April 1944 in History

Events in History

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 9 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientals Ecclesiae

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

Apr 13 South Carolina rejects black suffrage
Apr 13 Transport #71 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
Apr 13 Diplomatic relations are established between New Zealand and the Soviet Union
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 28 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meets Polish-American priest Stanislaus Orlemanski in Moscow to discuss religion and the future of post-war Poland

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

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 Peter T. King, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from New York, born in Manhattan, New York
Apr 5 Pedro Rosselló, Puerto Rican politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Puerto Rico, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Apr 6 John Stax, rocker (Pretty Things-Don't Bring Me Down)
Apr 7 Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
Apr 8 Anthony Farrar Hockley, military historian
Apr 8 Christoph Hein, writer
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 Charles Burnett, American director (When it Rains, Glass Shield), born in Vicksburg, Mississippi
Apr 13 Susan Davis, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California), 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)

Apr 18 Robert Hanssen, 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 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 26 Amien Rais, Indonesian politician (leader of Muhammadiyah 1995-2000), born in Surakarta, Dutch East Indies
Apr 27 Michael Fish, British TV weatherman, born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England
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 28 Alice Waters, American chef
Apr 29 Benedikte, Danish princess/daughter of Frederik IX
Apr 30 Richard Shoff, American rocker (Sandpipers), born in Seattle

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 [Paul-Gustave-Marie-Camille Hazard], French critic & literature historian, dies at 65
Apr 15 Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher (The Doctrine of Fascism), dies at 68
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, 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
Apr 30 Paul Poiret, French couturier, the most fashionable dress designer of pre-World War I, dies at 65