Events from the year 1945 in the United States. World War II ended during this year following the surrender of Germany in May and that of Japan in September.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-New York) (until April 12), Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) (starting April 12) Vice President: until January 20: Henry A. Wallace (D-Iowa) January 20–April 12: Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) starting April 12: vacant Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) Congress: 78th (until January 3), 79th (starting January 3)
Events
January
January – American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium. January 6 Naval lieutenant George H. W. Bush, future president of the United States, and future First Lady Barbara Pierce marry in Rye, New York. Pepe Le Pew makes his debut as the first major Looney Tunes character, in "Odor-able Kitty" January 20 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, reaches a third term in office. Harry S. Truman is sworn in as Vice President of the United States. January 24 – Nine OSS men and Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton are summarily executed by the Germans at Mauthausen concentration camp, contrary to the Geneva Convention. January 30 – Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American POWs from the Japanese-held camp in Cabanatuan, 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 offense.
February
February 2 – WW II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill leave to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference. February 3 WW II: United States forces capture Manila, Philippines from the Japanese Imperial Army. Walt Disney Productions' seventh feature film, The Three Caballeros, is released. It is Disney's second of six package films to be released through the 1940s and the first feature film to incorporate traditional animation with live-action actors. February 4 – WW II: 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 7 – WW II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila. February 8 – The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943. February 12 – A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others. February 16 Combined American and Filipino forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula. American and Filipino ground forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines. February 19 – WW II: Battle of Iwo Jima – About 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima. February 23 The American and Filipino troops enter Intramuros, Manila. The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops. 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. February – Raymond L. Libby of American Cyanamid's research laboratories, at Stamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic penicillin.