What Happened in 1944 — Events, Births & Deaths

World War II: US flying ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.

The Daily Mail becomes the first major London newspaper to be published on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.

World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.

World War II: The 872-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units.

World War II: In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is completely destroyed in an air-raid.

World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy.

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

World War II: During the Anzio campaign, the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.

World War II: The Great Raids Against Helsinki begins.

World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.

World War II: In the action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian Regia Marina submarine in the Strait of Malacca.

World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.

World War II: The Narva Offensive begins.

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

World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: U.S. naval air, surface and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.

World War II: The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.

World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Atoll.

World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.

World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog.

The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.

The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer, led by American general Douglas MacArthur, in World War II.

The Order of Nakhimov and Order of Ushakov are instituted in USSR as the highest naval awards.

A freight train carrying stowaway passengers stalls in a tunnel shortly after departing from Balvano, Basilicata, Italy just after midnight, with 517 dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.

World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.

World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.

Greek Civil War: The Political Committee of National Liberation is established in Greece by the National Liberation Front.

Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts, killing 26 people, causing thousands to flee their homes, and destroying dozens of Allied bombers.

World War II: The German army occupies Hungary.

German troops massacre 335 Italian civilians in Rome.

World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.

World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria.

World War II: In a raid on Nuremberg, RAF Bomber Command suffers its greatest loss of the war, losing 95 bombers from a force of 795.

World War II: Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.

Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp.

World War II: Allied forces start bombing Belgrade, killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.

Forces of the Communist-controlled Greek People's Liberation Army attack the smaller National and Social Liberation resistance group, which surrenders. Its leader Dimitrios Psarros is murdered.

World War II: The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China Burma India Theater.

World War II: In Greenland, the Allied Sledge Patrol attack the German Bassgeiger weather station.

World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated: Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.

World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.

The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.

Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.

World War II: Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.

World War II: Nine German E-boats attack US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.

World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.

Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union.

Börse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid during World War II.

Congress of Përmet occurs which establishes a provisional government in Albania in areas under partisan control, the first independent Albanian government since 1939. In honor of this the national emblem of Albania inscribed this date from 1946 until 1992.

World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German Kriegsmarine submarine U-505, the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.

World War II: The United States Fifth Army captures Rome, although much of the German Fourteenth Army is able to withdraw to the north.

World War II: 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.

World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.

World War II: Capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by British paratroopers, also known as Operation Coup de Main (incorrectly referred to as Operation Deadstick.)

World War II: Battle of Normandy: At Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.

World War II: Ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.

World War II: The Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.

World War II: Six hundred forty-three men, women and children are massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France.

World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 228 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.

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

USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned.

World War II: Battle of Carentan: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.

World War II: The Battle of Villers-Bocage: German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, destroying up to fourteen tanks, fifteen personnel carriers and two anti-tank guns in a Tiger I tank.

World War II: German combat elements, reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.

World War II: Germany launches the first V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs strike their targets.

World War II: After several failed attempts, the British Army abandons Operation Perch, its plan to capture the German-occupied town of Caen.

World War II: The United States invades Saipan, capital of Japan's South Seas Mandate.

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

Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.

World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

World War II: During the Continuation War, the Soviet Union demands unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.

The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.

World War II: Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.

An F4 tornado tears through the Appalachian Mountains, killing over 100 people in West Virginia, particularly in the town of Shinnston.

World War II: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic countries, begins.

World War II: United States Navy and British Royal Navy ships bombard Cherbourg to support United States Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg.

The final page of the comic Krazy Kat is published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman died.

World War II: San Marino, a neutral state, is mistakenly bombed by the RAF based on faulty information, leading to 35 civilian deaths.

World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter.

World War II: Mogaung is the first place in Burma to be liberated from the Japanese by British Chindits, supported by the Chinese.

World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.

World War II: The Minsk Offensive clears German troops from the city.

Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to his court-martial.

The Hartford circus fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.

World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan.

World War II: American forces take Saipan, bringing the Japanese archipelago within range of B-29 raids, and causing the downfall of the Tojo government.

World War II: Continuation War: Finland wins the Battle of Tali–Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe. The Red Army withdraws its troops from Ihantala and digs into a defensive position, thus ending the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.

Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.

World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.

World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

World War II: Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam, starting a battle that will end on August 10.

World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and four fellow conspirators are executed for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland.

World War II: Operation Spring near Caen is one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war.

World War II: The Red Army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation.

World War II: The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi German occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.

ASNOM: Birth of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, celebrated as Day of the Republic in North Macedonia.

World War II: The largest trade convoy of the world wars arrives safely in the Western Approaches.

The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti.

World War II: At least 1,104 Japanese POWs in Australia attempt to escape from a camp at Cowra, New South Wales; 545 temporarily succeed but are later either killed, commit suicide, or are recaptured.

World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp (Gęsiówka) in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.

World War II: The Nazis begin a week-long massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.

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

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

World War II: Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dig to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.

World War II: The Battle of Guam in the Pacific comes to an effective end.

World War II: The Battle of Narva on the Eastern Front ends with a defensive German victory.

World War II: Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

World War II: Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which at least 40,000 people are killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.

World War II: Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, becoming the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.

World War II: German troops begin the pillage and razing of Anogeia in Crete that would continue until September 5.

First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287.

World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.

World War II: One hundred sixty-eight captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.

World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.

Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.

World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, Calvados, France.

World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces.

World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allied forces.

World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Marshal Antonescu, who is later arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

Freckleton air disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people.

World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.

World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.

World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.

World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated.

World War II: Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.

