April 12, 1945 - Harry Truman sworn in as 33rd President.

April 16, 1945 - In his first speech to Congress, President Harry S. Truman pledged to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

April 16, 1945 - Just four days after President Franklin Roosevelt passed away, federal government tacked another year on to the term of one of Roosevelt's key pieces of wartime legislation, the Lend-Lease Act. All told, the U.S. funneled $50.6 billion worth of Lend-Lease aid to the Allies during the war, the majority of which went to Britain and the USSR.

April 23, 1945 - Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov arrived at the White House for a meeting with the new president. Truman immediately lashed out at Molotov, "in words of one syllable," as the president later recalled. As Molotov listened incredulously, Truman charged that the Soviets were breaking their agreements and that Stalin needed to keep his word. At the end of Truman's tirade, Molotov indignantly declared that he had never been talked to in such a manner. Truman, not to be outdone, replied that if Molotov had kept his promises, he would not need to be talked to like that. Molotov stormed out of the meeting. Truman was delighted with his own performance, telling one friend that he gave the Soviet official "the straight one-two to the jaw." The president was convinced that a tough stance was the only way to deal with the communists, a policy that came to dominate America's early Cold War policies toward the Soviets.

April 24, 1945 - President Harry Truman learns the full details of the Manhattan Project, in which scientists are attempting to create the first atomic bomb. The information thrust upon Truman a momentous decision: whether or not to use the world’s first weapon of mass destruction. FDR’s secretary of war, Harry Stimson, and the army general in charge of the project, Leslie Groves, brought Truman a file full of reports and details on the Manhattan Project. They told Truman that although the U.S. was the only country with the resources to develop the bomb--eliminating fears that Germany was close to developing the weapon--the Russians could possibly have atomic weapons within four years. They discussed if, and with which allies, they should share the information and how the new weapon would affect U.S. foreign-policy decisions. Truman authorized the continuation of the project and agreed to form an "interim committee" that would advise the president on using the weapon. July 16 - the team of scientists at the Alamogordo, New Mexico, research station successfully exploded the first atomic bomb. July 31, 1945 - Truman gave Stimson the handwritten order to "release when ready but not sooner than August 2". August 6, 1945 - First bomb was exploded over Hiroshima; August 8 - second was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese quickly surrendered. Although other nations have developed atomic weapons and nuclear technology since 1945, Truman remains the only world leader to have ever used an atomic bomb against an enemy.

April 30, 1945 - Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his "1,000-year" Reich collapses above him; fifty-five feet under the chancellery (Hitler's headquarters as chancellor), the shelter contained 18 small rooms and was fully self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. January 16 - Hitler had repaired to his bunker after deciding to remain in Berlin for the last great siege of the war; bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer's orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. 1956 - A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead.

May 2, 1945 - The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin (70,000 German troops laid down their arms in the surrender that Adolf Hitler had said never would come, after twelve days of history's deadliest street fighting) and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria. Marshal Stalin first issued an Order of the Day announcing destruction of the German Ninth Army trapped southeast of Berlin, with the capture of 120,000 of its men and the slaughter of at least 60,000. The greatest city ever to fall in battle, Berlin lay a 341-square-mile monument to the death of millions and to the diseased ambition of one man, Adolf Hitler.

May 7, 1945 - Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II; brought the war in Europe to a formal end after five years, eight months and six days of bloodshed and destruction, was signed for Germany by Col. Gen. Gustav Jodl. General Jodl is the new Chief of Staff of the German Army; signed for the Supreme Allied Command by Lieut. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff for General Eisenhower; also signed by Gen. Ivan Susloparoff for the Soviet Union and by Gen. Francois Sevez for France.

May 8, 1945 - President Harry S Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe. Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. V-E Day marks the European victory of the Allies in World War II.

June 8, 1945 - President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9568, permitting the release of scientific information from previously top-secret World War II documents. He hoped the information might help stimulate America’s developing industries in the post-World War II economy. Order provided for the release of scientific and technical data, including highly sensitive information from World War II weapons programs, but only after it had been reviewed first by the War and Navy Departments and the director of War Mobilization and Reconversion. The order laid out specific types of classifications of information: secret, confidential and restricted. It also allowed for documents to be classified with some "other comparable designation [of secrecy level] or otherwise withheld from the public for purposes of the national military security." New classification system was designed to protect sensitive documents that needed to remain secret in the interest of national security while at the same time using some information to help transition wartime industries to peacetime and create a robust post-war economy. Stepping stone to future transparency-oriented legislation including the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), passed in 1966, which granted Americans the right to petition the government for the release of information from federal agencies.

June 26, 1945 - The charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.

July 6, 1945 - President Truman signs executive order establishing Medal of Freedom.

July 11, 1945 - Soviet Union promises to hand power over to British and U.S. forces in West Berlin; accomplished, without incident, the following day. Although the division of Berlin (and of Germany as a whole) into zones of occupation was seen as a temporary postwar expedient, the dividing lines quickly became permanent. The divided city of Berlin became a symbol for Cold War tensions.

