Escorting 521 B-29 bombers, 27 P-51 Mustangs (of 148) were lost in a thunderstorm en route to attacking Osaka.[1]
Charles de Gaulle accused the British of meddling in French affairs. In response, the British accused the French of using Lend-Lease equipment to fight the Syrians and Lebanese in violation of the agreement with the United States.[1]
Pope Pius XII gave an address to the Sacred College of Cardinals warning that danger still existed in Europe, including "those mobs of dispossessed, disillusioned, disappointed, hopeless men who are going to swell the ranks of revolution and disorder in the pay of a tyranny no less despotic than those for whose overthrow men planned."[2]
Winston Churchill committed a political gaffe during the UK election campaign when he said during a broadcast that a Labour government would require "some form of Gestapo" to enforce its agenda.[5]
Two regiments of the U.S. 6th Marine Division landed on the Oruku peninsula on Okinawa in an attempt to outflank the Japanese defensive positions.[3]
Winston Churchill refused a demand from the House of Commons to reveal all that was discussed at the Yalta Conference, but said that there were no secret agreements.[11]
U.S. Undersecretary of State Joseph Grew denied reports that Russia would be given Korea among other states in exchange for its entry into the Pacific war.[13]
An agreement was signed in Belgrade in which Yugoslavia agreed to evacuate Trieste and allow it to be occupied by an allied military government until the competing claims to the region were resolved.[4]
Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was arraigned on charges of assaulting a fan at Ebbets Field. The evidence was too thin to convict Durocher, but a civil suit would force him to pay out a settlement to the victim.[16]
In fighting on Okinawa, American forces captured an important height east of Mount Yaeju but an assault by the U.S. 1st Marine Division failed to capture Kunishi Ridge.[3]
The U.S. Supreme Court decided In re Summers, ruling 5-4 that the First and Fourteenth Amendment freedoms of a conscientious objector were not infringed when a state bar association declined to admit him to the practice of law.
U.S. Army ordnance experts claimed that German plans to attack the United States with V-2 rockets might have been realized by November 1945 if the war had gone on that long.[13]
Born:Rodney P. Rempt, Vice Admiral of the United States Navy
Died:Minoru Ōta, 54, Japanese admiral (suicide by handgun on Okinawa)
Japanese Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki informed the Japanese Supreme Council of Emperor Hirohito's intention to seek peace with the Allies as soon as possible.[20]
French politician Marcel Déat was sentenced to death in absentia for collaborating with the enemy.[21] He would die in 1955 while still in hiding in Italy.
U.S. Marines on Okinawa reached the southern coast of the island at several points.[20]
The Australian 26th Infantry Brigade captured Hill 90 on Tarakan Island, ending organized Japanese resistance there.[22]
The United Nations conference settled its last controversy when the Big Five agreed to let the General Assembly have the right to discuss "any matters within the scope of the charter."[23]
Request by Emperor Hirohito for peace talks. "I desire that concrete plans to end the war, unhampered by existing policy, be speedily studied and that efforts made to implement them."
Died:Isamu Chō, 50, Japanese lieutenant general (committed seppuku on Okinawa); Mitsuru Ushijima, 57, Japanese general (committed seppuku on Okinawa)
A victory parade was held in Moscow, led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov riding a white horse, the traditional Russian mount of a conquering hero. Two hundred captured Nazi banners were ceremonially dragged through Red Square and thrown on the ground before Lenin's Tomb.[24]
U.S. President Harry S. Truman approved Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan. The plan called for 5 million troops to invade Kyushu starting November 1 and then Honshu starting March 1, 1946.[24]
The Czechoslovak government ceded Ruthenia to the Soviet Union.[26]
Fried, Richard M. (1998). The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!: Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold-War America. Oxford University Press. p.24. ISBN978-0-19-513417-9.
Smith, Burge Carmon (2010). The 1945 Detroit Tigers: Nine Old Men and One Young Left Arm Win It All. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. p.91. ISBN978-0-7864-6022-9.