yoko Ono record the single "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" in NYC
- 1971-12-01 John Lennon and Yoko Ono release single "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" in the US
- 1971-12-03 India invades West Pakistan claiming hundreds of lives and starting the full scale Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
- 1972-01-24 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
- 1973-01-27 Paris Peace Accords signed by US Secretary of State William P. Rogers, (North) Vietnam Minister for Foreign Affairs Nguyen Duy Trinh, Republic of South Vietnam Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Thị Bình, and Republic of Vietnam Minister for Foreign Affairs Trần Văn Lắm, ending America's then longest war and it's military draft.
- 1973-07-20 The US Senate passes the War Powers Act
- 1973-10-06 Yom Kippur War begins as Syria & Egypt attack Israel
- 1973-10-24 Yom Kippur War ends, Israel 65 miles from Cairo, 26 from Damascus
- 1974-02-05 John Murtha of Pennsylvania becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the United States Congress
- 1974-03-07 "USS Monitor", Union Ship sunk in 1862 during US Civil War, restored at Cape Hatteras
One-Man War Finally Ends
1974-03-09 Last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in the Philippines, surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended
- 1974-04-11 WW II war criminal JP Philippa arrested
Vietnam War
1974-09-16 US President Gerald Ford announces conditional amnesty for US Vietnam War deserters
The Fall of Saigon
1975-04-29 Vietnam War: US begins to evacuate its citizens from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing North Vietnamese forces, bringing an end to US involvement in the war
- 1975-08-15 Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II