Events, Verisoph

1945 Greece kept from Communist domination ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After the British defeated Communist ELAS forces in Athens, the guerrillas accepted disarmament and amnesty on February 13, 1945, under the regency of Archbishop Damaskinos with Plastiras as prime minister. Greece was saved because it was accessible to British forces by sea. ●●

1945 Mussolini captured and killed by Italian guerrillas ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On April 28, 1945, Mussolini was caught fleeing toward Switzerland with treasure and killed by Italian guerrillas. His body was hung by the heels in a public square in Milan alongside that of his mistress. ●●

1945 Hitler's suicide in Berlin ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On the afternoon of April 30, 1945, with Russian soldiers only a block away, Eva Braun took poison and Hitler shot himself. Subordinates burned the bodies in a shell-hole in the Chancellery garden. ●●

1945 V-E Day and the toll of Nazi bestiality ai_extracted 1 cit. no story By V-E Day, May 8, 1945, Quigley says Nazi bestiality had brought death to more than 30,000,000 people. Advancing armies overran concentration camps with ovens still hot and thousands of murdered inmates. ●●

1945 Invasion of Okinawa ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On Easter morning, April 1, 1945, an assault force of over 1,200 vessels landed four divisions on Okinawa. The three-month campaign was the most severe of the Pacific War, with heavy losses from mass kamikaze attacks. ●●

1945 Death of President Roosevelt ai_extracted 1 cit. no story President Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945, with great and incalculable effect on postwar policy. Vice-President Truman had been kept so far outside the war effort that he knew nothing of the atomic program until Stimson told him. ●●

1945 Yalta secret Far East agreement ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At Yalta the powers agreed to undo the results of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 as the price of Soviet entry into the war on Japan. Southern Sakhalin, a lease on Port Arthur, and the Kurile Islands would go to the Soviet Union, with Outer Mongolia's autonomy made permanent. ●●

1945 Trinity test: first atomic bomb detonated ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb, an implosion-type plutonium device, was detonated at 5:30 A.M. The explosion far exceeded expectations and stunned the scientists who had built it. ●●

1945 Truman orders the atomic bomb used and picks targets ai_extracted 2 cit. no story On July 18, 1945, Truman ordered the next bomb dropped on Japan as soon as it was ready, and on July 24th he chose the target list of Hiroshima, Kokura, Nigata, and Nagasaki. Stimson had persuaded him to spare Kyoto for its cultural treasures. ●●

1945 Potsdam ultimatum to Japan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On 26 July 1945 Truman, Attlee, and Chiang Kai-shek issued the Potsdam ultimatum demanding Japan's unconditional surrender. Quigley notes its atomic threat was left unspecified and thus meaningless to the Japanese. ●●

1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima ai_extracted 2 cit. no story The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. Quigley records the immediate and eventual death tolls under the mushroom cloud. ●●

1945 Japanese surrender signed on the Missouri ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Japan's final surrender was signed on 2 September 1945 aboard the battleship Missouri, ending the Second World War. ●●

1945 Atomic bomb secrets passed to the Soviet Union ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley states that by June 1945 the key information for making the bomb had already been passed to the Soviet Union through Klaus Fuchs and David Greenglass via Harry Gold and Anatoli Yakovlev. ●●

1945 Groves report names Japan as bomb target ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In a report of 23 April 1945, presented to Truman by Stimson, Groves stated that Japan had always been the intended target for the atomic bomb. ●●

1945 Quigley: nuclear stalemate rooted in two 1945 decisions ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley argues that the postwar stalemate of nuclear terror stems directly from two decisions made in 1945: to continue the bomb project after Germany's defeat and to use the bomb on Japan. ●●

1945 American atomic monopoly, 1945-1949 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley dates the American atomic monopoly from the Alamogordo test of July 1945 to the first Soviet atom bomb, 'Joe I,' in August 1949. ●●

1945 Free elections defeat Communists in Austria and Hungary ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In November 1945 Austria and Hungary held relatively free elections under Soviet occupation; both resulted in sharp defeats for the local Communist parties. ●●

1945 American Communist Party membership collapses ai_extracted 1 cit. no story By FBI figures cited by Quigley, U.S. Communist Party membership fell from about 75,000 in 1945 to 50,000 in 1950 and to only 3,000 by 1960. ●●

