| 1944-09-09
World War II: The Fatherland Front takes power in Bulgaria through a military coup in the capital and armed rebellion in the country. A new pro-Soviet government is established.
|
| 1944-10-20
Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
|
| 1944-10-24
World War II: The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku, and the battleship Musashi are sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
|
| 1944-11-29
The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
|
| 1944-12-16
World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
|
| 1944-10-20
General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
|
| 1944-06-13
World War II: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets.
|
| 1944-09-28
Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Klooga, Estonia.
|
| 1944-10-13
World War II: Riga, the capital of Latvia is seized by the Red Army.
|
| 1944-08-05
World War II: possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, NSW, Australia.
|
| 1944-11-16
Dueren, Germany is destroyed by Allied bombers.
|
| 1944-10-30
Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
|
| 1944-08-20
WWII: 168 captured allied airmen, accused of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
|
| 1944-09-14
World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.
|
| 1944-04-04
World War II: First bombardment of Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.
|
| 1944-10-25
The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo.
|
| 1944-01-29
USS Missouri the last battleship commissioned by the United States Navy is launched.
|
| 1944-11-03
World War II: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.
|
| 1944-07-17
Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
|
| 1944-07-17
World War II: Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France.
|
| 1944-11-12
World War II: The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers in one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of war and sinks the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromsø, Norway.
|
| 1944-08-23
World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
|
| 1944-03-03
The Order of Nakhimov and Order of Ushakov are instituted in USSR as the highest naval awards.
|
| 1944-10-21
The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a 200 kilograms (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
|
| 1944-10-02
World War II: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
|
| 1944-06-10
World War II: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
|
| 1944-09-12
World War II: The liberation of Serbia from Nazi Germany and the Chetniks continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among those liberated cities. Near Trier, American troops enter Germany for the first time.
|
| 1944-01-05
The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
|
| 1944-06-15
World War II: Battle of Saipan: The United States invade Saipan.
|
| 1944-02-22
World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
|
| 1944-01-31
World War II: During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
|
| 1944-01-30
World War II: United States troops land on Majuro.
|
| 1944-10-23
World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.
|
| 1944-11-26
World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.
|
| 1944-04-10
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from the Birkenau death camp.
|
| 1944-06-05
World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
|
| 1944-09-03
Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving three days later.
|
| 1944-01-27
World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
|
| 1944-11-07
Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America
|
| 1944-11-07
A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico from excessive speed when descending a hill. 16 people are killed and 50 are injured.
|
| 1944-08-01
Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
|
| 1944-12-03
Greek Civil War: Fighting breaks out in Athens between the ELAS and government forces supported by the British Army.
|
| 1944-10-08
World War II: The Battle of Crucifix Hill occurs on Crucifix Hill just outside Aachen. Capt. Bobbie Brown receives a Medal of Honor for his heroics in this battle.
|
| 1944-12-22
World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
|
| 1944-07-18
World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
|
| 1944-07-26
World War II: Soviet army enters Lviv, major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 Jews in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.
|
| 1944-08-16
First flight of the Junkers Ju 287.
|
| 1944-03-18
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.
|
| 1944-07-26
The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.
|
| 1944-08-20
WWII: the Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.
|
| 1944-07-09
World War II: Battle of Tali-Ihantala – Finland wins the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe. The Red Army withdraws its troops from Ihantala and digs into defensive position, thus ending the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.
|
| 1944-07-21
World War II: Battle of Guam – American troops land on Guam starting the battle. It would end on August 10.
|
| 1944-06-10
In baseball, 15-year old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game.
|
| 1944-07-25
World War II: Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war: 1,500 casualties, including 500 killed.
|
| 1944-11-29
Albania is liberated by the Albanian partisans.
|
| 1944-02-29
World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
|
| 1944-09-18
World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
|
| 1944-06-22
Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
|
| 1944-06-17
Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.
|
| 1944-10-05
Suffrage is extended to women in France.