July 16, 1945 - United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico (at the Alamogordo air base, 120 miles south of Santa Fe). The terrifying new weapon would quickly become a focal point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. August 1942 - official U.S. development of the atomic bomb began with the establishment of the Manhattan Project; brought together scientists from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada to study the feasibility of building an atomic bomb capable of unimaginable destructive power. The project proceeded with no small degree of urgency, since the American government had been warned that Nazi Germany had also embarked on a program to develop an atomic weapon. Original $6,000 budget for the Manhattan Project finally ballooned to a total cost of $2 billion.

July 17, 1945 - President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II to discuss issues relating to postwar Europe and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. The issues at hand for the Big Three and their staffs were: 1) administration of a defeated Germany; 2) postwar borders of Poland; 3) occupation of Austria; 4) Soviet Union's "place" in Eastern Europe; 5) war reparations; 6) continuing war in the Pacific. The conference soon bogged down on the issue of postwar Germany. The Soviets wanted a united but disarmed Germany, with each of the Allied powers determining the destiny of the defeated power. Truman and his advisors, fearing the spread of Soviet influence over all Germany--and, by extension, all of western Europe--fought for and achieved an agreement whereby each Allied power (including France) would administer a zone of occupation in Germany. Russian influence, therefore, would be limited to its own eastern zone. The United States also limited the amount of reparations Russia could take from Germany. Discussion of the continuing Soviet occupation of Poland floundered. August 2, 1945 - conference ended on; matters stood much where they had before the meeting. There would be no further wartime conferences. Four days after the conference concluded, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan; on August 9, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. World War II officially came to an end on August 14, 1945.

July 18, 1945 - In testimony before the House Military Affairs subcommittee, the subcommittee's chief counsel, H. Ralph Burton, charges that 16 officers and non-commissioned officers in the U.S. Army have pasts that "reflect communism." The charges, issued nearly 10 years before Senator Joseph McCarthy would make similar accusations, were hotly denied by the U.S. Army and government.

July 26, 1945 - Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labor Party. Clement Attlee became the new prime minister. It was the first general election held in Britain in more than a decade. The same day, Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, was sworn in as the new British leader.

July 28, 1945 - The U.S. Senate ratified the United Nations Charter by a vote of 89-2.

July 28, 1945 - Japanese premier Suzuki disregards U.S. ultimatum to surrender.

August 2, 1945 - President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference. The conference failed to settle most of the important issues at hand and thus helped set the stage for the Cold War that would begin shortly after World War II came to an end. The meeting at Potsdam was the third conference between the leaders of the Big Three nations. The Soviet Union was represented by Joseph Stalin, Britain by Winston Churchill, and the United States by President Harry S. Truman. This was Truman's first Big Three meeting. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died in April 1945, attended the first two conferences--in Tehran in 1943 and Yalta in February 1945. At the Potsdam meeting, the most pressing issue was the postwar fate of Germany. The Soviets wanted a unified Germany, but they also insisted that Germany be completely disarmed. Truman, along with a growing number of U.S. officials, had deep suspicions about Soviet intentions in Europe.

August 6, 1945 - The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, that instantly killed an estimated 66,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. Bomb (weighs about 400 pounds) possessed more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, a destructive force equal to the load of 2,000 B-29's and more than 2,000 times the blast power of what previously was the world's most devastating bomb. The President referred to the joint statement issued by the heads of the American, British and Chinese Governments in which terms of surrender were outlined to the Japanese and warning given that rejection would mean complete destruction of Japan's power to make war.

August 8, 1945 - President Harry S. Truman signed the United Nations Charter.

August 9, 1945 - The United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 39,000 people. The explosion came three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (wiped out more than 60 percent of the city). The target was an important industrial and shipping area with a population of about 258,000 (two-thirds as large as Hiroshima in population). Second atom bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man." a specially adapted B-29 bomber, called "Bock's Car," after its usual commander, Frederick Bock, took off from Tinian Island under the command of Maj. Charles W. Sweeney. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city. The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000. Emperor Hirohito, by request of two War Council members eager to end the war, met with the Council and declared that "continuing the war can only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people...." The Emperor of Japan gave his permission for unconditional surrender.

August 10, 1945 - President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing of Japan as Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender. Japan announces willingness to surrender to Allies provided status of Emperor Hirohito remained unchanged.

August 14, 1945 - President Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II. Emperor Hirohito had submitted a formal declaration of surrender to the Allies, via ambassadors, on August 10 but fighting continued between the Japanese and the Soviets in Manchuria and between the Japanese and the United States in the South Pacific until the official announcement was made public to the Japanese people. On the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference.

August 15, 1945 - Emperor Hirohito broadcasts the news of Japan's surrender to the Japanese people; voice-heard over the radio airwaves for the very first time--confessed that Japan's enemy "has begun to employ a most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives." This was the reason given for Japan's surrender. Hirohito's oral memoirs, published and translated after the war, evidence the emperor's fear at the time that "the Japanese race will be destroyed if the war continues." A sticking point in the Japanese surrender terms had been Hirohito's status as emperor. Tokyo wanted the emperor's status protected; the Allies wanted no preconditions. There was a compromise. The emperor retained his title; Gen. Douglas MacArthur believed his at least ceremonial presence would be a stabilizing influence in postwar Japan. But Hirohito was forced to disclaim his divine status.

