Top News Stories from 1945
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Cordell Hull (US)
More World Statistics... - Yalta Conference (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) plans final defeat of Germany (Feb).
- Hitler commits suicide (April 30); Germany surrenders (May 7); May 8 is declared V-E Day. Background: World War II
- Japan signs official surrender on V-J Day (Sept. 2).
- Potsdam Conference (Truman, Churchill, Stalin) establishes basis of German reconstruction (July–Aug.).
- San Francisco Conference establishes the United Nations (April–June).
- US drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9). Background: nuclear weapons
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Franklin D Roosevelt
Vice President: Harry S Truman
Population: 139,928,165
Life expectancy: 65.9 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 5.7
More U.S. Statistics... - FDR dies (April 12) and Harry S. Truman becomes president.
- Manhattan Project tests first atomic bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico (July 16).
- A B-25 bomber flies into the Empire State Building, damaging the 78th and 79th floors and killing 13 (July 28).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $223.2 billion
Federal spending: $92.71 billion
Federal debt $260.1 billion
Consumer Price Index: $18
Unemployment: 1.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
Detroit d. Chicago CubsStanley Cup
Toronto d. DetroitWimbledon
Women:Not held
Men: Not held (World War II)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Hoop JrNCAA Basketball Championship
Oklahoma A&M d. NYUNCAA Football Champions
Army (9-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
A Bell for Adano, John Hersey
Music: Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland
Drama: Harvey, Mary Chase
Academy Award, Best Picture: Going My Way (Paramount)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Gabriela Mistral (Chile)
Miss America: Bess Myerson (NY)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The FCC creates the commercial broadcasting spectrum of 13 channels, and receives 130 applications for broadcast licenses.
- Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes premieres in London, which signals the rebirth of British opera.
Movies
- The Lost Weekend, Mildred Pierce, National Velvet, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Spellbound
Music
- Gene Autry, "At Mail Call Today"
- Bing Crosby, "Aren't You Glad You're You?"
- Judy Garland, "This Heart of Mine"
- King Cole Trio, "The King Cole Trio"
- Glenn Miller, "Glenn Miller"
- Carousel soundtrack
- Frank Sinatra, "Put Your Dreams Away"
Books
- W. H. Auden, The Collected Poems
- Gwendolyn Brooks, A Street in Bronzeville
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up and Other Uncollected Pieces
- John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
- Richard Wright, Black Boy
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Artturi Illmari Virtanen (Finland), for research in the field of conservation of fodder
Physics: Wolfgang Pauli (Austria), for work on atomic fissions
Physiology or Medicine: Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain, and Sir Howard Florey (all UK), for discovery of penicillin
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), the first all-electronic computer, completed. Background: Computers and Internet
- First atomic bomb is successfully detonated at Alamagordo, NM. Background: nuclear weapons
- Grand Rapids, Michigan becomes the first community to fluoridate its water supply.
- Raymond Libby develops oral penicillin.
- American Cyanamid discovers folic acid, a vitamin abundant in green leafy vegetables, liver, kidney, and yeast. Background: Health & Nutrition
