1944

January

US Army troops landing at Anzio during Operation Shingle, late January 1944.

• January 4 – WWII: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• January 5 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• January 8 – WWII: Philippine Commonwealth troops enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese forces.
• January 11 – US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposes a Second Bill of Rights for social and economic security in his State of the Union address
• January 14 – WWII: Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.
• January 15
  • WWII: The 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division is re-created, marking the start of Operation Tempest by the Polish Home Army.
  • An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina, killing an estimated 10,000 people in the worst natural disaster in Argentina’s history.
• January 17– WWII:
  • British forces in Italy cross the Garigliano River.
  • Meat rationing ends in Australia.
  • The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.
• January 20– WWII:
  • The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
  • The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River.
• January 22 – WWII – Operation Shingle: The Allies begin the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stands their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.
• January 27 – WWII: The 2-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• January 29 – WWII: The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
• January 30 – WWII: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• January 31 – WWII: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February

The Abbey of Monte Cassino in ruins after being destroyed by Allied bombing, February 1944.

• February 1 – WWII: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
• February 2 – The first issue of Human Events is published.
• February 3 – WWII: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
• February 7 – WWII: In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.
• February 8 – WWII: The British claim Hong Kong, there “Force to be reckoned with…”
• February 14– WWII:
  • SHAEF headquarters is established in Britain by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  • An anti-Japanese revolt breaks out on Java.
• February 15 – WWII – Battle of Monte Cassino: The monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
• February 17 – WWII: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; it ends in an American victory on February 22.
• February 20– WWII:
  • The “Big Week” begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
  • The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
• February 22 – United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe organized from the Eighth Air Force’s strategic planning staff; subsuming strategic planning for all US Army Air Forces in Europe and Africa.
• February 23 – WWII: The Chechens and Ingush are forcibly deported to Central Asia.
• February 26 – Shooting begins on the Nazi propaganda film, “The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews” in Theresienstadt.
• February 29 – WWII – Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer: The Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces.

March

The March 1944 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

• March
  • WWII: The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.
  • Austrian-born economist Friedrich Hayek publishes his book The Road to Serfdom (in London).
• March 1– WWII:
  • The USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge are laid down.
  • An anti-fascist strike begins in northern Italy.
• March 2
  • WWII: A train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy; 521 choke to death.
  • The 16th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
• March 3 – WWII: The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov are instituted in the USSR.
• March 4 – In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing, along with Emanuel “Mendy” Weiss, and Louis Capone.
• March 6 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Narva, Estonia, destroying almost the entire old town.
• March 9 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.
• March 10 – WWII: In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
• March 12 – WWII: The Political Committee of National Liberation is created in Greece.
• March 15
  • WWII: Battle of Monte Cassino: Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
  • WWII: The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
  • In Sweden, the law of 1864 that criminalizes homosexuality is abolished.
• March 17 – WWII: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbniţa.
• March 19 – WWII: German forces Operation occupy Hungary.
• March 18 – The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.
• March 20 – WWII: RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade‘s bomber is hit over Germany, and he has to bail out without a parachute from a height of over 4,000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow.
• March 23 – WWII: Members of the Italian Resistance attack Nazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.
• March 24– WWII:
  • Fosse Ardeatine massacre: 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups, in Rome.
  • In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jews they were hiding.
  • The “Great Escape” – 76 Royal Air Force prisoners escape by tunnel “Harry” from Stalag Luft III this night. Only three return to the UK; of those recaptured, fifty are executed.

April

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

May

The prime ministers of Britain and the four major dominions at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, 1 May 1944.

• May – No Exit published by Jean-Paul Sartre.
• May 5 – WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released in India.
• May 9 – WWII: In the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered by Hitler to “fight to the last man.”^[1]
• May 12 – WWII: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of the Crimea.
• May 18– WWII:
  • Battle of Monte Cassino: The Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
  • The Crimean Tatars are deported by the Soviet Union.
• May 24 – WWII: Six LSTs are accidentally destroyed and 163 men killed in Pearl Harbor‘s West Loch Disaster.
• May 30 – Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne, resigns from her rights in favor of her son Prince Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, later reigning Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
• May 31 – WWII: Destroyer escort England sinks the 6th Japanese submarine in two weeks. This anti-submarine warfare performance remained unmatched through the twentieth century.

June

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

LVTs heading for shore on 15 June 1944 during the Battle of Saipan.

