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John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle (October 9, 1944 – June 27, 2002) was the bass guitar player for The Who. He is regarded as one of the most influential bassists of all time, creating an aggressive lead sound that helped influence contemporary and later bassists such as Noel Redding, Chris Squire, Steve Harris and Billy Sheehan.
Birth and early career
John Alec Entwistle was born in Chiswick, a London suburb, in 1944. In the early 1960s, he played in several traditional jazz and dixieland outfits with schoolmate Pete Townshend, and later joined Roger Daltrey's band the Detours. This band later became the Who.
He was nicknamed "The Ox" mainly because of his tendency to stand still and not move about like Townshend or Daltrey did onstage. Bill Wyman described him as "the quietest man in private but the loudest man on stage." He was also known as "Thunderfingers" and "Big Johnny Twinkle" by his bandmates and fans.
John Entwistle was a talented songwriter and artist. He wrote several well-known Who songs including:
- Cousin Kevin
- My Wife
- Boris The Spider
- Heaven and Hell
These songs, along with his solo material, reveal a dark sense of humor which was often incompatible with Pete Townshend's more introspective work. His frustration with getting his material recorded by the Who led him to release "Smash Your Head Against The Wall" in 1971. He was the first member of the Who to release a solo record.
Entwistle also contributed many backing vocals and horn performances to the group, most notably on Quadrophenia, where he layered several horns to create the impressive brass of 5:15, among other tracks.
Rarely captured well in the studio, his style and sound was fully developed by the time of the Who's performance of "A Quick One While He's Away" for the Rolling Stones' 1968 Rock and Roll Circus, as well as the seminal 1970 Live at Leeds concert recording. In concert, Entwistle and guitarist Pete Townshend frequently exchanged roles, with Entwistle providing rapid melodic lines and Townshend anchoring the song with rhythmic chord work. Entwistle also pioneered the use of roundwound steel bass strings, developed for him by the Rotosound company. Indeed, Pete Townshend was often quoted that it was Entwistle who was the lead guitarist in the band, while he, being the rhythmic timekeeping element, was in effect the drummer. Moon, on the other hand, with all his flourishes round the kit, was considered by Townshend to be the equivalent of a keyboard player! Entwistle himself stated in many interviews (including one with Guitar Player's Chris Jisi in 1989) that, according to modern standards, "The Who haven't a proper bass player."
Entwistle helped uncover the potential of the bass guitar as a lead instrument, using aggressive pentatonic lead lines, and a trebly sound virtually unheard of in the early 1960s. Indeed, his search for a sound to cut through the Who's sonic onslaught led him to experiment with more and different basses, leading him to amass a collection of over 200 instruments by his death. His search for the perfect sound led him to experiment most notably with Alembic's basses in the 1970s, Warwick in the 1980s, and Status all-graphite basses in the 1990s.
Along with Pete Townshend, he made early use of stacked Marshall cabinets (the legendary "Marshall Stack" configuration). He also experimented throughout his career with "bi-amping," where the high and low ends of the bass sound are sent through separate signal paths, allowing for more tweaking of the output. His gear became so loaded with speaker cabinets and processing gear that he used to refer to his live rig as "Little Manhattan."
His "full treble, full volume" approach to bass sound was originally supposed to be captured in the bass solo to "My Generation." According to Entwistle, his original intention was to feature the distinctive Danelectro bass, which has a very twangy sound, in the solo. However, after repeatedly breaking strings on the instrument, and after purchasing two more Danelectros in an attempt to capture the sound (Danelectro strings apparently being unavailable separately at the time), he recorded a simpler solo using a stock Fender Jazz Bass and a pick. Nevertheless, this solo bass break is important as one of the first (if not the first) captured on a rock record. A live recording of the Who from this period (1965) exists with Entwistle playing a Danelectro on "My Generation," giving an idea of what that solo would have sounded like.
