Iraq War: President Barack Obama announces that the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq will be complete by the end of the year.
Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery.
The Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian peacekeeping forces in Sri Lanka, killing 70 Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.
Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves the transfer of all US Army space-related activities to NASA, including most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
In the 1945 French legislative election French women vote for the first time.
World War II: The first kamikaze attack damages HMAS Australia as the Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.
World War II: The Nemmersdorf massacre against German civilians takes place.
World War II: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, the first German city to fall to the Allies.
World War II: The Provisional Government of Free India is formally established in Japanese-occupied Singapore.
World War II: The Kragujevac massacre against Serbian men and boys takes place.
The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.
President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting U.S. president against lynching in the Deep South.
First Balkan War: The Greek navy completes the capture of the island of Lemnos for use as a forward base against the Dardanelles.
HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax Harbour to become the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.
The Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in the western Indian Territory.
Napoleonic Wars: A British fleet led by Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve in the Battle of Trafalgar.
The flag of Taunton, Massachusetts is the first to include the word "Liberty".