• June – German V-2 rockets on test from Peenemünde become the first man-made objects to enter space.
• June 1 – WWII: The BBC transmits a coded message (the first line of the poem “Chanson d’automne” by Paul Verlaine) to underground resistance fighters in France, warning that the invasion of Europe is imminent.
• June 2 – WWII: The provisional French government is established.
• June 4– WWII:
  • A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
  • Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.
• June 5– WWII:
  • More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
  • At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem to the underground resistance, indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.
  • The German navy’s Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.
  • US and British paratrooper divisions jump over Normandy, in preparation for D-Day. All including 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions of the United States.
• June 6 – WWII – Battle of Normandy: Operation Overlord, commonly known as D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.
• June 7– WWII:
  • The steamer Danae (Greek: Δανάη) carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretans on the first leg of their way to Auschwitz was sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.
  • Bayeux is liberated by British troops.
• June 9 – WWII: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin launches the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive against Finland, with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
• June 10 – WWII: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
• June 13 – WWII: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
• June 15– WWII:
  • Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
• June 17 – Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.
• June 19 – A severe storm badly damages the Mulberry harbours on the Normandy coast.
• June 22– WWII:
  • Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
  • Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.
• June 25 – WWII: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala (the largest battle ever in the Nordic countries) begins between Finnish and Soviet troops. Finland is able to resist the attack and thus manages to stay as an independent nation.
• June 26 – WWII: American troops enter Cherbourg.
• June 29 – The Holocaust – The deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps begins.

July

The aftermath of the failed 20 July plot to kill Hitler.

• July 1 – The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
• July 3– WWII:
  • Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
  • Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle in a British victory.
• July 6
  • Hartford circus fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.
  • WWII: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus. He is eventually acquitted.
• July 9 – WWII: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
• July 10 – WWII: Soviet troops begin operations to occupy the Baltic countries.
• July 12 – Laurence Olivier‘s film Henry V, based on Shakespeare’s play, opens in London. It is the most acclaimed and the most successful movie version of a Shakespeare play made up to that time, and the first in Technicolor. Olivier both stars and directs, as Kenneth Branagh was to do over forty years later in his successful remake.
• July 13 – WWII: Vilnius is occupied by USSR.
• July 16 – WWII: The first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrives in Italy.
• July 17– WWII:
  • The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
  • The SS E. A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago naval base; 320 are killed.
• July 18 – WWII: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Ministerof Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
  • American forces push back the Germans in St. Lo, capturing the city.
  • British forces launch Operation Goodwood, an armoured offensive aimed at driving the Germans from the high ground to the south of Caen. The offensive ends 2 days later with only minimal gains.
• July 20 – WWII: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg.
• July 21– WWII:
  • Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam (the battle ends August 10).
  • The Polish Committee of National Liberation is created.
• July 22 – The Bretton Woods Conference ends with various agreements signed.
• July 25 – WWII – Operation Spring: One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war results in 1,550 casualties, including 450 killed.
• July 26 – WWII: A Messerschmitt Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter aircraft to have an operational victory.^[2]

August

Szare Szeregi Scouts also fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

Jewish prisoners of Gęsiówka liberated by Polish soldiers from Batalion Zośka, 5 August 1944

Crowds of French people line the Champs Élysées following the Liberation of Paris, 26 August 1944.

• August 1 – WWII: The Warsaw Uprising begins.
• August 2– WWII:
  • Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
  • The First Assembly of ASNOM is held in the Prohor Pchinski monastery.
• August 4 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
• August 5
  • The Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
  • WWII: Over 500 Japanese prisoners-of-war attempt a mass breakout from the Cowra POW Camp.
• August 7 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
• August 9 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
• August 12– WWII:
  • The Allies capture Florence, Italy.
  • Operation Pluto: The world’s first undersea oil pipeline is laid between England and France.
• August 15 – WWII: Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.
• August 18 – WWII: Submarine Rasher sinks Teia Maru, Eishin Maru, Teiyu Maru, and carrier Taiyō from Japanese convoy HI71 in one of the most effective American “wolfpack” attacks of the war.^[3]
• August 19 – WWII: An insurrection starts in Paris.
• August 20– WWII:
  • American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Gap.
  • 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused of being “terror fliers” by the Gestapo, arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
• August 22 – WWII: Tsushima Maru, a Japanese unmarked passenger/cargo ship, is sunk by torpedoes launched by the submarine USS Bowfin off Akuseki-jima, killing 1,484 civilians including 767 schoolchildren.
• August 23 – WWII: Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government established. Romania exits the war against Soviet Union, joining the Allies.
• August 24– WWII:
  • Liberation of Paris: The Allies enter Paris, successfully completing Operation Overlord.
  • Japanese attack the USS Harder
• August 25– WWII:
  • German surrender of Paris: General Dietrich von Choltitz surrenders Paris to the Allies in defiance of Hitler’s orders to destroy it.
  • Maillé massacre: Massacre of 129 civilians (70% women and children) by the Gestapo at Maillé, Indre-et-Loire.
  • Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
• August 29 – WWII: The Slovak National Uprising against the Axis powers begins.
• August 31 – The Mad Gasser of Mattoon resumes his mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.

