1944

Events

Below, events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.

January

January 2 – WWII:

Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in North Africa.

Landing at Saidor: 13,000 US and Australian troops land on Papua New Guinea in an attempt to cut off a Japanese retreat.

January 8 – WWII: Philippine Commonwealth troops enter the province of Ilocos Sur in northern Luzon and attack Japanese forces.

January 11

President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a Second Bill of Rights for social and economic security in his State of the Union address.

Nazi German administration expanded Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp into larger and standalone 'Konzentrationslager Plaszow bei Krakau'.

January 12 – Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime conference in Marrakech.

Battle of Monte Cassino: U.S. Fifth Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Mark W. Clark arrive on the River Garigliano and begin their attack against the Gustav Line south of Rome. The French Expeditionary Corps under command of General Alphonse Juin moves into the mountains north of Monte Cassino.

January 14 – WWII: Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.

January 15

WWII: The 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division is re-created, marking the start of Operation Tempest by the Polish Home Army.

1944 San Juan earthquake: An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina, killing an estimated 10,000 people in the worst natural disaster in Argentina's history.

January 17 – WWII:

British forces in Italy cross the Garigliano river.

The Battle of Monte Cassino begins in Italy.

The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin–Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.

Meat rationing ends in Australia.

January 20 – WWII:

The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.

The United States 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River.

January 22 – WWII: Operation Shingle: The Allies begin the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.

January 27 – WWII: The 2-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

January 29 – WWII:

Koniuchy massacre: Soviet and Jewish partisans kill at least 38 villagers in Koniuchy, Poland (modern-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania).

Light cruiser HMS Spartan (95) is sunk by a Henschel Hs 293 guided missile from a German aircraft off Anzio, western Italy, with the loss of 46.

January 30 – WWII:

The Battle of Cisterna opens as United States Army Rangers attempt to break out of the Anzio beachhead.

United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.

January 31 – WWII: Battle of Kwajalein: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February

February 1 – WWII: Pacific War – United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.

February 2 – The first issue of Human Events is published in Washington, D.C.

February 3 – WWII: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.

February 7 – WWII: At Anzio, German forces launch a counteroffensive.

February 8 – WWII:

2,765 drown when USS Snook torpedoes Lima Maru.

2,670 drown when HMS Sportsman torpedoes Petrella.

February 14 – WWII: An anti-Japanese revolt breaks out on Java.

February 15 – WWII – Battle of Monte Cassino: The monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.

February 17 – WWII: Pacific War – The Battle of Eniwetok begins when U.S. forces invade the atoll in the Marshall Islands.

February 18 – WWII: HMS Penelope torpedoed by the German U-boat. 417 of the crew, including the captain, went down with the ship; 206 survived.

February 20 – WWII:

The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.

The United States takes Eniwetok Island.

February 22 – United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe organized from the Eighth Air Force's strategic planning staff; subsuming strategic planning for all US Army Air Forces in Europe and Africa.

February 23 – WWII:

The Chechen and Ingush are forcibly deported to Central Asia.

Battle of Eniwetok concludes when U.S. forces secure the last islands in the Eniwetok Atoll.

February 24 – WWII: 7,998 drown when USS Rasher torpedoes Ryūsei Maru and Tango Maru.

February 26

Kurt Gerron begins shooting the Nazi propaganda film, Theresienstadt in Theresienstadt concentration camp. He and many others who featured in it are transferred to Auschwitz and gassed upon the film's completion.

First woman appointed to the substantive rank of captain in the United States Navy Nurse Corps, Sue S. Dauser.

February 29 – WWII: Pacific War – Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) opens when U.S. forces land on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands.

March

March

Austrian-born economist Friedrich Hayek publishes his book The Road to Serfdom in London.

March 1 – WWII:

USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge are laid down.

An anti-fascist strike begins in northern Italy.

2,495 drown when USS Trout torpedoes Sakito Maru.

March 2

Balvano train disaster: A train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy; 521 choke to death.

The 16th Academy Awards ceremony is held, the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue, Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Casablanca (directed by Michael Curtiz), wins the Best Picture award.

March 3 – WWII: The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov are instituted in the USSR.

March 4 – In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing, along with Emanuel Weiss, and Louis Capone.

March 6 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Narva, Estonia, destroying almost the entire baroque old town.

March 9 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia, killing 757 and leaving 25,000 homeless.

March 10

In Britain, the prohibition on married women working as teachers is lifted.

Resistance leader Joop Westerweel is arrested while returning to the Netherlands having escorted a group of Jewish children to safety in Spain.

March 12 – WWII: the Political Committee of National Liberation is created in Greece.

March 15

WWII: Battle of Monte Cassino: Allied aircraft bomb the monastery and an assault is staged.

WWII: The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.

In Sweden, the 1864 law which had criminalized homosexuality is abolished.

March 18

The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.

WWII: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbnița.

March 19 – WWII: German forces occupy Hungary in Operation Margarethe.

March 20 – WWII: RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade's bomber is hit over Germany, and he has to bail out without a parachute from a height of over 4,000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow.

March 23 – WWII: Members of the Italian Resistance attack Nazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.

March 24 – WWII:

Ardeatine massacre: 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups, in Rome.

In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jews they were hiding.

The "Great Escape": 76 Royal Air Force prisoners of war escape by tunnel "Harry" from Stalag Luft III this night. Only three men, two Norwegians and a Dutchman, return to the UK; of those recaptured, fifty are executed.

April

April 2 – WWII: Ascq massacre members of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend shoot 85 civilians suspected of blowing up their train on its approach to the Gare d'Ascq in France.

April 4 – WWII: An Allied surveillance aircraft of 60 Squadron SAAF photographs part of Auschwitz concentration camp.

April 5 – Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Auschwitz concentration camp.

April 14 – Bombay Explosion: The freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of ammunition, cotton bales and gold, explodes in harbour at Bombay (India), sinking surrounding ships and killing around 800 people.

April 19 – WWII: The Japanese launch the Operation Ichi-Go offensive in central and south China.

April 25

The Holocaust: SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann opens "blood for goods" negotiations with Joel Brand to offer the release of thousands of Jews from eastern Europe to the Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee in exchange for supplies for the German Eastern Front.

The United Negro College Fund is incorporated in the U.S.

April 26

Kidnap of General Kreipe on Crete, Greece.

WWII: 2,649 drown when USS Jack torpedoes Yoshida Maru No. 1.