1945 Soviet extraction of wealth from eastern Europe ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley estimates the Soviet Union extracted goods worth about $20 billion from eastern Europe in 1945-1946 through reparations and joint corporations. Satellite economies were subordinated to Russia's benefit. ●●

1945 Sino-Soviet Treaty of August 1945 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Sino-Soviet Treaty of August 14, 1945 secured Chiang Kai-shek's consent to the concessions made on his behalf by Churchill and Roosevelt at Yalta. Molotov's accompanying note promised Soviet support to the Nationalist government of China. ●●

1945 Truman requests admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In August 1945 President Truman asked Britain to admit 100,000 European Jews into Palestine, but his repeated requests were refused. Large-scale efforts to smuggle refugees in led to quasi-warfare between Britain and Zionist groups. ●●

1945 1945 election removes the Milner Group from power in India ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The general election that ousted the Conservatives also, Quigley asserts, stripped the Milner Group of its influence over Indian policy just before independence. ●●

1945 Quigley: Helmuth von Moltke tied to the Milner Group ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley asserts the executed German resistance leader Helmuth von Moltke, head of the Kreisau Circle, was a member of the Milner Group, a connection he says was revealed in The Round Table after Moltke's death. ●●

1945 1945 election ends the Milner Group's ascendancy ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley says Labour's election victory jolted the Group's postwar plans and began its eclipse, after which its control of The Times, Chatham House, and Oxford was exercised without conviction. ●●

1945 Skinner rears his daughter in a box, 1945 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto references B.F. Skinner's practice of rearing his infant daughter in a closed container, described in the September 1945 Ladies Home Journal article 'Baby in a Box.' ●●

1945 Harrison sends the Trinity test cable ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Former New York Fed president George Harrison served on the Manhattan Project's Interim Committee. On July 16, 1945, after the first nuclear detonation in New Mexico, he authored the famous cable to Stimson and Truman at Potsdam. ●●

1945 Pierre Laval executed for treason ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After joining Vichy and collaborating with the Nazis, Pierre Laval was tried for treason after the war. Following a botched cyanide suicide attempt, he was executed by firing squad in October 1945. ●●

1945 US Third Army captures Vlasov, hands him to Soviets ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Third Army in early May 1945. The Americans, operating under wartime orders to cooperate with the Red Army in POW matters, turned Vlasov over to the Russians shortly after his capture. There are several versions of how Vlasov passed from American into Soviet hands. ●●

1945 CROWCASS war-crimes registry launched ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The CROWCASS operation began in May 1945, following a call by General Dwight Eisenhower, then supreme Allied commander in Europe, for international cooperation in hunting and prosecuting war criminals. ●●

1945 Ukrainian SS division surrenders, interned at Rimini ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Ukrainian SS division surrendered to British troops in early 1945 and was interned at the Rimini POW camp north of Rome. Most of them were facing forced repatriation to the USSR under a clause of the Yalta agreements governing return of POWs who had been captured in enemy uniform. ●●

1945 Vanagis founded for Latvian SS veterans ai_extracted 1 cit. no story in this country as well. The Vanagis began as a self-help and welfare society for Latvian SS veterans in Germany in 1945; many of its leaders had been involved in Fascist activity ... ●●

1945 FDR takes his fourth oath of office ai_extracted 2 cit. no story On January 20, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt took his fourth and final presidential oath of office, then traveled to Yalta to meet with Stalin and Churchill. This would be his last major diplomatic engagement. ●●

1945 Congress approves the Bretton Woods agreement ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On July 20, 1945, Congress approved the Bretton Woods agreement establishing the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Twenty-seven other Allied nations joined, though the Soviet Union notably did not. ●●

1945 Roosevelt dies and Truman becomes president ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at his Warm Springs retreat in Georgia. His death ended the Roosevelt era in foreign policy and elevated Vice President Harry Truman to the presidency. ●●

1945 Truman authorizes atomic bombing of Japan ai_extracted 2 cit. no story On August 6, 1945, President Truman authorized dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, instantly killing approximately 70,000 people. Days later a second bomb destroyed Nagasaki, establishing American nuclear weapons dominance. ●●

1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaims Democratic Republic of Vietnam ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Ho Chi Minh proclaims Democratic Republic of Vietnam ●●

1945 Arevalo delivers inaugural address in Guatemala ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In his inaugural address, delivered to an expectant nation on March 15, 1945, Arévalo cited Roosevelt as his inspiration, and vowed to follow his exam (1945) ●●

1945 Franklin Roosevelt dies; Truman becomes president ai_extracted 1 cit. no story President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Vice President Harry Truman assumed the presidency with minimal briefing on nuclear weapons or Soviet intentions. ●●

1945 Joint Chiefs shelve Donovan's intelligence agency plan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Military leadership rejected Donovan's intelligence proposal, fearing it would be too independent and powerful. ●●

1945 Truman dissolves the OSS and fires Donovan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Truman fired Donovan and ordered the OSS disbanded, believing the spy agency resembled a Gestapo. ●●

1945 Magruder keeps OSS operations alive under new name ai_extracted 1 cit. no story General Magruder reversed Truman's OSS decision by obtaining authorization to continue operations under a new name. ●●

1945 Robert Ley commits suicide before Nuremberg trial ai_extracted 1 cit. no story We might note two events of special Warburg interest. On October 25, 1945, Dr. Robert Ley, former Nazi nemesis of Max Warburg, committed suicide in hi... ●●

1945 Nagoya firebombing ai_extracted 1 cit. no story From Chapter 17 of The Making of the Atomic Bomb: Nagoya firebombing ●●

1945 Osaka firebombing ai_extracted 1 cit. no story From Chapter 17 of The Making of the Atomic Bomb: Osaka firebombing ●●

1945 Oak Ridge ships bomb-grade U235 to Los Alamos ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Oak Ridge began shipping bomb-grade U235 to Los Alamos. ●●

1945 Szilard petitions against using the atomic bomb ai_extracted 1 cit. no story in replying to Szilard about a petition Szilard was then circulating among Manhattan Project scientists protesting the bomb’s impending use: First of all let me say that I have no hope of clearing my conscience. ●●

1945 Stimson bars Kyoto from atomic bomb targets ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Henry Stimson overrules military targeting committee to spare Kyoto as cultural and religious center ●●

1945 Joint Chiefs order Operation Olympic invasion of Kyushu ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Joint Chiefs of Staff issue Operation OLYMPIC directive with November 1 target date for invading southernmost Japanese home island ●●

1945 Interim Committee meets with the Scientific Panel ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Full Interim Committee convenes with Nobel laureate scientists to discuss atomic bomb implications ●●

1945 Enola Gay loaded with the Little Boy bomb ai_extracted 1 cit. no story B-29 bomber christened Enola Gay and loaded with world's first combat atomic bomb at Tinian Island ●●

1945 Enola Gay takes off for Hiroshima ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Enola Gay departs Tinian at 0245 hours August 6, 1945, bound for Hiroshima with atomic bomb ●●

1945 Bock's Car departs Tinian for Nagasaki ai_extracted 1 cit. no story B-29 Bock's Car carrying Fat Man atomic bomb departs Tinian at 0347 hours August 9 ●●

1945 Shannon completes classified cryptography report ai_extracted 1 cit. no story ted, “a secrecy system is almost identical with a noisy communication system. ”♦ (He completed his report, “A Mathematical Theory of Cryptography,” in 1945; it was immediately classified. ●●

1945 Von Neumann assembles computer team at Princeton IAS ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In late 1945, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, Hungarian American mathematician John von Neumann gathered a small group o ●●

1945 Japan announces acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration ai_extracted 1 cit. no story There were a number of important legal steps leading up to this result, including the August 16, 1945, announcement by the emperor that Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration and unconditional surrender, and the Imperial Rescript of January 1, 19 ●●

1945 ELAS agrees to armistice in Greece ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In mid-January 1945 ELAS agreed to an armistice, one that had much of the appear-ance and the effect of a surrender ●●

1945 Gary school desegregation strike ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Levenda describes the Gary School Strike in fall 1945, where high school students boycotted classes over desegregation plans. He notes his father Leonard Levenda was considered a leader of the boycott. ●●

1945 Vannevar Bush publishes 'As We May Think' ai_extracted 2 cit. no story Bush's essay imagined the memex, a personal machine for storing and linking information. ●●

1945 ENIAC becomes fully operational ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After a year of construction, ENIAC becomes fully operational, able to perform five thousand additions per second. ●●

1945 Vannevar Bush delivers Science, the Endless Frontier ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Bush's report to the president argues for government funding of basic research through universities and industry, shaping postwar American science policy. ●●

1945 World Federation of Trade Unions founded ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Out of the euphoria of the anti-fascist victory, the World Federation of Trade Unions was formed, uniting nearly all of world labour outside the American Federation of Labor. ●●

25 May 1946 Independence of Jordan 0 cit. no story Transjordan becomes the independent Hashemite Kingdom under King Abdullah I, ending the British mandate. politics ●●●

17 April 1946 Independence of Syria 0 cit. no story The last French troops leave Syria, completing independence from the French mandate. politics ●●●

19 December 1946 to 1 August 1954 First Indochina War 0 cit. no story The Viet Minh fight France for Vietnamese independence, winning decisively at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel, setting the stage for the Vietnam War. politics / war ●●●●

March 1946 to 16 October 1949 Greek Civil War 0 cit. no story Communist guerrillas fight the Western-backed Greek government in the Cold War's first armed confrontation. The government wins with American aid under the Truman Doctrine. politics / war ●●●

1946 Bank of England nationalized ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Labour government nationalized the Bank of England in 1946, yet Quigley notes the old merchant bankers retained some of their dominant influence over it even afterward. ●●

1946 Marshall Plan aid to Western Europe ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley lists US economic and technical aid, beginning with the Marshall Plan, as one of the three forces behind postwar Western European growth, along with financial techniques and Common Market integration. ●●

1946 Clay halts reparations to the Soviet zone ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On 3 May 1946 General Lucius Clay told the Russians the U.S. would ship no more West German industrial equipment as reparations until they treated Germany as an economic unit. ●●

1946 United States credit to Britain ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In July 1946 the United States provided Britain a credit of $3,750 million at 2 percent to tide over its postwar balance-of-payments deficit until exports could recover. ●●

1946 McMahon Act creates the Atomic Energy Commission ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The atomic scientists' lobbying pushed the McMahon bill to signature in August 1946, setting up a five-member civilian Atomic Energy Commission with control of all fissionable material. ●●

1946 Baruch Plan for international atomic control ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Presented to the UN on 14 June 1946, the Baruch Plan offered to place all uranium and nuclear facilities under an international control body free of the Great Power veto. ●●

1946 Arrest and acquittal of Lieutenant Redin ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley uses the March 1946 arrest of Soviet Lieutenant Redin, later acquitted, as an early example of 'atomic spy' cases built on false press claims. ●●

1946 Irgun bombs the King David Hotel ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After Britain refused admission of 100,000 refugees and moved to arrest the Jewish Agency, the Irgun Zvai Le'umi exploded 500 pounds of TNT under the British headquarters in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing nearly a hundred people. The attack marked rising extremist influence within the Zionist movement. ●●

1946 SCAP issues Japan's postwar constitution ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The constitution issued by SCAP in 1946 provided for a prime minister chosen by the 467 members of the House of Representatives, elected by universal adult suffrage. The multi-member district system ensured minority representation and encouraged party coalitions. ●●

1946 Quigley: the Group's last public act, the Italo-Yugoslav boundary ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley names the drawing of the Italo-Yugoslav boundary as the Milner Group's last important public act, carried out by All Souls figures on the Boundary Commission. ●●

1946 Schacht acquitted at Nuremberg ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At the Nuremberg trials, Schacht and von Papen were acquitted because their involvement with the Nazi regime had ended before the war. Schacht was rearrested under Bavaria's de-Nazification laws and finally freed in 1950. ●●

1946 Walter Rauff escapes the Rimini POW camp ai_extracted 1 cit. no story According to the Wiesenthal report, Rauff was interned at the Rimini POW camp for about eighteen months after the war but succeeded in slipping away under mysterious circumstances in December 1946. ●●

1946 First Latvian labor company formed under Skaistlauks ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The first Latvian labor company, for example, was created on June 27, 1946, under the command of Voldemars Skaistlauks, a former Latvian SS general. All six of his top lieutenants in the U. ●●

