On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Offers Cong reorganization plan under Natl Planning Assn auspices
Stalin orders of day reveal 1st White Russian Army under Marshal Zhukoff launches drive south of Warsaw from 2 bridgeheads on Vistula west bank, takes Radom and over 1,300 more places in 37-mi advance; takes Bledow and Nowy Zelechow; Koneff forces within 13 mi of Cracow with Slomniki capture; Moscow reveals new Koneff drive south of Vistula outflanks Tarnow; units take Dabrowka-Tarnewska; Gers rush tanks and infantry into battles, retreat toward Ger borders; Koneff units within 6 mi of Junction with Zhukoff columns at Pawlowska Wola; other elements cross Pilica River on 30-mi front, take Koniecpol; Berlin repts another USSR drive along Carpathian foothills from Jaslo area; repts battling, Vistula-Bug Rivers confluence and Pultusk area; map
Millis repts ouster proceedings instituted; G T Reilly opposition noted; bd spokesman terms Millis lr dismissal notice; Millis statement; lr to Douds quoted; union leaders meet; back Douds; ask Cong inquiry
Min Bidault stresses need to separate Rhineland and Ruhr from Ger control; notes French role
1945Javed Akhtar, Indian poet, playwright, and composer[†]
Javed Akhtar is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and poet. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007, two of India's highest civilian honours. He is considered as one of the greatest screenwriters in the history of Hindi Cinema.
1945Anne Cutler, Australian psychologist and academic (died 2022)[†]
Elizabeth Anne Cutler FRS FBA FASSA was an Australian psycholinguist, who served as director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. A pioneer in her field, Cutler's work focused on human listeners' recognition and decoding of spoken language. Following her retirement from the Max Planck Institute in 2012, she took a professorship at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University.
1945World War II: The Vistula–Oder Offensive forces German troops out of Warsaw.[†]
The Vistula–Oder offensive was a Red Army operation on the Eastern Front in the European theatre of World War II in January 1945. The army made a major advance into German-held territory, capturing Kraków, Warsaw and Poznań. The Red Army had built up their strength around a number of key bridgeheads, with two fronts commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Marshal Ivan Konev. Against them, the German Army Group A, led by Colonel-General Josef Harpe, was outnumbered five to one. Within days, German commandants evacuated the concentration camps, sending the prisoners on their death marches to the west, where ethnic Germans also started fleeing. In a little over two weeks, the Red Army had advanced 480 kilometres (300 mi) from the Vistula to the Oder, only 69 kilometres (43 mi) from Berlin, which was undefended. However, Zhukov called a halt, owing to continued German resistance on his northern flank (Pomerania), and the advance on Berlin had to be delayed until April.
1945The SS-Totenkopfverbände begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as the Red Army closes in.[†]
SS-Totenkopfverbände was a major branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. It was responsible for administering the concentration camps and extermination camps of Nazi Germany, among similar duties. It was both the successor and expanded organisation to the SS-Wachverbände formed in 1933. While the Totenkopf was the universal cap badge of the SS, the SS-TV also wore this insignia on the right collar tab to distinguish itself from other SS formations.
1945Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.[†]
Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian fascists during the later stages of World War II. While serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings which he declared as Swedish territory.