Video: 'Peter Jennings - Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped (1995)' (Apr. 11, 1945, 34:59)
(Wednesday, April 11, 1945; part of the Pacific War during World War II) — A report from the U.S. Joint Intelligence Staff on Unconditional Surrender of Japan concluded today that a Russian invasion of Japan could be decisive in ending the Pacific War.
Video: 'American Experience FDR Parts 3 and 4' (Apr. 11, 1945, at 2:10:48)
(Wednesday, April 11, 1945, lunchtime EWT; during World War II) — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt drove his former mistress Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, who had arrived at Warm Springs, Georgia, on Monday (Apr. 9, 1945), to Dowdell’s Knob, overlooking a lovely valley, and talked about the future of the world and what he was going to do after the war had ended.
Video: 'Mittelbau-Dora/Nordhausen - The camp where the Nazis built their V2-rockets'
(Wednesday, April 11, 1945 approximately 6:30 p.m. Central European Summer Time; part of The Holocaust during World War II) — The Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany, which supplied labor for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and the V-1 flying bomb, was liberated today by U.S. troops. Continue reading Nazi concentration camp Nordhausen-Dora liberated 80 years ago this hour (Apr 11 1945)
Video: 'WWII Triumph and Despair' (Buchenwald at 18:53)
(Wednesday, April 11, 1945, 3:30 p.m. Central European Summer Time; part of The Holocaust during World War II) — The Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, Germany, where prisoners from all over Europe and the Soviet Union worked primarily as forced labor in local armaments factories, was liberated today by U.S. troops. Continue reading Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald liberated 80 years ago this hour (Apr 11 1945)
Video: 'Defying Hitler: The Story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer'
(Monday, April 9, 1945, at dawn, Central European Summer Time; part of The Holocaust during World War II) — German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 39, was executed by hanging today by the Nazis at the Flossenburg concentration camp for allegedly being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Video: 'American Experience FDR Parts 3 and 4' (Apr. 8, 1945, at 2:10:20)
(Sunday, April 8, 1945; during World War II) — First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in Hyde Park, New York, today wrote a letter to her husband, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was recuperating from exhaustion in Warm Springs, Georgia: “I am so glad you are gaining. You sounded cheerful for the first time last night, and I hope you weigh 170 pounds when you return. Devotedly, E.R.”
(Saturday, April 7, 1945) — “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” by the Les Brown Orchestra (with a vocal by Doris Day) was the #1 song on today’s Billboard Best Selling Retail Records chart for seven consecutive weeks (Apr. 7/14/21/28, May 5/12/19, 1945).
Video: 'The World At War: The Bomb 2/5' (Apr. 7, 1945, at 2:36)
(Saturday, April 7, 1945; during World War II) — Seven days into the Battle of Okinawa, the growing peace party of Japan secured the appointment of a new cabinet today led by Admiral Kantaro Suzuki following the resignation of Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso.
Video: 'The Lost Evidence Of WWII Episode 17 Okinawa' (Apr. 7, 1945, at 16:24)
(Saturday, April 7, 1945, 12:41-2:23 p.m. JST; during the Battle of Okinawa, part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II) — American planes today intercepted and effectively destroyed a Japanese fleet, which included the battleship Yamato, that was headed to Okinawa on a suicide mission. Continue reading Japanese battleship Yamato sunk by Allied forces 80 years ago this hour (Apr 7 1945)
Video: 'The Lost Evidence Of WWII Episode 17 Okinawa' (Apr. 6, 1945, at 12:38)
(Friday, April 6, 1945, 3:00 p.m. Japan Standard Time; during the Battle of Okinawa, part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II) — Starting today (through the end of the battle on June 22, 1945), the Japanese flew 1,465 kamikaze aircraft in large-scale attacks from Kyushu, 185 individual kamikaze sorties from Kyushu, and 250 individual kamikaze sorties from Formosa. Continue reading Japanese launch kamikaze attacks on Americans off Okinawa 80 years ago this hour (Apr 6 1945)
