Editing 1945 (section)

===February===
{{Main|February 1945}}
[[File:Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W).jpg|thumb|[[February 4]] – The "Big Three" at the [[Yalta Conference]]: [[Winston Churchill]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Joseph Stalin]].]]
[[File:USMC-M-IwoJima-cvr.jpg|thumb|[[February 19]] – During the [[Battle of Iwo Jima]], U.S. Marines land on [[Iwo Jima|the island]].]]
* [[February]] – Raymond L. Libby of [[American Cyanamid]]'s research laboratories, at [[Stamford, Connecticut]], announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic [[penicillin]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Penicillin Pills May Replace Injection|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19450216&id=N0waAAAAIBAJ&pg=2626,3158721|newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Sentinel]]|date=1945-02-16|access-date=2012-05-22}}{{Dead link|date=May 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
* [[February 3]] – WWII:
** [[Battle of Manila (1945)|Battle of Manila]]: United States forces enter the outskirts of [[Manila]] to capture it from the [[Imperial Japanese Army|Japanese Imperial Army]], starting the battle. On February 4, U.S. Army forces liberate [[Santo Tomas Internment Camp]] in the city.
** The [[Soviet Union]] agrees to enter the [[Pacific War]] against Japan, once hostilities against Germany are concluded.
* [[February 4]]–[[February 11|11]] – WWII: [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] leader [[Joseph Stalin]] hold the [[Yalta Conference]].
* [[February 7]] – WWII: General [[Douglas MacArthur]] returns to [[Manila]].
* [[February 8]] – The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leader [[Elizabeth Peratrovich]], is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943.
* [[February 9]]
** [[Walter Ulbricht]] becomes leader of the German [[communism|Communists]] in Moscow.
** WWII: "[[Black Friday (1945)|Black Friday]]": A force of Allied [[Bristol Beaufighter]] aircraft suffers heavy casualties in an unsuccessful attack on [[German destroyer Z33|German destroyer ''Z33'']] and escorting vessels sheltering in [[Førde Fjord]], Norway.
* [[February 10]] – WWII: German [[troopship]] {{SS|General von Steuben}} is sunk by the [[Soviet submarine S-13|Soviet submarine ''S-13'']]; 3,608 drown.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?59620|title=SS General von Steuben [+1945]|publisher=WreckSite|access-date=2010-12-06}}</ref>
* [[February 10]]–[[February 20|20]] – WWII: [[Operation Kita]]: The [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] returns "Completion Force", containing both its [[Ise-class battleship|''Ise''-class battleship]]s, safely from [[Singapore]] to [[Kure, Hiroshima|Kure]] in Japan despite [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] attacks.
* [[February 12]] – A [[Tornado outbreak of February 12, 1945|devastating tornado outbreak]] in [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]] kills 45 people and injures 427 others.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grazulis |first1=Thomas P. |title=Significant tornadoes, 1680–1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events |date=1993 |publisher=Environmental Films |location=St. Johnsbury, Vermont |isbn=1-879362-03-1 |pages=922–925}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=F. C. Pate (United States Weather Bureau) |title=The Tornado at Montgomery, Alabama, February 12, 1945 |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |date=October 1946 |volume=27 |issue=8 |pages=462–464 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26257954 |access-date=27 May 2023 |publisher=American Meteorological Society|jstor=26257954 }}</ref>
* [[February 13]] – WWII:
** The [[Budapest Offensive]] and the [[Siege of Budapest]] end with [[Nazism|Nazi]] troops surrendering [[Budapest]] (Hungary) to [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-Romanian forces.
** [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|Bombing of Dresden]] (Germany) by the British [[Royal Air Force]] and [[United States Army Air Forces]]; 25,000-35,000 are estimated to have died.
