1944

Published on Saturday, January 20th 2007. Edited by Lax Howicekey, Englewood, United States.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1910s  1920s  1930s  – 1940s –  1950s  1960s  1970s

Years: 1941 1942 1943 – 1944 – 1945 1946 1947

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

• 4 January – WWII: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.

• 5 January

• WWII: Murder of Danish priest, poet and playwright Kaj Munk.

• The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.

• 14 January – WWII: The Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.

• 15 January **WWII: The 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division recreated, marking the start of Operation Tempest by the Polish Home Army.

• An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina killing an estimated 10,000 people in the worst natural disaster in Argentina’s history.

• 17 January – WWII:

• British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River.

• Meat Rationing ends in Australia.
• Soviet Union ceases the production of Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.

• 20 January – 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.

• 22 January – WWII: Allies begin Operation Shingle, the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.

• 27 January – WWII: The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• 29 January – WWII: The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
• 30 January – WWII: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• 31 January – WWII: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February

• 1 February – WWII: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
• 2 February – Publication of first issue of Human Events.
• 3 February – WWII: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
• 7 February – WWII: In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.

• 14 February – WWII:

• SHAEF headquarters established in Britain by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

• Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.

• 15 February – WWII: Battle of Monte Cassino – the monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.

• 17 February – WWII: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ended in an American victory on 22 February.

• 20 February – WWII:

• “Big Week” begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.

• The United States takes Eniwetok Island.

• 23 February – WWII: The Chechens and Ingush are forcibly deported to Central Asia.

• 26 February – – Shooting begins of the Nazi propaganda film, “The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews” in Theresienstadt.
• 29 February – WWII: The Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces in the Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer.

March

• March – WWII: The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.

• 1 March – WWII:

• USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge laid down.

• Anti-fascist strike in northern Italy.

• 2 March – WWII: Train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy – 521 choke to death

• 2 March – 16th Academy Awards ceremony
• 3 March – WWII: The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov were instituted in USSR
• 4 March – 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.
• 6 March – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Narva in Estonia, destroying almost the entire old town.
• 9 March – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.
• 10 March – WWII: In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
• 12 March – WWII: The Creation of the politic Committee of national liberation in Greece.

• 15 March – 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.

• 17 March – WWII: The hitlerists assassinate at Rîbniţa almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians.

• 19 March – WWII: German forces occupy Hungary.
• 18 March – The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.
• 20 March – WWII: RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade’s bomber is hit over Germany and he has to bail out without a parachute from the height of over 4000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow
• 23 March – WWII: members of the Italian Resistance attack Nazis marching in via Rasella. 33 Nazis are killed.

• 24 March – WWII:

• The Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome, Italy. 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups.

• In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jewish people they were hiding.

April

• 25 April – WWII: The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
• 28 April – WWII: 749 American troops are killed in Exercise Tiger at Start Bay, Devon, England.

May

• 5 May – WWII: Mohandas Gandhi released in India.
• 9 May – WWII: In the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops had completely driven out the German forces. The besieged German troops had been ordered by Hitler to “fight to the last Man.”
• 12 May – WWII: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of Crimea.

• 18 May – WWII:

• Battle of Monte Cassino – Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.

• Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.

• 30 May – Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne resigns from her rights in favour 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.

• 1 June – 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.
• 2 June – WWII: The provisional French government is established.

• 4 June – 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 had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.

• Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.

• 5 June – WWII:

• More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 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.

• 6 June – WWII: 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. This operation was used to help liberate France from Germany. It also weakened the Nazi Germany hold on Europe.

• 7 June – WWII: Bayeux liberated by British troops.
• 9 June – WWII: Stalin launches an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
• 10 June – WWII: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
• 13 June – WWII: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.

• 15 June – WWII:

• Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.

• American forces push back Germans in St. Lo, capturing the city.

• 17 June

• WWII: The proclamation of the Republic of Iceland.

• Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.

• 22 June – WWII:

• Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.

• Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.

• 25 June – WWII: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.

• 26 June – WWII: American troops enter Cherbourg.
• 29 June – Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps begins.

