Historical Events in May 1944

May 3 "Going My Way", directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby premieres in New York (Academy Award for Best Picture, 1945)

May 4 "Gaslight", starring an 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut, is released

May 7 German assault on Tito's hideout in Drvar Bosnia

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 Joe McCarthy returns as Yankee manager after an illness
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
May 13 69th Preakness: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 1:59.2
May 14 91 German bombers harass Bristol
May 14 British troops occupy Kohima

May 14 General Rommel, Speidel & von Stulpnagel attempt to assassinate Hitler

May 15 14,000 Jews of Munkacs, Hungary, deported to Auschwitz

May 15 Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill and King George VI discuss the plan for D-Day

May 17 General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th

May 17 Operation Straightline: Allies land in Dutch New Guinea
May 18 Polish 2nd Army corps captures convent of Monte Cassino, Italy
May 18 Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans
May 19 240 gypsies transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork, Netherlands, including Sinti girl Settela Steinbach famously filmed by Jewish photographer Rudolf Breslauer [1]
May 19 German defense line in Italy collapses
May 20 US Communist Party dissolves
May 23 British and Canadian troops occupy Pontecorvo, Italy
May 23 Chinese counter offensive at Hunan front
May 23 Operation Buffalo: Allied break out from Anzio bridgehead

May 24 Enver Hoxha becomes head of Albania's anti fascists

May 27 Jean-Paul Sartres' "Huis Clos" premieres in Paris