1946 FBI warns Truman that White leaked to Soviets ai_extracted 2 cit. no story In 1946, the FBI alerted President Truman that Treasury official Harry Dexter White had passed secret intelligence to the Soviet Union. White was removed from consideration as IMF leader but retained his position as an executive director. ●●

1946 Bretton Woods delegates reconvene at Savannah ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In March 1946, Bretton Woods delegates reconvened at Savannah, Georgia, to finalize and ratify the international monetary agreement. By then Cold War tensions were rising and Soviet-American cooperation had collapsed. ●●

1946 Souers named first Central Intelligence Group director ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Truman appointed Admiral Souers as director of the Central Intelligence Group, though Truman treated the appointment with ceremonial mockery. ●●

1946 Wisner's Romanian spy network destroyed by Soviets ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Wisner learned his Romanian intelligence network had been destroyed by the Soviet regime, with most agents imprisoned or dead. ●●

1946 Victoria oat variety wiped out by crown rust ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Victoria oat variety, bred to resist crown rust fungus and planted throughout the United States in 1940, succumbed to a devastating epidemic in 1946. ●●

1946 Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists is founded ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Albert Einstein, Léo Szilárd, Harold Urey, Linus Pauling, Victor Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe formed the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, holdin ●●

1946 ENIAC is publicly unveiled ai_extracted 2 cit. no story The ENIAC was publicly unveiled in February of 1946, while the existence of Colossus would not be officially acknowledged for thirty-two years ●●

1946 Alan Turing receives the Order of the British Empire ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Alan Turing received the Order of the British Empire in 1946, yet, under the Official Secrets Act, he could never talk openly about his wartime work ●●

1946 Administrative Procedure Act passed ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Finally, there are mechanisms like the landmark Administrative Procedure Act, passed in 1946, that forces federal agencies to publicly post rule changes and to solicit comment on them. ●●

1946 Mauchly and Eckert found their own computer company ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Unable to resolve patent disputes with the university, Mauchly and Eckert leave Penn to start the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. ●●

23 February 1947 Founding of the International Organization for Standardization 0 cit. no story ISO begins operations in Geneva after delegates from 25 countries agreed in London in 1946 to create a new body to unify industrial standards worldwide. diplomacy / science / technology ●●●

4 April 1947 Founding of the International Civil Aviation Organization 0 cit. no story The Chicago Convention of 1944 enters into force, creating ICAO in Montreal to set worldwide standards for civil aviation safety and navigation. diplomacy / technology ●●●

14 August 1947 Independence of Pakistan 0 cit. no story Pakistan is created as an independent state for Muslims of British India in the partition that ended British rule. politics ●●●●

22 October 1947 to 1 January 1949 Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-1948 0 cit. no story India and Pakistan fight their first war over the princely state of Kashmir immediately after partition. A UN ceasefire divides Kashmir along a line that remains disputed today. war ●●●

1947 Truman Doctrine proclaimed ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On 12 March 1947 Truman told a joint session of Congress the U.S. must support free peoples resisting subjugation, and won $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey. ●●

1947 Marshall Plan announced at Harvard ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At Harvard's 1947 commencement, Secretary of State Marshall proposed American economic support for a European Recovery Program open even to the Soviet bloc, which Stalin rejected. ●●

1947 National Security Act reorganizes U.S. security ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The National Security Act of 1947 unified the armed services, created the National Security Council, and set up the CIA and NSA, a system Quigley says was built on secrecy and anonymity. ●●

1947 Truman's loyalty oath order ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On 21 March 1947 Truman ordered a loyalty oath from all government workers, giving investigators a weapon to prosecute concealed Communists for perjury. ●●

1947 United Nations World magazine founded ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1947 Michael Straight founded United Nations World, reorganized from Asia magazine, to promote the new United Nations. ●●

1947 United Nations votes to partition Palestine ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Britain appealed to the United Nations, which voted in November 1947 to partition Palestine into intertwining Jewish and Arab zones with an international zone in Jerusalem. The Arab League rejected partition and swore to resist it by force. ●●

1947 Everson decision removes God from school, 1947 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto points to the Supreme Court's 1947 Everson decision as the moment religion was fully removed from American public schools. ●●

1947 Everson v. Board of Education decided ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto points to the 1947 Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education as the ruling that began removing religion from American public schools. He treats it as the start of the 'separation of church and state' doctrine applied to schools. ●●