July

• 1 July – Start of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

• 3 July – WWII:

• Soviet troops liberate Minsk.

• Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle in a British victory.

• 6 July

• Hartford Circus Fire: More than 100 children died in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.

• 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.

• 9 July – WWII: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.

• 10 July – WWII: Soviet troops start the operations for occupying the Baltic countries.
• 13 July – WWII: Liberation of Vilnius.
• 16 July – WWII: Arrival of the first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy.

• 17 July – WWII:

• The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.

• SS E.A.Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes in the Port Chicago naval base – 320 dead.

• 18 July – WWII: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.

• 20 July – WWII: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt. See Claus von Stauffenberg

• 21 July – WWII:

• Battle of Guam – American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on 10 August).

• The creation of the Polish Committee for national liberation.

• 22 July – End of Bretton Woods conference and signing of Agreements.

• 25 July – WWII: Operation Spring – One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.

August

Szare Szeregi Scouts also fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

• 1 August – WWII: Warsaw Uprising begins.

• 2 August – WWII:

• Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.

• the First Assembly of ASNOM was held in the Prohor Pchinski monastery

• 4 August – 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.

• 5 August – Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
• 7 August – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
• 9 August – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.

• 12 August – WWII:

• Allies capture Florence, Italy.

• World’s first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto

• 15 August – WWII: Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.

• 19 August – WWII: Start of Victorious insurrection in Paris.
• 20 August – WWII: American forces successfully defeat nazi forces at Chambois. This victory closed the Falaise Gap.
• 23 August – WWII: Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government is established. Romania exits the war against Soviet Union joining the Allies.
• 24 August – WWII: Allies liberate Paris, therefore ending The Battle of Normandy.
• 25 August – WWII: Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
• 29 August – WWII: Slovak National Uprising against Axis powers begins.
• 31 August – The Mad Gasser of Mattoon resumes his mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.

September

• 1 September – WWII: In Bulgaria, the Bagrianov government resigns.
• 2 September – WWII: Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
• 3 September – WWII: Allies liberate Brussels.

• 4 September – WWII:

• The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.

• Finland breaks off relations with Germany.

• 5 September – WWII: The Soviets declare war on Bulgaria.

• 7 September – WWII: The Belgian government returns from exile in Britain.

• 8 September – WWII:

• London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.

• The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.

• 9 September – WWII: Insurrection in Sofia.

• 11 September – WWII: Northern and Southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
• 17 September – WWII: Operation Market Garden begins.
• 19 September – WWII: Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union signed. (End of the Continuation War)
• 20 September – WWII: Jüri Uluots, prime minister in capacity of president of Estonia, escapes to Sweden. Two days later, Tallinn is taken over by the Red Army.
• 24 September – 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.

• 26 September – WWII: Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.

• On middle front of Gothic Line Brazilians troops controlled the Serchio valley region after ten days of fighting.

October

• 2 October – WWII:

• Warsaw Uprising ends.

• Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.

• 5 October – WWII: Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over Holland )

• 6 October – WWII: Battle of Debrecen starts on the Eastern Front (lasts until 29 October).

• 8 October – The radio show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuts.
• 9 October – WWII: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
• 10 October – Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp
• 12 October – WWII: The Allies land at Athens.
• 13 October – WWII: Riga, the capital of Latvia is taken over by the Red Army.
• 14 October – WWII: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
• 18 October – WWII: Volkssturm founded on Hitler’s orders.

• 20 October – WWII:

• Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.

• LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio.
• Landed by the American forces in Red Beach in Palo, Leyte, since general Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines with the Philippine Commonwealth president Sergio Osmeña with the Philippine generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are general Basilio Valdes and general Carlos P. Romulo.
• The United States and Filipino troops with the Filipino guerillas started in the Battle of Leyte.

• The American forces landed the beaches in Dulag, Leyte, the Philippines by the attacked from the Japanese occupation forces, and continued by the Filipino troops entered to the town.

• 21 October – WWII: Aachen,the first German city to fall, is captured by the Americans.

• 23 October – WWII: Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins (lasts until 26 October).

