In 1945 this day was declared Victory in Europe Day (VE Day).
This followed the signing of Germany’s unconditional surrender yesterday at Reims in North-West France. Hitler committed suicide on the 30th of April 1945 and it was just a matter of time till the defeated German forces surrendered. The order came from Hitler’s successor Grand Admiral Karl Donitz for General Alfred Jodl to sign. Jubilation filled the air across the world and Churchill made today and the following day national holidays. German troops in countries across Europe laid down their arms and it is believed 1 million attempted to flee to Western held positions rather than be captured by Soviet forces but they were intercepted and taken as Soviet prisoners.
The newspapers and radio services all announced VE Day but the official announcement was not made until 3:00 pm by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in accordance with an arrangement between Allied leaders who announced it simultaneously across the world. The United Kingdom had been at War with Germany since the 3rd of September 1939 and today marked the ended the 5year, 8month and 3day conflict. Just a few weeks before the official war statistics of commonwealth countries was released (1939-1945 military, not civilian) and printed in the Daily Mirror on this day in 1945.
|
Killed |
Missing |
Wounded |
Prisoners |
Total |
216,287 |
30,967 |
255,142 |
183,242 |
685,638 |
|
31,439 |
4,163 |
45,251 |
8,367 |
89,220 |
|
19,430 |
6,955 |
35,595 |
25,276 |
87,256 |
|
9,334 |
934 |
17,978 |
8,501 |
36,747 |
|
6,030 |
512 |
12,632 |
14,629 |
33,803 |
|
Colonies |
5,044 |
14,014 |
4,840 |
6,754 |
30,652 |
19,420 |
13,327 |
51,038 |
79,701 |
163,486 |
|
Total |
306,984 |
70,872 |
422,476 |
326,470 |
1,126,802 |
In 1980 the World Health Organisation declares the eradication of the Smallpox disease.
In 1796 English physician Edward Jenna discovered the first vaccine to fight against smallpox. It was known that those that caught the deadly disease yet survived were immune from future contamination. People had attempted to catch weaker strains of the disease but this was far from safe. Jenna noticed that milk maids appeared to be immune to smallpox but with their close proximity to cattle they would often get the similar disease, cowpox. Jenna used cowpox as a vaccine for the deadly smallpox and slowly people around the world began to get immunised. It wasn’t until this day in 1980 that the cases dropped and had not been detected for long enough to declare the disease eradicated.
