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•President Roosevelt urges Americans to support the war effort, and the country shifts into a wartime economy
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Nazi leaders call a conference to coordinate the final solution to the Jewish question – what comes to be known as The Holocaust, the systematic genocide of Jews and other minorities that do not fall within Hitler's concept of a master Aryan race.
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President Franklin Roosevelt is elected to a fourth term.
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In March, US General George Patton's Third Army crosses the Rhine River and invades Germany.
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•"Carousel" opens on Broadway in New York City.
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•President Franklin Roosevelt dies of a brain hemorrhage, and Missouri native Harry S. Truman becomes president.
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Germany surrenders. The war in Europe is over. As Germany falls, Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
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•Dr. Benjamin Spock writes a best-selling book called Baby and Child Care, the famous how-to book for parents.
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Industry booms as the pent-up demand for big and small appliances, cars, farm equipment, radios, and other household items that had been rationed or had ceased production during the war.
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The US joins in forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