August 17, 1945 - Indonesian nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands.

August 21, 1945 - President Harry Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50 billion in aid to America's allies during World War II.

August 29, 1945 - President Harry Truman issues Executive Order No. 9639, giving the Secretary of the Navy the power to seize control of and operate a list of petroleum refineries and transportation companies in order to counteract strikes by oil workers. The list of plants seized by the Navy included those owned by industry giants: the Gulf, Shell, Standard and Union oil companies. War did not formally end until the Japanese signed an unconditional surrender agreement on September 2, 1945. Knowing that vast amounts of oil would be required to enable demobilization and the return of military equipment and personnel to the U.S., Truman was forced to intervene between oil workers and management to avoid a crippling shutdown of the industry. Oil, gas and chemical workers had worked longer and harder than usual during the war to meet production demands and now wanted to return to a 40-hour work week. They resented the amount of money oil-industry CEOs were making off of their labor while they simultaneously threatened to lower workers’ wages after the war.

September 2, 1945 - Japan formally and unconditionally surrendered in twenty-minute ceremony aboard the Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II - VJ Day. Twelve signatures, requiring only a few minutes to inscribe on the articles of surrender, ended the bloody Pacific conflict. On behalf of Emperor Hirohito, Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed for the Government and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu for the Imperial General Staff. One by one the Allied representatives stepped forward and signed the document: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz for the United States, then the representatives of China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

September 2, 1945 - Hours after Japan's surrender in World War II, Vietnamese communist Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France; would be 30 years, however, before Ho's dream of a united, communist Vietnam became reality.

September 22, 1945 - President Harry Truman accepted the U.S. Secretary of War's recommendation to call the war, World War II.

October 8, 1945 - President Harry S. Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

October 11, 1945 - Negotiations between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung broke down.

October 17, 1945 - Col. Juan Peron staged a coup, becoming absolute ruler of Argentina.

October 20, 1945 - Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

October 24, 1945 - U.N. Charter (adopted and signed on June 26, 1945) came into force upon its ratification by the five permanent members of the Security Council (United States, Great Britain, France, Soviet Union, China) and a majority of other signatories; August 1941 - idea of the United Nations articulated when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter (set of principles for international collaboration in maintaining peace and security). Roosevelt coined "United Nations" to describe the nations allied against the Axis powers--Germany, Italy, and Japan. January 1, 1942 - term first officially used when representatives of 26 Allied nations met in Washington, DC., signed the Declaration by the United Nations, which endorsed the Atlantic Charter and presented the united war aims of the Allies; January 10, 1946 - first U.N. General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, opened in London; October 24, 1949 - cornerstone laid for the present United Nations headquarters in New York City. Since 1945, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded five times to the United Nations and its organizations and five times to individual U.N. officials.

November 8, 1945 - Revenue Act of 1945 cut $6 billion in taxes ( implemented to help wage the war), initiated extensive post-war revision of the nation's entire tax system.

November 13, 1945 - President Harry Truman announces the establishment of a panel of inquiry to look into the settlement of Jews in Palestine. August 1945, Truman received the Harrison report, which detailed the plight of Jews in post-war Germany, and it became clear to him that something had to be done to speed up the process of finding Jewish refugees a safe place to live. In late August, Truman contacted British Prime Minister Clement Attlee to propose that Jewish refugees be allowed to immigrate to Palestine, which at the time was occupied by Britain. Attlee responded that he would look into the matter and asked for a joint Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry to examine the complicated issue of integrating Jewish settlers into territory that was home to an Arab majority. Meanwhile, two U.S. senators introduced a resolution in Congress demanding the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

November 13, 1945 - Charles de Gaulle was elected president of France.

November 29, 1945 - Yugoslavia was proclaimed a Federal People's Republic under Josip Tito's rule.

December 4, 1945 - The Senate approved United States participation in the United Nations.

January 10, 1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations (fifty-one nations) convened in London; Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister, elected President of the first General Assembly; January 24 - General Assembly adopted its first resolution, a measure calling for the peaceful uses of atomic energy and the elimination of atomic and other weapons of mass destruction.

January 17, 1946 - The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.

January 31, 1946 - Yugoslavia, consisting of Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, became a federal republic, headed by Communist leader Marshal Tito.

February 1, 1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.

February 21, 1946 - Truman created the Office of Economic Stabilization (OES), charged with keeping a watchful eye over prices, and generally ensuring a smooth transition to a peacetime economy. Truman tabbed Chester Bowles, a veteran New Deal administrator who had previously led the Office of Price Administration, to run the OES. However, Bowles's tenure quickly turned sour, as lawmakers rolled back his power to govern price controls; duly frustrated, Bowles retired the OES post just four months after taking office.

