October 1944 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Oct 7 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ordered to return to Berlin

Oct 7 Riots in Amersfoort/Utrecht/Strugle

Event of Interest

Oct 7 Uprising at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Jews burn down crematoriums

Event of Interest

Oct 9 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Russia for talks with Joseph Stalin

Oct 9 Canadian offensive in West-Zeeuws-Flanders
Oct 9 German occupiers turn off electricity in Amsterdam
Oct 10 Admiral Halsey's Task Force 30 bombs Okinawa, 700 die
Oct 11 Allies bomb sea wall at Veere
Oct 11 Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva was annexed by the U.S.S.R
Oct 12 German army retreats from Athens
Oct 13 Riga, capital of Latvia, freed
Oct 13 US 1st army begins battle of Aachen, first German city captured during World War II
Oct 14 Allied troops land in Corfu
Oct 14 British troops march into Athens
Oct 15 The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary
Oct 16 Hungary: Horthy government falls/nazi count Szalasi becomes premier

Meeting of Interest

Oct 18 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery confer in Brussels, Belgium

British WWII Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

Oct 18 Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II
Oct 19 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies back to London from Moscow
Oct 19 Canadian troops liberate Aardensburg

Event of Interest

Oct 19 John Van Druten's "I Remember Mama" premieres in NYC

Oct 19 US forces land in the Philippines
Oct 19 US Navy says Black women can join WAVES
Oct 20 Liquid-gas tanks in Cleveland, Ohio, explode, 135 die, and 3,600 are left homeless
Oct 20 Revolution by workers & students in Guatemala
Oct 20 Soviet and Yugoslav troops free Belgrade
Oct 20 US 1st army wins battle of Aachen on Germany's western border

'I Shall Return'

Oct 20 US forces under General Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines with the landing of the US 6th army on Leyte

A statue in the Philippines commemorating the promised return of American commander Douglas MacArthur in World War II

Oct 21 Canadian troops occupy Breskens
Oct 21 World War II: US troops capture Aachen, 1st large German city to fall
Oct 22 Kurita's vice-admiral fleet leaves North-Borneo
Oct 23 Battle of Gulf of Leyte begins - largest naval battle of WWII near the Philippines
Oct 23 First Central Kitchen opens in Amsterdam
Oct 23 Soviet army invades Hungary
Oct 23 Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's flagship the heavy cruiser Atago sinks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf
Oct 24 Rotterdam Passage fight frees 46 prisoners
Oct 24 US air raid on Japanese battleships and cruisers in Sibuya Sea: Musashi sinks
Oct 24 US aircraft carrier Princeton sinks at Philippines
Oct 24 US Captain David Mccampbell shoots down 9-11 Japanese planes in Gulf of Leyte
Oct 25 Battle at Cape Engano: 4 Japanese ships sink
Oct 25 Battle at Samar-island
Oct 25 Battle in Straits of Surigao: Japanese fleet destroyed
Oct 25 Gas output stopped in Amsterdam
Oct 27 Hertogenbosch & Tilburg freed from nazi occupation

Event of Interest

Oct 27 Tito reaches free Belgrade

President of Yugoslavia and Revolutionary Josip Broz Tito

Oct 28 Russia & Bulgaria sign weapons pact
Oct 29 1st Polish Armoured Division liberates Breda, Netherlands
Oct 29 Cabadese 2nd Infantry division frees Goes South-Beveland

Event of Interest

Oct 30 Anne Frank is deported from Auschwitz to Belsen

Oct 30 Last transport for Auschwitz arrives in Birkenau
Oct 30 Scots Highlanders liberate Waalwijk
Oct 30 Sweden announces intention to stay neutral & refuse sanctuary in WW II
Oct 30 Tholen Island (Netherlands) freed during WWII
Oct 31 Chief of staff Kruls names De Quay chairman of Universal Commission

