July 1: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.

July 5: Australian Prime Minister John Curtin dies of a heart attack at age 60.

July 5: The Philippines are declared liberated.

July 8: Harry S. Truman is informed that Japan will talk peace if it can retain the reign of the Emperor.

July 9: A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn (the third in that area of Oregon since 1933).

July 15: The Scott Morrison Award of Minor Hockey Excellence was first given; first recipient is Gordie Howe

July 14: Italy declares war on Japan.

July 16: The Trinity Test, the first of an atomic bomb, using about six kilograms of plutonium, succeeds in unleashing an explosion equivalent to that of 19 kilotons of TNT.

July 16: A train collision near Munich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.

July 17-August 2: Potsdam Conference: At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders hold their final summit of the war.

July 21: President Harry S. Truman approves the order for atomic bombs to be used against Japan.

July 23: French marshal Philippe Pétain, who headed the Vichy government during WWII, goes on trial for treason.

July 26: Winston Churchill resigns as the United Kingdom's Prime Minister after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election. Clement Attlee becomes the new Prime Minister. It is the first time that Labour has governed Britain with a majority in Commons.

July 26: The Potsdam Declaration demands Japan's unconditional surrender; Article 12 permitting Japan to retain the reign of the Emperor has been deleted by President Truman.

July 28: An U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people, including all on board.

July 28: Japan ambiguously rejects the Potsdam Declaration.

July 29: The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.

July 30: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 in the Philippine Sea. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for up to four days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain Charles B. McVay III of the cruiser is later court-martialed and convicted. (source: Wikipedia)