February 22, 1946 - George Kennan, the American charge d'affaires in Moscow, sends an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State, details his views on the Soviet Union  and U.S. policy toward the communist state; analysis provided one of the most influential underpinnings for America's Cold War policy of containment; among the U.S. diplomats to help establish the first American embassy in the Soviet Union in 1933; throughout World War II he was convinced that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's spirit of friendliness and cooperation with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was completely misplaced. Less than a year after Roosevelt's death, Kennan, then serving as U.S. charge d'affaires in Moscow, released his opinions in what came to be known as the "long telegram"; convinced that the Soviets would try to expand their sphere of influence, and he pointed to Iran and Turkey as the most likely immediate trouble areas. In addition, Kennan believed the Soviets would do all they could to "weaken power and influence of Western Powers on colonial backward, or dependent peoples." Fortunately, although the Soviet Union was "impervious to logic of reason," it was "highly sensitive to logic of force." Therefore, it would back down "when strong resistance is encountered at any point." The United States and its allies, he concluded, would have to offer that resistance; Stalin's aggressive speeches and threatening gestures toward Iran and Turkey in 1945-1946 led the Truman administration to decide to take a tougher stance and rely on the nation's military and economic muscle rather than diplomacy in dealing with the Soviets. These factors guaranteed a warm reception for Kennan's analysis. His opinion that Soviet expansionism needed to be contained through a policy of "strong resistance" provided the basis for America's Cold War diplomacy through the next two decades. Kennan's diplomatic career certainly received a boost--he was named U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1952.

March 5, 1946 - Winston Churchill (defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945) delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in Fulton, MO; condemned the Soviet Union's policies in Europe and declares, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War; introduced by President Truman, Great Britain's wartime Prime Minister asserted that a mere balance of power in the world would be too narrow a margin and would only offer "temptations to a trial of strength"; added that the English-speaking peoples must maintain an overwhelming preponderance of power on their side until "the highroads of the future will be clear, not only for our time but for a century to come"; painted a dark picture of post-war Europe, on which "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.

March 21, 1946 - The United Nations set up temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.

March 28, 1946 - State Department releases the so-called Acheson-Lilienthal Report, which outlines a plan for international control of atomic energy. The report represented an attempt by the United States to maintain its superiority in the field of atomic weapons while also trying to avoid a costly and dangerous arms race with the Soviet Union. Report suggested that an international body-such as the United Nations-have control over atomic materials and the means of producing nuclear energy. Information on atomic energy would be shared, research facilities would be divided among the nations involved, and the international body would conduct inspections. In the meantime, while this organization was being established, the United States would maintain its atomic monopoly. June 1946 - Truman selected businessman Bernard Baruch to present the plan at the United Nations. Baruch, however, changed many of the key points of the plan and insisted that the United States would have an ultimate veto power on any issues arising in connection with the plan. The Soviets quickly rejected the idea so the vote was never held in the United Nations. The United States and the Soviet Union would go their own ways in developing their nuclear arsenals. In 1949, the Soviets exploded an atomic device and the nuclear arms race was on.

April 1946 - The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry (examining the complicated issue of integrating Jewish settlers into territory that was home to an Arab majority) issued its report, which recommended the immigration of 100,000 Jewish refugees to Palestine. Truman wrote to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee for his help in moving the repatriation process forward. However, by mid-1946, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had weighed in, bringing up the question of who would control the lucrative oil fields in a region that had the potential for unstable political and cultural relations between Jews and Arabs. Since the threat of communist expansion into politically unstable regions then dictated most of U.S. foreign policy, Truman and Attlee became convinced by their respective military advisors that Jewish communist sympathizers in a new Jewish state might jeopardize the west’s access to Middle Eastern oil. The settlement plans were put on hold. Truman was again inundated with requests for help from the Jewish community. The issue of the establishment of a Jewish state was debated and delayed for another two years even though the newly formed United Nations, which had no enforcement power without the participation of the United States and Great Britain, had decided in favor of a Jewish state by 1946.

April 8, 1946 - The League of Nations met for the last time; April 18, 1946 - The League of Nations went out of business.

April 18, 1946 - U.S. recognizes Tito's Yugoslavia government.

May 17, 1946 - President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

June 2, 1946 - The Italian monarchy was abolished in favor of a republic.

June 15, 1946 - United States presents the Baruch Plan for the international control of atomic weapons to the United Nations. The failure of the plan to gain acceptance resulted in a dangerous nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Baruch sided with those who feared the Soviets, and his proposal reflected this. His proposal did provide for international control and inspection of nuclear production facilities, but clearly announced that the United States would maintain its nuclear weapons monopoly until every aspect of the proposal was in effect and working. The Soviets, not surprisingly, rejected the Baruch Plan. The United States thereupon rejected a Soviet counterproposal for a ban on all nuclear weapons.

July 1, 1946 - Communicable Disease Center (CDC) came into being on one floor of a small building in Atlanta, Georgia; descended from wartime agency, Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA); initially focused on fighting malaria by killing mosquitoes; one of the 13 major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is the principal agency in the United States government for protecting the health and safety of all Americans and for providing essential human services, especially for those people who are least able to help themselves.

