1944

Events in 1944 135

• 1849 – 1944 Bertha Benz The investor who was not allowed to be one Bertha Ringer put her dowry into Carl Benz's failing workshop in 1870, while still unmarried and therefore still legally able to invest. On marrying him in 1872 she lost that standing under the law of Baden, and continued funding him anyway. She wound ignition coils, argued down the doubters, and in August 1888 took the Patent-Motorwagen and her two sons on an unauthorised hundred-kilometre drive that invented the brake lining, exposed the need for a lower gear, and turned an unsellable curiosity into a product. She was ninety-five when she died, and still driving into old age.
• 1857 – 1944 Ida Tarbell (1857-1944) Died 6 January 1944, aged 86 American investigative journalist and a leading muckraker. Her series The History of the Standard Oil Company helped bring about the 1911 break-up of John D. Rockefeller's monopoly. She also wrote widely read biographies of Abraham Lincoln.
• 1858 – 1944 Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) Died 8 May 1944, aged 86 English composer and suffragette whose works include the opera The Wreckers. Her March of the Women became the anthem of the suffrage movement. She was the first female composer to be made a dame.
• 1861 – 1944 Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) Died 27 September 1944, aged 82 French sculptor known for monumental classical female nudes such as The Mediterranean. He began as a painter and tapestry designer before turning to sculpture. He died after a car accident near his home in Banyuls-sur-Mer.
• 1863 – 1944 Edvard Munch Expressionism · Norway Edvard Munch (December 12, 1863 – January 23, 1944) was a Norwegian Expressionist painter whose The Scream is one of the most iconic images in Western art. His emotionally raw work was a major influence on German Expressionism.
• 1866 – 1944 Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866-1944) Died 25 November 1944, aged 78 American federal judge who became the first Commissioner of Baseball in 1920. He banned eight Chicago White Sox players for life after the Black Sox scandal. He ruled the sport with near-absolute authority until his death.
• 1866 – 1944 Romain Rolland (1866-1944) Died 30 December 1944, aged 78 French novelist, dramatist and pacifist, best known for the multi-volume novel Jean-Christophe. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915. He also wrote biographies of Beethoven, Tolstoy and Gandhi.
• 1866 – 1944 Wassily Kandinsky Abstract Art · Russia Wassily Kandinsky (December 16, 1866 – December 13, 1944) was a Russian painter widely credited with creating the first purely abstract works. He believed colour and form could express spiritual and emotional states independent of subject matter.
• 1869 – 1944 Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) Died 1 January 1944, aged 74 English architect who designed much of New Delhi, including the Viceroy's House. He also designed the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the Thiepval Memorial. He was known for his country houses in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
• 1869 – 1944 Henry Wood (1869-1944) Died 19 August 1944, aged 75 English conductor who led the Promenade Concerts in London for nearly fifty years, starting in 1895. He introduced British audiences to many new works. The Proms are held in his memory as the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts.
• 1872 – 1944 Piet Mondrian De Stijl · Netherlands Piet Mondrian (March 7, 1872 – February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter who reduced painting to horizontal and vertical lines and primary colours. His De Stijl aesthetic influenced architecture, design and typography throughout the 20th century.
• 1873 – 1944 Al Smith (1873-1944) Died 4 October 1944, aged 70 Four-term Governor of New York and a progressive reformer. In 1928 he became the first Catholic nominated for president by a major party, losing to Herbert Hoover. He later led the construction of the Empire State Building.
• 1875 – 1944 Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) Died 15 April 1944, aged 68 Italian idealist philosopher who called himself the philosopher of Fascism. As education minister he carried out major reforms of the Italian school system. He was assassinated by communist partisans in Florence.
• 1876 – 1944 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) Died 2 December 1944, aged 67 Italian poet and founder of Futurism, whose 1909 Futurist Manifesto celebrated speed, machines and violence. He was a prominent supporter of Italian Fascism. He died at Bellagio while serving the Italian Social Republic.
• 1876 – 1944 Max Jacob (1876-1944) Died 5 March 1944, aged 67 French poet and painter, a friend of Picasso and Apollinaire and an important figure in early modernism. Born Jewish, he converted to Catholicism. He was arrested by the Gestapo and died in the Drancy internment camp.
• 1877 – 1944 Charles Glover Barkla (1877-1944) Died 23 October 1944, aged 67 English physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his discovery of the characteristic X-rays emitted by elements. His work on X-ray scattering contributed to understanding atomic structure. He was professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.