April 28 – WWII: Allied convoy T4, forming part of amphibious Exercise Tiger (a full-scale rehearsal for the Normandy landings) in Start Bay off the Devon coast of England, is attacked by E-boats, resulting in the deaths of 749 American servicemen from LSTs.

May

May – No Exit published by Jean-Paul Sartre.

May 1 – WWII: Two hundred Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani in Athens, Greece in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by partisans at Molaoi.

May 5 – WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released in India.

May 9 – WWII: In the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered by Hitler to “fight to the last man.”

May 12 – WWII: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of the Crimea.

May 14 – The Holocaust: Predominantly Muslim Albanian troops of the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) round up 281 Jews in Pristina and hand them over to the Germans for transportation to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

May 15–July 8 – The Holocaust: Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

May 18 – WWII:

Battle of Monte Cassino: The Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces led by Władysław Anders from Polish II Corps, take the stronghold after a struggle that has claimed 20,000 lives.

Deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the government of the Soviet Union.

May 24 – WWII: Six LSTs are accidentally destroyed and 163 men killed in Pearl Harbor's West Loch disaster.

May 30 – Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne, resigns from her rights in favor of her son Prince Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, later reigning Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

May 31 – WWII: Destroyer escort USS England (DE-635) sinks the sixth Japanese submarine in two weeks. This anti-submarine warfare performance remains unmatched through the twentieth century.

June

June 1

WWII: The BBC transmits a coded message (the first line of the poem "Chanson d'automne" by Paul Verlaine) to the French Resistance, warning that the invasion of Europe is imminent.

Two K-class blimps of the United States Navy complete the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid airships, from the U.S. to French Morocco with two stops.

June 2 – WWII: The provisional French government is established.

June 3 – Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger syndrome.

June 4 – WWII:

Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.

A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century. Some significant intelligence data is acquired.

June 5 – WWII:

The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.

British Group Captain James Stagg correctly forecasts a brief improvement in weather conditions over the English Channel which will permit the following day's Normandy landings to take place (having been deferred from today due to unfavourable weather).

At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem to the French Resistance, indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.

More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.

US and British paratrooper divisions jump over Normandy, in preparation for D-Day, including 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions of the United States.

D-Day naval deceptions are launched.

June 6 – WWII – D-Day: 155,000 Allied troops shipped from England land on the beaches of Normandy in northern France, beginning Operation Overlord and the Invasion of Normandy. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.

June 7 – WWII:

The steamer Danae (Greek: Δανάη), carrying 600 Cretans including 350 Greek Jews on the first leg of the journey to Auschwitz, is sunk, with no known survivors, off Santorini.

Joel Brand is intercepted by British agents in Aleppo.

Bayeux is liberated by British troops.

June 9 – WWII: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin launches the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive against Finland, with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.

June 10 – WWII: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.

June 13 – WWII: Germany launches the first V-1 flying bomb attack on London.

June 15 – WWII: Battle of Saipan: United States forces land on Saipan.

June 16 – At age 14, George Stinney becomes the youngest person ever executed in the United States.

June 17 – Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.

June 19 – A severe storm badly damages the Mulberry harbours on the Normandy coast.

June 20 – WWII: A V-2 rocket becomes the first man-made object to cross the Kármán line and reach the edge of space.

June 22 – WWII:

Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.

Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.

June 24 – David Ben-Gurion presents the One Million Plan to the Jewish Agency for Israel, proposing a million-strong Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries as well as from Europe to Mandatory Palestine.

June 25 – WWII

The Battle of Tali-Ihantala (the largest battle ever in the Nordic countries) begins between Finnish and Soviet troops. Finland is able to resist the attack and thus manages to stay as an independent nation.

Bombardment of Cherbourg by ships of the United States Navy and British Royal Navy in support of U.S. ground troops.

June 26 – WWII: American troops enter Cherbourg.

June 29 – WWII: 5,400 drown when USS Sturgeon torpedoes Toyama Maru.

June 30 – WWII: 3,219 drown when USS Tang torpedoes Nikkin Maru.

July

July 1 – The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States.

July 3 – WWII:

Soviet troops liberate Minsk.

Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle with a British victory.

July 6

Hartford circus fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.

WWII: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus. He is eventually acquitted.

July 9 – WWII: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.

July 10 – WWII: Soviet troops begin operations to liberate the Baltic countries.

July 13 – WWII: Vilnius is freed by USSR.

July 16 – WWII: The first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrives in Italy.

July 17 – WWII:

The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia, under Royal Canadian Navy protection.

The SS E. A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago naval base; 320 are killed.

July 18 – WWII:

American forces push back the Germans in Saint-Lô, capturing the city.

British forces launch Operation Goodwood, an armoured offensive aimed at driving the Germans from the high ground to the south of Caen. The offensive ends 2 days later with minimal gains.

Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort and is succeeded (on July 22) by Kuniaki Koiso.

July 20 – WWII: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg.

July 21 – WWII:

Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam (the battle ends August 10).

The Soviet-sponsored Polish Committee of National Liberation is created in opposition to the Polish government-in-exile.

July 22

The Bretton Woods Conference ends with agreements signed to set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and International Monetary Fund.

The new Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes the PKWN Manifesto in Chełm, calling for a continuation of fighting against Nazi Germany, radical reforms including nationalisation of industry, and a "decent border in the West" (the Oder–Neisse line).

United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, the only Japanese American draft avoidance case to be dismissed on a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution.

July 25

WWII – Operation Spring: One of the bloodiest days for Canadian forces during the war results in 1,550 casualties, including 450 killed, during the Normandy Campaign.

WWII – Beginning of the Battle of Tannenberg Line or the "Battle of the Blue Hills" in Northeastern Estonia, where the Red Army will result in a Pyrrhic victory by 10 August.

July 26 – WWII: A Messerschmitt Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter aircraft to have an operational victory.

July 31 – WWII: 2,495 drown when USS Parche torpedoes Yoshino Maru.

August

August 1 – WWII: The Warsaw Uprising begins.

August 2 – WWII:

Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.

The First Assembly of ASNOM (the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia) is held in the Prohor Pčinjski monastery.

August 3 – The Education Act in the United Kingdom, promoted by Rab Butler, creates a Tripartite system of education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

August 4 – 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, her family, and others in hiding. All would die in the Holocaust except for Otto Frank, Anne's father.

August 5 – WWII:

The Warsaw Uprising:

The Wola massacre begins. Between now and August 12, 40,000 to 50,000 Polish civilians will be indiscriminately massacred by occupying SS troops.

The Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.

