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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order 9066 which authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland.
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The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico as part of the U.S. government program called the Manhattan Project. The United States then used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and 9, respectively, killing about 210,000 people.
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The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. is dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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The G.I. Bill of Rights is signed into law, providing benefits to veterans.
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President Roosevelt dies suddenly; Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the presidency and role as commander in chief of World War II.
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President Harry S. Truman gives the go-ahead for the use of the atomic bomb with the bombing of Hiroshima. Three days later, the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
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The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower is sworn in as the 34th President of the United States.
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Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.