Entwistle developed what he called a "typewriter" approach to playing the bass. This involves positioning the right hand over the strings so all four fingers could be used to tap percussively on the strings, causing them to strike the fretboard with a distinctive twangy sound. This allows the player to play three or four strings at once, or to use several fingers on a single string. This allowed him to create passages that were at once very percussive and melodic. He used this approach to mimic the fills used by his drummers in band situations, sometimes sending the fills back at the drummers faster than the drummers themselves could play them. This method is unique and should not be confused with the hammer-on tapping techniques of Eddie Van Halen and Stu Hamm or the slapping technique of Larry Graham, and in fact pre-dates these other techniques. A demonstration of this approach to bass playing can be seen on a video called "John Entwistle - Master Class," part of Arlen Roth's Hot Licks instructional series.
Entwistle identified his influences as a combination of his school training on French horn, trumpet, and piano (giving his fingers impressive strength and dexterity), as well as rock & roll guitarists Duane Eddy and Gene Vincent, and American soul and R&B bassists such as James Jamerson. Like Jamerson, he is credited as a pioneer on the bass guitar.
In turn, Entwistle has been a massive stylistic influence on a generation of bass players that follow him and continues to top 'best ever bass player' polls in musicians magazines.
Late career
Toward the end of his career, he formed the, "John Entwistle Band" with longtime friend, drummer, Steve Luongo. Godfrey Townsend (no relation to Pete) played guitar and sang lead vocals. In 1996, the band went on the "Left for Dead" tour with Alan St. Jon on keyboards. After Entwistle did touring with The Who for Quadrophenia in 1997-98, the Entwistle Band did the "Left for Dead - the Sequel" tour in late 1998 now with Gordon Cotten on keyboards. On this second venture, the band released an album of highlights from the tour called, "Left for Live."
Death
John Entwistle died in 2002 in Las Vegas on the eve of the first show in a US tour by The Who. Welsh-born bassist Pino Palladino, who played on several of Pete Townshend's solo records, replaced him on stage.
The Las Vegas medical examiner determined that death was due to a heart attack induced by an undetermined amount of cocaine. Though the amount in his bloodstream may not have been great, the drug caused his coronary arteries — already damaged by a pre-existing heart condition — to contract, which led to the fatal heart attack.
Entwistle's enormous collection of hundreds of guitars and basses was auctioned at Sotheby's in London by his son Christopher, to meet anticipated death duties on his father's estate. Of the auction, Christopher was quoted as saying his father would have hated it. Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook is amongst those who acquired some of Entwistle's basses at the auction.
Entwistle's enormous mansion in Stow-On-The-Wold in the Cotswolds and a large number of his very personal effects were also later sold off to meet the demands of the Tax Inspectors at the Inland Revenue. Ironically, Entwistle was a former employee of that department, only quitting his job there when The Who became successful.
John Entwistle is interred on the property of Saint Edward's Church in Stow-On-The-Wold,
Gloucester, England.
Solo discography
- Smash Your Head Against the Wall (1971)
- Whistle Rymes (1972)
- Rigor Mortis Sets In (1973)
- Mad Dog (1975)
- Too Late The Hero
October 9October 9 is the 282nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (283rd in Leap years). There are 83 days remaining.
Events
- 1000 - Leif Ericson discovers Vinland, becoming the first known European to set foot in North America.
- 1238 - James I of Aragon conquered Valencia and founded the Kingdom of Valencia.
- 1446 - The Hangul alphabet is published in Korea.
- 1514 - marriage of Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor
- 1582 - Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
- 1635 - Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he spoke out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.
- 1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
- 1771 - The Dutch merchant ship Vrouw Maria sinks near the coast of Finland.
- 1776 - Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.
- 1812 - War of 1812: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships; the HMS Detroit and the HMS Caledonia.
- 1820 - Guayaquil declared independence from Spain.
- 1831 - Capo d'Istria was assassinated.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
- 1871 - The Great Chicago Fire is brought under control.