Cowra breakout: Over 500 Japanese prisoners of war attempt a mass breakout from the Cowra camp in Australia. In the ensuing manhunt, 231 Japanese escapees and four Australian soldiers are killed.

August 7 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).

August 9 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.

August 12 – WWII:

The Allies capture Florence, Italy.

Operation Pluto: The world's first undersea oil pipeline is laid between England and France.

August 15 – WWII: Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. The U.S. 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at Sainte-Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.

August 18 – WWII: Submarine USS Rasher sinks Teia Maru, Eishin Maru, Teiyu Maru, and carrier Taiyō from Japanese convoy HI71 in one of the most effective American "wolfpack" attacks of the war.

August 19 – WWII:

More than 4,400 Japanese seamen drown when USS Spadefish torpedoes Tamatsu Maru.

An insurrection starts in Paris.

August 20 – WWII:

American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Pocket.

168 captured Allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused of being "terror fliers" by the Gestapo, arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp where they form the KLB Club.

August 21

Dumbarton Oaks Conference (Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization) opens in Washington, D.C.: U.S., British, Chinese, French and Soviet representatives meet to plan the foundation of the United Nations.

WWII: Operation Tractable concludes when Canadian troops relieve the Polish and link with the Americans, capturing remaining German forces in the Falaise Pocket and securing the strategically important French town of Falaise in the final offensive of the Battle of Normandy.

August 22 – WWII: Tsushima Maru, an unmarked Japanese passenger/cargo ship, is sunk by torpedoes launched by the submarine USS Bowfin off Akuseki-jima, killing 1,484 civilians including 767 schoolchildren.

August 23 – WWII: In King Michael's Coup, Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government established. Romania leaves the war against the Soviet Union, joining the Allies.

August 24 – WWII:

Liberation of Paris: The Allies enter Paris, successfully completing Operation Overlord.

Japanese vessels attack and sink the submarine USS Harder off Luzon.

August 25 – WWII:

German surrender of Paris: General Dietrich von Choltitz surrenders Paris to the Allies in defiance of Hitler's orders to destroy it.

Maillé massacre: Massacre of 129 civilians (70% women and children) by the Gestapo at Maillé, Indre-et-Loire.

Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.

The Red Ball Express convoy system begins operation supplying tons of materiel to Allied forces in France.

August 29 – WWII: The Slovak National Uprising against the Axis powers begins.

August 31 – The Mad Gasser of Mattoon apparently resumes their mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois for two weeks.

September

September 1 – WWII: In Bulgaria, the Bagryanov government resigns.

September 2

The Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving 3 days later.

¡Hola! magazine launched in Barcelona.

September 3 – WWII: The Allies liberate Brussels.

September 4 – WWII:

The British 11th Armoured Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.

Finland breaks off relations with Germany.

September 5 – WWII: The Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.

September 6 – WWII: Tartu Offensive in Estonia concludes with Soviet forces capturing Tartu.

September 7 – WWII: The Belgian government in exile returns to Brussels from London.

September 8 – WWII:

The first V-2 rocket attack on London takes place.

The French town of Menton is liberated from German forces.

September 9 – WWII: An insurrection breaks out in Sofia.

September 11 – WWII: Laksevåg floating dry dock at Bergen (Norway) is sunk by British X-class submarine X-24.

September 12 – WWII: Allied forces from Operation Overlord (in the north) and Operation Dragoon (in the south of France) link up near Dijon.

September 14 – The Great Atlantic hurricane makes landfall in the New York City area.

September 15 – WWII: The Battle of Peleliu begins in the Pacific.

September 17 – WWII: Operation Market Garden begins, Allied airborne landings in the Netherlands and Germany.

September 18 – WWII:

5,620 drown when HMS Tradewind torpedoes Jun'yō Maru.

After German forces declare the evacuation of Estonia the day before, the Estonian national government briefly resumes control of Tallinn before Soviet advance.

September 19 – WWII:

An armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, ending the Continuation War.

The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins east of the Belgian–German border.

September 22 – WWII: The Red Army captures Tallinn, Estonia. Prime Minister in Duties of the President of Estonia Jüri Uluots and 80,000 Estonian civilians manage to escape to Sweden and Germany. The evacuees include almost the entire population of the Estonian Swedes. Soviet bombing raids on the evacuating ships sink several ships with thousands on board.

September 24 – WWII: The U.S. 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Épinal before crossing the Moselle river and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.

September 26 – WWII:

Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.

On the middle front of the Gothic Line, Brazilian troops control the Serchio valley region after 10 days of fighting.

September – Start of Dutch famine ("Hongerwinter") in the occupied northern part of the Netherlands.

October

October 2 – WWII: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.

October 5 – WWII: Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over the Netherlands.

October 6 – WWII: The Battle of Debrecen starts on the Eastern Front (it lasts until October 29).

October 7

Holocaust: Members of the Sonderkommando (Jewish work units) in Auschwitz stage a revolt, killing 3 SS men before being massacred themselves.

Dumbarton Oaks Conference concludes.

October 8 – The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio show debuts in the United States.

October 9 – WWII: Fourth Moscow Conference: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begin a 9-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.

October 10

The Holocaust/Porajmos: 800 Romani children are systematically murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

WWII: Allied forces inflict significant losses upon Imperial Japanese Navy ships moored in Naha Harbor, destroying much of the city of Naha, Okinawa as well, in the 10-10 Air Raid.

October 12

WWII: The Allies land in Athens.

Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen returns to Vancouver, becoming the first person successfully to navigate the Northwest Passage in both directions, in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner St. Roch. His westbound voyage is the first completed in a single season and the first passage through the Prince of Wales Strait.

October 13 – WWII:

Riga, the capital of Latvia, is taken by the Red Army.

The first V-2 rocket attack on Antwerp takes place.

October 14 – WWII: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

October 18 – WWII: The Volkssturm Nazi militia is founded on Adolf Hitler's orders.

October 19 – Guatemalan Revolution begins, with the overthrow of Federico Ponce Vaides by a popular leftist movement.

October 20 – WWII:

Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.

American forces land on Red Beach in Palo, Leyte, as General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines with Philippine Commonwealth president Sergio Osmeña, and Armed Forces of the Philippines Generals Basilio J. Valdes and Carlos P. Romulo.

United States and Filipino troops with Filipino guerrillas begin the Battle of Leyte.

American forces land on the beaches in Dulag, Leyte, the Philippines, accompanied by Filipino troops entering the town, and fiercely opposed by the Japanese occupation forces. The combined forces liberate Tacloban.

October 20 – A liquefied natural gas explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio.

