June 1944 in History

Events in History

Allied Generals Meet

Jun 1 Allied generals Bernard Montgomery, George S. Patton, Omar Bradley, Miles Dempsey and Harry Crerar meet in Portsmouth, England just prior to D-Day

Into the Jaws of Death by Robert F. Sargent

Jun 1 Nazi occupiers make it punishable to give aid to allied pilots

Event of Interest

Jun 2 Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery dine in Portsmouth, England

Jun 2 Herzogenbusch concentration camp near Vught, Netherlands, is disbanded by Allied forces, one of two SS-run camps outside Germany
Jun 3 Generals Giraud & de Gaulle reach agreement on constitution
Jun 3 Nazis pull out of Rome

Event of Interest

Jun 4 5th Army enters and liberates Rome from Mussolini's Fascist armies

Event of Interest

Jun 4 French General Charles de Gaulle arrives in London

Event of Interest

Jun 4 General Eisenhower cancels planned D-Day invasion on June 5th after receiving unfavorable weather reports

Jun 4 U505 becomes the first German submarine captured and boarded on high seas by the US Navy
Jun 5 1st B-29 bombing raid; 1 plane lost due to engine failure
Jun 5 After receiving favorable weather reports, General Eisenhower decides to proceed with the D-Day invasion on June 6
Jun 5 Allied forces march into Rome
Jun 5 As part of Operation Tonga, the 1st British gliders touch down on French soil to prepare for the D-Day invasion

Event of Interest

Jun 5 German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel goes on leave just before WWII D-Day landings by the Allies

Jun 6 Alaska Airlines commences operations
Jun 6 German submarines U-955, U-970, U-629 and U-373 sink in Bay of Biscay
Jun 6 Operation Overlord: As part of the D-Day landings, the 82nd Airborne Division arrives at the French town of Sainte-Mère-Église
Jun 6 Operation Overlord: D-Day begins as the 156,000-strong Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France, during World War II
Jun 7 British forces attack Bréville in France during the Normandy invasion while other British forces attempt to encircle Caen
Jun 7 Canadian 50th Division occupies Bayeux during the Normandy invasion
Jun 8 1st SS-Panzer Korps counter attacks at Normandy
Jun 8 Allies occupy Port-en-Bessin Normandy
Jun 8 Dutch Resistance fighter Frans Duwaer arrested
Jun 8 General Montgomery lands in Normandy, sets up HQ in Chateau de Creully
Jun 9 Soviet offensive in Carelia, Finland
Jun 10 Nazi forces carry out a massacre of 642 civilians in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane
Jun 10 World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops
Jun 11 15 US aircraft carriers attack Japanese bases on Marianas
Jun 11 1st Serbian Orthodox cathedral in US, Cathedral of St Sava, NYC
Jun 12 1st V-1 rocket assault on London
Jun 12 British 12th airborne battalion and the 13th & 18th Hussars attack and capture Bréville
Jun 12 Churchill/Marshall/Arnold visit Montgomery's HQ in Chateau de Creully
Jun 12 US troop march into Carentan/Caumont, Normandy
Jun 13 German counter attack on Villers-Bocage, Normandy
Jun 13 Nazi Germany begins V-1 (Fieseler Fi-103) flying bomb (doodle-bugs) attacks
Jun 14 1st B-29 raid against mainland Japan
Jun 14 General Charles de Gaulle lands at Courselles France
Jun 15 US forces begin invasion of Saipan in Pacific

George Stinney is Executed

Jun 16 George Stinney, a 14-year-old African-American boy, is wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America

The mug shot of 14-year-old African American boy George Stinney who was the youngest American to be executed

Jun 16 Iceland adopts constitution

Event of Interest

Jun 16 King George VI visits General Montgomery's HQ in Normandy

Jun 16 US bombs Kyushu, Japan
Jun 17 -19] French troops under Lattre de Tssigny conquer Elba
Jun 17 Hitler secretly meets with Field Marshals von Rundstedt and Rommel in Marjival, Soissons, France to assess response to Normandy Invasion
Jun 17 Iceland dissolves its union with Denmark and declares itself a Republic
Jun 17 Resistance fighter and poet Col Blake arrives in London
Jun 18 German submarine U-767 sunk by English Navy destroyers in the English Channel

Famous Photo

Jun 19 Five of the "The Magnificent Eleven" photos taken by Robert Capa during the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach, Normandy first published in "Life Magazine"

Jun 19 French troops free Elba
Jun 19 Heavy air raid on US fleet at Guam "Turkey Shoot"
Jun 19 Japanese troops conquer Changsha China
Jun 19 World War II: First day of the 2 day Battle of the Philippine Sea, US naval forces defeat Japanese fleet
Jun 20 Congress charters Central Intelligence Agency
Jun 20 Heavy storm hits the Channel