• 25 October

• Florence Foster Jenkins recital in the Carnegie Hall

• WWII: Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated from German occupation.

• 30 October – Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

• 31 October – Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris Métro station

November

• 3 November – WWII: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.

• 7 November

• 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.

• Passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico due to excessive speed in a declining hill. 16 killed; 50 injured.

• 22 November – William Lyon Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).

• 24 November – The entire territory of Estonia is taken over by the Red Army.

December

• 30 December – WWII: Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, by filling the seat left by Cordell Hull.
• 3 December – WWII: Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
• 10 December – 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 will be broadcast a week later. The performance will later be released on LP and CD. This is the first of seven operas that the Maestro will conduct on radio.
• 12 December and 13 – WWII: British units attempt to take the hilltop town of Tossignano; they are repulsed.
• 13 December – The United States and Philippine Commonwealth troops landed in Mindoro Island, the Philippines by the attack the Japanese forces during the Battle of Mindoro.
• 14 December – Soviet government change Turkish names of place to Russian in Crimean
• 15 December – A private airplane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller disappears in heavy fog over the English Channel while flying to Paris.

• 16 December – WWII:

• Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later to become known as Battle of the Bulge.

• General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General.

• 17 December – WWII: German troops carry out the Malmedy massacre.

• 22 December – 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.
• 24 December – WWII: The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.

• 26 December

• WWII: American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.

• Premiere of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

• 30 December – WWII: King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.

• 31 December – WWII: Hungary declares war on Germany.
• 31 December – WWII: over hundreds of thousands of the Japanese Imperial forces killed in action, after the battles from the Filipino and American military forces are victory after the Battle of Leyte.

Undated

• 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.
• Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger’s Syndrome
• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence established.
• Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen becomes the first person to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage in both directions in a schooner. He would chronicle the event in his autobiography, entitled “The Big Ship” (ASIN B000ETAS4K).

Ongoing

• Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)
• Second World War (1939–1945)

Births

1944 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1944 MCMXLIV

Ab urbe condita 2697

Armenian calendar 1393 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԳ

Bahá'í calendar 100 – 101

Berber calendar 2894

Buddhist calendar 2488

Burmese calendar 1306

Byzantine calendar 7452 – 7453

Chinese calendar 癸未年十二月初六日 (4580/4640-12-6)

— to —

甲申年十一月十七日 (4581/4641-11-17)

Coptic calendar 1660 – 1661

Ethiopian calendar 1936 – 1937

Hebrew calendar 5704 – 5705

Hindu calendars

 - Vikram Samvat 1999 – 2000

 - Shaka Samvat 1866 – 1867

 - Kali Yuga 5045 – 5046

Holocene calendar 11944

Iranian calendar 1322 – 1323

Islamic calendar 1363 – 1364

Japanese calendar Shōwa 19 (昭和19年)

Korean calendar 4277

Thai solar calendar 2487

January-February

• 1 January – Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, President of the Sudan
• 2 January – Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
• 3 January – Chris von Saltza, American swimmer

• 6 January

• Bonnie Franklin, American actress

• Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• 9 January – Ian Hornak, American Painter, Draughtsman and Sculptor (d. 2002)

• 9 January – Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
• 12 January – Joe Frazier, American boxer
• 17 January – Françoise Hardy, French singer
• 18 January – Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
• 19 January – Shelley Fabares, American actress and singer
• 23 January – Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
• 25 January – Anita Pallenberg, Italian model and actress
• 26 January – Angela Davis, American feminist and activist

• 27 January

• Peter Akinola, Nigerian religious leader

• Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

• Nick Mason, English drummer (Pink Floyd)

• 28 January

• Susan Howard, American actress

• John Tavener, British composer

• 3 February – Dave Davies, British musician (The Kinks)

• 5 February – Al Kooper, American musician (Blood, Sweat, and Tears)
• 9 February – Alice Walker, American writer
• 10 February – Vernor Vinge, American writer
• 11 February – Michael G. Oxley, American politician
• 12 February – Moe Bandy, country music singer