October 21 – WWII: Aachen, the first German city to fall, is captured by American troops.

October 23

WWII: The Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins (lasts until October 26).

The Allies recognise Charles de Gaulle's cabinet as the provisional government of France.

October 25

WWII: The Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated.

WWII: USS Tang (the United States Navy submarine credited with sinking more ships than any other American submarine) is sunk in the Formosa Strait by one of her own torpedoes. Medal of Honor-winning submarine ace Richard O'Kane becomes a prisoner of war.

Florence Foster Jenkins gives a recital in Carnegie Hall.

October 30

The Holocaust: Anne Frank and her sister Margot are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Appalachian Spring, a ballet by Martha Graham with music by Aaron Copland, debuts at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Graham in the lead role.

October 31 – Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended at a Paris Métro station.

November

November 1–December 7 – Delegates of 52 nations meet at the International Civil Aviation Conference in Chicago to plan for postwar international cooperation, framing the constitution of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

November 3 – WWII: Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest, are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.

November 7

United States presidential election: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term.

Election day rail accident in Puerto Rico: A passenger train derails at Aguadilla due to excessive speed on a downgrade; 16 are killed, 50 injured.

November 10 – WWII: Ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) disintegrates from accidental detonation of 3800 tons of cargo in the Seeadler Harbor fleet anchorage at Manus Island. 22 small boats are destroyed, 36 nearby ships damaged, 432 men are killed and 371 more are injured.

November 12 – WWII: Sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz by British Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers. Estimated casualties range from 950 to 1,204.

November 14 – WWII: 2,246 drown when USS Queenfish torpedoes Akitsu Maru.

November 16 – WWII: U.S. forces begin the month-long Operation Queen in the Rur valley.

November 18

The Popular Socialist Youth is founded in Cuba

WWII: 3,546 drown when USS Picuda torpedoes Mayasan Maru.

November 22

Conscription Crisis: Prime Minister of Canada William Mackenzie King agrees a one-time conscription levy in Canada for overseas service.

Laurence Olivier's film Henry V, based on Shakespeare's play, opens in London. It is the most acclaimed and the most successful movie version of a Shakespeare play made up to that time, and the first in Technicolor. Olivier both stars and directs.

November 24 – WWII: German forces evacuate from West Estonian Archipelago.

November 26 – American opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins dies in her sleep at the age of 76.

November 27

RAF Fauld explosion: Between 3,450 and 3,930 tons (3,500 and 4,000 tonnes) of ordnance explodes at an underground storage depot in Staffordshire, England, leaving about 75 dead and a crater 1,200 metres (0.75 miles) across and 120 metres (400 ft) deep. The blast is one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest on UK soil.

Operation Tigerfish takes place. The Royal Air Force bombing of Freiburg im Breisgau kills 2,800.

November 29 – WWII: Submarine USS Archerfish (SS-311) sinks Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano. Shinano is the largest carrier built to this date, and will remain through the twentieth century the largest ship sunk by a submarine.

December

December 3 – WWII:

Fighting breaks out between Communists and royalists in newly liberated Greece, eventually leading to a full-scale Greek Civil War.

The British Home Guard is stood down.

December 7 – Convention on International Civil Aviation signed in Chicago to create the International Civil Aviation Organization.

December 10 – Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads a concert performance of the first half of Beethoven's Fidelio (minus its spoken dialogue) on NBC Radio, starring Rose Bampton. He chooses this opera for its political message – a statement against tyranny and dictatorship. Conducting it in German, Toscanini intends it as a tribute to the German people who are being oppressed by Hitler. The second half is broadcast a week later. The performance is later released on LP and CD, the first of 7 operas that Toscanini conducts on radio.

December 12–December 13 – WWII: British units attempt to take the hilltop town of Tossignano, but are repulsed.

December 13 – Battle of Mindoro: United States, Australian and Philippine Commonwealth troops land on Mindoro Island in the Philippines.

December 14

The Soviet government changes Turkish place names to Russian in the Crimea.

United States release of the film National Velvet, which brings a young Elizabeth Taylor to stardom.

December 15 – A USAAF utility aircraft carrying bandleader Major Glenn Miller disappears in heavy fog over the English Channel while flying to Paris.

December 16 – WWII:

Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later known as Battle of the Bulge.

General George C. Marshall becomes the first U.S. Five-Star General.

December 17

WWII: Malmedy massacre: German SS troops under Joachim Peiper machine gun American prisoners of war captured during the Battle of the Bulge near Malmedy and elsewhere in Belgium.

WWII: Bombing of Ulm in World War II, 707 people are killed and 25,000 are left homeless.

December 19 – The daily newspaper Le Monde begins publication in Paris.

December 20 – The United States Women Airforce Service Pilots are disbanded.

December 22

WWII: Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the U.S. forces defending Bastogne, refuses to accept demands for surrender by sending a one-word reply, "Nuts!", to the German command.

The Vietnam People's Army is formed in French Indochina.

December 24

WWII: Troopship SS Léopoldville is sunk in the English Channel by German submarine U-486. Approximately 763 soldiers of the U.S. 66th Infantry Division bound for the Battle of the Bulge drown.

WWII: German tanks reach the furthest point of the Bulge at Celles.

WWII: Fifty German V-1 flying bombs, air-launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers flying over the North Sea, target Manchester in England, killing 42 and injuring more than 100 in the Oldham area.

WWII: Bande massacre. 34 men between the ages of 17 and 32 are executed by the Sicherheitsdienst near Bande, Belgium in retaliation for the killing of three German soldiers.

The first complete U.S. production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is presented in San Francisco, choreographed by Willam Christensen. It will become an annual tradition there, and for the next ten years, the San Francisco Ballet will be the only company in the United States performing the complete work.

December 26

WWII: American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.

The original stage version of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams premieres in Chicago.

December 30

Edward Stettinius, Jr., becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, filling the seat left by Cordell Hull.

King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.

"Stage Door Cartoon" is the first cartoon produced by Eddie Selzer.

December 31 – WWII:

Battle of Leyte: Tens of thousands of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers are killed in action, in a significant Filipino/Allied military victory.

Date unknown

The 1944 Summer Olympics, scheduled for London (together with the February Winter Olympics scheduled for Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy), are suspended due to WWII.

In Sweden, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence is established in the United States.

Last known evidence of the existence of the Asiatic lion in the wild in Khuzestan Province, Persia.