- 1874 - General Postal Union was created as a result of the Treaty of Berne.
- 1888 - The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.
- 1914 - World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.
- 1919 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
- 1936 - Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to transmit electricity from the Colorado River 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.
- 1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain - During a nighttime air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral is pierced by a bomb.
- 1942 - Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.
- 1944 - World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
- 1957 - Neil H. McElroy was sworn in as the 6th Secretary of Defense of United States.
- 1962 - Uganda becomes a republic.
- 1963 - In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.
- 1967 - A day after being caught, Che Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.
- 1969 - In Chicago, Illinois, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection to the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24).
- 1969 - Students from the University of the Philippines formed the first Upsilonian Congress and established the Upsiloan Alpha Beta Grand Fraternity in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
- 1970 - The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.
- 1986 - United States District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne becomes the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.
- 1989 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
- 1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany, 70,000 protesters demand the legalization of opposition groups and democratic reforms.
- 1991 - Ecuador becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1992 - A 13 kilogram (est.) meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.
- 1995 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
- 2002 - After losing a massive amount of ground during the summer of 2002, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 7,286.27, its lowest level in five years. The NASDAQ also hit a six-year low of 1,114.11.
- 2004 - Jo Brauner resign as the anchor of German Tagesschau news show after 30 years.
- 2004 - Democratic elections held for the first time in Afghanistan.
- 2004 - The tri-annual federal election is held in Australia and Liberal Party of Australia leader, John Howard, wins a fourth term as Prime Minister in a landslide victory over opponent, Mark Latham of the Australian Labor Party.
- 2005 - China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping officially announced the new accurate height of Everest is 8848.43 m.
- 2005 - When Tropical Depression 23 stengthened into the Hurricane Vince it made the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the first season to use the V name.
Births
- 1201 - Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne (d. 1274)
- 1221 - Salimbene di Adam, Italian chronicler
- 1261 - King Dinis of Portugal (d. 1325)
- 1328 - King Peter I of Cyprus (d. 1369)
- 1581 - Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician (d. 1638)
- 1585 - Heinrich Schütz, German composer (d. 1672)
- 1586 - Archduke Leopold V of Austria (d. 1632)
- 1757 - King Charles X of France (d. 1836)
- 1796 - Joseph Bonomi the Younger, English Egyptologist (d. 1878)
- 1835 - Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (d. 1921)
- 1840 - Simeon Solomon, British artist (d. 1905)
- 1852 - Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)
- 1859 - Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer (d. 1935)
- 1873 - Karl Schwarzschild, German physicist and astronomer (d. 1916)
- 1873 - Charles Walgreen, American entrepreneur (d. 1939)
- 1873 - Carl Flesch, Hungarian violinist (d. 1944)
- 1874 - Nicholas Roerich, Russian painter (d. 1947)
- 1879 - Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
- 1886 - Rube Marquard, baseball player (d. 1980)
- 1888 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician (d. 1938)
- 1890 - Aimee Semple McPherson, American evangelist (d. 1944)
- 1892 - Ivo Andrić, Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
- 1892 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (d. 1941)
- 1893 - Mário de Andrade, Brazilian writer and photographer (d. 1945)
- 1900 - Alastair Sim, Scottish actor (d. 1976)
- 1907 - Quintin Hogg, British politician (d. 2001)
- 1908 - Jacques Tati, French filmmaker (d. 1982)
- 1909 - Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)
- 1911 - Joe Rosenthal, American photographer