July 4, 1946 - The United States granted the Philippine Islands their independence.

July 25, 1946 - The United States detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device.

August 1, 1946 - President Harry S. Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Sen. J. William Fulbright.

August 1, 1946 - President Harry S. Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act, created The Atomic Energy Commission, transferred the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands. Almost a year after World War II ended, Congress established the United States Atomic Energy Commission to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. The National Laboratory system was established from the facilities created under the Manhattan Project, and Argonne National Laboratory was one of the first laboratories authorized under this legislation as a contractor-operated facility dedicated to fulfilling the new Commission's mission.

August 1, 1946 - The McMahon Act mandated civilian control of atomic energy under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

September 30, 1946 - An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes; October 1, 1946 - 12 high-ranking Nazis are sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg. Among those condemned to death by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior. Seven others, including Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's former deputy, were given prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life. Three others were acquitted. The trial, which had lasted nearly 10 months, was conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the USSR, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace to crimes of war and crimes against humanity. On October 16 - 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged one by one. Hermann Goering, who at sentencing was called the "leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews," committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution. Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia; he is now known to have died in Berlin at the end of the war.

October 23, 1946 - The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.

October 28, 1946 - President Harry S. Truman appointed a five-man commission of civilians to The Atomic Energy Commission, established by the U.S. Atomic Energy Act approved August 1, 1946 to develop and utilize atomic energy toward improving the public welfare, increasing the standard of living, strengthening free competition in private enterprise, and promoting world peace; first meeting took place on November 13, 1946, although the official confirmation by the Senate occurred April 9, 1947. The chairman was David Eli Lilienthal.

November 4, 1946 - UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) was established, with its headquarters in Paris.

November 6, 1946 - English Parliament passed the National Health Service Act of 1946, by which the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland are to promote a comprehensive health service for the improvement of the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales and Scotland, and for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of illness.

November 21, 1946 - Harry Truman becomes first U.S. president to travel in a submerged sub.

December 11, 1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.

December 12, 1946 - A United Nations committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to be the site of U.N. headquarters.

December 14, 1946 - The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

December 20, 1946 - The morning after Viet Minh forces (Vietnamese guerrilla organization) under Ho Chi Minh launched a night revolt in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, French colonial troops crack down on the communist rebels. Ho and his soldiers immediately fled the city to regroup in the northern countryside. The conflict stretched on for eight years, with Mao Zedong's Chinese communists supporting the Viet Minh, and the United States aiding the French and anti-communist Vietnamese forces.

March 24, 1947 - John D Rockefeller, Jr. donates New York City East River site to the U.N.

April 9, 1947 - Atomic Energy Commission confirmed.

April 16, 1947 - Multimillionaire and financier Bernard Baruch, in a speech attacking industrial labor problems in the country, given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term "Cold War" to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. The phrase stuck, and for over 40 years it was a mainstay in the language of American diplomacy. Term "Cold War" was instantly embraced by American newspapers and magazines as an apt description of the situation between the United States and the Soviet Union: a war without fighting or bloodshed, but a battle nonetheless.

April 25, 1947 - President Harry S. Truman officially opens the first White House bowling alley; situated in the West Wing; 1955 -  Eisenhower closed the alley, turned it into a mimeograph room. Later, another alley was opened next door in the Old Executive Office Building (now the Eisenhower Building), which President Johnson and his wife Lady Bird used frequently. Nixon used that second bowling alley until he had an additional one-lane alley installed underground directly beneath the North Portico entrance of the White House.

April 30, 1947 - President Harry S Truman signed a measure changing the name of Boulder Dam to Hoover Dam (in honor of Herbert Hoover).

May 3, 1947 - Japan's postwar constitution goes into effect. The progressive constitution granted universal suffrage, stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power, stipulated a bill of rights, abolished peerage, and outlawed Japan's right to make war. The document was largely the work of Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur and his occupation staff, who had prepared the draft in February 1946 after a Japanese attempt was deemed unacceptable. In 1948, Yoshida Shigeru's election as prime minister ushered in the Yoshida era, marked by political stability and rapid economic growth in Japan. In 1949, MacArthur gave up much of his authority to the Japanese government, and in September 1951 the United States and 48 other nations signed a formal peace treaty with Japan. April 28, 1952 -  the treaty went into effect, and Japan assumed full sovereignty as the Allied occupation came to an end.

May 13, 1947 - Senate approved the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions.

June 5, 1947 - Secretary of State George C. Marshall, speaking at Harvard University, outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as the Marshall Plan.

June 20, 1947 - President Truman vetoes Taft-Hartley Act.