BC Zalgiris, as known well for professional basketball club founded in Kaunas, Lithuania. (former part of Soviet Union)

January

January 1

Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, 7th President of Sudan

Jimmy Hart, American wrestling manager

Bob Minor, American actor and stunt performer

January 2 – Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician

January 3 – Chris von Saltza, American swimmer

January 6

Bonnie Franklin, American actress and television director (d. 2013)

Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

January 9

Ian Hornak, American painter, draughtsman and sculptor (d. 2002)

Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)

January 10 – Frank Sinatra, Jr., American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2016)

January 12

Joe Frazier, American boxer (d. 2011)

Carlos Villagrán, Mexican actor and comedian

January 17

Jan Guillou, Swedish author

Françoise Hardy, French singer

January 18

Paul Keating, 24th Prime Minister of Australia

Alexander Van der Bellen, 12nd President of Austria

January 19 – Shelley Fabares, American actress and singer

January 23 – Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor

January 24 – Klaus Nomi, German singer (d. 1983)

January 25

Sally Beauman, English writer

Evan Chandler, screenwriter, dentist (d. 2009)

January 26 – Angela Davis, American feminist and political activist

January 27

Adenan Satem, Malaysian politician, Chief Minister of Sarawak (d. 2017)

Peter Akinola, Nigerian religious leader

Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nick Mason, English rock drummer (Pink Floyd)

January 28

Susan Howard, American actress

John Tavener, English composer of religious music (d. 2013)

January 29

Susana Giménez, TV presenter Argentina

Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican judge

January 31

Connie Booth, American writer and actress

Ivo Opstelten, Dutch politician

February

February 2 – Geoffrey Hughes, English actor (d. 2012)

February 3 – Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress

February 5

Al Kooper, American rock musician (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

Thekla Carola Wied, German actress

February 8 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (d. 2014)

February 9 – Alice Walker, American writer

February 10 – Peter Allen, Australian-born Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist (d. 1992)

February 11 – Michael G. Oxley, American politician (d. 2016)

February 12 – Moe Bandy, American country music singer

February 13

Stockard Channing, American actress

Michael Ensign, American actor

Jerry Springer, English-born American politician and television personality

February 14

Carl Bernstein, American journalist

Sir Alan Parker, English film director, producer, actor and writer

February 15 – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen leader, first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, an unrecognized breakaway state in the North Caucasus (d. 1996)

February 16

Richard Ford, American writer

António Mascarenhas Monteiro, President of Cape Verde (d. 2016)

February 17

Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer

Bernie Grant, British Labour Party MP (d. 2000)

February 20 – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch football player and coach

February 22

Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer and writer

Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player

February 23 – Johnny Winter, American rock musician (d. 2014)

February 25 – François Cevert, French racing driver (d. 1973)

February 27 – Ken Grimwood, American writer (d. 2003)

February 28 – Sepp Maier, German retired footballer

February 29 – Dennis Farina, American actor (d. 2013)

March

March 1

John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana

Roger Daltrey, English singer-songwriter and actor (The Who)

March 2

Uschi Glas, German actress

Leif Segerstam, Finnish conductor and composer

March 4

Harvey Postlethwaite, English engineer and race car designer (d. 1999)

Bobby Womack, American singer and songwriter (d. 2014)

March 5 – Peter Brandes, Danish artist

March 6

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano

Mary Wilson, American singer (The Supremes)

March 7 – Townes van Zandt, American singer (d. 1997)

March 8 – Buzz Hargrove, Canadian labour leader

March 11

Graham Lyle, Grammy-winning Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist, known for writing several international hits for Tina Turner

Don Maclean, English comedian and broadcaster

March 17

Pattie Boyd, English model and first wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton

John Sebastian, American singer-songwriter (The Lovin' Spoonful)

March 19

Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize

Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy

March 21 – Hilary Minster, British actor (d. 1999)

March 24 – R. Lee Ermey, U.S. Marine and actor

March 26 – Diana Ross, American urban musician and was lead singer of The Supremes

March 27 – Khosrow Shakibai, Iranian actor (d. 2008)

March 28

Rick Barry, American basketball player

Ken Howard, American actor (d. 2016)

March 29

Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana

Denny McLain, American baseball player

April

April 3 – Tony Orlando, American musician

April 4

Magda Aelvoet, Belgian politician

Craig T. Nelson, American actor

April 5 – Peter T. King, American politician

April 6

Judith McConnell, American actress

Anita Pallenberg, Italian model and actress

Dame Felicity Palmer, English soprano

April 7

Warner Fusselle, American sportscaster (d. 2012)

Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany

April 8

Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter

Jimmy Walker, American professional basketball player (d. 2007)

April 11 – John Milius, American film director, producer and screenwriter

April 13 – Jack Casady, American rock musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)

April 18 – Charlie Tuna, American disc jockey and game show announcer (d. 2016)

April 19

Bernie Worrell, American keyboardist, (d. 2016)

James Heckman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

April 22 – Steve Fossett, American aviator, sailor and millionaire adventurer (d. 2007)

April 24 – Tony Visconti, American record producer, musician and singer

April 25 – Len Goodman, British ballroom dancer and television personality

April 26 – Larry H. Miller, American sports owner (Utah Jazz; d. 2009)

April 27

Michael Fish, British TV weatherman

Cuba Gooding, Sr., American actor and singer

April 28 – Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician

April 29 – Richard Kline, American actor and television director

April 30 – Jill Clayburgh, American actress (d. 2010)

May

May 1

Suresh Kalmadi, Indian politician

Costa Cordalis, German singer

May 4 – Russi Taylor, American voice actress

May 5

Roger Rees, Welsh actor (d. 2015)

John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor

May 8 – Gary Glitter, English singer

May 9

Richie Furay, American musician (Poco, Buffalo Springfield)

Laurence Owen, American figure skater (d. 1961)

May 10 – Jim Abrahams, American film director

May 12 – Sara Kestelman, English actress

May 13 – Armistead Maupin, American author

May 14 – George Lucas, American film director and producer

May 15

Ulrich Beck, German sociologist (d. 2015)

Gunilla Hutton, Swedish-born American actress and singer

May 19 – Peter Mayhew, English actor

May 20

Joe Cocker, English rock singer (d. 2014)

Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer

Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman

May 21 – Mary Robinson, President of Ireland

May 23

John Newcombe, Australian tennis player

Avraham Oz, Israeli theater professor, translator, and political activist

May 24

David Mark Berger, American-born Israeli weightlifter, murdered at the Munich Olympics (d. 1972)

Patti LaBelle, American singer

May 25 – Frank Oz, English puppeteer and film director

May 27 – Chris Dodd, American politician

May 28

Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City

Gladys Knight, American singer

Rita MacNeil, Canadian folk singer (d. 2013)