• 1878 – 1944 Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878-1944) Died 26 July 1944, aged 66 Founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, who ruled Iran from 1925 and pushed through rapid modernisation and centralisation. He was forced to abdicate in 1941 after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, and his son Mohammad Reza succeeded him. He died in exile in Johannesburg.
• 1879 – 1944 Paul Poiret (1879-1944) Died 30 April 1944, aged 65 French couturier who freed women's fashion from the corset in the early twentieth century. His designs drew on Orientalism and Art Deco. He was the leading Paris designer before the First World War but died in poverty.
• 1881 – 1944 Erwin von Witzleben (1881-1944) Died 8 August 1944, aged 62 German field marshal chosen by the 20 July conspirators to be commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht. He was tried in a show trial before Roland Freisler's People's Court. He was hanged at Plötzensee Prison.
• 1881 – 1944 William Temple (1881-1944) Died 26 October 1944, aged 63 Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 and earlier Archbishop of York. He was an influential advocate of Christian social reform and an early promoter of the idea of the welfare state. He was a leading figure in the ecumenical movement.
• 1882 – 1944 Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) Died 22 November 1944, aged 61 English astrophysicist who led the 1919 eclipse expedition that confirmed Einstein's prediction that gravity bends light. He did pioneering work on the internal structure of stars. He also wrote popular books on relativity and cosmology.
• 1882 – 1944 Günther von Kluge (1882-1944) Died 19 August 1944, aged 61 German field marshal who commanded Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front and then the German forces in the West. He was suspected of involvement in the 20 July plot and was dismissed during the Falaise encirclement. He took cyanide rather than return to Berlin.
• 1882 – 1944 Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944) Died 31 January 1944, aged 61 French dramatist, novelist and diplomat. His plays include The Trojan War Will Not Take Place and The Madwoman of Chaillot. He was one of the leading French playwrights between the wars.
• 1883 – 1944 Lesley J. McNair (1883-1944) Died 25 July 1944, aged 61 US Army general who organised and trained the American ground forces for the Second World War. He was killed in Normandy when American bombs fell short during Operation Cobra. He was one of the highest-ranking Americans killed in the war.
• 1884 – 1944 Harry Langdon (1884-1944) American silent comedian, briefly ranked with Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.
• 1885 – 1944 Mineichi Koga (1885-1944) Died 31 March 1944, aged 58 Japanese admiral who became commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet after Isoroku Yamamoto's death. He was killed when his flying boat crashed in a typhoon near the Philippines. His death was kept secret for weeks.
• 1886 – 1944 Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944) Died 18 August 1944, aged 58 Leader of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic and a presidential candidate in 1925 and 1932. He was arrested in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years. He was shot at Buchenwald on Hitler's orders.
• 1886 – 1944 Marc Bloch (1886-1944) Died 16 June 1944, aged 57 French medieval historian and co-founder of the Annales school, author of Feudal Society. He joined the French Resistance and was captured by the Gestapo in Lyon. He was tortured and then shot by the Germans.
• 1887 – 1944 Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1887-1944) Died 12 July 1944, aged 56 US Army brigadier general and eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. He was the only general to land with the first wave on D-Day, at Utah Beach. He died of a heart attack in Normandy weeks later and was awarded the Medal of Honor.
• 1889 – 1944 Thomas Midgley Jr Two solutions, two disasters Thomas Midgley solved two real engineering problems brilliantly. Engine knock was limiting compression ratios, so he found tetraethyl lead. Refrigerators were poisoning families with ammonia and methyl chloride, so he found Freon. Both worked perfectly, and between them they put lead into the bloodstream of most of the twentieth century and opened a hole in the ozone layer. The historian J. R. McNeill wrote that he had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in the planet's history. He held over a hundred patents and won every major prize American chemistry could give him.
• 1890 – 1944 Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) Died 27 September 1944, aged 53 Canadian-born American Pentecostal evangelist and a pioneer of radio preaching. She founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and built Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. Her mysterious 1926 disappearance was a national sensation.
• 1891 – 1944 Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) Died 14 October 1944, aged 52 German field marshal known as the Desert Fox for his command of the Afrika Korps in North Africa. He later commanded forces defending the Atlantic Wall in Normandy. Implicated in the 20 July plot, he was forced to take poison in exchange for protection for his family.
• 1892 – 1944 Wendell Willkie (1892-1944) Died 8 October 1944, aged 52 American lawyer and businessman who was the Republican nominee for president in 1940, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt. He went on to support aid to Britain and international cooperation. His book One World was a bestseller.