- 1915 - Clifford M. Hardin, United States Secretary of Agriculture
- 1920 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (d. 1976)
- 1923 - Fyvush Finkel, American actor
- 1928 - Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
- 1933 - Peter Mansfield, British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1936 - Brian Blessed, English actor
- 1938 - Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
- 1940 - John Lennon, British musician and songwriter (The Beatles) (d. 1980)
- 1941 - Trent Lott, American politician
- 1944 - John Entwistle, British musician (The Who) (d. 2002)
- 1944 - Nona Hendryx, American singer (LaBelle)
- 1944 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican musician (d. 1987)
- 1946 - Tansu Çiller, Prime Minister of Turkey
- 1948 - Jackson Browne, American musician
- 1950 - Jody Williams, American teacher and aid worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1952 - Sharon Osbourne, English music manager and wife of Ozzy Osbourne
- 1953 - Tony Shalhoub, American actor
- 1954 - Scott Bakula, American actor
- 1958 - Michael Pare, American actor
- 1962 - Jorge Burruchaga, Argentinian footballer
- 1966 - David Cameron, Britsh politician
- 1967 - Eddie Guerrero, Mexican Professional Wrestler (d. 2005)
- 1969 - P.J. Harvey, English musician
- 1970 - Kenny Anderson, American basketball player
- 1970 - Savannah, American actress (d. 1994)
- 1970 - Annika Sörenstam, Swedish golfer
- 1971 - Simon Atlee, British photographer (d. 2004)
- 1971 - Michael Manna, American professional wrestler
- 1973 - Steven Burns, actor and musician
- 1975 - Sean Lennon, English musician
- 1978 - Nicky Byrne, Irish musician (Westlife)
- 1978 - Juan Dixon, American basketball player
- 1979 - Gonzalo Sorondo, Uruguayan footballer
- 1981 - Darius Miles, American basketball player
- 1986 - Laure Manaudou, French swimmer
- 1990 - Thomas Murphy, Australian actor
Deaths
- 1047 - Pope Clement II (b. 1005)
- 1253 - Robert Grosseteste, English statesman and bishop
- 1390 - King John I of Castile (b. 1358)
- 1555 - Justus Jonas, German protestant reformer (b. 1493)
- 1562 - Gabriele Falloppio, Italian anatomist (b. 1523)
- 1569 - Vladimir of Staritsa, Russian prince (b. 1533)
- 1597 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shogun (b. 1537)
- 1691 - William Sacheverell, English statesman (b. 1638)
- 1709 - Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, English mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1640)
- 1729 - Richard Blackmore, English physician and writer (b. 1654)
- 1793 - Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, French missionary (b. 1718)
- 1797 - Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi (b. 1720)
- 1806 - Benjamin Banneker, American astronomer (b. 1731)
- 1831 - John Capodistria, Governor of Greece (b. 1776)
- 1924 - Valery Bryusov, Russian writer and critic (b. 1873)
- 1934 - King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (assassinated) (b. 1888)
- 1934 - Louis Barthou, Prime Minister of France (assassinated) (b. 1862)
- 1941 - Helen Morgan, American singer and actress (b. 1900)
- 1943 - Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- 1955 - Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Austrian Catholic archbishop (b. 1875)
- 1956 - Marie Doro, American actress (b. 1882)
- 1958 - Pope Pius XII (b. 1876)
- 1962 - Milan Vidmar, Slovenian electrical engineer and chess player (b. 1885)
- 1967 - Che Guevara, Argentine revolutionary and guerilla leader (executed) (b. 1928)
- 1967 - Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- 1972 - Miriam Hopkins, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1974 - Oskar Schindler, German businessman (b. 1908)
- 1978 - Jacques Brel, Belgian musician (b. 1929)
- 1987 - Guru Gopinath, Indian classical dancer (b. 1908)
- 1987 - Clare Boothe Luce, American diplomat (b. 1903)
- 1987 - William Parry Murphy, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1892)
- 1989 - Penny Lernoux, American journalist and author (b. 1940)
- 1995 - Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1903)
- 1996 - Walter Kerr, American theater critic (b. 1913)
- 2000 - David Dukes, American actor (b. 1945)
- 2001 - Dagmar, American television personality (b. 1921)
- 2005 - Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (b. 1913)
- 1989-Jonathan Cedermaz, born in Oakland from Marcelo and Heather Cedermaz futer emporer of the moon
Holidays
- RC Saints - Saint Denis, Saint John Leonardi
- Also see October 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- South Korea - Hangul Day: celebrating the invention of Hangul, the native Korean phonetic alphabet.