Patricia, Lady Stephens (née Quinn), retired Northern Irish actress

May 29 – Helmut Berger, Austrian actor

May 30 – Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)

June

June 1 – Robert Powell, English actor

June 3 – Edith McGuire, American sprinter

June 4 – Michelle Phillips, American singer and actress (The Mamas & the Papas)

June 5

Colm Wilkinson, Irish actor and singer

Whitfield Diffie, American cryptographer

June 6

Phillip Allen Sharp, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Edgar Froese, German musician (d. 2015)

Tommie Smith, American athlete

June 8

Mark Belanger, American baseball player (d. 1998)

Don Grady, American actor and singer (d. 2012)

Marc Ouellet, Canadian cardinal

Boz Scaggs, American singer and guitarist

June 13 – Ban Ki-moon, South Korean politician and 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations

June 16 – Henri Richelet, French painter

June 17 – Bill Rafferty, American comedian and impressionist (d. 2012)

June 21 – Ray Davies, English rock-singer and songwriter, co-founder of The Kinks

June 24 – Jeff Beck, English rock musician

June 29 – Gary Busey, American actor

June 30

Terry Funk, American professional wrestler

Raymond Moody, American parapsychologist

July

July 3 – Michel Polnareff, French singer

July 8 – Jeffrey Tambor, American actor

July 13 – Ernő Rubik, Hungarian inventor

July 14 – Aad Mansveld, Dutch footballer

July 15 – Jan-Michael Vincent, American actor

July 16 – Angharad Rees, Welsh actress (d. 2012)

July 17

Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricket captain

Catherine Schell, Hungarian actress

Carlos Alberto Torres, Brazilian footballer (d. 2016)

July 18 – David Hemery, British Olympic athlete

July 21

John Atta Mills, 13th President of Ghana (d. 2012)

Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)

July 23 – Alex Buzo, of Sydney, Australian playwright and author (d. 2006)

July 31

Geraldine Chaplin, English-American actress

Jonathan Dimbleby, British journalist and author

Robert C. Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

August

August 1 – Yury Romanenko, Soviet cosmonaut

August 2

Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)

Naná Vasconcelos, Brazilian percussionist and vocalist (d. 2016)

August 3 – Jonas Falk, Swedish actor (d. 2010)

August 4

Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian

William Frankfather, American actor (d. 1998)

Orhan Gencebay, Turkish musician, composer, singer and actor

August 7 – John Glover, American actor

August 8 – Brooke Bundy, American actress

August 9 – Sam Elliott, American actor

August 11

Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor

Frederick W. Smith, American founder of FedEx

August 12 – Larry Troutman, American musician (d. 1999)

August 13 – Kevin Tighe, American actor

August 15 – Sylvie Vartan, French singer

August 18

Robert Hitchcock, Australian sculptor

Volker Lechtenbrink, German television actor and singer

August 19 – Bodil Malmsten, Swedish writer (d. 2016)

August 20 – Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)

August 21

Kari S. Tikka, Finnish Professor of Finance (d. 2006)

Peter Weir, Australian film director

August 23 – Saira Banu, Indian actress

August 25 – Christine Chubbuck, American television reporter (d. 1974)

August 26 – Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester

August 30 – Tug McGraw, American baseball player (d. 2004)

August 31 – Jos LeDuc, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1999)

September

September 1 – Leonard Slatkin, American conductor

September 2 – Gilles Marchal, French musician

September 3

Tim Donnelly, American actor

Ty Warner, American Businessman, Inventor: Beanie Babies

September 4 – Tony Atkinson, British economist (d. 2017)

September 6 – Christian Boltanski, French artist

September 7

Earl Manigault, American basketball player (d. 1998)

Bora Milutinović, Serbian football coach

September 12

Leonard Peltier, Native American activist and convicted murderer

Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)

September 13

Carol Barnes, British newsreader (d. 2008)

Jacqueline Bisset, English actress

Peter Cetera, lead singer and guitarist of American rock group Chicago

September 15 – Graham Taylor, English footballer and football manager (d. 2017)

September 17 – Reinhold Messner, Italian mountaineer

September 18

Veronica Carlson, English actress and model

Satan's Angel, American exotic dancer

September 19 – İsmet Özel, Turkish poet

September 21 – Hamilton Jordan, Jimmy Carter's first White House Chief of Staff (d. 2008)

September 22 – Frazer Hines, British actor

September 25 – Michael Douglas, American film actor and producer

September 26 – Anne Robinson, British television host

September 30 – Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (d. 2006)

October

October 2 – Vernor Vinge, American science fiction writer

October 4 – Tony La Russa, American baseball player and manager

October 5 – Arnhim Eustace, Vincentian politician and 3rd Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

October 6 – Mylon LeFevre, American singer and evangelist

October 9

John Entwistle, English musician (The Who) (d. 2002)

Nona Hendryx, American R&B singer (Labelle)

Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1987)

October 15

Şerif Gören, Turkish film director

David Trimble, Northern Irish Unionist political leader; recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 1998

October 20 – Clive Hornby, English actor (d. 2008)

October 21 – Jean-Pierre Sauvage, French scientist; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016

October 25 – Kati Kovács, Hungarian jazz, pop and rock musician

October 28 – Dennis Franz, American actor

October 30 – Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi businessman and politician (d. 2015)

November

November 1

Bobby Heenan, American professional wrestling manager and commentator

Oscar Temaru, President of French Polynesia

Rafic Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon (d. 2005)

November 2 – Keith Emerson, British keyboardist (d. 2016)

November 4 – Linda Gary, American voice actress (d. 1995)

November 6 – Wild Man Fischer, Outsider musician

November 7 – Joe Niekro, American baseball player (d. 2006)

November 10

Askar Akayevich Akayev, 1st President of Kyrgyzstan

Silvestre Reyes, American politician

November 11

Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua

Kemal Sunal, Turkish comedian

November 12

Booker T. Jones, American musician, singer and songwriter

Al Michaels, American sportscaster

November 17

Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter (d. 1991)

Danny DeVito, American actor, film producer and director

Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect

Lorne Michaels, Canadian television and film producer

Tom Seaver, American baseball player

November 18 – Wolfgang Joop, German artist, fashion designer, and art collector

November 20 – Donald DiFrancesco, American lawyer and politician, 51st Governor of New Jersey

November 21

Richard Durbin, American politician; United States Senator (D-IL)

Harold Ramis, American actor, director and comedy writer (d. 2014)

November 24

Candy Darling, American actress (d. 1974)

Ibrahim Gambari, Nigerian scholar and diplomat

November 25 – Ben Stein, American law professor, actor and author

November 25 – Michael Kijana Wamalwa, Kenyan politician, 8th Vice President of Kenya

November 30 – George Graham, Scottish football player and manager

December

December 1 – John Densmore, drummer, member of The Doors.

