|
Events
- January 4 - The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
- January 17 - British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River.
- January 20 - The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin; the US 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross
the Rapido River.
- January 22 - Allies begin
Operation Shingle, the assault on Anzio, Italy.
- January 27 - The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
- January 29 - The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
- January 30 - United
States troops invade Majuro, Marshall
Islands.
- January 31 - American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
- February 3 - United
States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
- February 7 - In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.
- February 14 - Anti-Japanese
revolt on Java.
- February 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - the monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
- February 17 - Battle of Eniwetok
Atoll begins. The battle ended in an American victory on February
22.
- February 20 - "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
- February 20 - The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
- February 29 - The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.
- March 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb
German-held monastery and stage an assault.
- March 18 - German forces occupy
Hungary.
- May 17 - Type IX U-boat:
U-884 is launched.
- May 18 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a
struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
- March 24 - Tragedy in village Markowa.
- June 4 - A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy capture the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a
U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
- June 4 - Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to
fall.
- June 5 - More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries
on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
- June 6 - Battle of
Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the
landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the
Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
- June 9 - Stalin launches an offensive
against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
- June 10 - 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
- June 13 - Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
- June 15 - Battle of Saipan: The United States
invades Saipan.
- June 25 - The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought
in the Nordic countries.
- July 9 - British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
- July 17 - The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia
under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
- July 18 - Hideki Tojo resigns
as Prime Minister of Japan due
to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
- July 20 - Adolf Hitler
survives an assassination attempt. See Claus von Stauffenberg
- July 21 - Battle of Guam - American troops land on
Guam starting the battle (ends on August
10).
- July 25 - Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.
- August 12 - Allies capture Florence, Italy.
- August 12 - World's first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto
- August 15 - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France.
- August 24 - Allies enter Paris.
- September 2 - Allies liberate Brussels.
- September 4 - The British 11th Armored Division liberate the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
- September 8 - London is hit by
a V2 rocket for the first time.
- September 8 - The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
- September 11 - Northern and southern France invasion forces link up
near Dijon.
- September 17 - Operation Market Garden begins.
- September 19 - Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union signed. (End
of the Continuation War)
- September 26 - Operation Market Garden ends in a withdrawal.
- October 5 - Canadian Air Force
pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
- October 9 - British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a
nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
- October 14 - Given the choice between a public treason trial and a certain
death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel chooses the latter.
- October 20 - Belgrade is
liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
- October 23 - Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins
(lasts until October 26).
- November 12 - The Royal Air Force launches one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of the war and sinks the
German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of
Norway.
- November 19 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
- November 24 - Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
- November 25 - A German
V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, killing 160 shoppers.
- November 26 - Gas
chambers at Auschwitz and Stutthof are destroyed.
- December 16 - Germany begins Ardennes offensive, later to become known as Battle of the Bulge.
- December 16 - General George C. Marshall becomes the first
Five-Star General
- December 17 - German troops carry out the Malmédy massacre.
- December 24 - The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.
- December 26 - American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
- November 29 - Albania is
liberated from German occupation.
- December 31 - Hungary
declares war on Germany
Other events
- January 5 - The Daily
Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- February 26 - - Shooting begins of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuhrer Gives a Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.
- March 4 - In Ossining, New York, Louis
Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing
Sing.
- May 30 - Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne resigns from her rights in favor of her son Prince Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, later reigning Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
- June 17 - Iceland declares full
independence from Denmark.
- July 17 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for
the war explode in Port Chicago, California
killing 232.
- August 4 - Holocaust: A tip
from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they
find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her
family.
- August 5 - Holocaust: Polish
insurgents liberate a German labor
camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish
prisoners.
- August 7 - IBM dedicates the first
program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator
(known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- August 9 - The United States Forest Service and the Wartime
Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for
the first time.
- September 2 - Holocaust:
Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from
Westerbork to Auschwitz. They
arrive three days later.
- October 2 - Holocaust: Nazi troops end
the Warsaw Uprising.
- October 8 - The radio show,
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuts.
- October 10 - Holocaust: 800
Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp.
- November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E.
Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term.
- November 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
- December 3 - Civil war
breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
- December 1 - Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, by filling the seat left by the Cordell Hull.
- December 26 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee
Williams was first publicly performed.
- December 30 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
- In Sweden, the law of 1864 that criminalizes homosexuality is abolished.
- Swedish author of children's books Astrid Lindgren publishes her
first book Pippi Longstocking.
- In Sweden, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.
Ongoing events
Year in topic
- 1944 in film
- 1944 in literature
- An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal
- Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
- 1944 in music
- 1944 in sports
- Byron Nelson wins a record 11 consecutive open titles on the PGA golf tour.
- 1944 in television
- May 22 - The FCC increases its limits for single ownership of television stations from three to
five.