• 13 February

• Stockard Channing, American actress

• Jerry Springer, English-born television host

• 14 February

• Carl Bernstein, American journalist

• Alan Parker, English-born film director, actor, and writer

• 16 February – Richard Ford, American writer

• 17 February – Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
• 20 February – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch football player and coach

• 22 February

• Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer, and writer

• Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player

• 23 February – Johnny Winter, American musician

• 24 February – Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994)
• 27 February – Ken Grimwood, American writer (d. 2003)
• 28 February – Sepp Maier, German footballer
• 29 February – Dennis Farina, American actor

March-April

• 1 March

• John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana

• Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)

• 2 March – Uschi Glas, German actress

• 4 March

• Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and race car designer (d. 1999)

• Mary Wilson (singer), American singer

• Bobby Womack, American singer and songwriter

• 6 March – Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano

• 8 March – Buzz Hargrove, Canadian labour leader
• 11 March – Don Maclean, British comedian
• 15 March – Sly Stone, American singer
• 17 March – John Sebastian, American singer and songwriter (The Lovin' Spoonful)

• 19 March

• Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize

• Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy

• 24 March – R. Lee Ermey, U.S. Marine and actor

• 26 March – Diana Ross, American singer (The Supremes)
• 28 March – Rick Barry, American basketball player
• 29 March – Denny McLain, baseball player
• 3 April – Tony Orlando, American musician
• 4 April – Magda Aelvoet, Belgian politician
• 6 April – Felicity Palmer, English soprano
• 7 April – Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany

• 8 April

• Jimmy Walker, American professional basketball player (d.2007)

• Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter

• 11 April – John Milius, American film director, producer, and screenwriter

• 13 April – Jack Casady, American musician (Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna)
• 15 April – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, an unrecognized breakaway state in the North Caucasus (d. 1996)
• 19 April – James Heckman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 22 April – Steve Fossett, American aviator, sailor and millionaire adventurer (m. 2007, l. d. 2008)
• 27 April – Michael Fish, British TV weatherman
• 28 April – Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician
• 29 April – Richard Kline, American actor and television director
• 30 April – Jill Clayburgh, American actress

May-June

• 1 May – Suresh Kalmadi, Indian politician
• 4 May – Paul Gleason, American actor (d. 2006)
• 5 May – John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor
• 8 May – Gary Glitter, English singer
• 9 May – Richie Furay, American musician (Poco and Buffalo Springfield)
• 10 May – Jim Abrahams, American film director
• 12 May – Sara Kestelman, British actor
• 13 May – Armistead Maupin, American author
• 14 May – George Lucas, American film director and producer

• 20 May

• Joe Cocker, British singer

• Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer

• Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman

• 21 May – Mary Robinson, President of Ireland

• 23 May

• John Newcombe, Australian tennis player

• Avraham Oz, Israeli Professor of Theatre, translator, and political activist

• 24 May – Patti LaBelle, American singer

• 25 May – Frank Oz, English puppeteer and film director

• 28 May

• Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City

• Gladys Knight, American singer
• Patricia Quinn, Northern Irish actress

• Rita MacNeil, Canadian folk singer

• 30 May – Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)

• 1 June – Robert Powell, English actor
• 3 June – Edith McGuire, American sprinter
• 4 June – Michelle Phillips, American singer (Mamas and the Papas) and actress

• 5 June

• Tommie Smith, American athlete

• Colm Wilkinson, Irish singer

• 6 June – Phillip Allen Sharp, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• 8 June

• Don Grady, American actor and singer

• Mark Belanger, baseball player (d. 1998)

• 24 June

• Jeff Beck, British musician

• John “Charlie” Whitney, British rock guitarist (Family)

• 29 June – Gary Busey, American actor

• 30 June – Raymond Moody, parapsychologist

July-August

• 8 July – Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
• 13 July – Ernő Rubik, Hungarian inventor
• 17 July – Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricket captains

• 21 July

• Tony Scott, English film director

• Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)

• 23 July – Alex Buzo, of Sydney, Australian playwright and author (d. 2006)

• 27 July – Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor, and musician (d. 2003)

• 31 July

• Geraldine Chaplin, American actress

• Robert C. Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• 2 August – Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)

• 4 August

• Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian

• Orhan Gencebay, Turkish musician, baglama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor.