|
| 1944-06-30
World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
|
| 1944-06-06
World War II: Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
|
| 1944-12-05
World War II: Allied troops occupy Ravenna.
|
| 1944-02-20
World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
|
| 1944-10-19
United States forces land in the Philippines.
|
| 1944-09-19
Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed. (End of the Continuation War).
|
| 1944-11-24
World War II: Bombing of Tokyo – The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital from the east and by land is carried out by 88 American aircraft.
|
| 1944-11-27
World War II: An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump at Fauld, Staffordshire kills seventy people.
|
| 1944-06-04
World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505 – the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
|
| 1944-07-09
World War II: Battle of Saipan – American forces take Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
|
| 1944-08-28
World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
|
| 1944-07-22
The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland
|
| 1944-12-22
World War II: Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
|
| 1944-11-07
Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German World War I veteran, is hanged by his Japanese captors along with 34 of his ring.
|
| 1944-04-25
The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
|
| 1944-09-27
The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.
|
| 1944-06-07
World War II: Battle of Normandy – At Abbey Ardennes members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.
|
| 1944-06-13
World War II: Germany launches a counter attack on Carentan.
|
| 1944-02-14
World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
|
| 1944-08-02
ASNOM: Birth of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, Day of the Republic in the Republic of Macedonia.
|
| 1944-06-09
World War II: the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
|
| 1944-03-24
World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
|
| 1944-02-07
World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
|
| 1944-08-23
World War II: Marseille liberated.
|
| 1944-08-25
World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
|
| 1944-04-05
World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans.
|
| 1944-09-08
World War II: London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
|
| 1944-08-23
Freckleton Air Disaster – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.
|
| 1944-10-15
The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes over the power in Hungary.
|
| 1944-04-14
Bombay Explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
|
| 1944-02-20
World War II: The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
|
| 1944-03-04
World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
|
| 1944-08-15
World War II: Operation Dragoon – Allied forces land in southern France.
|
| 1944-07-03
World War II: Minsk is liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.
|
| 1944-10-22
World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.
|
| 1944-10-25
Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, takes place in and around the Philippines between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the U.S. Third and U.S. Seventh Fleets.
|
| 1944-07-09
World War II: Battle of Normandy – British and Canadian forces capture Caen, France.
|
| 1944-11-01
World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.
|
| 1944-10-11
Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva is annexed by the U.S.S.R
|
| 1944-11-11
Dr. jur. Erich Göstl, a member of the Waffen SS, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery, after losing his face and eyes during the Battle of Normandy.
|
| 1944-11-06
Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
|
| 1944-06-20
World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.
|
| 1944-01-04
World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
|
| 1944-08-09
The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
|
| 1944-08-09
Continuation war: Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during Second World War, ends to strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.
|
| 1944-02-24
Merrill's Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000 mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma.
|
| 1944-04-22
World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated – Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
|
| 1944-07-20
Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the Democratic Party nomination for the fourth and final time at the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
|
| 1944-06-15
In the Saskatchewan general election, the CCF, led by Tommy Douglas, is elected and forms the first socialist government in North America.
|
| 1944-10-18
Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.
|
| 1944-06-22
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
|
| 1944-08-29
Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
|
| 1944-09-26
World War II: On the central front of the Gothic Line Brazilian troops control the Serchio valley region after ten days of fighting.
|
| 1944-10-25
The Romanian Army liberates Carei, the last Romanian city under Axis Powers occupation.
|
| 1944-06-20
Continuation war: Soviet Union demands for an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. Finnish government declines the demand.
|
| 1944-03-24
Ardeatine Massacre: German troops kill 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
|
| 1944-01-29
World War II: Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.
|
| 1944-12-17
World War II: Battle of the Bulge – Malmedy massacre – American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
|
| 1944-08-22
World War II: Romania is captured by the Soviet Union.