- Uganda - Independence Day (from Britain, 1962)
- Leif Erikson Day - in United States, Iceland and Norway: celebrating the first European landing in North America
- Ecuador - Guayaquil's Independence Day (from Spain 1820) (Dia de la independencia de Guayaquil)
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/9 BBC: On This Day]
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October 8 - October 10 - September 9 - November 9 - more historical anniversaries
The national holiday of Tom's birthday.
ko:10월 9일
ms:9 Oktober
ja:10月9日
simple:October 9
th:9 ตุลาคม
1944
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).
Events
January
- January 4 - The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
- January 5 - Murder of Danish playwright Kaj Munk.
- January 14 - The Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.
- January 17 - British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River.
- January 17 - Meat Rationing ends in Australia.
- January 20 - The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin. The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River.
- January 22 - Allies begin Operation Shingle, the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.
- January 27 - The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
- January 29 - The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
- January 30 - United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
- January 31 - American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
February
- February 1 - United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
- February 3 - United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
- February 7 - In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.
- February 14 - Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- February 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - the monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
- February 17 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ended in an American victory on February 22.
- February 20 - "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
- February 20 - The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
- February 29 - The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.
March
- March - The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.
- March 1 - USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge laid down.
- March 1 - Anti-fascist strike in northern Italy.
- March 2 - Train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy - 426 choke to death
- March 3 - The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov were instituted in USSR
- March 10 - In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
- March 12 - The Creation of the politic Committee of national liberation in Greece.
- March 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
- March 15 - The National Counsil of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
- March 17 - The hitlerists assassinate at Rîbniţa almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians.
- March 18 - German forces occupy Hungary.
- March 20 - RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade's bomber is hit over Germany and he has to bail out without a parachute from the height of over 4000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow
May
- May 5 - Mohandas Gandhi released in India.
- May 9 - Soviet troops liberate Sevastopol.
- May 12 - Soviet troops finalize the liberation of Crimea.
- May 18 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
- May 18 - Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.
June
Soviet Union].
- June 2 - The provisional French government is established.
- June 4 - A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
- June 4 - American, English and French troops enter Rome.
- June 5 - Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.
- June 5 - More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
- June 6 - Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, 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.
- June 9 - Stalin launches an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
- June 10 - 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
- June 13 - Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
- June 15 - Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
- June 17 - The proclamation of the Republic of Iceland.
- June 22 - Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
- June 25 - The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.
- June 26 - American troops enter Cherbourg.
July
- July 3 - Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
- July 9 - British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
- July 10 - Soviet troops start the operations for freeing the Baltic countries.
- July 13 - Liberation of Vilnius.
- July 17 - The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
- July 17 - SS E.A.Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes in the Port Chicago naval base - 320 dead
- July 18 - Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
- July 20 - Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt. See Claus von Stauffenberg
- July 21 - Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
- July 21 - The creation of the Polish Committee for national liberation.
- July 25 - Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.
August
- August 1 - Warsaw Uprising begins.
- August 2 - Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
- August 7 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- August 12 - Allies capture Florence, Italy.
- August 12 - World's first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto
- August 15 - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.
- August 19 - (August 25) Victorious insurrection in Paris.
- August 23 - Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government is established. Romania exits the war against Russia joining the Allies.
- August 24 - Allies enter Paris.
- August 25 - Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
- August 29 - Slovak National Uprising begins
September
- September 1 - In Bulgaria, the Bagrianov government resigns.
- September 2 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
- September 3 - Allies liberate Brussels.
- September 4 - The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
- September 4 - Finland breaks off relations with Germany.
- September 5 - The Soviets declare war on Bulgaria.
- September 7 - The Belgian government returns from exile in Britain.