• 1896 – 1944 Milena Jesenská (1896-1944) Died 17 May 1944, aged 47 Czech journalist and translator, known as the recipient of Franz Kafka's Letters to Milena. She was active in the resistance after the German occupation. She died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
• 1898 – 1944 Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) Died 18 October 1944, aged 46 Austrian-Czech composer who continued to compose while imprisoned in Theresienstadt. He wrote the opera The Emperor of Atlantis there. He was murdered at Auschwitz.
• 1900 – 1944 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) Died 31 July 1944, aged 44 French writer and aviator, author of The Little Prince, Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. He disappeared over the Mediterranean on a reconnaissance flight for the Free French Air Force. Wreckage of his aircraft was found off Marseille in 2000.
• 1901 – 1944 Nikolai Vatutin (1901-1944) Died 15 April 1944, aged 42 Soviet army general who commanded fronts at Stalingrad, Kursk and the liberation of Kyiv. He was ambushed and badly wounded by Ukrainian nationalist insurgents in February 1944. He died of his wounds in Kyiv.
• 1903 – 1944 Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944) Died 11 January 1944, aged 40 Italian foreign minister from 1936 to 1943 and son-in-law of Benito Mussolini. He voted to depose Mussolini at the Grand Council meeting of July 1943. He was tried for treason at Verona and shot by firing squad.
• 1903 – 1944 Orde Wingate (1903-1944) Died 24 March 1944, aged 41 British Army officer who created the Chindits, long-range penetration units that fought behind Japanese lines in Burma. He had earlier led guerrilla operations in Palestine and Ethiopia. He was killed in an air crash in northeast India.
• 1904 – 1944 Glenn Miller (1904-1944) Died 15 December 1944, aged 40 American bandleader whose swing orchestra was the best-selling act of its era, with hits such as In the Mood and Moonlight Serenade. He led the Army Air Forces Band during the war. His aircraft disappeared over the English Channel on a flight to Paris and was never found.
• 1906 – 1944 Missak Manouchian (1906-1944) Died 21 February 1944, aged 37 Armenian poet and survivor of the Armenian genocide who led a French Resistance group of immigrant fighters in Paris. He and his comrades were captured and shot at Mont-Valérien, after being denounced in the Nazi Affiche Rouge poster. He was inducted into the Panthéon in 2024.
• 1907 – 1944 Claus von Stauffenberg (1907-1944) Died 21 July 1944, aged 36 German army officer who planted the bomb at the Wolf's Lair in the 20 July attempt to kill Hitler. He was a leading figure in the military resistance. He was shot by firing squad in Berlin shortly after midnight when the coup failed.
• 1914 – 1944 Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944) Died 13 September 1944, aged 30 British SOE agent of Indian descent and the first female wireless operator sent into occupied France. She was betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo in Paris. She was executed at Dachau and posthumously awarded the George Cross.
• 1915 – 1944 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (1915-1944) Died 12 August 1944, aged 29 US Navy pilot and eldest son of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who had been groomed for a political career. He was killed when his explosive-laden drone aircraft blew up over Suffolk during Operation Aphrodite. His death shifted the family's political ambitions onto his brother John.
• 1921 – 1944 Hannah Szenes (1921-1944) Died 7 November 1944, aged 23 Hungarian-born Jewish poet who emigrated to Palestine and joined British SOE as a parachutist. She was captured after crossing into Hungary on a mission to help Jews facing deportation. She was executed by firing squad in Budapest and is a national heroine in Israel.
• 1941 – 1944 The Continuation War Jatkosota Finland fought a second war against the USSR to regain territory lost in the Winter War.
• 1944 Avery — DNA carries genetic information The molecule of heredity identified In 1944, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty demonstrated that DNA (not protein, as widely assumed) is the molecule that carries genetic information between generations. This was the most important biological discovery before the double helix structure, and directly motivated Watson and Crick's X-ray crystallography work.
• 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement Bretton Woods Agreement Delegates from forty-four nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in July 1944 and agreed a postwar monetary order of currencies pegged to a gold-convertible dollar. The conference created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The system held until Nixon ended dollar convertibility in 1971.
• 1944 – 2003 David Kelly (1944-2003) Died 17 July 2003, aged 59 David Kelly was a British weapons expert and former UN inspector who was identified as the source for a BBC report alleging that the government had exaggerated the case for war in Iraq. He was found dead days after testifying to a parliamentary committee; a public inquiry ruled it a suicide.
• 1944 – present Fighter Jets From the Me 262 to sixth-generation stealth From the first Messerschmitt Me 262s over Germany in 1944 to stealth fighters and sixth-generation programmes — eight decades of jet fighters, generation by generation.