|
| 1944-08-19
World War II: Liberation of Paris – Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
|
| 1944-10-07
World War II: Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jews burn down the crematoria.
|
| 1944-07-06
2LT Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court martial.
|
| 1944-06-07
World War II: The steamer Danae carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans was sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.
|
| 1944-07-20
World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the 20 July plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
|
| 1944-02-03
World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
|
| 1944-10-25
Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.
|
| 1944-09-17
World War II: Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
|
| 1944-08-12
Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
|
| 1944-10-26
World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.
|
| 1944-09-04
World War II: the British 11th Armoured Division liberates the Belgian city of Antwerp.
|
| 1944-04-01
Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
|
| 1944-07-06
The Hartford Circus Fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.
|
| 1944-06-19
World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
|
| 1944-08-01
Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
|
| 1944-08-12
Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
|
| 1944-10-20
The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
|
| 1944-08-07
IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
|
| 1944-08-26
World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
|
| 1944-10-14
Athens, Greece, is liberated by British Army troops entering the city as the Nazi German Army pulls out during World War II. This clears the way for the Greek government-in-exile to return to its historic capital city, with George Papandreou, Sr., as the head-of-government.
|
| 1944-01-31
World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
|
| 1944-09-06
World War II: The city of Ypres, Belgium is liberated by allied forces.
|
| 1944-08-24
World War II: Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
|
| 1944-09-05
Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.
|
| 1944-08-04
The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
|
| 1944-09-22
World War II: the Red Army enters Tallinn.
|
| 1944-11-04
World War II: Bitola Liberation Day
|
| 1944-04-16
Allied forces started bombimng of Belgrade,killing about 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Easter.
|
| 1944-07-20
Fifty are hurt in rioting in front of the presidential palace in Mexico City.
|
| 1944-01-18
Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
|
| 1944-11-10
The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands
|
| 1944-04-13
Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
|
| 1944-02-17
World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
|
| 1944-10-18
Adolf Hitler orders the public funeral procession of Nazi field Marshall Erwin Rommel, commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps
|
| 1944-02-23
The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
|
| 1944-09-26
World War II: Operation Market Garden fails.
|
| 1944-10-29
The city of Breda in the Netherlands is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.
|
| 1944-10-10
Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp.
|
| 1944-07-21
World War II: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin, Germany for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
|
| 1944-09-25
World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem in the Netherlands, thus ending the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.
|
| 1944-11-26
World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop on New Cross High Street, United Kingdom, killing 168 shoppers.
|
| 1944-12-18
World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
|
| 1944-06-04
World War II: Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.
|
| 1944-08-10
World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.
|
| 1944-03-19
World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
|
| 1944-05-18
Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.
|
| 1944-03-09
World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.
|
| 1944-08-21
Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
|
| 1944-09-08
World War II: Menton is liberated from Germany.
|
| 1944-06-09
World War II: 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
|
| 1944-06-06
Alaska Airlines commences operations.
|
| 1944-11-19
World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling $14 billion USD in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
|
| 1944-10-05
Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
|
| 1944-05-11
World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
|
| 1944-01-22
World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio, Italy.
|
| 1944-10-23
World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf – The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines.
|
| 1944-05-18
World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino – Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers ("Fallschirmjäger") evacuate Monte Cassino.
|
| 1944-12-30
King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.
|
| 1944-12-26
World War II: Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
|
| 1944-06-10
World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.
|
| 1944-01-29
In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio is destroyed in an air-raid.
|
| 1944-02-17
World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
|
| 1944-10-18
Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.
|
| 1944-08-05
Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
|
| 1944-01-29
World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.
|
| 1944-09-15
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
|
| 1944-02-15
World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.
|
| 1944-01-18
The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers are Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
|
| 1944-06-25
World War II: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic Countries, begins.
|
| 1944-12-28
Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score 8 points in one game of NHL ice hockey.
|
| 1944-01-03
World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
|
| 1944-12-31
World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
|