June 23, 1947 - The Senate (68 to 25, or six votes more than the necessary two- thirds) joined the House (331 to 83) in overriding President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

July 1, 1947 - State Department official George Kennan, using the pseudonym "Mr. X," publishes an article entitled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. The article focused on Kennan's call for a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union and established the foundation for much of America's early Cold War foreign policy. Kennan's article created a sensation in the United States, and the term "containment" instantly entered the Cold War lexicon. The administration of President Harry S. Truman embraced Kennan's philosophy, and in the next few years attempted to "contain" Soviet expansion through a variety of programs, including the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. Kennan's star rose quickly in the Department of State and in 1952 - he was named U.S. ambassador to Russia. By the 1960s, with the United States hopelessly mired in the Vietnam War, Kennan began to question some of his own basic assumptions in the "Mr. X" article and became a vocal critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In particular, he criticized U.S. policymakers during the 1950s and 1960s for putting too much emphasis on the military containment of the Soviet Union, rather than on political and economic programs.

July 2, 1947 - "Roswell Incident" began in the New Mexico desert near the town of Roswell, NM when a ranch foreman, W. W. Brazel, found strange, shiny material littering the ground. Mr. Brazel gave it to the sheriff, who turned it in to the military authorities at the nearby air base. Roswell Army Air Field issued a news release about the crash of a flying disk, prompting a newspaper, The Roswell Daily Record, to run an article under the headline: 'R.A.A.F. Captures Flying Saucer.' Military officials retreated the next day, calling the curious debris merely a downed weather balloon.

July 2, 1947 - Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov walked out of a meeting with representatives of the British and French governments, signaling the Soviet Union's rejection of the Marshall Plan. Molotov's action indicated that Cold War frictions between the United States and Russia were intensifying. Molotov immediately made clear the Soviet objections to the Marshall Plan: 1) it would include economic assistance to Germany, and the Russians could not tolerate such aid to the enemy that had so recently devastated the Soviet Union; 2) Molotov was adamant in demanding that the Soviet Union have complete control and freedom of action over any Marshall Plan funds Germany might receive; 3) the Foreign Minister wanted to know precisely how much money the United States would give to each nation. None of the Soviet satellites participated in the Marshall Plan. The Soviet press claimed that the American program was "a plan for interference in the domestic affairs of other countries." The United States ignored the Soviet action and, in 1948 - officially established the Marshall Plan and began providing funds to other European nations.

July 9, 1947 - Spain votes for Franco monarchy.

July 9, 1947 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank; had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act, which was advocated by Representative Frances Payne Bolton. 1951 - received the Florence Nightingale Award from the International Red Cross. 1978 - a U.S. Army hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was named in her honor.

July 16, 1947 - The National Security Act is passed, creating the independent U.S. Air Force. It replaces the U.S. Army Air Forces.

July 18, 1947 - President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act. The act revised an older succession act that was passed in 1792 during George Washington’s first term. Resurrected the original 1792 law (designated the Senate president pro tempore as the first in line to succeed the president should he and the vice president die unexpectedly while in office. If he for some reason could not take over the duties, the speaker of the house was placed next in the line of succession) but placed the speaker ahead of the Senate president pro tempore in the hierarchy. Truman’s critics at the time claimed that the president did so because he had a close friendship with then-Speaker Sam Rayburn, and a less congenial relationship with Kenneth McKellar, the president pro tempore.

July 26, 1947 - President Truman signed the National Security Act; created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff; unified the Army and Navy under the Department of Defense.

August 14, 1947 - Pakistan became independent of British rule. In Karachi, capital of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah will take the oath this morning as Governor General of the Moslem dominion which he was the primary figure in creating against the demand for a united India. This ceremony at the Sind Provincial Government House, which is now Mr. Jinnah's official residence, will be the only event marking the transfer of power from British to Indian hands in that dominion. The Viceroy, Viscount Mountbatten, addressed the Pakistan Constituent Assembly yesterday -- his last official act as Viceroy.

August 15, 1947 - Indian Independence Bill, which carves the independent nations of India and Pakistan out of the former Mogul Empire, comes into force at the stroke of midnight. India granted independence within British Commonwealth. Dominion of India reached the goal of freedom when the rule of the King-Emperor came to an end, with minimum celebration and a few speeches that stressed the gravity of the tasks ahead of the new nation. Mohandas K. Gandhi was in humble surroundings of his own choosing among the Moslems of Calcutta, where he felt he was needed more. The Constituent Assembly or the Government of India assumed its sovereign power solemnly in a special session that began at 11 p.m. last night and reached its climax at twelve o'clock. As the hands of the clock in the stately assembly hall of the State Council building met at midnight India's Cabinet Ministers and Members of the Assembly listened in silence to the chimes of the hour. As the last note died an unidentified member blew a conch shell of the kind used in Hindu temples to summon the gods to witness a great event. Instantly a great cheer arose. India at that moment had become a free member of the British Commonwealth of Nations -- free even to leave the commonwealth if she chooses. President and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of the Dominion Government drove half a mile to the VIceroy's house -- now to be known as Government House -- and passed to Viscount Mountbatten two momentous announcements: first, that the Constituent Assembly of India had assumed the power of governance of this country and second that the same Assembly had endorsed a recommendation that Viscount Mountbatten be Governor General of India from today.