• 1944 – 2024 Francoise Hardy (1944-2024) Died 11 June 2024, aged 80 French singer and actress whose moody ballads epitomised youthful ennui in 1960s France.
• 1944 – 2023 Jeff Beck (1944-2023) Died 10 January 2023, aged 78 British guitarist of the Yardbirds and a solo career of restless invention, widely held to be among the finest ever to play the instrument.
• 1944 – 2025 Jimmy Cliff (1944-2025) Died 24 November 2025, aged 81 Jamaican singer and songwriter who did more than almost anyone to bring reggae to a world audience, largely through The Harder They Come.
• 1944 – 2024 Jose Agustin (1944-2024) Died 16 January 2024, aged 79 Mexican novelist whose prolific work captured urban youth culture, violence and decay.
• 1944 Messerschmitt Me 262 enters service The first operational jet fighter Germany's twin-engined Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter in front-line service. Far faster than any Allied piston fighter, it arrives too late and in too few numbers to change the war.
• 1944 – 2026 Michael Tilson Thomas (1944-2026) Died 22 April 2026, aged 81 American conductor and composer who founded Miami's New World Symphony and led the San Francisco Symphony, championing contemporary American music.
• 1944 – 2025 Paul Durcan (1944-2025) Died 17 May 2025, aged 80 Irish poet whose work set out to surprise the reader through surrealist eccentricity.
• 1944 – 2025 Sebastiao Salgado (1944-2025) Died 23 May 2025, aged 81 Brazilian photojournalist whose black-and-white work documented the beauty and destruction of the planet and the lives of the world's poorest.
• 1944 – 2024 Teri Garr (1944-2024) Died 29 October 2024, aged 79 American comic actress of Young Frankenstein, Mr Mom and Tootsie, for which she was Oscar-nominated.
• 1944 – 1945 The Lapland War Conflict with Germany Following the armistice with the USSR, Finland fought to expel German forces from northern Finland.
• 1944 – 2025 Shibu Soren (1944-2025) Died 4 August 2025, aged 81 Indian politician who co-founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and served three terms as chief minister of Jharkhand.
• 1944 – 2011 Joe Frazier (1944-2011) Died 7 November 2011, aged 67 The American boxer was Olympic and undisputed heavyweight world champion, best remembered for his three fights against Muhammad Ali, including the "Thrilla in Manila." He died in Philadelphia of liver cancer. Frazier remains one of the sport's most celebrated champions.
• 1944 San Juan earthquake Deadliest earthquake in Argentine history A magnitude 7.0 earthquake destroyed most of the city of San Juan, killing around 10,000 people. Colonel Juan Perón led the relief effort, which raised his public profile. He met his future wife Eva Duarte at a fundraising event for the victims.
• 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino Four assaults break the Gustav Line Allied forces made four major assaults on the German defensive position anchored on Monte Cassino. The Allied bombing of the historic abbey in February remains controversial. Polish troops finally raised their flag over the ruins on 18 May.
• 1944 Battle of Anzio Allied landing behind the Gustav Line Allied forces landed at Anzio to outflank German defences and open the road to Rome. The beachhead was quickly contained and endured four months of bitter fighting. The Allies broke out in late May and linked up with the main front.
• 1944 – 2019 Rutger Hauer (1944-2019) Died 19 July 2019, aged 75 Rutger Hauer was a Dutch actor best known for his role as the replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner, including the film's celebrated "tears in rain" monologue. He appeared in numerous other films including The Hitcher and Ladyhawke. He died in the Netherlands.
• 1944 Siege of Leningrad lifted Soviet offensive ends the 872-day blockade The Leningrad-Novgorod offensive drove German forces away from the city, ending a siege that had begun in September 1941. Around a million civilians had died, mostly from starvation. The city celebrated the lifting of the siege with an artillery salute on 27 January.
• 1944 – 2023 Jerry Springer American TV Host & Politician British-born American television host, lawyer and politician. Born in a London Underground station during the Blitz, he emigrated to the United States as a child. He served as Mayor of Cincinnati before becoming host of The Jerry Springer Show, a ratings phenomenon that ran for 27 years and became a defining artefact of 1990s American pop culture.
• 1944 – 1978 Ronnie Peterson The SuperSwede Renowned for his incredible car control and speed; finished as runner-up twice before his death.
• 1944 Deportation of Chechens and Ingush Soviet Operation Lentil On Stalin's orders the NKVD deported the entire Chechen and Ingush populations, around 500,000 people, to Central Asia on charges of collaboration. Tens of thousands died during the transport and in exile. The Chechen-Ingush republic was abolished until 1957.
