December 15th, 1945 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Token commissioned.
JAPAN: U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in the Pacific, brings an end to Shintoism as Japan's established religion. The Shinto system included the belief that the emperor, in this case Hirohito, was divine. Allied powers believed that serious democratic reforms, and a constitutional form of government, could not be put into place as long as the Japanese people looked to an emperor as their ultimate authority. Hirohito is forced to renounce his divine status, and his powers are severely limited--he was reduced to little more than a figurehead. And not merely religion, but even compulsory courses on ethics--the power to influence the Japanese population's traditional religious and moral duties are wrenched from state control as part of a larger decentralization of all power.
U.S.A.: It is announced that the permanent headquarters for the United Nations will be located in New York City.
Destroyer USS Joseph P Kennedy Jr commissioned.
A record December snowstorm buries Buffalo, New York, under 36.6 inches (93 centimeters) of snow, with unofficial totals south of the city ranging up to 70 inches (1,8 meters). Travel is brought to a halt by the storm.