Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1944

WWII begins on September 1, 1939 after Germany invades Poland.

(Below, events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)

January

• January 4 - WWII: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• January 5 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• January 8 - Philippine Commonwealth troops enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese forces.
• January 14 - WWII: Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.
• January 15 - WWII: The 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division is re-created, marking the start of Operation Tempest by the Polish Home Army.
• January 15 - An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina, killing an estimated 10,000 people in the worst natural disaster in Argentina's history.
• January 17 - WWII:
  • British forces in Italy cross the Garigliano River.
  • Meat rationing ends in Australia.
  • The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.
• January 20 - WWII:
  • The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
  • The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River.
• January 22 - WWII - Operation Shingle: The Allies begin the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stands their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.
• January 27 - WWII: The 2-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• January 29 - WWII: The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
• January 30 - WWII: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• January 31 - WWII: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February

• February 1 - WWII: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
• February 2 - The first issue of Human Events is published.
• February 3 - WWII: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
• February 7 - WWII: In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.
• February 14 - WWII:
  • SHAEF headquarters is established in Britain by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  • An anti-Japanese revolt breaks out on Java.
• February 15 - WWII - Battle of Monte Cassino: The monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
• February 17 - WWII: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; it ends in an American victory on February 22.
• February 20 - WWII:
  • The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
  • The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
• February 23 - WWII: The Chechens and Ingush are forcibly deported to Central Asia.
• February 26 - Shooting begins on the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.
• February 29 - WWII - Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer: The Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces.

March

• March - WWII: The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.
• March 1 - WWII:
  • The USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge are laid down.
  • An anti-fascist strike begins in northern Italy.
• March 2 - WWII: A train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy; 521 choke to death.
• March 2 - The 16th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
• March 3 - WWII: The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov are instituted in the USSR.
• March 4 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing, along with Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, and Louis Capone.
• March 6 - WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Narva, Estonia, destroying almost the entire old town.
• March 9 - WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.
• March 10 - WWII: In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
• March 12 - WWII: The Political Committee of National Liberation is created in Greece.
• March 15 - WWII:
  • Battle of Monte Cassino: Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
  • The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
• March 17 - WWII: The Nazis assassinate almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbni“a.
• March 19 - WWII: German forces occupy Hungary.
• March 18 - The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.
• March 20 - WWII: RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade's bomber is hit over Germany, and he has to bail out without a parachute from a height of over 4,000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow.
• March 23 - WWII: Members of the Italian Resistance attack Nazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.
• March 24 - WWII:
  • Fosse Ardeatine massacre: 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups, in Rome.
  • In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their 6 children and 8 Jews they were hiding.

April

• April 5 - Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Auschwitz-Birkenhau.
• April 25 - WWII: The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
• April 28 - WWII: 749 American troops are killed in Exercise Tiger at Start Bay, Devon, England.

May

• May - No Exit: published by Jean-Paul Sartre.
• May 5 - WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released in India.
• May 9 - WWII: In the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered by Hitler to -fight to the last man.-^[1]
• May 12 - WWII: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of the Crimea.
• May 18 - WWII:
  • Battle of Monte Cassino: The Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
  • The Crimean Tatars are deported by the Soviet Union.
• 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

Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day.

• June 1 - WWII: The BBC transmits a coded message (the first line of a poem by Paul Verlaine) to underground resistance fighters in France, warning that the invasion of Europe is imminent.
• June 2 - WWII: The provisional French government is established.
• June 4 - WWII:
  • A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
  • Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.
• June 5 - WWII:
  • More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
  • At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem to the underground resistance, indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.
  • The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.
• June 6 - WWII - Battle of Normandy: 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. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.
• June 7 - WWII: Bayeux is liberated by British troops.
• June 9 - WWII: Soviet leader Stalin launches the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive against Finland, with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
• June 10 - WWII: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
• June 13 - WWII: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
• June 15 - WWII:
  • Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
  • American forces push back the Germans in St. Lo, capturing the city.
• June 17
  • WWII: The Republic of Iceland is proclaimed.
  • Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.
• June 22 - WWII:
  • Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
  • Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.
• June 25 - WWII: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala (the largest battle ever in the Nordic countries) begins between Finnish and Soviet troops.
• June 26 - WWII: American troops enter Cherbourg.
• June 29 - The Holocaust - The deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps begins.