• 1944 – 1997 Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) Died 1 January 1997, aged 52 Townes Van Zandt was an American singer-songwriter whose songs, including Pancho and Lefty, were covered by numerous country and folk artists. Though he achieved little mainstream commercial success in his lifetime, he is regarded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. He died in Smyrna, Tennessee, on New Year's Day.
• 1944 Battles of Imphal and Kohima Japanese invasion of India is defeated The Japanese 15th Army invaded northeast India, hoping to capture Imphal and Kohima. British and Indian forces held out through sieges and fierce close-quarter fighting. The failed offensive cost Japan tens of thousands of men and opened the way for the reconquest of Burma.
• 1944 Mount Vesuvius erupts Most recent eruption of the volcano Vesuvius erupted, and lava flows destroyed the villages of San Sebastiano al Vesuvio and Massa di Somma. Ash damaged around 80 aircraft of the US Army Air Forces at a nearby airfield. Vesuvius has not erupted since.
• 1944 Germany occupies Hungary Operation Margarethe German forces occupied Hungary to stop it from making a separate peace with the Allies. Regent Miklós Horthy stayed in office, but a pro-German government was installed. The occupation made possible the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews.
• 1944 – 2019 Ric Ocasek (1944-2019) Died 15 September 2019, aged 75 Ric Ocasek was the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the American rock band The Cars, known for hits including "Just What I Needed" and "Drive". He also produced albums for artists such as Weezer and Bad Brains. He was found dead at his New York home.
• 1944 The Great Escape Mass breakout from Stalag Luft III Seventy-six Allied airmen escaped through a tunnel named Harry from the German prisoner-of-war camp at Sagan. All but three were recaptured. On Hitler's orders, fifty of them were executed by the Gestapo.
• 1944 – present Rick Barry The Greyhound Known for his underhanded free throws and 1975 Finals MVP title.
• 1944 Bombay explosion Burning freighter devastates the city docks The freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying cotton, gold and explosives, caught fire and blew up in Bombay's Victoria Dock. The explosions killed around 800 people and sank or damaged many ships. India commemorates firefighters on 14 April each year in memory of the disaster.
• 1944 Exercise Tiger German E-boats attack a D-Day rehearsal German torpedo boats attacked a convoy of landing ships during a rehearsal for the Utah Beach landing off Slapton Sands in Devon. More than 700 American servicemen were killed. The disaster was kept secret for fear of revealing the invasion plans.
• 1944 Deportation of Hungarian Jews Over 430,000 sent to Auschwitz in eight weeks After Germany occupied Hungary, the Hungarian gendarmerie and Adolf Eichmann's unit organised the deportation of Jews from the provinces. Most of those deported were murdered on arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Regent Horthy halted the deportations in early July under international pressure.
• 1944 Deportation of the Crimean Tatars Soviet exile of an entire people The NKVD deported the whole Crimean Tatar population of around 190,000 people to Uzbekistan and other regions within three days. A large share died from disease and starvation in the first years of exile. Crimean Tatars call the event Sürgünlik.
• 1944 – 2001 W. G. Sebald (1944-2001) Died 14 December 2001, aged 57 Sebald was a German writer, long resident in England, whose genre-blurring books such as The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz mixed travelogue, memoir and history around themes of memory and the Holocaust. He was often named as a future Nobel contender. He died in a car crash in Norfolk.
• 1944 – 2014 Joe Cocker (1944-2014) Died 22 December 2014, aged 70 Joe Cocker, the English singer known for his raspy voice and cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends" at Woodstock, died in Colorado. He had a string of hits over a five-decade career, including the Grammy-winning duet "Up Where We Belong." His performing style was widely imitated and celebrated.
• 1944 Colossus Mark 2 enters service Improved codebreaking computer at Bletchley Park The Colossus Mark 2, an electronic codebreaking machine designed by Tommy Flowers, went into service at Bletchley Park. It helped break the German Lorenz cipher used by the high command. Its intelligence confirmed that Hitler had been deceived about the Normandy landing site.
• 1944 Liberation of Rome Allied troops enter the Italian capital The US Fifth Army under Mark Clark entered Rome after the Germans withdrew without defending the city. Rome became the first Axis capital to fall to the Allies. News of the liberation was quickly overshadowed by the Normandy landings two days later.
• 1944 D-Day Normandy landings On June 6, 1944, over 156,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy — the largest seaborne invasion in history.
