President Roosevelt, campaigning for a third term, asssures Americans that he will not send their sons to fight in Europe's war

F.D. Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third US presidential term, albeit it with a considerably reduced share of the vote

Australian prime minister Robert Menzies is forced to resign after losing the confidence of his cabinet

President Roosevelt, although seriously ill, is elected for a fourth term with Harry S. Truman as his vice-president

Stalin, at Yalta, promises free elections in post-war eastern Europe

The British electorate dismisses Winston Churchill, giving the Labour party and Clement Attlee a landslide victory

Winston Churchill, losing the postwar general election in Britain, has to yield his seat at Potsdam in mid-conference to Clement Attlee

Aung San's party, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, wins a landslide victory in the Burmese election

The Communists become the largest party in Czechoslovakia, winning 38% of the vote in a free election

An election campaign in Poland, marked by violence and the use of terror, brings a Communist landslide

Muslims proclaim an independent state in west Kashmir, defying the wishes of the maharaja

Daniel Malan becomes South Africa's prime minister after his National Party wins the general election

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is set up by the USA and Canada, together with Britain and other European countries, for purposes of collective security

The Twenty-Second Amendment to the US Constitution prevents anyone being elected for more than two presidential terms

Richard Daley begins a powerful and often unscrupulous reign of 22 years as mayor of Chicago

French citizens approve the new constitution proposed by de Gaulle, thus introducing the Fifth Republic

Kenneth Kaunda is elected president of UNIP, a new party fighting for an independent Northern Rhodesia

The Quiet Revolution in Quebec begins with the election of Jean Lesage and the Liberals

Kenyatta, still in prison, is elected leader of KANU, a new political party in Kenya

Joshua Nkomo founds ZAPU, the Zimbabwe African People's Union, in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia

Students for a Democratic Society publish in Michigan The Port Huron Statement, a seminal text of the New Left

A massive yes vote in a referendum is immediately followed by French recognition of Algerian independence

The veteran left-wing politician Victor Haya is elected president of Peru but is thwarted by a coup led by General Ricardo Godoy

Ruhollah Khomeini, a leading ayatollah in Qom, denounces the Shah of Iran and declares a fatwa against his regime

Ayatollah Khomeini is arrested in Qom, and imprisoned for eight months in Tehran, after instigating riots against the Shah