- September 8 - London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
- September 8 - The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
- September 9 - Insurrection in Sofia.
- September 11 - Northern and southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
- September 17 - Operation Market Garden begins.
- September 19 - Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union signed. (End of the Continuation War)
- September 24 - The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Epinal before crossing the Moselle River and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.
- September 26 - Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.
October
- October 2 - Warsaw Uprising ends.
- October 5 - Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
- October 9 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
- October 12 - The Allies land at Athens.
- October 13 - Riga, the capital of Latvia is liberated by the Red Army.
- October 14 - German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
- October 18 - Volkssturm founded on Hitler's orders.
- October 20 - Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
- October 20 - LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio
- October 21 - Aachen is the first German city to fall.
- October 23 - Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins (lasts until October 26).
- October 25 - Florence Foster Jenkins recital in the Carnegie Hall
- October 25 - Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated from German occupation.
- October 31 - Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris metro station
November-December
- November 6 - Two Lehi assassins kill Lord Moyne in Cairo
- November 12 - East Turkestan Republic declared
- November 12 - The Royal Air Force carries out one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of the war, sinking the German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of Norway.
- November 19 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
- November 24 - Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
- November 25 - A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, killing 160 shoppers.
- November 26 - Gas chambers at Auschwitz and Stutthof are destroyed.
- November 29 - Albania is liberated from German occupation.
- December 16 - Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later to become known as Battle of the Bulge.
- December 16 - General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General
- December 17 - German troops carry out the Malmédy massacre.
- December 24 - The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.
- December 26 - American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
- December 31 - Hungary declares war on Germany
Other events
January-July
- January 5 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- February 26 - - Shooting begins of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.
- March 1 - USS Tarawa laid down
- March 4 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.
- March 24 - In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jewish people they were hiding.
- April 25 - The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
- 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.
- June 17 - Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.
- July 1 - Start of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
- July 6 - A fire broke out during a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus in Hartford, Connecticut, resulting in the deaths of 168 people, most of them children. See Hartford Circus Fire
- July 17 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California killing 232.
- July 22 - End of Bretton Woods conference and signing of Agreements.
August-November
- August 4 - 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.
- August 5 - Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
- 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 the Bear for the first time.
- September 2 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
- October 2 - Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
- October 8 - The radio show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuts.
- October 10 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp
- November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term.
- November 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
December
- December 3 - Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
- December 1 - Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, by filling the seat left by the Cordell Hull.
- December 26 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was first publicly performed.
- December 30 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
Unknown dates
- In Sweden, the law of 1864 that criminalizes homosexuality is abolished.
- Swedish author of children's books Astrid Lindgren publishes her first book Pippi Longstocking.
- In Sweden, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.
- Barbados General election - Grantley Adams, black lawyer, first majority party leader in the House of Assembly, as leader of Barbados Labour Party
- Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger's Syndrome
- The Mad Gasser of Mattoon carries out a series of mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.
- National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence established.