July

• July 1 - The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
• July 3 - WWII:
  • Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
  • Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle in a British victory.
• July 6 - Hartford Circus Fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.
• July 6 - WWII: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus. He is eventually acquitted.
• July 9 - WWII: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
• July 10 - WWII: Soviet troops begin operations to occupy the Baltic countries.
• July 13 - WWII: Vilnius is liberated.
• July 16 - WWII: The first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrives in Italy.
• July 17 - WWII:
  • The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
  • The S.S. E.A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago naval base; 320 are killed.
• July 18 - WWII: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
• July 20 - WWII: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (see Claus von Stauffenberg).
• July 21 - WWII:
  • Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam (the battle ends August 10).
  • The Polish Committee for National Liberation is created.
• July 22 - The Bretton Woods Conference ends with various agreements signed.
• July 25 - WWII - Operation Spring: One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war results in 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.

August

Szare Szeregi Scouts also fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

• August 1 - WWII: The Warsaw Uprising begins.
• August 2 - WWII:
  • Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
  • The First Assembly of ASNOM is held in the Prohor Pchinski monastery.
• August 4 - The 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 - The 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.
• August 12 - WWII:
  • The Allies capture Florence, Italy.
  • Operation Pluto: The world's first undersea oil pipeline is laid between England and France.
• August 15 - WWII: Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.
• August 19 - WWII: An insurrection starts in Paris.
• August 20 - WWII: American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Gap.
• August 23 - WWII: Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government established. Romania exits the war against Soviet Union, joining the Allies.
• August 24 - WWII: The Allies liberate Paris, succesfully completing Operation Overlord.
• August 25 - WWII: Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
• August 29 - WWII: The Slovak National Uprising against the Axis powers begins.
• August 31 - The Mad Gasser of Mattoon resumes his mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.

September

• September 1 - WWII: In Bulgaria, the Bagrianov government resigns.
• September 2 - The Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving 3 days later.
• September 3 - WWII: The Allies liberate Brussels.
• September 4 - WWII:
  • The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
  • Finland breaks off relations with Germany.
• September 5 - WWII: The Soviets declare war on Bulgaria.
• September 7 - WWII: The Belgian government in exile returns to Brussels from London.
• September 8 - WWII:
  • London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
  • The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
• September 9 - WWII: An insurrection breaks out in Sofia.
• September 11 - WWII: Northern and Southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
• September 17 - WWII: Operation Market Garden begins.
• September 19 - WWII: An armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, ending the Continuation War.
• September 20 - WWII: Jüri Uluots, prime minister in capacity of president of Estonia, escapes to Sweden; 2 days later, Tallinn is taken by the Red Army.
• September 24 - WWII: The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Epinal before crossing the Moselle River and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.
• September 26 - WWII:
  • Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.
  • On the middle front of the Gothic Line, Brazilian troops control the Serchio valley region after 10 days of fighting.

October

• October 2 - WWII:
  • Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
• October 5 - WWII: Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over Holland.
• October 6 - WWII: The Battle of Debrecen starts on the Eastern Front (it lasts until October 29).
• October 8 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio show debuts in the United States.
• October 9 - WWII: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a 9-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
• October 10 - The Holocaust/Porajmos: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at the Auschwitz death camp.
• October 12 - WWII: The Allies land in Athens.
• October 13 - WWII: Riga, the capital of Latvia, is taken by the Red Army.
• October 14 - WWII: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
• October 18 - WWII: The Volkssturm is founded on Hitler's orders.
• October 20 - WWII:
  • Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
  • American forces land in Red Beach in Palo, Leyte as General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines with Philippine Commonwealth president Sergio Osmeña, and Armed Forces of the Philippines Generals Basilio J. Valdes and Carlos P. Romulo.
  • United States and Filipino troops with Filipino guerillas begin the Battle of Leyte.
  • American forces land on the beaches in Dulag, Leyte, the Philippines, accompanied by Filipino troops entering the town, and fiercely opposed by the Japanese occupation forces.
• October 20 - The LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio.
• October 21 - WWII: Aachen,the first German city to fall, is captured by American troops.
• October 23 - WWII: The Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins (lasts until October 26).
• October 25 - Florence Foster Jenkins gives a recital in Carnegie Hall.
• October 25 - WWII: The Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated.
• October 30 - The Holocaust - Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
• October 30 - Appalachian Spring, a ballet by Martha Graham with music by Aaron Copland, debuts at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Graham in the lead role.
• October 31 - Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris Métro station.