* [[February 16]] – WWII:
** The [[Bombing of Wesel in World War II|Bombing of Wesel]] begins, destroying 97% of the town over three days.
** American and Filipino ground forces land on [[Corregidor]] Island in the [[Philippines]].
** Combined American and Filipino forces recapture the [[Bataan]] Peninsula.
** [[Venezuela]] declares war on Germany.
* [[February 18]]&ndash;[[March 5]] &ndash; WWII: American and Brazilian troops kick off [[Operation Encore]] in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the [[Northern Apennines]] that prepares for the western portion of the [[Spring 1945 offensive in Italy|Allied Spring offensive]].<ref>Ernest F. Fisher Jr., [https://web.archive.org/web/20120927071348/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/006/6-4-1/CMH_Pub_6-4-1.pdf ''The Mediterranean Theater of Operations: Cassino to the Alps''] (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1977), p.&nbsp;425-434</ref>
* [[February 19]]–[[February 20|20]] – 980 (actual figure is disputed)<ref>{{cite web |title=Guinness World Records Website |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/12/national-geographic-channel-and-guinness-world-records-investigate-crocodile-atta-455138 |website=guinnessworldrecords.com|date=December 13, 2016 }}</ref> Japanese soldiers die as a result of being attacked by long saltwater [[crocodile]]s in [[Battle of Ramree Island|Ramree, Burma]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Guinness Book of World Records|year=2008|page=137}}</ref>
* [[February 19]] – WWII: [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] – About 30,000 [[United States Marine Corps|United States Marines]] land on [[Iwo Jima]].
* [[February 21]] – The last [[V-2 rocket]] is launched from [[Peenemünde]].
* [[February 22]] – WWII:
** [[Italian Campaign (World War II)|Italian Front]]: The [[Battle of Monte Castello]] ends after nearly three months of fighting when the [[Brazilian Expeditionary Force]] expels German forces from a pivot point in the [[Apennine Mountains#Northern Apennines|(Tuscan) North Apennines]] where their artillery was impeding the advance of the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|British Eighth Army]] toward [[Bologna]].
** [[Uruguay]] declares war on Germany and Japan.
* [[February 23]] – WWII:
** [[Battle of Iwo Jima]]: A group of [[United States Marine Corps|United States Marines]] reach the top of [[Mount Suribachi]] on the island, and are photographed raising the [[flag of the United States|American flag]]. The photo, ''[[Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima]]'' (taken by [[Joe Rosenthal]]), later wins a [[Pulitzer Prize]].
** The [[11th Airborne Division (United States)|11th Airborne Division]], with [[Filipino people|Filipino]] guerrillas, free the captives of the [[Los Baños, Laguna|Los Baños]] internment camp.
** The capital of the [[Philippines]], Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops. The suburb of [[Intramuros]] is devastated.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kzYOAAAACAAJ Battle of Manila Footnotes: Battle for Manila] by [[Richard Connaughton]], John Pimlott and Duncan Anderson (2002) Presidio Press {{ISBN|0-89141-771-0}} pp 164-7</ref>
** The German garrison in [[Poznań]] capitulates to [[Red Army]] and Polish troops.
** [[Bombing of Pforzheim in World War II|Bombing of Pforzheim]]: The heaviest of a series of bombing raids on [[Pforzheim]], Germany by Allied aircraft is carried out by the British [[Royal Air Force]]. As many as 17,600 people, or 31.4% of the town's population, are killed in the raid and about 83% of the town's buildings destroyed, two-thirds of its complete area and between 80 and 100% of the inner city.
** [[Turkey]] joins the war on the side of the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].
* [[February 24]] – Egyptian Premier [[Ahmad Mahir Pasha]] is assassinated in Parliament after declaring war on Germany and Japan.
* [[February 27]] – The [[Bombing of Mainz in World War II|Bombing of Mainz]] results in 1,209 confirmed dead; 80% of the city is destroyed.
* [[February 28]] – In [[Bucharest]], a violent demonstration takes place, during which the ''Bolşevic'' group opens fire on the army and protesters. In response, [[Andrei Y. Vishinsky]], [[USSR]] vice commissioner of foreign affairs and president of the Allied Control Commission for [[Romania]], travels to Bucharest to compel [[Nicolae Rădescu]] to resign as premier.