December 2

Cathy Lee Crosby, American actress (That's Incredible!)

Ibrahim Rugova, 1st President of Kosovo (d. 2006)

December 4 – Dennis Wilson, American singer, songwriter and drummer (d. 1983)

December 5 – Jeroen Krabbé, Dutch actor and film director

December 6

Ron Kenoly, American Christian leader

Jonathan King, British music producer

December 7

Daniel Chorzempa, American organist

Georges Coste, French Rugby player and coach

December 9

Tadashi Irie, Japanese yakuza boss

Ki Longfellow, American novelist

December 11

Lynda Day George, American actress

Brenda Lee, American singer

December 12

Kenneth Cranham, Scottish born actor

Cara Duff-MacCormick, Canadian stage actress

December 17 – Bernard Hill, British actor

December 19 – Tim Reid, American actor and comedian

December 21

Bill Atkinson, English footballer

Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor

Zheng Xiaoyu, Chinese bureaucrat (d. 2007)

December 22 – Steve Carlton, American baseball player

December 23

Wesley Clark, U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander

Ingar Knudtsen, Norwegian writer

December 24 – Erhard Keller, German speed skater

December 25 – Jairzinho, Brazilian football player

December 26

Bill Ayers, American education theorist and former radical anti-war activist

Jane Lapotaire, British actress

Aleksey Mikhalyov, Russian translator

December 28 – Kary Mullis, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

December 30 – Joseph Hilbe, American statistician and author

December 31 – Jan Widströmer, Swedish artist

Date unknown

Sima Bina, Iranian vocalist

William Goad, British businessman and serial child rapist (d. 2012)

Ahmad Kamyabi Mask, Iranian scholar

Ramon Torrents, Spanish artist

January

January 1

Edwin Lutyens, British architect (b. 1869)

Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (b. 1862)

January 4 – Kaj Munk, Danish playwright, priest and martyr (b. 1898)

January 6 – Ida Tarbell, American journalist and muckraker (b. 1857)

January 7 – Lou Henry Hoover, First Lady of the United States (b. 1874)

January 10 – William Emerson Ritter, American biologist (b. 1856)

January 11

Italian Fascist leaders executed in the Verona Trial

Emilio de Bono, General, former member of the Grand Council of Fascism (b. 1866)

Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari, aristocrat and diplomat, former member of the Grand Council of Fascism (b. 1903)

Giovanni Marinelli, former member of the Grand Council of Fascism (b. 1879)

Carluccio Pareschi, former member of the Grand Council of Fascism (b. 1898)

Luciano Gottardi (b. 1899)

Charles King, American actor (b. 1889)

Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (suicide) (b. 1903)

January 20 – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)

January 23 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)

January 29 – William Allen White, American journalist (b. 1868)

January 31 – Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)

February

February 1 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter (b. 1872)

February 4 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)

February 7 – Robert E. Park, American Sociologist (b. 1864)

February 11 – Carl Meinhof, German linguist (b. 1857)

February 12

Kenneth Gandar-Dower, English sportsman, aviator, explorer and author (b. 1908)

Margaret Woodrow Wilson, American singer; Presidential daughter (b. 1886)

February 13 – Edgar Selwyn, American screenwriter (b. 1875)

February 16 – Henri Nathansen, Danish writer and stage director (b. 1868)

February 21 – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)

February 23 – Leo Baekeland, Belgian-born American chemist (b. 1863)

February 29 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish politician, Prime Minister of Finland and 3rd President of Finland (b. 1861)

March

March 3 – Paul-Émile Janson, former Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1872)

March 4 – Louis Buchalter, Jewish-American mobster, head of Murder, Inc. (b. 1897)

March 5 – Max Jacob, French poet (b. 1876)

March 11

Hendrik Willem van Loon, Dutch-American historian, journalist and writer (b. 1882)

Irvin S. Cobb, American writer (b. 1876)

March 19 – Noël Édouard, vicomte de Curières de Castelnau, French general (b. 1851)

March 22 – Pierre Brossolette, journalist and French Resistance fighter (b. 1903)

March 23 – Myron Selznick, American film producer (b. 1898)

March 24

Aldo Finzi, Italian politician (executed) (b. 1891)

Orde Wingate, British soldier (b. 1903)

March 31 – Mineichi Koga, Japanese admiral (b. 1885)

April

April 9 – Yevgeniya Rudneva, Soviet WWII heroine (b. 1920)

April 17 – J. T. Hearne, English cricketer (b. 1867)

April 21 – Hans-Valentin Hube, German army general (b. 1890)

April 25 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (b. 1880)

April 28 – Frank Knox, American Secretary of the Navy during WWII (b. 1874)

April 29

Billy Bitzer, American cinematographer (b. 1874)

Bernardino Machado, 3rd and 8th President of Portugal (b. 1851)

April 30 – Paul Poiret, French couturier (b. 1879)

May

May 5 – Bertha Benz (b. 1849), German automotive pioneer, wife and business partner of automobile inventor Karl Benz

May 7 – William Ledyard Rodgers, American admiral and military and naval historian (b. 1860)

May 8 – Albert Leo Stevens, pioneering American balloonist (b. 1877)

May 12

Max Brand, American author (b. 1892)

Harold Lowe, British sailor, 5th officer of the RMS Titanic (b. 1882)

Arthur Quiller-Couch (aka "Q"), British writer (b. 1863)

May 16 – George Ade, American author (b. 1866)

May 20

Fraser Barron, New Zealand bomber pilot during WWII (b. 1921)

Vincent Rose, American musician and band leader (b. 1880)

May 23 – Thomas Curtis, American athlete (b. 1873)

May 24

Inigo Campioni, Italian admiral (executed) (b. 1878)

Matsuji Ijuin, Japanese admiral (b. 1893)

Harold Bell Wright, American writer (b. 1872)

May 25 – Clark Daniel Stearns, 9th Governor of American Samoa (b. 1870)

May 30 – Jessie Ralph, American actress (b. 1864)

June

June – Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (b. 1879)

June 6 – Ker-Xavier Roussel, French painter (b. 1867)

June 16 – Marc Bloch, French historian (b. 1886)

June 27 – Milan Hodža, Slovak politician, champion of regional integration in Europe (b. 1878)

July

July 1 – Carl Mayer, Austrian screenwriter (b. 1894)

July 6

Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (b. 1919)

Vera Leigh, English World War II heroine (b. 1903)

Chūichi Nagumo, Japanese admiral (b. 1887)

Sonya Olschanezky, German World War II heroine (b. 1923)

Diana Rowden, English World War II heroine (b. 1915)

July 7 – Georges Mandel, French politician and WWII hero (b. 1885)

July 8

George B. Seitz, American director (b. 1888)

Takeo Takagi, Japanese admiral (b. 1892)

July 12 – Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., American political and business leader (b. 1887)

July 14 – Asmahan, Syrian-born Egyptian singer (b.1918?)