• 8 August – Brooke Bundy, American actress

• 9 August – Sam Elliott, American actor
• 11 August – Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
• 13 August – Kevin Tighe, American actor
• 15 August – Sylvie Vartan, Bulgarian singer
• 19 August – Bodil Malmsten, Swedish writer
• 20 August – Linda Clifford, American R&B and dance singer

• 21 August

• Peter Weir, Australian film director

• Kari S. Tikka, Finnish Professor of Finance (d. 2006)

• 23 August – Saira Banu, Indian actress

• 26 August – HRH Prince Richard of Gloucester

• 31 August

• Roger Dean, British artist

• Jos LeDuc, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1999)

September-October

• 1 September – Leonard Slatkin, American conductor
• 2 September – Gilles Marchal, French musician
• 6 September – Christian Boltanski, French artist.

• 7 September

• Earl Manigault, American basketball player (d. 1998)

• Bora Milutinovic, Serbian football coach

• 12 September

• Leonard Peltier, U.S. Presidential candidate

• Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)

• 16 September – Betty Kelley, American singer (Martha and the Vandellas)

• 17 September – Reinhold Messner, Italian Mountaineer
• 19 September – Ismet Özel, Turkish poet
• 21 September – Hamilton Jordan, Carter’s first Chief of Staff (d. 2008)
• 22 September – Frazer Hines, British actor
• 25 September – Michael Douglas, American actor
• 26 September – Anne Robinson, British television host
• 30 September – Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer
• 6 October – Mylon LeFevre, American singer and evangelist

• 9 October

• John Entwistle, English musician (The Who) (d. 2002)

• Nona Hendryx, singer (LaBelle)

• Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1987)

• October 12 – Ronnie Fischer (Baseball)

• 15 October

• David Trimble, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

• Şerif Gören, Turkish film director

• 28 October

• Dennis Franz, American actor

• Ian Marter, British actor (d. 1986)

November-December

• 4 November – Linda Gary, American voice-over artist (d. 1995)
• 7 November – Joe Niekro, baseball player (d. 2006)
• 10 November – Silvestre Reyes, American politician
• 11 November – Kemal Sunal, a master of comedy in the Turkish history of cinema

• 12 November

• Booker T. Jones, American musician, singer, and songwriter (Booker T. and the M.G.’s)

• Al Michaels, American sportscaster

• 16 November – Oliver Braddick, British Psychologist

• 17 November

• Danny DeVito, American actor

• Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect
• Lorne Michaels, Canadian film producer

• Tom Seaver, baseball player

• 18 November – Wolfgang Joop, German artist, fashion designer and art collector

• 21 November – Richard Durbin, American politician
• 24 November – Ibrahim Gambari, Nigerian scholar and diplomat
• 25 November – Ben Stein, American law professor, actor, and author
• 2 December – Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (d. 2006)
• 6 December – Jonathan King, British music producer
• 7 December – Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
• 9 December – Ki Longfellow, American novelist
• 12 December – Kenneth Cranham, Scottish born actor

• 21 December

• Zheng Xiaoyu, Chinese bureaucrat (d. 2007)

• Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor

• Bill Atkinson, English footballer

• 22 December – Steve Carlton, baseball player

• 23 December

• Wesley Clark, U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander

• Ingar Knudtsen, Norwegian writer

• 25 December – Jairzinho, Brazilian football player

• 26 December – Eli Cohen, Israeli Spy
• 28 December – Kary Mullis, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

For more 1944 deaths see Category:1944 deaths

January – March

• 1 January – Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (b. 1862)
• 5 January – Kaj Munk Danish playwright and martyr (b. 1898) (executed)
• 6 January – Ida Tarbell, American journalist (b. 1857)
• 10 January – William Emerson Ritter, American biologist (b. 1856)
• 11 January – Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (b. 1903)
• 20 January – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
• 23 January – Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)

• 31 January

• Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)

• William Allen White, American journalist (b. 1868)

• 1 February – Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)