Birthdays in History

Oct 2 Vernor [Steffen] Vinge, American sci-fi author (Witling, True Names), born in Waukesha, Wisconsin
Oct 3 Bob Riley, American politician (52nd Governor of Alabama), born in Ashland, Alabama
Oct 3 Pierre Deligne, Belgian mathematician, born in Etterbeek, Belgium
Oct 3 Roy Horn, German-American Las Vegas entertainer (Siegfried & Roy), born in Nordenham, Germany (d. 2020)
Oct 5 Ben Korthals, Dutch politician and lawyer (VVD), born in Voorschoten, Netherlands
Oct 6 Merzak Allouache, director (Salut Cousin, Amour a Paris)
Oct 7 Donald Tsang, Former Chief executive of Hong Kong (2005-1012), born in Hong Kong
Oct 8 Bruce Morrison, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut), born in New York
Oct 10 Christopher Ndodebandla Dlamini, South African trade unionist and SACP-leader, born in Benoni, Transvaal, South Africa
Oct 10 Renier Schoeman, South African journalist and politician
Oct 15 Haim Saban, Israeli-American media proprietor (Saban Entertainment), born in Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt
Oct 15 Kay Ivey, American politician, 54th Governor of Alabama (2017-), born in Camden, Alabama
Oct 15 Mac Collins, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia), born in Jackson, Georgia
Oct 15 Sali Berisha, 41st Prime Minister of Albania (2005-13) and 3rd President of Albania (1992-97), born in Viçidol, Albania
Oct 18 Katherine Kurtz, UK, sci-fi author (Deryni Rising, Saint Camber)
Oct 21 Janet Ahlberg, illustrator
Oct 25 Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, born in Ōmuta, Fukuoka, Japan
Oct 25 James Carville, American political stategist and commentator, born in Carville, Louisiana
Oct 26 Ries Smits, Dutch economist and politician (CDA), born in Tricht, Netherlands
Oct 27 Piet Oudolf, Dutch garden designer (New Perennial style, High Line NY), born in Haarlem, Netherlands
Oct 28 Anton Schlecker, German billionaire (Schlecker drug store), born in Ehingen, Germany
Oct 29 Fausto Leali, Italian entertainer, born in Nuvolento, Brescia, Italy
Oct 30 Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi politician (supported US 2003 invasion), born in Kadhimiya, Baghdad (d. 2015)
Oct 31 Otto Wiesheu, German politician, born in Zolling, Germany

Weddings in History

Aga Khan III

Oct 9 Nizari Imam Aga Khan III (67) weds 1930 Miss France Yvonne Blanche Labrousse (38) in Geneva, Switzerland

Deaths in History

Oct 2 Rudolf Schmundt, German gen/Hitlers army adjunct, dies from injuries
Oct 4 Alfred "Al" Smith, American politician, 4 time Governor of New York (1919-20 and 1923-28), and 1st Roman Catholic presidential candidate (D, 1928), dies at 70
Oct 7 Helmut Lent, German night-fighter ace in World War II, dies at 26
Oct 8 Wendell Lewis Wilkie, Republican politician (1940 republican nominee for President), dies at 52
Oct 12 Regina Jonas, German first woman rabbi, dies at 42

Oct 14 German World War II Field Marshal (North African campaign, Battle of Normandy) known as the Desert Fox, commits suicide at by taking a cyanide pill at 52 after being implicated in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler

Oct 15 Philip Mechanicus, Dutch journalist, executed at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at 55
Oct 16 John Eigenhuis, Dutch writer (The Dike), dies at 78
Oct 21 Alois Kayser, German missionary to Nauru (b. 1877)
Oct 23 Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist (1917 Nobel Prize for Physics for X-ray scattering), dies at 67
Oct 23 Hana Brady, Jewish Czech Holocaust victim (Hanna's Suitcase), dies at 13
Oct 24 Lauri Haarla, Finnish writer (Juudas, Sukeltaja), dies at 54
Oct 24 Louis Renault, French automobile manufacturer, dies at 67 (b. 1877)
Oct 25 Fake Krist, nazi collaborator, killed
Oct 26 Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1857)
Oct 26 William Temple, English Archbishop of Canterbury, dies at 63
Oct 27 Iman J Van de Bosch, Belgian resistance fighter, dies
Oct 28 Helen Magill White, American educator and 1st woman to earn a Ph.D. in the U.S., dies at 90
Oct 28 Iman Jacob van den Bosch, Dutch WWII resistance fighter, shot and executed at Westerbork Transit camp at 53