Victory in Europe was unoffically declared, 61 years ago today.
The Germans had given final surrender in the west the day before, and the allies agreed to officially declare May 9th VE day (fighting would continue sporadically on the eastern front til the end of May). Unfortunately, the word got out, and the celebrations began all over western eurpose and the United States early morning on the 8th.
Over a million people thronged into the streets of London to celebrate, and amazingly enough there were no reports of tramplings or riots... Something of a better era socially I suppose.
Officially, VE day is still May 9th, and is officially celebrated in some countries today, particularly in Russia as the Great Patriotic War Day (one thing I very much admire about the Russians is their historical treatment of WW2).
It was to be another 14 weeks, and hundreds of thousands dead in the two single largest bomb blasts of all time; before the war fully ended with the surrender of the Japanese on the deck of US.S. Missouri.
