What Happened in August?

During World War II in Europe, the Allies completed the conquest of the island of Sicily. After 38 days allowing U.S. General George S. Patton and his 7th Army to arrive in Messina several hours before British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery and his 8th Army. There were more than 24,000 American, British, and Canadian casualties on Sicily. More

The Warsaw Uprising starts. The Polish Home Army, a non-Communist underground resistance movement, led by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, takes action to liberate the city from the German occupation and reclaim Polish independence, encouraged by the appearance of the Soviet Red Army along the east bank of the Vistula River and the perceived weakness of the German military.  Expand +

The Battle of Romania takes place (The second Jassy–Kishinev offensive) lasting until August 29. The Soviet army assisted by American Air support encircles and destroys the German Sixth Army. On 23 August, King Michael of Romania led a coup d'état against pro Germany Prime Minister Ion Antonescu; the new government surrendered to the Allies and declared war on Germany. 

The Dumbarton Oaks Conference, formally, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization, is held at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C. It was an international conference at which proposals for the establishment of a "general international organization", which was to become the United Nations, were formulated and negotiated; following up on the commitment made at the Moscow Conferences of 1943 to create an international organization to succeed the League of Nations.  Expand +

Romania King Michael announces that Romania had unilaterally ceased all military actions against the Allies, accepted the Allied armistice offer and joined the war against the Axis powers. As no formal armistice offer had been extended yet, the Red Army occupied most of Romania as enemy territory prior to the signing of the Moscow Armistice of September 12, 1944.

Paris is liberated and the four-year Nazi occupation of the city comes to an end as the Free French 2nd Armored division under General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc enters the city and takes the German garrison capturing the German general Choltitz prisoner.  Expand +

The Potsdam Conference, held in Potsdam, Germany between the "Big Three: Britain, The Soviet Union and the United States comes to an end without resolution on key issues. The conference was held to negotiate the terms for the end of World War II. Even though the Allies remained committed to fighting a joint war in the Pacific, mutual distrust stemming from differing views of what a postwar world should look, like led to disagreements on several key issues between the Soviet Union and the West, set the stage for the Cold War. More

The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb dropped by the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, detonated about 1,800 ft. above ground, killing over 105,000 persons and destroying the city. It is estimated that another 100,000 persons died later as a result of radiation effects. More

Soviet Russia declared war on Japan and sent troops into Japanese-held Manchuria.

The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. An American B-29 bomber headed for the primary target which was the city of Kokura but because of the weather and poor visibility chose a secondary target, Nagasaki. The bomb detonated killing an estimated 70,000 persons and destroying about half the city.

Believing that continuation of the war would only result in further loss of Japanese lives, delegates of Emperor Hirohito accepted Allied surrender terms originally issued at Potsdam on July 26, 1945, with the exception that the Japanese Emperor's sovereignty would be maintained. The formal surrender ceremony occurred later, on September 2, 1945, on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

South Korea and North Korea celebrate this day as their National Liberation Day as the Korean peninsula was freed from Japanese rule.

Proclamation of Independence of Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia from the Empire of Japan and the Netherlands. It is recognized as a national holiday in Indonesia.

Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl and five companions sail the Kon-Tiki, raft from Peru to the islands east of Tahiti. Heyerdahl was interested in demonstrating the possibility that ancient people from the Americas could have colonized Polynesia; to do so, he constructed the raft from locally available balsa logs at Callao, Peru, and in three and a half months traversed some 4,300 miles (6,900 km) of ocean. The Kon-Tiki has been preserved in a museum in Oslo, Norway. More

Pakistan achieved independence one day prior to Indian independence. India was partitioned, and an East and West Pakistan were created from Muslim majority areas.

India, officially the Republic of India achieves its independence from Britain. India is a country in South Asia bordered by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. Neighboring countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal, and Pakistan. It is the seventh-largest country by area with an estimated 2023 population of over1.4 B. India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia. 

During a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Whittaker Chambers, American writer and intelligence agent, accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the accusation but was eventually tried and convicted of perjury. More

The Soviet Union successfully tested their first nuclear device, called RDS-1 or “First Lightning” (codenamed “Joe-1” by the United States), at Semipalatinsk. As the Cold War intensified, both the Soviet Union and the United States embarked upon efforts to rapidly develop and grow their respective nuclear arsenals. The US launched its hydrogen bomb program in the early 1950s and the USSR followed suit and initiated their own hydrogen bomb program. More

The Soviet Union secretly and successfully conducts its first weapon test, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan detonating its first atomic bomb code-named "First Lightning" (or RDS-1), and becoming the second nation to achieve nuclear warhead capability. The event marked the beginning of the nuclear arms race and heightened Cold War tensions between the two superpowers. The test was a surprise to the U.S., which had underestimated the speed of the Soviet atomic program.

President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order putting America’s railroads under the control of the U.S. Army, Truman said that “governmental seizure [of the railroads] is imperative” to protect American citizens as well as “essential to the national defense and security of the nation.”  Expand +