| |
| January |
| January 5, 1945 |
It is announced that the All Union Committee of Whitehorse backed by the International Trade Union of North and South America will sponsor a Yukon Carnival Week to be held at Whitehorse in March. |
| January 19, 1945 |
George Black, M.P. of the Yukon Territory, and Councillor Smith address the subject of the incorporation of Whitehorse. |
| January 19, 1945 |
On January 18, 1945, C.K. LeCapelain, inspector of national parks at Ottawa, expresses his doubts that the Alaska Highway would be utilized as a tourist rout in the postwar years. |
| January 19, 1945 |
Section 424 of the Criminal Code of Canada has been made effective in the Yukon, prohibiting the purchase and sale of gold. |
| February |
| February 9, 1945 |
Wing Commander R.F. Douglas arrives to assume command of the R.C.A.F. station in Whitehorse. |
| February 21, 1945 |
Mr. and Mrs. Murdock McCuish of Dawson City are advised that US forces have freed their son John and his wife Virginia from a Japanese Internment camp on Luzon Island in the Philippines. The pair had evaded capture for two years before they were forced to surrender on Mindanao Island. |
| February 24, 1945 |
The Whitehorse Men’s Council holds a banquet in the Whitehorse Inn Café and views full colour motion pictures of construction of the Alaska Highway. |
| March |
| March 1945 |
The Standard Oil Refinery at Whitehorse and Canol Pipeline closes. The refinery was to produce three thousand barrels a day. The pipeline cost the US government five times its original twenty-four million dollar estimate. The deficiencies, exposed by a United States Senate committee chaired by future President, Harry S. Truman, embarrassed the American military. When the pipeline was abandoned after thirteen months of operation, it was called a "junkyard monument to military stupidity." |
| March 2, 1945 |
The Yukon Fish and Game Association is organized in Whitehorse on February 17, 1945. President, G.R. Bidlake; Vice-president, F.H.R. Jackson; Secretary-treasurer, W.D. MacBride. The yearly membership fee is one dollar. Goals are to propagate and protect fish and wildlife in the Yukon. |
| March 4, 1945 |
The Labour Party stages Yukon Carnival Week that runs from March 4 to March 11. Doris Lesanko is crowned Carnival Queen. |
| March 7, 1945 |
American troops seize the bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, a vital operation that saved many lives and perhaps shortened the war. Brigadier-General William Hoge, who was in charge of the initial construction work on the Alaska Highway from his headquarters in Whitehorse in 1942, directed U.S. Combat Command B in its celebrated capture of the Remagen Bridge. |
| March 9, 1945 |
It is announced that arrangements have been made for the closing down of the Canol oil undertaking including the operation of the Whitehorse oil refinery on June 30, 1945. The government of Canada will be afforded the first opportunity of purchasing, followed by the U.S. government. |
| April |
| April 12, 1945 |
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage. |
| April 13, 1945 |
Vice-president Harry S. Truman assumes the United States presidency. |
| April 13, 1945 |
A bus route connecting Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks) with Whitehorse over the Alaska Highway is proposed. |
| April 15, 1945 |
Impressive memorial services for the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt are held at both the headquarters of the Northwest Service Command in Whitehorse and at the Whitehorse airport. |
| May |
| May 10, 1945 |
Germany signs an agreement of unconditional surrender ending World War II. |
| May 11, 1945 |
Two thousand people take part in V-E day celebration in Whitehorse. |
| May 25, 1945 |
The surveying of a permanent all-weather highway between Whitehorse and Dawson commenced. |
| June |
| June 1, 1945 |
The river boat Casca is the first sternwheeler of the season to head down to Dawson. |
| June 1, 1945 |
On May 23, 1945, the first British Lancaster aircraft "Aries" goes on a historic non-stop flight Whitehorse-London. |
| June 15, 1945 |
In the 20th general election in Canadian history (June 10, 1945), Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal government is re-elected to its third consecutive majority. George Black, Progressive Conservative, is re-elected to represent the Yukon in the House of Commons. |
| August |
| August 6, 1945 |
The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over Hiroshima, Japan at 8:16 a.m., local time. |
| August 31, 1945 |
Col. C.M. Clifford, Commander of the Northwest division, US Army, announces that the Alaska Highway will not be open for civilian travel until adequate facilities for maintenance, subsistence and fuel supplies are available. |
| August 31, 1945 |
The first O'Harra Overland bus arrives in Whitehorse from Fairbanks on August 30, 1945. |
| September |
| September 21, 1945 |
Fire completely guts the Whitehorse Bowling Alley on Main Street. |
| September 28, 1945 |
A bi-weekly bus service between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek, B.C., inaugurated by the British Yukon Navigation Co. The trip takes two days and three nights, the busses running 12 hours daily. |
| September 28, 1945 |
Beatrice Lorne Smith, the "Klondike Nightingale", passes away in Vancouver at the age of 80. |
| September 28, 1945 |
Canadian Pacific Airlines Ltd. Announces its plans for operating an all-Canadian air route to the Orient. It will include a direct line from Winnipeg to Hong Kong and Singapore, via Edmonton, Fort St. John, Whitehorse, Paramashuro, Tokyo and Shanghai. |
| September 28, 1945 |
More than 14,000 miles of wire are used in the Edmonton-Fairbanks portion of the military telegraph-telephone line erected by the American army. It makes the Whitehorse telephone system the most up-to-date in the world. |
| October |
| October 1945 |
Canadian Pacific Airlines begins an air service between Whitehorse and Fairbanks. The CPA staff gives a party for their regional director Jack Barber in the '98 ballroom. Grant McConachie, General Manager of the Western Division of Canadian Pacific, promises better service between Whitehorse and Dawson City with the addition of new Lodestar aircraft. |
| October 1, 1945 |
The British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN) inaugurates bus service between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek. The US Army requests that the White Pass and Yukon Route begin a scheduled bus service on the Alaska Highway. Using four buses formerly run by the U.S. Army and four new "Pony Cruisers,” BYN begins twice-weekly service. |
| October 28, 1945 |
The federal Minister of Justice, Louis St. Laurent, announces on October 26, 1945 that the Canadian Army will take over maintenance of the Alaska Highway on April 1, 1946 and that the Royal Canadian Air Force will take over operations of the Northwest Staging Route (the airfields) on June 1, 1946. |
| November |
| November 2, 1945 |
The erection of a new federal building in Whitehorse as a post-war project is announced. |
| November 9, 1945 |
In a Canada-wide poll, Canadians favour the maintenance of the Alaska Highway over its abandoning. |
| November 30, 1945 |
Reports circulate that the Alaska Highway will be used as a permanent training ground for the Canadian Army. |
| December |
| December 11, 1945 |
Yukon Fish and Game Association holds their first annual game banquet in the dining room of the Whitehorse Inn. |