World War II: Launch of Operation Ratweek, complicating German retreat.

The last execution of a Finn in Finland takes place when soldier Olavi Laiho is executed by shooting in Oulu.

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

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

World War II: Finland exits from the war with Soviet Union.

Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.

World War II: The city of Ypres, Belgium is liberated by Allied forces.

World War II: Soviet forces capture the city of Tartu, Estonia.

World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.

World War II: The Fatherland Front takes power in Bulgaria through a military coup in the capital and armed rebellion in the country. A new pro-Soviet government is established.

World War II: RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.

World War II: The liberation of Yugoslavia from Axis occupation continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among the liberated cities.

World War II: Start of the Battle of Meligalas between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist security battalions.

World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

World War II: The Battle of Peleliu begins as the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division and the United States Army's 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.

World War II: Allied airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden and British XXX Corps advances into the Netherlands as the "Garden" half of the Operation.

World War II: Soviet troops launch the Tallinn Offensive against Germany and pro-independence Estonian units.

World War II: German forces are attacked by the Allies in the Battle of San Marino.

World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Jun'yō Maru, killing 5,600, mostly slave labourers and POWs.

World War II: Operation Market Garden results in the liberation of Eindhoven.

World War II: The Battle of Arracourt begins.

World War II: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins. It will become the second-longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought.

World War II: The Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, which officially ended the Continuation War.

World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem via Oosterbeek.

World War II: The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission during the war.

World War II: Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.

World War II: the Germans commence a counter offensive to retake the Nijmegen salient, this having been captured by the allies during Operation Market Garden.

World War II: German troops end the Warsaw Uprising.

The Provisional Government of the French Republic enfranchises women.

World War II: Units of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps enter Czechoslovakia during the Battle of the Dukla Pass.

World War II: The Sonderkommando Revolt in Auschwitz occurs with an uprising of prisoners (especially the Sonderkommando) at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

World War II: Captain Bobbie E. Brown earns a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Crucifix Hill, just outside Aachen.

The Tuvan People's Republic is annexed by the Soviet Union.

World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.

World War II: The Soviet Riga Offensive captures the city.

World War II: Germany replaces the Hungarian government after Hungary announces an armistice with the Soviet Union.

World War II: Soviet Union begins the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi Germany.

World War II: The state funeral of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel takes place in Ulm, Germany.

United States forces land in the Philippines.

A coup is launched against Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, beginning the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution.

World War II: The Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade.

Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes, leveling 30 blocks and killing 130 people.

World War II: American general Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he comes ashore during the Battle of Leyte.

World War II: The first kamikaze attack damages HMAS Australia as the Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

World War II: The Nemmersdorf massacre against German civilians takes place.

World War II: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, the first German city to fall to the Allies.

World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

World War II: Japan's center force is temporarily repulsed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

World War II: The USS Shark (SS-314) was lost with all 87 hands in the Bashi Straits after torpedoing the Japanese freighter Arisan Maru.

World War II: The USS Tang (SS-306) sank in the Formosa Strait after being struck by its own torpedo, with 78 of its crew lost.

World War II: Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

World War II: The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine ace of the war) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo.

World War II: The final attempt of the Imperial Japanese Navy to win the war climaxes at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.

World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.

World War II: The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.

World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.

Holocaust: Anne and Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of WWII.

World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren.

World War II: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest, are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.

World War II: The 7th Macedonian Liberation Brigade liberates Bitola for the Allies.

World War II: Operation Pheasant, an Allied offensive to liberate North Brabant in the Netherlands, ends successfully.

Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German World War I veteran, is hanged by his Japanese captors along with 34 of his ring.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States.

The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371.

World War II: The Royal Air Force sink the German battleship Tirpitz, moored off Tromsø, Norway.

World War II: In support of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the town of Düren is destroyed by Allied aircraft.

The Jussi Awards, the Finnish film award ceremony, is held for the first time at Restaurant Adlon in Helsinki.

The Popular Socialist Youth is founded in Cuba.

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

World War II: Thirty members of the Luxembourgish resistance defend the town of Vianden against a larger Waffen-SS attack in the Battle of Vianden.

The founding congress of the Communist Party of Transcarpathian Ukraine is held in Mukachevo.

World War II: The Lotta Svärd Movement is disbanded under the terms of the armistice treaty in Finland after the Continuation War.

World War II: The 73rd Bombardment Wing launches the first attack on Tokyo from the Northern Mariana Islands.

World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop in New Cross, London, killing 168 people.

World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.

World War II: RAF Fauld explosion: An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump in Staffordshire kills seventy people.

Albania is liberated by the Partisans.

Greek Civil War: Fighting breaks out in Athens between the ELAS and government forces supported by the British Army.

An earthquake along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan causes a tsunami which kills 1,223 people.

World War II: a single-engine UC-64A Norseman aeroplane carrying United States Army Air Forces Major Glenn Miller is lost in a flight over the English Channel.

World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

World War II: Battle of the Bulge: Malmedy massacre: American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Joachim Peiper.

World War II: XX Bomber Command responds to the Japanese Operation Ichi-Go offensive by dropping five hundred tons of incendiary bombs on a supply base in Hankow, China.

The Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Korematsu v. United States supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 which cleared the way for the incarceration of nearly all 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.

World War II: Battle of the Bulge: German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"

World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina, now Vietnam.

World War II: The Belgian Troopship Leopoldville was torpedoed and sank with the loss of 763 soldiers and 56 crew.

World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.

Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score eight points in one game of NHL ice hockey.

King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.

World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major Wehrmacht offensive on the Western Front, begins.