• 1944 – present Phillip Allen Sharp American Molecular Biologist American geneticist and molecular biologist who co-discovered RNA splicing, fundamentally changing the understanding of how genes work. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Richard J. Roberts for demonstrating that genes in higher organisms are not continuous stretches of DNA but are interrupted by non-coding sequences called introns. Raised on a farm in rural Kentucky, he paid for college by raising cattle and growing tobacco before becoming one of the most influential figures in modern biology. He co-founded two pioneering biotechnology companies — Biogen (1978) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (2002) — and has spent his career at MIT, where his doctoral students have included fellow Nobel laureate Andrew Fire.
• 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane massacre Waffen-SS destroys a French village Soldiers of the Das Reich division killed 643 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane and burned the village. The men were shot and the women and children were burned in the church. The ruins have been preserved as a memorial.
• 1944 First V-1 flying bombs hit London Germany opens its flying bomb campaign Germany launched the first V-1 flying bombs against London a week after D-Day. Nearly 10,000 were fired at England and killed more than 6,000 people. Fighters, anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons eventually brought down most of them.
• 1944 Battle of Saipan US forces capture a key Mariana island US Marines and Army troops captured Saipan after three weeks of heavy fighting. Nearly the entire Japanese garrison died, and many civilians killed themselves rather than surrender. The island brought the Japanese home islands within range of B-29 bombers, and its loss led to the fall of Tojo's government.
• 1944 Iceland becomes a republic Union with Denmark is dissolved Iceland formally ended its personal union with the Danish crown and proclaimed a republic at Þingvellir. Sveinn Björnsson became the first president. The date, 17 June, is celebrated as Iceland's National Day.
• 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot US carrier forces decisively defeated the Japanese fleet west of the Mariana Islands. Japan lost three carriers and around 600 aircraft, which crippled its naval air arm. American pilots nicknamed the one-sided air battle the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
• 1944 GI Bill signed Servicemen's Readjustment Act becomes law President Roosevelt signed the act giving returning American veterans funds for college, unemployment pay and low-cost home loans. Millions of veterans used it to attend university. It reshaped American higher education and suburban housing.
• 1944 Operation Bagration Soviet offensive destroys German Army Group Centre The Red Army launched a massive summer offensive in Belarus. It shattered German Army Group Centre and inflicted one of the worst defeats in German military history. Soviet forces advanced hundreds of kilometres to the Vistula and the edge of East Prussia.
• 1944 Gloster Meteor enters RAF service The Allies' first jet fighter No. 616 Squadron receives the Meteor, the only Allied jet fighter to see combat in the Second World War, used first against V-1 flying bombs.
• 1944 – 2023 Ian Wilmut (1944-2023) Died 10 September 2023, aged 79 British embryologist who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
• 1944 Port Chicago disaster Munitions explosion kills 320 at a California naval base Munitions being loaded onto a cargo ship exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, killing 320 people, most of them African American sailors. Weeks later, 50 Black sailors who refused to go back to unsafe loading work were convicted of mutiny. The case drew attention to racial segregation in the US Navy.
• 1944 20 July plot German officers fail to assassinate Hitler Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg planted a briefcase bomb at the Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia, but Hitler survived with minor injuries. The attempted coup in Berlin collapsed within hours. Thousands were arrested and around 5,000 people were executed in the reprisals that followed.
• 1944 Battle of Guam US forces retake Guam US Marines and Army troops landed on Guam and recaptured it from Japan after three weeks of fighting. The island had been a US territory until Japan seized it in December 1941. Guam became a major base for the bombing campaign against Japan.
• 1944 Liberation of Majdanek First major Nazi camp reached by Allied troops Soviet forces reached the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp near Lublin. The Germans had not had time to destroy it, and gas chambers and crematoria were found largely intact. Reports and photographs of the camp gave the world early evidence of the Holocaust.
• 1944 Warsaw Uprising Polish Home Army rises against German occupation The Polish Home Army launched an uprising to liberate Warsaw before the Red Army arrived. After 63 days of fighting with little outside help, the insurgents surrendered on 2 October. Around 150,000 to 200,000 civilians were killed and the Germans then systematically razed the city.
• 1944 Anne Frank arrested The Secret Annex in Amsterdam is raided The German Security Police raided the hidden annex at Prinsengracht 263, arresting Anne Frank, her family and four others who had been in hiding for two years. They were deported via Westerbork to Auschwitz. Anne's diary was saved by Miep Gies and published after the war.