September 2, 1947 - Rio Pact was signed; set up a defensive military alliance between the United States and the nations of Latin America.

September 17, 1947 - James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the first U.S. secretary of defense.

September 18, 1947 - The National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force, went into effect. John L. Sullivan took the oath as Secretary of the Navy and W. Stuart Symington took the oath as the Secretary of the now independent Air Force.

October 5, 1947 - In the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.

October 20, 1947 - The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry.

December 30, 1947 - King Michael of Romania agreed to abdicate, but charged he was being forced off the throne by Communists.

January 4, 1948 - Britain granted independence to Burma.

April 19, 1948 - Chiang Kai-shek elected president of Nationalist China.

April 30, 1948 - United States and 20 Latin American nations sign the charter establishing the Organization of American States (OAS) in Bogota, Colombia. The new institution was designed to facilitate better political relations between the member states and, at least for the United States, to serve as a bulwark against communist penetration of the Western Hemisphere. OAS proved a disappointment for the U.S. since the other member states did not seem to share its own Cold War zeal (Castro's Cuba, Dominican Republic in 1965); Latin American member states have also been disappointed in the OAS (U.S.-orchestrated overthrow of the government of Guatemala in 1954, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961, the intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, and other examples of the unilateral use of force by the United States indicate that it had not given up its "gunboat diplomacy" in Latin America).

May 1, 1948 - The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed.

May 3, 1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities were legally unenforceable.

May 14, 1948 - In Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the National Council and the first Premier of reborn Israel, proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years as British rule in Palestine came to an end. Recognition of the state by the United States, which had opposed its establishment at this time, came as a complete surprise to the people, who were tense and ready for the threatened invasion by Arab forces and appealed for help by the United Nations. The first action of the new Government was to revoke the Palestine White Paper of 1939, which restricted Jewish immigration and land purchase. May 15, 1948 - Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

June 7, 1948 - The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia with the resignation of President Eduard Benes (elected "president for life" in 1946). He resigned rather than sign a new constitution that would make his nation into a communist state. His resignation removed the last remnant of democratic government in Czechoslovakia and cleared the way for a communist-controlled regime; February 1948 - communists staged a political coup, and pushed opposition parties from the government. May 1948 - communist-controlled Parliament produced a new constitution patently designed to serve the interests of the Communist Party.

June 18, 1948 - United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights, "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." The Declaration constitutes the first part of a bill of human rights that the commission, under the chairmanship of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been working on for more than two years. The remaining two parts are the Covenant, which will cover a smaller field of rights, but will be legally binding on member states that ratify it, and provisions for implementing the Declaration of Human Rights.

June 24, 1948 - Republican National Convention in Philadelphia nominates New York Governor Thomas Dewey.

June 24, 1948 - Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin; United States response came just two days after the Soviets began their blockade. A massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin was undertaken in what was to become one of the greatest logistical efforts in history. Over 200,000 planes carried in more than one-and-a-half million tons of supplies. For the Soviets, the escapade quickly became a diplomatic embarrassment. Russia looked like an international bully that was trying to starve men, women, and children into submission. And the successful American airlift merely served to accentuate the technological superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union; May 12, 1949 - Soviets officially ended the blockade.

July 5, 1948 - English Labour health minister Nye Bevan opened Britain's National Health Service (NHS) at the Park Hospital in Manchester, UK; providing government-financed medical and dental care as part of the National Health Service Act of 1946; one of the world's first and most comprehensive health services to the British people (strongly opposed by the Conservative Party and by the Doctor's professional body, the British Medical Association).

July 17, 1948 - Southern Democrats opposed to the nomination of President Harry S. Truman met in Birmingham, Ala., to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond.

July 20, 1948 - President Harry S. Truman institutes a military draft with a proclamation calling for nearly 10 million men to register for military service within the next two months. Truman's action came during increasing Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union. By 1948, less than 550,000 men remained in the U.S. Army. This rapid decline in the size of America's military concerned U.S. government officials, who believed that a confrontation with the Soviet Union was imminent. Truman's decision underlined the urgency of his administration's concern about a possible military confrontation with the Soviet Union. It also brought home to the American people in concrete terms the possibility that the Cold War could, at any moment, become an actual war. In 1950, possibility turned to reality when the United States entered the Korean War, and the size of America's armed forces once again increased dramatically.

July 23, 1948 - Progressive party convention nominates Henry Wallace for President.

July 26, 1948 - President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, officially integrating the Armed Forces many years before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s; prohibited discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.

July 31, 1948 -President Harry S. Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.

August 3, 1948 - In hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Whittaker Chambers accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. The accusation set into motion a series of events that eventually resulted in the trial and conviction of Hiss for perjury.  

