January 9, 1945 – Landing at Luzon starts large-scale U.S. invasion of the Philippines
February 2, 1945 – First Hanford plutonium ready for shipment to Los Alamos Site: journey takes 3 days
February 13-15 – Allies devastate Dresden, Germany, with fire bombing
February 15-21 – U.S. wins back Corregidor
February 25 – Hanford’s F Reactor goes critical for the first time (3rd Hanford reactor)
February 26 – U.S. Marines take Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima
March 9, 1945 – U.S. captures Bonn, Germany
March 9-10, 1945 – Massive Allied bombing of Tokyo
March 29, 1945 – Allies take Mannheim and Frankfurt, Germany
April 1945 – Hanford’s B-Plant (2nd chemical separations facility) begins operations
April 21-29, 1945 – Allies take Bologna, Verona, Milan, Venice and Genoa, Italy, and Bremen, Germany
May 8, 1945 – Victory in Europe (VE) Day – Germany surrenders
June 12, 1945 – U.S. begins final land offensive at Okinawa
July 16, 1945 – Hanford plutonium used in world’s first nuclear explosion, the Trinity test, at Alamogordo, New Mexico
August 6, 1945 – Atomic bomb carrying highly enriched uranium from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, dropped on Hiroshima
August 9, 1945 – Atomic bomb carrying Hanford plutonium manufactured in B Reactor dropped on Nagasaki, Japan
August 14, 1945 – Victory in Japan (VJ) Day – Japan surrenders
August 28, 1945 – U.S. occupation of Japan begins
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the conclusion of World War II,
and the historic role of Hanford’s B Reactor in the war’s ending!