1944 - What happened in 1944 ?

January 1944

Thursday 20:

World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.

Saturday 22:

World War II: Allies begin Operation Shingle (an assault on Anzio, Italy).

Thursday 27:

World War II: The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

Saturday 29:

World War II: About 300 men, women, and children die in the Massacre in Koniuchy in Poland.

Monday 31:

World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February 1944

Thursday 03:

United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.

Monday 07:

World War II: In Anzio, Italy Nazi forces launch a counteroffensive.

Thursday 17:

World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ended in an American victory on February 22.

Sunday 20:

World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.

Tuesday 29:

World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.

March 1944

Saturday 04:

In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.

Wednesday 15:

Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.

Sunday 19:

World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.

April 1944

Friday 14:

Huge explosion rocks the Bombay harbour killing 300 and causing a loss of 20 million pounds at that time. See: Bombay Explosion (1944).

Friday 21:

Women in France receive the right to vote.

Saturday 22:

World War II: Operation Persecution initiated – Allied forces land in the Hollandia area of New Guinea.

Tuesday 25:

The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.

Saturday 29:

"Dancing Romeo," the last Our Gang film, premiers.

May 1944

Friday 05:

Mohandas Gandhi is freed from prison.

Thursday 11:

World War II: The Allies start a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.

Wednesday 17:

Type IX U-boat: U-884 is launched.

Thursday 18:

World War II: SS troops burn down six villages in the Brkini hills in south western Slovenia.

June 1944

Sunday 04:

World War II: Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis powers capital to fall.

Monday 05:

World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.

Saturday 10:

In baseball, 15-year old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game.

Thursday 15:

In the Saskatchewan general election, 1944, the CCF, led by Tommy Douglas, is elected and forms the first socialist government of North America.

Monday 19:

The Battle of the Philippine Sea took place, where the United States Navy sank 3 Japanese aircraft carriers and shot down almost 400 aircraft in what was called The Marianas Turkey Shoot.

July 1944

Tuesday 11:

Franklin D. Roosevelt says he will run for a fourth term as President of the United States.

Monday 17:

World War II: The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.

Tuesday 18:

World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.

Friday 21:

American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).

Tuesday 25:

One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.

August 1944

Monday 07:

IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).

Wednesday 09:

The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.

Thursday 10:

World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.

Saturday 19:

Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.

Tuesday 22:

1944 - World War II: Thirty-two Spaniards & four French Maquis tackle a German column (1,300 men in 60 lorries, with 6 tanks & 2 self-propelled guns), at La Madeiline, France. Three Maquis are wounded, with 110 Germans killed and 200 wounded.

September 1944

Saturday 02:

Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving three days later.

Monday 04:

World War II: The British 11th Armoured Division liberate the Belgian city of Antwerp.

Tuesday 12:

The liberation of Serbia from Nazi Germany and the Chetniks continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among those liberated cities.

Thursday 14:

United States Marines land on the island of Peleliu.

Tuesday 26:

World War II: Operation Market Garden fails.

October 1944

Monday 02:

World War II: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.

Thursday 05:

Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German Jet fighter over France.

Tuesday 10:

Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp.

Friday 20:

Liquid natural gas leaks from storange tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.

Monday 30:

Anne Frank is deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

November 1944

Wednesday 01:

The British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.

Tuesday 07:

U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over challenger Thomas E. Dewey, to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term.

Sunday 19:

World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.

Friday 24:

The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.

Wednesday 29:

The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

December 1944

Friday 01:

Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration.

Saturday 16:

World War II: A V-2 rocket hits the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 567 people.

Friday 22:

Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Vietnam

Tuesday 26:

American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne

Sunday 31:

World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany