Historical Events in 1944

Events 1 - 200 of 809

• Jan 1 10th Orange Bowl: LSU beats Texas A&M, 19-14
• Jan 1 10th Sugar Bowl: Georgia Tech beats Tulsa, 20-18
• Jan 1 1st feature-length foreign movie "African Journey", shown on TV, NYC

• Jan 1 30th Rose Bowl: Southern California beats #12 Washington, 29-0
• Jan 1 Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football "Arab Bowl," Oran, North Africa
• Jan 1 General Clark replaces General Patton as commander of US 7th Army
• Jan 2 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)

• Jan 4 Operation Carpetbagger begins (aerial dropping of supplies and weapons to resistance fighters in Europe)

• Jan 5 The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• Jan 7 US Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59
• Jan 10 1st mobile electric power plant delivered in Philadelphia
• Jan 10 British troops conquer Maungdaw, Burma
• Jan 11 Crakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established

• Jan 12 Failed resistance raid on distribution office of Borgerstraat, Amsterdam
• Jan 14 Soviet army begins offensive at Oranienbaum/Wolchow
• Jan 15 European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany

• Jan 15 Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
• Jan 16 General Eisenhower takes command of Allied Invasion Force in London
• Jan 17 British corvette HMS Violet sinks U-641 in Atlantic Ocean
• Jan 18 1st Chinese naturalized US citizen since repeal of exclusion acts

• Jan 20 RAF drops 2,300 ton of bombs on Berlin
• Jan 21 447 German bombers attack London
• Jan 21 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
• Jan 22 Allied forces begin landing at Anzio on the Italian mainland
• Jan 23 Detroit Red Wings score 15 goals against New York Rangers with an NHL record 37 points; also record consecutive goals & most lopsided game, 15-0
• Jan 24 Allied troops occupy Nettuno Italy

• Jan 28 683 British bombers attack Berlin

• Jan 28 U-271 & U-571 sunk off Ireland
• Jan 29 285 German bombers attack London
• Jan 29 USS Missouri, the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy, is launched
• Jan 29 World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland
• Jan 29 World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy
• Jan 30 The Battle of Cisterna begins in central Italy
• Jan 30 World War II: United States troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands

• Jan 31 U-592 sunk off Ireland
• Jan 31 US forces invade Kwajalein Atoll
• Feb 1 Supreme Soviet increases Soviet republics' autonomy
• Feb 1 US 7th Infantry/4th Marine Division lands on Kwajalein/Roi/Namur
• Feb 2 4th US marine division conquers Roi, Marshall Islands
• Feb 2 Allied troops 1st set foot on Japanese territory
• Feb 2 Baseball meets in NYC to discuss postwar action
• Feb 2 Edward Chodorov's "Decision" premieres in NYC
• Feb 3 World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.

• Feb 4 US 7th Infantry Division captures Kwajalein, in the Pacific

• Feb 5 358 RAF bombers attack Stettin

• Feb 7 Germans launch counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy
• Feb 8 1st African American reporter accredited to White House, Harry McAlpin
• Feb 8 U-762 sunk off Ireland
• Feb 9 U-734/U-238 sunk off Ireland
• Feb 10 Belgian resistance fighter and author Kamiel van Baelen arrested
• Feb 10 U-666/U-545/U-283 sink off Ireland
• Feb 11 German troops reconquer Aprilia, Italy
• Feb 11 U-424 sunk off Ireland
• Feb 12 Wendell Wilkie enters the race to be the Republican nominee for US President
• Feb 14 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java
• Feb 14 Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial & Sport Fishing"
• Feb 15 891 British bombers attack Berlin in the largest raid by the RAF against the city
• Feb 15 Allies begin attack on Axis held Monte Cassino monastery, Italy

• Feb 17 Operation Hailstone: US begins night bombing of Truk island in the Pacific
• Feb 18 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall signs a contract to play baseball with the Cincinnati Reds just one day after playing in a high school basketball game; debuts later that year
• Feb 18 Maastricht resistance fighter JAJ Janssen arrested
• Feb 19 823 British bombers attack Berlin
• Feb 19 U-264 sinks off Ireland
• Feb 20 Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers
• Feb 20 Battle of Eniwetok: US forces take Enewetak Atoll at the cost of 37 Americans killed or missing and 94 wounded, Japanese losses were 800 dead and 23 prisoners
• Feb 20 World War II: The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers
• Feb 21 "War As It Happens" news show premieres on NBC TV (NYC only)
• Feb 22 World War II: US Army Air Forces accidentally bomb Dutch town of Nijmegen, around 800 civilians die
• Feb 23 Battle of Eniwetok ends as US forces complete the capture of Parry Island from the Japanese 1st Amphibious Brigade
• Feb 23 Forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people to Central Asia.

• Feb 25 Alexander Gretchaninov's "Missa Oecumenica" (Ecumenical Mass) premieres in Boston with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the composer wrote the work in memory of the conductor's wife Natalie (1880-1942)
• Feb 25 US 1st Army completes invasion plan
• Feb 26 1st female US navy captain, Sue Dauser of nurse corps, appointed
• Feb 28 Arrests of the ten-Boom family in Nazi occupied Netherlands (Haarlem) through a Dutch collaborator on charges of hiding Jews
• Feb 29 5 leaders of Indonesia Communist Party sentenced to death

• Feb 29 US troop land on Los Negros, Admiralty Islands
• Mar 1 Massive strikes in northern Italian towns
• Mar 1 U-358 sinks in Atlantic

• Mar 2 Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocate 521 in Italy

• Mar 4 1st US bombing of Berlin
• Mar 4 Anti-Germany strikes in North Italy

• Mar 6 USAAF begins daylight bombing of Berlin
• Mar 6 WWII: British and Canadian sailors boards abandoned German U-boat U-774 seeking Enigma code machine, but are forced to scuttle the sub when efforts to tow it fail
• Mar 7 Japan begins offensive in Burma
• Mar 8 US resumes bombing Berlin
• Mar 10 U-575 sinks British corvette HMS Asphodel in the Atlantic Ocean killing 92 of the 97 men aboard
• Mar 11 Dutch resistance fighter Joop Westerweel arrested

• Mar 15 Italian town of Cassino destroyed by Allied bombing
• Mar 16 French Vichy Internal minister Pierre Pucheu sentenced to death for treason
• Mar 17 Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts after months of volcanic unrest, destroying several towns near the volcano
• Mar 18 Nazi Germany occupies Hungary
• Mar 19 British composer Michael Tippett's oratorio "A Child of Our Time" premieres at the Adelphi Theatre, London, England
• Mar 20 2,500 women trample guards and floorwalkers to purchase 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago Illinois department store
• Mar 20 Bus falls off bridge into Passaic River NJ, killing 16
• Mar 21 US General Eisenhower postpones invasion of the south of France until after Normandy
• Mar 22 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin

• Mar 23 Italian resistance group bombs occupying German police at Via Rasella, Rome; killing 33 and wounding 110 of the 156 man force; retaliation kills 335 civilians
• Mar 24 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3 (Great Escape)
• Mar 24 811 British bombers attack Berlin

• Mar 24 RAF rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall broken by pine trees and soft snow, suffers only a sprained leg
• Mar 25 Germany troop executes 335 residents of Rome
• Mar 26 705 British bombers attack Essen, Germany
• Mar 27 2,000 Jews are murdered in Kaunas Lithuania
• Mar 27 40 Jewish policemen in Riga, Latvia, ghetto are shot by the Gestapo
• Mar 27 Children's Aktion-Nazis collect all the Jewish children of Lovno

• Mar 28 6th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Utah defeats Dartmouth, 42-40; Utes' first title; small forward Arnie Ferrin is named tournament MOP
• Mar 28 Astrid Lindgren sprains ankle and begins writing "Pippi Longstocking"
• Mar 30 781 British bombers attack Nuremberg
• Mar 31 Hungary orders all Jews to wear yellow stars
• Apr 1 Japanese troops conquer Jessami, Eastern India

• Apr 2 Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania
• Apr 3 British dive bombers attack German battleship Tirpitz at Kåfjorden, Norway
• Apr 3 US Supreme Court (Smith v Allwright) "white primaries" unconstitutional
• Apr 4 Allied Bucharest bombings targeting railroads kills 5,000
• Apr 4 British troops capture Addis Ababa Ethiopia

• Apr 5 140 Lancasters bomb aircraft factory in Toulouse
• Apr 5 World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans
• Apr 6 Jewish nursery at Izieu-Ain, France, overrun by Nazis
• Apr 7 World War II: General Montgomery speaks to generals at St. Paul's School about his vision for the upcoming D-Day landings

• Apr 10 "Patrolling the Ether" is shown on 3 TV stations simultaneously
• Apr 10 Soviet forces liberate Odessa from the Axis powers
• Apr 11 RAF bombs census bureau in The Hague

• Apr 13 New Zealand and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations
• Apr 13 South Carolina rejects black suffrage
• Apr 13 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 in overtime for a 4-0 series sweep; Canadiens' first SC triumph since 1931
• Apr 13 Transport No, 71 departs Drancy (France) internment camp, taking 1,500 French Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi German occupied Poland; up to 1,260 killed upon arrival, an estimated 130 survived
• Apr 14 1st Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz
• Apr 14 Freighter "Fort Stikene" explodes in Bombay India, killing 1,376
• Apr 14 General Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force
• Apr 14 Greek Colonel Venizelos forms government
• Apr 17 48th Boston Marathon won by Gerard Cote of Canada in 2:31:50.4; second straight victory; 3rd of 4 titles

• Apr 19 1944 NFL Draft: Angelo Bertelli from University of Notre Dame first pick by Boston Yanks
• Apr 19 Allied fleet attack Sabang Sumatra
• Apr 20 Dutch Communist Party resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death
• Apr 20 NFL legalizes coaching from bench
• Apr 21 NFL Chic Cardinals & Pittsburgh Steelers merge (dissolves on Dec 3)

• Apr 22 Allies land near Hollandia, New Guinea
• Apr 24 1st Boeing B-29 arrives in China "over the Hump"
• Apr 25 United Negro College Fund incorporates
• Apr 26 1st B-29 attacked by Japanese fighters, one fighter shot down
• Apr 26 Papandreou government in Greece forms
• Apr 27 Boston Brave Jim Tobin no-hits Bkln Dodgers, 2-0
• Apr 28 Exercise "Tiger" ends with 750 US soldiers dead in D-Day rehearsal after their convoy ships were attacked by German torpedo boats off Slapton Sands, Devon.

• Apr 29 Raid by Dutch Resistance on the National Printing Office in The Hague to procure 10,000 Dutch identity cards.
• Apr 30 NY Giant Phil Weintraub gets 11 RBIs

• May 1 Messerschmitt Me 262 Sturmvogel, 1st jet bomber, makes 1st flight
• May 1 Pulitzer prize awarded to American Martin Flavin for his novel "Journey in the Dark"
• May 1 Surprise attack on Weteringschans Amsterdam, fails
• May 2 WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in NYC (DUM/MET/FOX) 1st broadcast
• May 3 "Going My Way", directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby premieres in New York (Academy Award for Best Picture, 1945)
• May 3 Meat rationing ends in US

• May 5 Soviet offensive against Sebastopol, Crimea
• May 6 70th Kentucky Derby: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 2:04.2
• May 6 KJR-AM in Seattle Washington swaps calls with KOMO

• May 8 33 communist resistance fighter sentenced to death
• May 9 1st eye bank opens in New York
• May 9 Country singer Jimmie Davis becomes Governor of Louisiana
• May 9 Dutch resistance fighter Gerard Musch arrested

• May 9 Russians recapture Crimea by taking Sevastopol
• May 10 Chinese offensive in West-Yunnan
• May 10 Smith v Allwright (excluding Blacks from primary voting) is illegal
• May 11 Opposition group surprise attack post office Washer
• May 12 900+ 8th US Air Force bombers attack Zwikau, Bohlen & Brux
• May 12 Crimea purged of Nazi troops
• May 12 German police arrest Dutch resistance member Gerrit van der Veen and later execute him

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next

• Authors
• Civil Rights Activists
• Inventors
• Kings
• Revolutionaries
• Scientists