April 1944 in History

Events in History

Apr 1 Japanese troops conquer Jessami, Eastern India

Event of Interest

Apr 2 Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party returns to Italy from the Soviet Union

General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party Palmiro Togliatti

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

Free France

Apr 4 French General Charles de Gaulle forms new regime in exile, with communists

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

D-Day

Apr 7 World War II: General Montgomery speaks to generals at St. Paul's School about his vision for the upcoming D-Day landings

Into the Jaws of Death by Robert F. Sargent

Catholic Encyclical

Apr 9 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientals Ecclesiae

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

Event of Interest

Apr 12 Lillian Hellman's "Searching Wind" premieres in NYC

Apr 13 New Zealand and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations
Apr 13 South Carolina rejects black suffrage

Event of Interest

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

Event of Interest

Apr 14 General Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force

34th US President & WWII General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Apr 14 Greek Colonel Venizelos forms government
Apr 19 Allied fleet attack Sabang Sumatra
Apr 20 Dutch Communist Party resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death

Meeting of Interest

Apr 22 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at Salzburg

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 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.

Meeting of Interest

Apr 28 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meets Polish-American priest Stanislaus Orlemanski in Moscow to discuss religion and the future of post-war Poland

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

Birthdays in History

Apr 4 David Melville, British physicist and academic (Middlesex Polytechnic), born in Gateshead, Durham, England
Apr 4 Magda Aelvoet, Belgian politician (Greens), born in Steenokkerzeel, Belgium
Apr 5 Ann Maxwell, American sci-fi author (Jaws of Menx), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Apr 5 James Buckley, CEO (Baltic Exchange)
Apr 5 Pedro Rosselló, Puerto Rican politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Puerto Rico, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Apr 5 Peter T. King, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from New York, born in Manhattan, New York
Apr 7 Gerhard Schröder, German politician (Chancellor of Germany, 1998-2005), and lobbyist for Russian state-owned energy producers, born in Blomberg, Germany
Apr 8 Christoph Hein, German writer and translator, born in Heinzendorf, Germany
Apr 8 Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter
Apr 11 R. J. B Knight, British deputy director (National Maritime Museum)
Apr 12 Lisa Jardine, British historian and writer, born in Oxford, England (d. 2015)
Apr 13 Susan Davis, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives from California (D), 2001-21), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Apr 15 Dzhokhar Dudayev, separatist leader and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1991), born in Yalkhori, Chechen-Ingush (d. 1996)

Robert Hanssen (1944-2023)

Apr 18 American FBI agent and Soviet spy, born in Chicago, Illinois

Apr 19 James Heckman, American economist (Nobel Prize 2000), born in Chicago, Illinois
Apr 22 Steve Fossett, American adventurer (1st person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon), born in Jackson, Tennessee (disappeared 2007)
Apr 24 John McDonald, Australian rugby league centre (13 Tests; Queensland; Manly-Warringah RLFC), born in Toowoomba, Australia (d. 2023)
Apr 26 Amien Rais, Indonesian politician (leader of Muhammadiyah 1995-2000), born in Surakarta, Dutch East Indies
Apr 26 David O'Brien Martin, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), born in St. Lawrence Co., New York
Apr 27 Michael Fish, British TV weatherman, born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England
Apr 28 Alice Waters, American chef (Chez Panisse, farm-to-table movement), born in Chatham Borough, New Jersey
Apr 28 Elizabeth LeCompte, American theater director (founding member of The Wooster Group), born in New Jersey
Apr 28 Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician
Apr 29 Benedikte, Danish princess and second daughter of Frederick IX, born in Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark
Apr 30 Richard Shoff, American rocker (Sandpipers), born in Seattle

Deaths in History

Apr 4 John Peale Bishop, American poet (Undertaker's Garland), dies at 51
Apr 5 Isolde Kurz, German writer/poetess (Meine Mutter), dies at 90
Apr 9 Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (b. 1920)
Apr 13 Paul Hazard, French critic and literature historian, dies at 65
Apr 15 Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher (The Doctrine of Fascism), dies at 68
Apr 18 Thomas Hitchcock Jr., American polo player (Westchester Cup 1924,27,30,39), dies testing a new fighter plane during WWII at 44
Apr 19 Tommy Hitchcock, polo player (Westchester Cup 1924, 27), dies at 44
Apr 24 William Stephens, U.S. political figure (b. 1859)
Apr 28 Frank Knox, American politician (Republican VP candidate 1936), newspaper editor and Secretary of the Navy during World War II, dies at 70
Apr 29 Bernardino Machado, President of Portugal (1915–17, 1925–26), dies at 93
Apr 29 Billy Bitzer, American cinematography pioneer, dies at 72