- Round-the-clock air raids struck Berlin

- Supreme Court ruled that race cannot be a bar to primary voting

- Allied troops captured Rome

- Allies launched D-day assault on Normandy

- U. S. began bombing campaign on Japanese mainland

- GI Bill of Rights was passed

- Japanese Premier Tojo resigned from office

- German officers' attempt to assassinate Hitler failed

- Paris was liberated

- German V-2 rockets fell on London

- General MacArthur returned to Philippines

- Japanese navy suffered huge losses in Battle of Leyte Gulf

- FDR was elected for fourth term

- Germans were defeated in Battle of the Bulge

- Besame Mucho (Jimmy Dorsey)

- San Fernando Valley (Bing Crosby)

- I'll Get By (Harry James)

- Swinging On a Star (Bing Crosby)

- Boogie Woogie (Tommy Dorsey)

- You Always Hurt the One You Love (Mills Brothers)

- Don't Fence Me In (Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters)

- A Hot Time in the Old Town of Berlin (Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters)

- GI Jive (Louis Jordon)

- I'm Making Believe (Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots)

- World Bank

- International Monetary Fund

- Civilian use of the insecticide DDT

- Silicone

- Polyethylene

- United Negro College Fund

- Seventeen magazine

- Green Bay Packers were NFL champs

- Army was college football champ

- Utah won NCAA basketball title

- Les Horvath of Ohio State won the Heisman Trophy

- Sgt. Frank Parker won the men's U.S. Open tennis title

- Pauline Betz won the women's U.S. Open tennis title

- Boston Blackie

- Roy Rogers

- Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

- The Andrews Sisters

- Suspense

- Tarzan

- The Adventures of Charlie Chan

- Buck Rogers

- Germans introduced the first operational jet fighter

- Meat rationing ended except for steak and choice beef cuts

- The War Production Administration allowed manufacturers to resume producing consumer goods

- Scientists discovered the link between DNA and heredity

- Frank Sinatra's appearance at New York's Paramount Theater resulted in a fan riot

- Germans used the V-2, the first true missile

- Double Indemnity

- Gaslight

- The Purple Heart

- Lifeboat

- Laura

- Mr. Skeffington

- Meet Me in St. Louis

- National Velvet

- Best Director: Leo McCarey (Going My Way)

- Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight)

- The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas

- Forever Amber, Kathleen Winsor

- A Tree grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

- The Razor's Edge, W. Somerset Maugham

- The Green Years, A. J. Cronin

- Leave Her to Heaven, Ben Ames Williams

- Green Dolphin Street, Elizabeth Goudge

- A Bell for Adono, John Hersey