Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival, and the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Mr. van Starkenborch Stachouwer. were rescued from being Prisoners of War by a special American parachute detail at Mukden. The goal was to free the POWs before the area was overrun by the Red Army.
The occupation of Mukden, as well as Harbin, in fact occurred on this day.
Anti Semitic riots broke out in Cracow, Poland.
The US War Production Board removed most of its controls over manufacturing activity, setting the stage for a post war economic boom.
The US standard of living had actually increased during the war, which is not entirely surprising given that the US economy had effectively stagnated in 1929, and the US was the only major industrial power other than Canada whose industrial base hadn't been severely damaged during the war. Ever since the war, Americans have been proud of the economics of the post war era, failing to appreciate that if every major city on two continents is bombed or otherwise destroyed, and yours aren't, your going to succeed.
Having said that, the Truman Administration's rapid normalization of the economy was very smart. The British failed to do that to their detriment.
British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin condemned Soviet policy in Eastern Europe as "one kind of totalitarianism replaced by another."
The trial of Vidkun Quisling began in Oslo.
The Việt Minh consolidated their control of Hanoi.
Seventeen year old Tommy Brown became the youngest player in Major League Baseball to hit a home run. Brown had joined the Dodgers at age 16.
Brown provides a good glimpse into mid 20th Century America. Nobody would think it a good thing for a 16 year old to become a professional baseball player now. Moreover, the next year, when Brown was 18, he was conscripted into the Army, something that likely wouldn't happen now even if conscription existed. He returned to professional baseball after his service, and played until 1953 and thereafter worked in a Ford plant until he retired, dying this year at age 97. Clearly baseball, which was America's biggest sport at the time, didn't pay the sort of huge sums it does now.
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Labels: 1940s, 1945, Aircraft, Battle of Sakhalin, Battle of Yongjiazhen (雍家镇战斗), Chinese Civil War, Chinese Warlord Era, Japan, Manchuria, Nationalist Chinese Army, People's Liberation Army, Philippines, Red Army
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