In what later became known as Victory Day, an official announcement
of Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies is made public to the world on August 14, 1945. Japan formally surrendered in writing two weeks later, on September 2, 1945.

Even though Japan’s War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had
already submitted a declaration of surrender to the Allies, via
ambassadors.

Hogan’s Heroes is a television sitcom set in a Nazi German
prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for
168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to
April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast
run for an American television series inspired by that war.

Bob Crane starred as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, coordinating
an international crew of Allied prisoners running a special
operations group from the camp. Werner Klemperer played
Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the gullible commandant of the camp,
and John Banner played the blundering but lovable sergeant-
of-the-guard, Hans Schultz.

From  left: Bob Crane and Werner Klemperer

Leon Askin takes a break.

Robert Clary (left) and Bob Crane.

On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only
nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an
atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately
80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, while
another 35,000 were injured. At least another 60,000 would be
dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end
of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold
War.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Singer Tony Bennett (Anthony Dominick Benedetto) is
95 today.

Tony Bennett has won 19 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in 2001) and two Primetime
Emmy Awards, and was named an NEA Jazz Master and a
Kennedy Center Honoree. Bennett has sold over 50 million
records worldwide.

In February 2021, it was revealed that Bennett was diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. Due to the slow progression
of his illness, he has continued to record, tour, and perform.

On July 24, 1998, director Steven Spielberg’s World War
II epic, Saving Private Ryan, was released in theaters
across the United States. The film, which starred Tom
Hanks and Matt Damon, was praised for its authentic
portrayal of war and was nominated for 11 Academy
Awards. It took home five Oscars, for Best Director,
Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing
and Best Sound Effects Editing.

The film’s lengthy opening scene was a bloody re-
enactment of American troops landing at Omaha
Beach in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.