Dated May 25, 1945, the caption of this photo reads: "SS Major Kurt Baron Haller Von Hallerstein admitted that he had buried nearly a million dollars worth of securities and jewelry near Garmisch, Germany. Hallerstein (center) watches with Tec 4 Frederick Wolinsky, New York, NY, as his brother Helmuth Baron Haller Von Hallerstein, digs."

Denied a career in the Foreign Service due to an amputated leg, Virginia Hall would go on to work undercover in France during World War II for British intelligence and later the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), organizing numerous sabotage operations against German forces. In this memo dated May 12, OSS Director William Donavan informs President Truman that she has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross — the only female civilian in the war to receive this honor. After the war she became one of the new CIA’s first female officers.

Taken on May 11, 1945, this photo shows the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill burning after being hit by two Japanese kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Okinawa.

On May 8, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced "Victory-in-Europe" day, following the surrender of Germany on May 7. Coincidentally, May 8 was also Truman’s 61st birthday.

The unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich was signed in the early morning hours of Monday, May 7, 1945 at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) at Reims in northeastern France. Present were representatives of the four Allied Powers—France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States—and the three Germany officers delegated by German President Karl Doenitz—Gen. Alfred Jodl, who had alone been authorized to sign the surrender document; Maj. Wilhelm Oxenius, an aide to Jodl; and Adm. Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, one of the German chief negotiators. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, SHAEF chief of staff, led the Allied delegation as the representative of General Eisenhower, who had refused to meet with the Germans until the surrender had been accomplished.

On April 25, 1945, American troops pushing eastward into Nazi Germany finally made contact with Russian forces pushing westward near the Elbe River.

This photo of Japanese-American evacuees was taken by Dorothea Lange on April 6, 1942. The caption reads "A view at Wartime Civil Control Administration station, 2020 Van Ness Avenue, on April 6, 1942, when first group of 664 was evacuated from San Francisco." Under the authority of Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, approximately 110,000 Japanese-Americans were interned in 10 relocation centers for the duration of World War II. Professional photographers, including Dorothea Lange, were commissioned by the WRA to document the daily life and treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.