February 4, 1945 – February 11, 1945
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta to discuss the post-war reorganisation of Europe and the world.
The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp, where about 1.1 million people were murdered; the date is now International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
One of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War, causing heavy losses among soldiers and Okinawan civilians.
As the Red Army closes in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler kills himself in his underground bunker.
The Allies formally accept Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender, ending the Second World War in Europe.
The United States detonates the world's first nuclear weapon in the New Mexico desert as part of the Manhattan Project.
The United States drops the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands instantly.