• 1944 Harvard Mark I dedicated IBM's Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator The electromechanical Harvard Mark I, designed by Howard Aiken and built by IBM, was formally presented to Harvard University. It was over 15 metres long and read its instructions from punched paper tape. Grace Hopper was one of its first programmers, and it was used for calculations for the Manhattan Project.
• 1944 – 2026 Robert Mueller (1944-2026) Died 20 March 2026, aged 81 American law enforcement official who directed the FBI from 2001 to 2013 and served as special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
• 1944 Falaise Pocket German forces trapped in Normandy Allied armies encircled the German Seventh Army and Fifth Panzer Army near Falaise. Tens of thousands of German soldiers were killed or captured before the gap was closed. The defeat ended the Battle of Normandy and opened the route to the Seine.
• 1944 Operation Dragoon Allied landings in southern France American and Free French forces landed on the Provence coast between Toulon and Cannes. They quickly liberated Marseille and Toulon and advanced up the Rhône valley. They linked up with forces from Normandy near Dijon in mid-September.
• 1944 Liberation of Paris French Resistance and Allied troops free the capital An uprising by the French Forces of the Interior began on 19 August, and the French 2nd Armoured Division entered the city with US support. The German garrison commander Dietrich von Choltitz surrendered on 25 August, disobeying Hitler's order to destroy the city. Charles de Gaulle made his famous speech at the Hôtel de Ville that evening.
• 1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference Allies draft the blueprint for the United Nations Delegations from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China met in Washington, D.C. to draft proposals for a postwar international organisation. They agreed a structure that included a Security Council with permanent members. Their proposals became the basis for the UN Charter adopted in 1945.
• 1944 King Michael's Coup Romania switches to the Allied side King Michael I of Romania had dictator Ion Antonescu arrested. Romania then left the Axis and declared war on Germany. The coup opened the Balkans to the Red Army and is estimated to have shortened the war.
• 1944 Slovak National Uprising Armed revolt against the Tiso regime Slovak army units and partisans rose against Germany and the collaborationist Slovak state, with their centre at Banská Bystrica. German forces put down the uprising after two months. Resistance continued as guerrilla warfare in the mountains.
• 1944 First V-2 rocket strikes London The world's first long-range ballistic missile attack A German V-2 rocket hit Chiswick in west London, killing three people. The supersonic missiles arrived without warning and could not be intercepted. More than a thousand V-2s fell on England before the launch sites were overrun in 1945.
• 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état Fatherland Front takes power The communist-led Fatherland Front overthrew the Bulgarian government as the Red Army entered the country. Bulgaria then declared war on Germany. The coup began communist control over the country.
• 1944 – 2003 Barry White (1944-2003) Died 4 July 2003, aged 58 Barry White was a singer, songwriter and producer whose deep bass-baritone and lush orchestral arrangements drove hits such as 'Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe' and 'You're the First, the Last, My Everything'. He sold more than 100 million records and died of kidney failure while awaiting a transplant.
• 1944 Battle of Peleliu Costly US assault in the Palau Islands US Marines and Army troops fought for over two months to take the small coral island of Peleliu. Japanese defenders fought from fortified caves instead of making mass charges, and US casualties were very high. The battle is still debated because the island had little strategic value.
• 1944 Operation Market Garden Allied airborne attempt to cross the Rhine fails Allied airborne divisions landed in the Netherlands to seize a series of bridges, which would let ground forces advance into Germany. The British 1st Airborne Division was overwhelmed at Arnhem after the relieving armour failed to reach it. The failure ended hopes of finishing the war in 1944.
• 1944 – 2016 Gene Wilder dies Willy Wonka and Young Frankenstein star, age 83 Gene Wilder, best known for his roles in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Young Frankenstein, died on August 29, 2016, aged 83, from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
• 1944 Battle of Aachen First major German city to fall to the Allies US forces surrounded and then fought street by street through the ancient city of Aachen. The German garrison surrendered on 21 October. Aachen was the first city on German soil to be captured by the Western Allies.
• 1944 – 2020 Roy Horn (1944-2020) Died 8 May 2020, aged 75 Roy Horn was the German-American illusionist and animal trainer of the Las Vegas duo Siegfried & Roy, famous for their shows with white tigers and lions. He died of complications from COVID-19 on 8 May 2020.
• 1944 Sonderkommando revolt at Auschwitz Prisoners rise up and destroy a crematorium Jewish Sonderkommando prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau revolted and blew up Crematorium IV with gunpowder smuggled from a munitions factory by women prisoners. Around 250 prisoners were killed during the revolt and many more were executed afterwards. Four of the women who smuggled the explosives were hanged in January 1945.
• 1944 – 2002 John Entwistle (1944-2002) Died 27 June 2002, aged 57 John Entwistle was the bassist of The Who, whose fast, melodic, trebly playing on songs such as 'My Generation' made him one of rock's most admired bass players. Nicknamed the Ox for his stillness on stage amid the band's chaos, he also wrote several of their songs, including 'Boris the Spider'. He died in a Las Vegas hotel on the eve of a US tour.
• 1944 Liberation of Athens German forces withdraw from the Greek capital German troops left Athens after three and a half years of occupation, and crowds celebrated in the streets. British forces and the Greek government-in-exile under Georgios Papandreou arrived days later. Tensions between the government and the communist-led resistance grew quickly.
• 1944 Arrow Cross seizes power in Hungary Horthy overthrown after armistice attempt Regent Horthy announced an armistice with the Soviet Union. German forces then kidnapped his son and forced Horthy to resign. Ferenc Szálasi's fascist Arrow Cross Party took power and began a reign of terror against Budapest's Jews.
• 1944 – 2022 David Trimble (1944-2022) Died 25 July 2022, aged 77 Northern Irish politician who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for his part in the Good Friday Agreement.
• 1944 – 1987 Peter Tosh (1944-1987) Died 11 September 1987, aged 42 Tosh was a Jamaican reggae musician and founding member of the Wailers alongside Bob Marley, who went on to a successful solo career and outspoken activism. He was shot and killed during a robbery at his home in Kingston, Jamaica. His death was widely mourned across the reggae world.
• 1944 Guatemalan October Revolution Uprising begins a decade of democratic reform A popular uprising of students, workers and young officers overthrew the government of Federico Ponce Vaides, successor to the dictator Jorge Ubico. The revolution led to the election of Juan José Arévalo. The ten years of reform that followed ended with the US-backed coup of 1954.
• 1944 Liberation of Belgrade Yugoslav Partisans and Red Army take the capital Yugoslav Partisans and Soviet troops drove German forces out of Belgrade after a week of fighting. Tito's movement then established its authority over Serbia. The liberation paved the way for the communist state that followed.
• 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf Largest naval battle of the Second World War The US Navy destroyed much of the remaining Japanese fleet in a series of engagements around the Philippines. The battle saw the first organised kamikaze attacks by Japanese aircraft. Afterwards the Imperial Japanese Navy was no longer able to mount major fleet operations.
• 1944 Roosevelt elected to fourth term Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Thomas Dewey Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States, with Harry S. Truman as his running mate. He carried 36 of the 48 states. Roosevelt died less than three months into the new term.
• 1944 Tirpitz sunk RAF Lancasters destroy Germany's last great battleship RAF Lancaster bombers hit the battleship Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs at her anchorage near Tromsø. She capsized, killing around 1,000 crew members. Her presence in Norway had tied down Allied naval forces for years.
• 1944 Dekemvriana begins in Athens Fighting between British and communist-led forces Police fired on a large left-wing demonstration in Syntagma Square, killing more than twenty people. Fighting then broke out between the ELAS resistance army and British and Greek government forces. The clashes lasted into January 1945 and set the stage for the Greek Civil War.
• 1944 – 1983 Dennis Wilson (1944-1983) Died 28 December 1983, aged 39 Dennis Wilson was an American musician and the drummer of the Beach Boys, the only member of the band who was an actual surfer. He drowned off Marina del Rey, California, becoming the first Beach Boy to die. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band.
• 1944 Chicago Convention signed Founding treaty of international civil aviation Fifty-two states signed the Convention on International Civil Aviation at the end of a conference in Chicago. It set out the rules for airspace, aircraft registration and safety. It established the International Civil Aviation Organization.
• 1944 Tōnankai earthquake Magnitude 8.1 earthquake strikes central Japan A great earthquake and tsunami struck the coast of central Japan off the Kii Peninsula, killing more than 1,200 people. Wartime censorship kept news of the disaster from spreading. The damage to aircraft factories around Nagoya hampered Japanese war production.
• 1944 German Ardennes offensive launched Start of the Battle of the Bulge Germany launched a surprise offensive through the forested Ardennes region against thinly held American lines, aiming to split the Allies and capture Antwerp. The attack created a deep salient in the Allied front. It became the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in the Second World War.
• 1944 Siege of Bastogne Encircled US troops hold a vital crossroads The US 101st Airborne Division and other units were surrounded in the Belgian town of Bastogne during the Ardennes offensive. When asked to surrender, General Anthony McAuliffe replied "Nuts!". Patton's Third Army broke through the encirclement on 26 December.