t Secretary of War, announced that, in addition to deaths in combat, 131,028 American and Filipino citizens, mostly civilians, had died "as a result of war crimes" from December 7, 1941 until the end of World War II.
23/7/1946, The last German prisoners of war in the United States were released, as 1,385 POWs were placed on the ship General Yates, following detention at Camp Shanks in New York. In all, there had been 375,000 German prisoners kept in the US at the end of World War II.
13/7/1946, The US House of Representatives approved a loan to Europe.
4/7/1946. The Philippines was granted independence from the USA. Manual Roxas was elected as the first President.
17/6/1946, Barry Manilow, American singer and songwriter, was born in New York City.
18/4/1946. The League of Nations was formally dissolved, after the United Nations had been set up on 24/10/1945. See 26/6/1945.
5/3/1946. Winston Churchill referred to an “Iron Curtain” descending across Europe, in a speech at Fulton, USA. The first public acknowledgement that the Cold War had begun. See 12/3/1947.
10/2/1946, The first ‘GI brides’ arrived in the USA to live with their new partners. When US servicemen were stationed in the UK, British males complained they were ‘overpaid, oversexed, and over here’. Many British women became engaged or married to them. Now the GI brides assembled at camps in Hampshire, to be shipped over to the USA aboard the Queen Mary.
29/1/1946, Harry L Hopkins, US government social administrator, died aged 56.
19/1/1946, Dolly Parton, American Country and Western singer, was born in Sevierville, Tennessee.
10/1/1946, The League of Nations was officially dissolved, after 26 years, and replaced by the United Nations.
21/12/1945, US General Patton was killed in a road accident whilst commanding the 5th US Army in West Germany.
6/12/1945, U.S. General George C. Marshall testified at the Pearl Harbour inquiry that he did not anticipate the attack but that an "alert" defence would have prevented all but "limited harm”.
5/12/1945. Five US Navy bombers on a training flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, disappeared over the area later known as the Bermuda Triangle, with 27 crew. When radio contact with the 5 planes was lost, a 6th plane was sent to search for them; it too disappeared without trace.
2/12/1945, The Arab world began a general boycott of Israel, to geographically isolate the country. The boycott was to cover not just companies trading with Israel or with Israeli companies but also companies doing business with these companies. In 1977 the US, under President Carter, declared it illegal for US companies to participate in this boycott. In the 1990s Israel insisted upon the dismantling of the boycott, which was estimated to have cost the country some US$ 40 billion, as part of the Peace Process. In 2001, however, the Arab League’s Boycott Office resumed activities as part of its support for the Palestinians during the Intifada.
24/10/1945. The United Nations Charter came into force, see 18/4/1946.
15/9/1945, Japan was occupied by Allied forces under General MacArthur. See 28/4/1952, and 14/8/1945.
12/9/1945, An estimate of War casualties reckoned that Britain had lost 420,000 members of the armed forces; the US had lost 292,000, and the USSR, 13 million. German loss of military men was put at 3.9 million, Japan’s at 2.6 million. British civilian casualties from air raids were set at 60,000, with 860,000 severely injured.
8/9/1945. The USA and USSR agreed to divide the Korean Peninsula.
4/9/1945, The Japanese garrison on Wake Island formally surrendered to the USA, see 23/12/1941..
2/9/1945, Formal surrender of Japan, see 14/8/1945. The Japanese Chief of Staff, General Yoshijiro Umezo, signed the surrender document on board the USS Missouri, in front of General McArthur.
28/8/1945. US troops landed in Japan.
20/8/1945, The US terminated the Lend Lease Act, as hostilities had ceased Passed by US Congress in 1941, it offered help to the UK, under attack from the Nazis. However US aid to Europe continued under the Marshall Plan.
14/8/1945. Japa