July 15 – Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, French aviator (b. 1891)

July 18 – Rex Whistler, English artist (b. 1905)

July 20 – Mildred Harris, American actress (b. 1901)

July 21

Ludwig Beck, German general and Chief of the German General Staff (b. 1880)

Claus von Stauffenberg, German resistance leader (b. 1907)

July 25

Lesley J. McNair, American general (b. 1883)

Jakob von Uexküll, Baltic German biologist (b. 1864)

July 26 – Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1877)

July 27 – Perry McGillivray, American Olympic swmmer (b. 1893)

July 30 – Lee Powell, American actor (b. 1908)

July 31 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and writer (b. 1900)

August

August 1

Jean Prévost, French writer and journalist, member of the Maquis (b. 1901)

Manuel L. Quezon, 2nd President of the Philippines (b. 1878)

August 2 – Kakuji Kakuta, Japanese admiral (b. 1890)

August 4 – Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Polish poet (b. 1921)

August 8 – Michael Wittmann, German tank commander (killed in action) (b. 1914)

August 10– Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, Nazi opponent and lawyer (b. 1905)

August 12

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., American fighter pilot, oldest son of Joseph P. Kennedy (b. 1915)

Suzanne Spaak, Belgian World War II heroine

August 13

David Kammerer

August 18 – Ernst Thälmann, German Communist leader (executed) (b. 1886)

August 19

Günther von Kluge, German field marshal (suicide) (b. 1882)

Henry Wood, British conductor (b. 1869)

August 23

Abdülmecid II, last Caliph of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1868)

Nikolai Roslavets, Ukrainian Soviet composer (b. 1880)

August 26

Hans Leesment, Estonian general (b. 1873)

Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat (b. 1909)

August 27 – Princess Mafalda of Savoy (b. 1902)

September

September 5 – Gustave Biéler, Swiss WWII hero (b. 1904)

September 6 – Jan Franciszek Czartoryski, Polish Roman Catholic priest, executed during the Warsaw Uprising (b. 1897)

September 9 – Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (b. 1895)

September 13

Yolande Beekman, French WWII heroine (b. 1911)

Madeleine Damerment, French WWII heroine (b. 1917)

Noor Inayat Khan, Indian WWII heroine (b. 1914)

W. Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator (b. 1872)

September 14

John Kenneth Macalister, Canadian WWII hero (b. 1914)

Frank Pickersgill, Canadian WWII hero (b. 1915)

Roméo Sabourin, Canadian WWII hero (b. 1923)

September 16 – Gustav Bauer, 11st Chancellor of Germany (b. 1870)

September 23 – Matylda Palfyova, Czechoslovakian artistic gymnast (b. 1912, killed in action)

September 25

Walter Breisky, 4th Chancellor of Austria (b. 1871)

Eugeniusz Lokajski, Polish athlete, gymnast and photographer (b. 1909)

September 27 – Aristide Maillol, French sculptor and painter (b. 1861)

September 28 – Josef Bürckel, German Nazi gauleiter (suicide) (b. 1895)

October

October 1 – Rudolf Schmundt, German general (b. 1896)

October 2 or 3 – Benjamin Fondane, Romanian-French Symbolist poet, critic and existentialist philosopher (gassed in Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1898)

October 4 – Al Smith, American politician (b. 1873)

October 8 – Wendell Willkie, American politician (b. 1892)

October 12 – Ramón Castillo, 25th President of Argentina (b. 1873)

October 14 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (suicide) (b. 1891)

October 21 – Alois Kayser, German missionary (b. 1877)

October 22 – Richard Bennett, American actor (b. 1870)

October 21 – Hilma af Klint, Swedish abstract painter (b. 1862)

October 23 – Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)

October 24 – Shōji Nishimura, Japanese vice admiral (killed in action) (b. 1889)

October 26

HRH The Princess Beatrice, youngest and last surviving child of Queen Victoria (b. 1857)

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, Japanese fighter ace (killed in action) (b. 1920)

William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1881)

November

November 2 – Thomas Midgley, Jr., American chemist and inventor (b. 1889)

November 4 – John Dill, Field Marshal of the British Army (b. 1881)

November 5 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)

November 7 – Hannah Szenes, Hungarian World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1921)

November 10 – Wang Jingwei, Chinese statesman, President of the Nanjing-based and Japanese-supported collaborationist Government of the Republica of China (b. 1883)

November 12 – George F. Houston, American actor (b. 1896)

November 14 – Trafford Leigh-Mallory, British aviator and Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal (plane crash) (b. 1892)

November 22

Joseph Caillaux, French politician and 75th Prime Minister of France (b. 1863)

Arthur Eddington, English astronomer, physicist and mathematician (b. 1882)

November 25 – Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1st commissioner of Major League Baseball (b. 1866)

November 26 – Florence Foster Jenkins, American socialite and operatic soprano (b. 1868)

December

December 2

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet, editor and art theorist, founder of the Futurist movement (b. 1876)

Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (b. 1874)

December 4 – Roger Bresnahan, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1879)

December 9 – Laird Cregar, American actor (b. 1916)

December 13

Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born artist (b. 1866)

Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress (suicide) (b. 1908)

December 15 – Glenn Miller, American band leader (accident) (b. 1904)

December 22 – Harry Langdon, American comedian (b. 1884)

December 27 – Sára Salkaházi, Hungarian religious sister (b. 1899)

December 30 – Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)

December 31 – Vicente Lim, Filipino general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (b. 1889)

Date unknown

Gerald Haxton, companion and secretary to novelist/playwright W. Somerset Maugham (b. 1892)

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Isidor Isaac Rabi

Chemistry – Otto Hahn

Medicine – Joseph Erlanger, Herbert Spencer Gasser

Literature – Johannes V. Jensen

Peace – International Committee of the Red Cross