September

Waves of paratroopers land in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

• September 1 – WWII: In Bulgaria, the Bagryanov government resigns.
• September 2
  • The Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving 3 days later.
  • ¡Hola! magazine launched in Barcelona.
• September 3 – WWII: The Allies liberate Brussels.
• September 4– WWII:
  • The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
  • Finland breaks off relations with Germany.
• September 5 – WWII: The Soviets declare war on Bulgaria.
• September 7 – WWII: The Belgian government in exile returns to Brussels from London.
• September 8– WWII:
  • London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
  • The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
• September 9 – WWII: An insurrection breaks out in Sofia.
• September 12 – WWII: Northern and Southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
• September 14 – The Great Atlantic Hurricane makes landfall in the New York City area
• September 15 – WWII: The Battle of Peleliu begins.
• September 17 – WWII: Operation Market Garden begins.
• September 19 – WWII: An armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, ending the Continuation War.
• September 20 – WWII: Jüri Uluots, prime minister in capacity of president of Estonia, escapes to Sweden; 2 days later, Tallinn is taken by the Red Army.
• September 24 – WWII: The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Epinal before crossing the Moselle River and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.
• September 26– WWII:
  • Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.
  • On the middle front of the Gothic Line, Brazilian troops control the Serchio valley region after 10 days of fighting.
• September – Start of Dutch famine (“Hongerwinter”) in the occupied northern part of the Netherlands.^[4]

October

The light aircraft carrier Princeton afire, east of Luzon, 24 October 1944.

The Volkssturm were founded in October 1944.

The beginning of the Battle of Leyte, 20 October 1944.

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

November

• November 1–December 7 – Delegates of 52 nations meet at the International Civil Aviation Conference in Chicago to plan for postwar international cooperation, framing the constitution of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
• November 3 – WWII: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest, are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.
• November 7 – U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term.
• November 7 – A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, due to excessive speed on a declining hill; 16 are killed, 50 injured.
• November 10 – WWII: Ammunition ship USS Mount Hood disintegrates from accidental detonation of 3800 tons of cargo in the Seeadler Harbor fleet anchorage at Manus Island. Twenty-two small boats are destroyed, 36 nearby ships damaged, 432 men are killed and 371 more are injured.^[5]
• November 22 – William Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
• November 27 – RAF Fauld explosion: Between 3,450 and 3,930 tons (3,500 and 4,000 tonnes) of ordnance explodes at an underground storage depot in Staffordshire, England, leaving about 75 dead and a crater 120 metres (400 ft) deep and 1,200 metres (0.75 miles) across. The blast is one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest on UK soil.^[6]
• November 29 – WWII: Submarine USS Archer-Fish sinks Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano. Shinano is the largest carrier built to this date, and will remain through the twentieth century the largest ship sunk by a submarine.^[7]

December

Victims of the Malmedy massacre.

George Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General on December 16, 1944.

• December 3 – WWII: Fighting breaks out between Communists and royalists in newly liberated Greece, eventually leading to a full-scale Greek Civil War.
• December 7 – Chicago Convention signed to create the ICAO.
• December 10 – Legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads a concert performance of the first half of Beethoven‘s Fidelio (minus its spoken dialogue) on NBC Radio, starring Rose Bampton. He chooses this opera for its political message – a statement against tyranny and dictatorship. Conducting it in German, Toscanini intends it as a tribute to the German people who are being oppressed by Hitler. The second half is broadcast a week later. The performance is later released on LP and CD, the first of 7 operas that Toscanini conducts on radio.
• December 12–December 13 – WWII: British units attempt to take the hilltop town of Tossignano, but are repulsed.
• December 13 – Battle of Mindoro: United States, Australian and Philippine Commonwealth troops land in Mindoro Island, the Philippines.
• December 14
  • The Soviet government changes Turkish place names to Russian in the Crimea.
  • US release of the film National Velvet which brings a young Elizabeth Taylor to stardom.
• December 15 – A private airplane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller disappears in heavy fog over the English Channel while flying to Paris.
• December 16– WWII:
  • Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later known as Battle of the Bulge.
  • General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General.
• December 17 – WWII: German troops carry out the Malmedy massacre.
• December 19 – The entire territory of Estonia is taken by the Red Army.
• December 20 – WASPs are disbanded.
• December 22 – WWII: Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the U.S. forces defending Bastogne, refuses to accept demands for surrender by sending a one-word reply, “Nuts!”, to the German command.
• December 24
  • WWII: The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.
  • WWII: Troopship Leopoldville is sunk in the English Channel by German submarine U-486. The ship was carrying reinforcements to the battle of the bulge and 763 soldiers of the 66th Infantry Division (United States) drown.^[8]
  • The first complete U.S. production of Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker is presented in San Francisco, choreographed by William Christensen. It will become an annual tradition there, and for the next ten years, the San Francisco Ballet will be the only ballet company in the United States performing the complete work, until George Balanchine premieres his version in New York in 1954.
• December 26
  • WWII: American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
  • The original stage version of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams premieres on Broadway.
• December 30– WWII:
  • Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, filling the seat left by Cordell Hull.
  • King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
• December 31
  • WWII: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
  • WWII: Battle of Leyte: Thousands of Japanese Imperial forces are killed in action, in a significant Filipino and Allied military victory