Event of Interest

Jun 20 Nazis begin mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz

Jun 20 Soviet forces conquer Wiborg
Jun 20 US attacks Japanese fleet in the Philippine Sea
Jun 21 Very heavy bombing on Berlin
Jun 22 Boston Brave Jim Tobin 2nd no-hitter of yr beats Phils, 7-0 in 5 inn
Jun 22 British 14th Army frees Imphal, Assam from the Japanese
Jun 22 Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre

Event of Interest

Jun 22 US President Franklin Roosevelt signs "GI Bill of Rights" (Servicemen's Readjustment Act)

Jun 22 US troops occupy Biak during Battle of Biak, New Guinea
Jun 23 4 tornadoes strike Appalachia, killing 153
Jun 23 Soviet offensive in central front sector

Event of Interest

Jun 23 Thomas Mann becomes a US citizen

Jun 25 British assault at Caen, Normandy
Jun 26 2nd British army reaches Grainville-Mouen line
Jun 27 Cherbourg, France liberated by Allies
Jun 29 French Nazi collaborator Paul Touvier shoots 7 Jews dead
Jun 29 German counter attack at Caen
Jun 29 Rommel & von Rundstedt travel to Berchtesgaden
Jun 29 Soviet Armies join in Bobroesjk
Jun 29 US 7th army corps conquers Cherbourg
Jun 30 Allies land on Vogelkop, New Guinea
Jun 30 French Cotentin Peninsula in allied hands
Jun 30 Universal strike against Nazi terror in Copenhagen
Jun 30 World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces

Birthdays in History

Jun 1 Rafael Viñoly, Uruguayan-American architect (20 Fenchurch Street (London); Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); Booth School of Business (Chicago)), born in Montevideo, Uruguay (d. 2023) [1]
Jun 6 David Penhaligon, British politician (President of the Liberal Party) (d. 1986)
Jun 6 Phillip Allen Sharp, American geneticist and molecular biologist (Nobel 1993), born in Falmouth, Kentucky
Jun 8 Marc Ouellet, Canadian Cardinal prelate of the Catholic Church, Archbishop of Quebec City, born in La Motte, Quebec, Canada
Jun 9 23 puppies (record litter), born to Lena, a foxhound in Ambler, Pennsylvania
Jun 11 Alan Horworth, British politician (L), first Conservative to change to Labour party, born in London
Jun 11 Barrie Stevens, English-Dutch choreographer (Personals, Young Again), born in London
Jun 11 James "Ox" van Hoften, American astronaut (STS 11, STS 20), born in Fresno, California

Ban Ki-moon (78 years old)

Jun 13 South Korean politician and 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007-16), born in Injō, Japanese Korea

Jun 14 Laurie Colwin, American author (Happy All the Time), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1992)
Jun 15 Robert Keppel, American criminologist
Jun 16 Kip Addotta, American stand-up comic, born in Rockford, Illinois (d. 2019)
Jun 22 Gérard Mourou, French scientist (Nobel Prize for Physics 2018, lasers), born in Albertville, France
Jun 26 Ruth Kempson, British linguist (SOAS)
Jun 27 Kees [Cornelis Johannes] Ouwens, Dutch writer and poet (Intimate Acts), born in Zeist, Netherlands (d. 2004)
Jun 29 Collin Peterson, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota), born in Fargo, North Dakota
Jun 29 Seán Patrick O'Malley, American Roman Catholic bishop, born in Lakewood, Ohio
Jun 29 Sisto Malaspina, Australian cafe owner (Pellegrini's) who started Melbourne coffee culture, born in Marche region, Italy
Jun 30 Raymond Moody, American parapsychologist, physician and author (Life After Life), born in Porterdale, Georgia

Deaths in History

Jun 6 Den Brotheridge, British lieutenant who was the 1st to die during D-Day landings in World War II is killed at 28
Jun 9 99 inhabitants of Tulle, hanged by SS
Jun 10 French Duwaer, Dutch printer/resistance fighter, executed
Jun 10 Gerrit Jan van der Veen [Wolffensperger], Dutch resistance fighter, executed at 41 (b. 1902)
Jun 10 Johan Limpers, Dutch sculptor and resistance fighter, executed at 28
Jun 10 Willem Jacob van Stockum, Dutch physicist and mathematician, dies at 33
Jun 14 Lubor Niederle, Czech archaeologist and anthropologist, dies at 78
Jun 14 Robert H Iseley, US pilot/lt-comdr (Saipan), dies in battle
Jun 16 Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Bengali chemist (founder of Bengal Chemicals And Pharmaceuticals), dies at 82
Jun 16 George Stinney, African-American boy wrongfully convicted of murder, is executed by electric chair at 14
Jun 16 Marc Bloch, French historian and member of the French resistance, executed by firing squad by the Gestapo at 57
Jun 19 Han Yong-woon, Korean Buddhist reformer and poet, at 65
Jun 21 Jan Bonekamp, Dutch resistance fighter and friend of Hannie Schaft, dies
Jun 27 Milan Hodža, Slovak politician (b. 1878)