November

• November 3 - WWII: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest, are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.
• November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term.
• November 7 - A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, due to excessive speed on a declining hill; 16 are killed, 50 injured.
• November 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).

December

• December 3 - WWII: Fighting breaks out between Communists and royalists in newly-liberated Greece, eventually leading to a full-scale Greek Civil War.
• December 10 - Legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads a concert performance of the first half of Beethoven's Fidelio (minus its spoken dialogue) on NBC Radio, starring Rose Bampton. He chooses this opera for its political message - a statement against tyranny and dictatorship. Conducting it in German, Toscanini intends it as a tribute to the German people who are being oppressed by Hitler. The second half is broadcast a week later. The performance is later released on LP and CD, the first of 7 operas that Toscanini conducts on radio.
• December 12-13 - WWII: British units attempt to take the hilltop town of Tossignano, but are repulsed.
• December 13 - Battle of Mindoro: United States, Australian and Philippine Commonwealth troops land in Mindoro Island, the Philippines.
• December 14 - The Soviet government changes Turkish place names to Russian in the Crimea.
• December 15 - A private airplane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller disappears in heavy fog over the English Channel while flying to Paris.
• December 16 - WWII:
  • Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later known as Battle of the Bulge.
  • General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General.
• December 17 - WWII: German troops carry out the Malmedy massacre.
• December 19 - The entire territory of Estonia is taken by the Red Army.
• December 22 - WWII: Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the U.S. forces defending Bastogne, refuses to accept demands for surrender by sending a one-word reply, "Nuts!", to the German command.
• December 24 - WWII: The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.
• December 26 - WWII: American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
• December 26 - The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams premieres.
• December 30 - WWII:
  • Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, filling the seat left by Cordell Hull.
  • King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
• December 31 - WWII: Hungary declares war on Germany.
• December 31 - WWII: Battle of Leyte: Over hundreds of thousands of Japanese Imperial forces are killed in action, in a significant Filipino and Allied military victory.

Undated

• In Sweden, the law of 1864 that criminalizes homosexuality is abolished.
• Swedish children's author 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.
• Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger's Syndrome.
• The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence is established.
• Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen becomes the first person to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage in both directions in a schooner. He chronicles the event in his autobiography, -The Big Ship-. (ASIN B000ETAS4K).^[2]

Ongoing

• Japanese Occupation of the Philippines (1941-1945)
• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
• Second World War (1939-1945)

Births

For more 1944 births see Category:1944 births

January-February

• January 1 - Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, President of the Sudan
• January 2 - Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
• January 3 - Chris von Saltza, American swimmer
• January 6 - Bonnie Franklin, American actress
• January 6 - Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• January 9 - Ian Hornak, American painter, draughtsman and sculptor (d. 2002)
• January 9 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
• January 12 - Joe Frazier, American boxer
• January 17 - Françoise Hardy, French singer
• January 18 - Paul Keating, 24th Prime Minister of Australia
• January 19 - Shelley Fabares, American actress and singer
• January 23 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
• January 25 - Anita Pallenberg, Italian model and actress
• January 26 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
• January 27 - Peter Akinola, Nigerian religious leader
• January 27 - Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• January 27 - Nick Mason, English rock drummer (Pink Floyd)
• January 28 - Susan Howard, American actress
• January 28 - John Tavener, British composer
• January 29 - Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican judge
• February 3 - Dave Davies, British rock musician (The Kinks)
• February 5 - Al Kooper, American rock musician (Blood, Sweat, and Tears)
• February 9 - Alice Walker, American writer
• February 10 - Vernor Vinge, American writer
• February 11 - Michael G. Oxley, American politician
• February 12 - Moe Bandy, country music singer
• February 13 - Stockard Channing, American actress
• February 13 -