October 15th, 1945 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Havildar Umrao Singh of the Indian Army is awarded the Victoria Cross from HM King George VI at Buckingham Palace. This is for his actions of December 16, 1944. (Daniel Ross)
The House of Commons votes to extend the British government's wartime emergency powers for five years in an effort to recover from the cancellation of Lend-Lease support. The British economy relies heavily on the transfusion of American aid and the British have to maintain austere economic measures to prevent financial collapse.
FRANCE: Pierre Laval, former Premier of the Vichy government is executed.
The charge is "treason" or "plotting against the security of the state" or "conducting intelligence with the enemy" (depending on your source). Prior to his execution, he had attempted suicide with poison. The US news magazine Time had named him "Man of the Year" in 1931.
Fleeing France, ahead of the advancing Allied Armies, for Germany, the Nazis assisted him in flying to Spain. Franco had Laval arrested and sent to Austria, where US forces arrested him. He was turned over to the new French government in July, 1945. (CJ Martin)
CANADA: Frigate HMCS Montreal paid off Halifax , Nova Scotia.
1946 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: Hermann Göring, Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe and one of Hitler's most loyal supporters, commits suicide swallowing a cyanide tablet he has hidden from his guards before he is scheduled to be executed.