• 4 February – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)
• 11 February – Carl Meinhof, German linguist (b. 1857)
• 21 February – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
• 4 March – Louis Buchalter, Jewish American mobster, head of Murder, Inc. (b. 1897)
• 5 March – Max Jacob, French poet (b. 1876)
• 22 March – Pierre Brossolette, journalist and French Resistance fighter (b. 1903)
• 24 March – Orde Wingate, British soldier (b. 1903)

April – June

• 9 April – Evgeniya Rudneva, Soviet World War II heroine (b. 1920)
• 17 April – J.T. Hearne English cricketer (b. 1867)
• 25 April – George Herriman, American cartoonist (b. 1880)
• 28 April – Paul Poiret, French couturier (b. 1879)
• 29 April – Bernardino Machado, President of Portugal (b. 1851)
• 12 May – Max Brand, American author (b. 1892)
• 12 May – Q, British writer (b. 1863)
• 16 May – George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
• June – Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (b. 1879)
• 27 June – Milan Hodža, Slovak politician, champion of regional integration in Europe (b. 1878)

July – September

• 6 July

• Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1919)

• Vera Leigh, English World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1903)
• Sonia Olschanezky, German World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1923)

• Diana Rowden, English World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1915)

• 7 July – Georges Mandel, French politician and World War II hero (executed) (b. 1885)

• 26 July – Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1877)
• 31 July – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer (b. 1900)
• 1 August -Manuel L. Quezon, Philippine president (b. 1878)
• 4 August – Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Polish poet, Warsaw Uprising
• 8 August – Chaim Soutine, Russian painter (b. 1893)
• 12 August – Suzanne Spaak, Belgian World War II heroine (executed)
• 19 August – Henry Wood, British conductor (b. 1869)
• 23 August – Abdul Mejid II, Caliph of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1868)

• 26 August

• Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat (executed) (b. 1909)

• Hans Leesment, Estonian general (b. 1873)

• 27 August – Princess Mafalda of Savoy (executed) (b. 1902)

• 6 September

• Gustave Biéler, Swiss World War II hero (executed) (b. 1904)

• Jan Franciszek Czartoryski, Polish RC priest, executed during the Warsaw Uprising

• 9 September – Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (executed) (b. 1895)

• 11 September

• Yolande Beekman, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1911)

• Madeleine Damerment, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1917)

• Noor Inayat Khan, Indian princess and World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1914)

• 13 September – Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator (b. 1872)

• 14 September

• John Kenneth Macalister, Canadian World War II hero (executed) (b. 1914)

• Frank Pickersgill, Canadian World War II hero (executed) (b. 1915)

• Roméo Sabourin, Canadian World War II hero (executed) (b. 1923)

• 16 September – Gustav Bauer, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1870)

• 25 September – Eugeniusz Lokajski, Polish athlete, gymnast and photographer, Warsaw Uprising

October – December

• 4 October – Al Smith, American politician (b. 1873)
• 8 October – Wendell Willkie, American politician (b. 1892)
• 14 October – Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal (b. 1891)
• 21 October – Alois Kayser, German missionary (b. 1877)
• 23 October – Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
• 24 October – Shoji Nishimura, Japanese Vice admiral (b. 1889)

• 26 October

• HRH The Princess Beatrice, youngest and last living child of Queen Victoria (b. 1857)

• William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1881)

• 2 November – Thomas Midgley, American chemist and inventor (b. 1889)

• 5 November – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
• 7 November – Hannah Szenes, Hungarian World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1921)
• 2 December – Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (b. 1874)
• 4 December – Roger Bresnahan, baseball player (b. 1879)
• 13 December – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born artist (b. 1866)
• 30 December – Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
• 31 December – Vicente Lim, Filipino general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (b. 1889)
• date unknown – Gerald Haxton secretary and lover of the famous novelist and playwright W. Somerset Maugham (b. 1892)

Nobel prizes

• Physics – Isidor Isaac Rabi
• Chemistry – Otto Hahn
• Medicine – Joseph Erlanger, Herbert Spencer Gasser
• Literature – Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
• Peace – International Committee of the Red Cross.

Ship events

• Ship launches
• Ship commissionings
• Ship decommissionings
• Shipwrecks

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944”