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.
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta to discuss the post-war reorganisation of Europe and the world.
Japan overthrows the French administration in Indochina; Bảo Đại then proclaims the Empire of Vietnam with Trần Trọng Kim as prime minister.
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.
Bảo Đại, the last Nguyễn emperor, abdicates and hands the imperial seal and sword to the revolutionary government at Huế, ending the monarchy.
The United States drops the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands instantly.
Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim Indonesia's independence in Jakarta, beginning the revolution against Dutch rule.
The Việt Minh seize power in Hanoi on 19 August, then in Huế and Saigon; Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates at the end of the month.
Japan signs the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, formally ending the Second World War.
Hồ Chí Minh reads the Declaration of Independence at Ba Đình Square, proclaiming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The UN Charter enters into force after ratification by a majority of signatories.
An international military tribunal tries leading Nazi figures for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
After the 1857 rebellion, the Government of India Act transfers rule from the East India Company to the British Crown; the Mughal Empire formally ends.
Germany invades Poland, starting the deadliest conflict in human history, which ends with Japan's formal surrender on 2 September 1945.
Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murder some six million European Jews, along with millions of other victims.
A famine in northern Vietnam under French and Japanese rule kills an estimated 400,000 to 2 million people.