- 1944 in science
Births
- January 6 - Bonnie Franklin, actress
- January 9 - Jimmy Page,
Led Zeppelin guitarist
- January 12 - Joe
Frazier, boxing champion
- January 16 - Jim Stafford, singer
- January 18 - Paul
Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of
Australia
- January 23 - Rutger
Hauer, actor
- January 24 - Neil
Diamond, singer
- January 26 - Angela
Davis, feminist and activist
- February 3 - Dave
Davies, musician
- February 5 - Al Kooper,
musician
- February 5 - Michael Mann,
director, writer, producer
- February 9 - Alice
Walker, writer
- February 10 - Vernor
Vinge (science fiction novelist)
- February 11 - Buddhadev Dasgupta, film
director
- February 11 - Bert Greene,
golfer
- February 11 - Michael G
Oxley, American politician
- February 13 - Jerry
Springer, television host
- February 14 - Carl
Bernstein, journalist
- February 14 - Alan Parker, director, writer
- February 16 - Richard
Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
- February 22 - Jonathan Demme, director
- February 23 - Johnny
Winter, musician
- March 1 - Roger Daltrey,
musician ("The Who")
- March 2 - Uschi Glas,
actress
- March 6 - Kiri Te
Kanawa, opera singer
- March 15 - Elisabeth Plessen, writer
- March 15 - Sly Stone, singer
- March 17 - John
Sebastian, singer-songwriter, also a member of the Lovin'
Spoonful
- March 19 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
- March 19 - Sirhan Sirhan, assassin
- March 24 - R. Lee Ermey,
actor and retired USMC gunnery sergeant
- March 26 - Diana Ross,
singer
- March 29 - Denny McLain,
baseball pitcher
- April 3 - Tony Orlando, musician
- April 7 - Gerhard
Schröder, German Bundeskanzler (chancellor)
since 1998
- April 11 - John Milius,
director, producer, and screenwriter
- April 30 - Jill
Clayburgh, actress
- May 5 - John
Rhys-Davies, actor
- May 8 - Gary Glitter,
singer
- May 9 - Richie Furay, musician ("Poco", "Buffalo Springfield")
- May 10 - Jim Abrahams, director
- May 13 - Armistead
Maupin, author
- May 14 - George Lucas, film
director and producer
- May 18 - Justus Frantz, pianist
- May 20 - Joe Cocker, British
singer
- May 20 - Boudewijn de
Groot, Dutch singer
- May 21 - Mary Robinson,
first female President of Ireland
- May 25 - Frank Oz, puppeteer,
director
- May 28 - Rudy Giuliani,
mayor of New York City, 1993-2001
- May 28 - Gladys Knight singer
- June 3 - Edith McGuire,
American sprinter
- June 30 - Raymond Moody,
parapsychologist
- July 13 - Ernő
Rubik, inventor of Rubik's Cube
- July 21 - Tony Scott, film director
- July 21 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator: a Democrat
from Minnesota (d. 2002)
- August 4 - Richard
Belzer, actor, comedian (Homicide: Life
on the Street, Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit)
- August 8 - Peter Weir, film
director
- August 26- His Royal Highness Prince Richard, Duke of
Gloucester
- October 9 - John
Entwistle, bassist, The Who (d. 2002)
- October 15 - David
Trimble, Ulster Unionist and Nobel Prize winner
- November 12 - Al
Michaels, sportscaster
- November 17 - Danny
DeVito, actor
- November 17 - Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect
- November 17 - Lorne Michaels, producer
- November 17 - Tom Seaver, Baseball Hall of Fame player
- December 7 - Daniel Chorzempa, organist
- December 17 - Jack L. Chalker science fiction novelist
- December 22 - Steve
Carlton, Baseball Hall of Famer
- December 23 - Wesley
Clark, US General and former NATO Supreme Allied
Commander
Deaths
- January 11 - Edgard Potier, Belgian SOE agent, executed by the
Nazis
- January 20 - James McKeen Cattell, first professor of psychology in U.S.
- February 1 - Piet
Mondriaan, Dutch painter
- February 11 - Carl
Meinhof, German linguist
- February 11 - Ivan
Sollertinski, friend of Dmitri Shostakovich
- March 12 - Werner Drechsler, of U-118
- March 22 - Pierre
Brossolette, journalist, French Resistance fighter
- March 24 - Orde Wingate,
British soldier
- March 28 - Rick Barry,
basketball star
- April 19 - Thomas Hitchcock Jr, polo player
- April 28 - Paul Poiret,
French couturier
- May 12 - Max Brand, author
- May 12 - Q, British writer
- May 16 - George Ade, author
- July 6 - Andrée Borrel,
SOE agent, WW II heroine executed by the Nazis
- July 6 - Vera Leigh, SOE agent, WW II
heroine executed by the Nazis
- July 6 - Sonia
Olschanezky, SOE recruit, WW II heroine executed by the Nazis
- July 6 - Diana Rowden, SOE agent,
WW II heroine executed by the Nazis
- July 26 - Reza
Pahlavi, deposed Shah of Iran
- July 31 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer
- August 8 - Chaim
Soutine, painter
- August 12 - Suzanne
Spaak, Belgian heroine of WW II, executed by the Nazis
- August 23 - Abdul Mejid
II, Deposed Caliph of the Ottoman Empire
- August 26 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, lawyer, diplomat executed by the Nazis
- August 27 - Princess Mafalda Maria Elisabetta of Savoy, executed by the Nazis
- September 6 - Gustave Biéler, heroic SOE agent, executed by the Nazis
- September 9 - Robert Benoist, Grand Prix
driver/war hero, executed by the Nazis
- September 11 - Madeleine Damerment, WW II heroine, executed by the Nazis
- September 11 - Eliane Plewman, WW II heroine,
executed by the Nazis
- September 11 - Noor Inayat Khan, WW II heroine, executed by the
Nazis
- September 11 - Yolande Beekman, WW II heroine, executed by the
Nazis
- September 13 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator
- September 14 - John Kenneth Macalister, SOE agent, executed by the Nazis
- September 14 - Frank Pickersgill, SOE agent, executed by the Nazis
- September 14 - Roméo Sabourin, SOE agent, executed by the Nazis
- October 21 - Alois
Kayser, german missionary, working in Nauru
- November 2 - Thomas
Midgley, chemist and inventor
- November 7 - Hannah
Szenes, WW II heroine, executed
- December 2 - Josef
Lhévinne, pianist
- December 4 - Roger
Bresnahan, baseball Hall of Famer
|
|
|
|
Popular Topics
|