August 13, 1948 - U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British control; came to known as "Black Friday". The massive re-supply effort, carried out in weather so bad that some pilots referred to it as "Black Friday," signaled that the British and Americans would not give in to the Soviet blockade of western Berlin; over 700 British and American planes landed in western Berlin, bringing in nearly 5,000 tons of supplies. Airlift reassured the people of western Berlin that the two nations were not backing down from their promise to defend the city from the Soviets. Second, it was another signal that the Soviet blockade was not only unsuccessful but was also backfiring into a propaganda nightmare. While the Soviets looked like bullies and heartless despots for their efforts to starve western Berlin into submission, the British and Americans--flaunting their technological superiority--were portrayed as heroes by the worldwide audience.

August 15, 1948 - The Republic of Korea (South Korea) was proclaimed.

August 17, 1948 - Former State Department official Alger Hiss faced his chief accuser, Whittaker Chambers, during a closed-door meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee in New York. Hiss repeated his denial that he'd ever been a Communist agent.

September 1, 1948 - U.N.'s World Health Organization forms.

September 9, 1948 - The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was created.

September 13, 1948 - Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

September 21, 1948 - The People's Republic of China was proclaimed by its Communist leaders.

November 2, 1948 - President Harry S Truman surprised the experts, narrowly won re-election over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey by just over two million popular votes (114 electoral votes) = greatest upset in presidential election history; political analysts and polls were so behind Dewey that on election night, long before all the votes were counted, the Chicago Tribune published an early edition with the banner headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN"; in the last weeks before the election, Truman embarked on a "whistle-stop" campaign across the United States in defiance of his consistently poor showings in the polls. He traveled to America's cities and towns, fighting to win over undecided voters by portraying himself as an outsider contending with a "do-nothing" Congress.

November 12, 1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.

December 6, 1948 - The "Pumpkin Papers" were found on the Maryland farm of Whittaker Chambers and became evidence that State Department employee Alger Hiss was spying for the Soviet Union.

December 10, 1948 - The U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights by a vote of 48 to 0 (Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia, Union of South Africa abstained); first part of a projected three-part International Bill of Rights.

December 21, 1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.

1949 - Geneva Conventions of 1864 were revised and expanded.

January 3, 1949 - Supreme Court ruled that states held the right to outlaw the closed shop (provision originally passed as part of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947). Handed states the power to limit one of labor's most potent bargaining tactics, increased management's leverage, curtailed labor's power and political legitimacy. Effectively altered the course of the labor movement during the twentieth century.

March 18, 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed; April 4, 1949 - Twelve nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty; mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe; stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War; greatly increased American influence in Europe.

March 19, 1949 - Soviet-dominated East Germany, the People's Council of the Soviet Zone of Occupation (a puppet legislative body dominated by the Soviets) approves a new constitution. This action, together with the U.S. policy of pursuing an independent pathway in regards to West Germany, contributed to the permanent division of Germany. The new constitution made clear that the Russians were going to establish a separate and independent East Germany. In October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was declared. Months earlier, in May, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had been formally proclaimed. Germany remained a divided nation until the collapse of the communist government in East Germany and reunification in 1990.

March 24, 1949 - President Harry S. Truman signs a U.S. resolution authorizing $16 million in aid for Palestinian refugees displaced and facing starvation as a result of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. Truman’s resolution contributed U.S. funds to a $32 million United Nations (U.N) aid package. At the signing, the president stated his hope that before the relief money ran out, "[the] means will be devised for the permanent solution of the refugee problem." Truman argued that U.S. aid would contribute to the long-term stability of the Middle East through "[integrating] Palestinian refugees into the economic life of the [underdeveloped] area.

March 31, 1949 - Newfoundland entered the confederation as Canada's 10th province.

April 4, 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established by 12 Western nations: the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Canada, and Portugal. The military alliance, which provided for a collective self-defense against Soviet aggression, greatly increased American influence in Europe.

April 18, 1949 - The Republic of Ireland was proclaimed and it withdrew from the British Commonwealth.

May 8, 1949 - West German constitution approved.

May 11, 1949 - Israel was admitted to the United Nations.

May 11, 1949 - Siam changed its named to Thailand.

May 12, 1949 - The Soviet Union announced an end to its 11-month old blockade against West Berlin, first British and American convoys drove though 110 miles of Soviet Germany to reach West Berlin.. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin's two million citizens. June 20, 1948 - as a major step toward the establishment of a West German government, the Western powers introduced a new Deutsche mark in West Germany and West Berlin. June 24, 1948 - Soviets Soviets condemned this move as an attack on the East German currency, began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West. Britain and the United States responded by initiating the largest airlift in history, flying 278,288 relief missions to the city during the next 14 months, resulting in the delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies (accounted for over two-thirds of the material delivered). April 1949  - height of the Berlin airlift, planes were landing in the city every minute. As a countermeasure against the Soviet blockade, the Western powers also launched a trade embargo against eastern Germany and other Soviet bloc countries. May 23, 1949 - the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formally established. October 7, 1949 - the German Democratic Republic, a Communist state, was proclaimed in East Germany. 1961 - Berlin Wall constructed.

May 14, 1949 - Truman signs bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.

May 17, 1949 - British government recognizes Republic of Ireland.

May 23, 1949 - West German Parliamentary Council met and formally declared the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, capital at Bonn;