Ongoing events
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- Second World War (1939-1945)
Births
For more 1944 births see :Category:1944 births
January
- January 2 - Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
- January 6 - Bonnie Franklin, American actress
- January 6 - Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- January 9 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
- January 12 - Joe Frazier, American boxer
- January 17 - Françoise Hardy, French singer
- January 18 - Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
- January 23 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
- January 24 - Neil Diamond, American singer
- January 26 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
- January 27 - Mairead Corrigan, Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- January 27 - Nick Mason, English drummer (Pink Floyd)
February
- February 3 - Dave Davies, British musician (The Kinks)
- February 5 - Al Kooper, American musician (Blood, Sweat, and Tears)
- February 5 - Michael Mann, American film, director, writer, producer
- February 9 - Alice Walker, American writer
- February 10 - Vernor Vinge, American writer
- February 11 - Michael G. Oxley, American politician
- February 13 - Stockard Channing, American actress
- February 13 - Jerry Springer, English-born television host
- February 14 - Carl Bernstein, American journalist
- February 14 - Alan Parker, English-born film director, actor, and writer
- February 16 - Richard Ford, American writer
- February 17 - Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
- February 20 - Willem van Hanegem, Dutch football player and coach
- February 22 - Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer, and writer
- February 22 - Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
- February 23 - Johnny Winter, American musician
- February 24 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994)
- February 28 - Sepp Maier, German footballer
March
- March 1 - John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana
- March 1 - Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)
- March 2 - Uschi Glas, German actress
- March 6 - Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano
- March 11 - Don MacLean, British comedian
- March 15 - Sly Stone, American singer
- March 17 - John Sebastian, American singer and songwriter (The Lovin' Spoonful)
- March 19 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
- March 19 - Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy
- March 24 - R. Lee Ermey, U.S. Marine and actor
- March 26 - Diana Ross, American singer
- March 28 - Rick Barry, American basketball player
- March 29 - Denny McLain, baseball player
April
- April 3 - Tony Orlando, American musician
- April 4 - Craig T. Nelson, American actor
- April 6 - Felicity Palmer, English soprano
- April 7 - Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
- April 8 - Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter
- April 11 - John Milius, American film director, producer, and screenwriter
- April 19 - James Heckman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 22 - Steve Fossett, American millionaire adventurer
- April 28 - Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician
- April 29 - Richard Kline, American actor and television director
- April 30 - Jill Clayburgh, American actress
May
- May 1 - Suresh Kalmadi, Indian politician
- May 5 - John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor
- May 8 - Gary Glitter, English singer
- May 9 - Richie Furay, American musician (Poco and Buffalo Springfield)
- May 10 - Jim Abrahams, American film director
- May 13 - Armistead Maupin, American author
- May 12 - Sara Kestelman, British actor
- May 14 - George Lucas, American film director and producer
- May 20 - Joe Cocker, British singer
- May 20 - Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer
- May 20 - Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman
- May 21 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
- May 25 - Frank Oz, English puppeteer and film director
- May 28 - Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of New York City
- May 28 - Gladys Knight, American singer
- May 30 - Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)
June-October
- June 3 - Edith McGuire, American sprinter
- June 5 - Tommie Smith, American athlete
- June 6 - Phillip Allen Sharp, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 8 - Mark Belanger, baseball player (d. 1998)
- June 24 - Jeff Beck, British musician
- June 29 - Gary Busey, American actor
- June 30 - Raymond Moody, parapsychologist
- July 13 - Ernő Rubik, Hungarian inventor
- July 17 - Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricket captains
- July 21 - Tony Scott, English film director
- July 21 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)
- July 27 - Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor, and musician (d. 2003)
- July 31 - Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
- July 31 - Robert Carhart Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 2 - Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)
- August 4 - Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
- August 8 - Brooke Bundy, American actress
- August 9 - Sam Elliott, American actor
- August 11 - Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
- August 21 - Peter Weir, Australian film director
- August 23 - Saira Banu, Indian actress
- August 26- Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
- September 1 - Leonard Slatkin, American conductor
- September 2 - Al Matthews, American actor (d. 2002)
- September 7 - Earl Manigault, American basketball player (d. 1998)
- September 7 - Bora Milutinovic, Serbian football coach
- September 12 - Leonard Peltier, U.S. Presidential candidate
- September 12 - Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)
- September 21 - Hamilton Jordan, Carter's 1ST Chief of Staff
- September 22 - Frazer Hines, British actor
- September 25 - Michael Douglas, American actor
- September 26 - Anne Robinson, British television host
- October 9 - John Entwistle, English bassist (The Who) (d. 2002)
- October 9 - Nona Hendryx, singer (LaBelle)
- October 9 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1987)
- October 15 - David Trimble, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 28 - Dennis Franz, American actor
- October 28 - Ian Marter, British actor (d. 1986)
November-December
- November 1 - Rafik Bahaa Edine Hariri, Lebanese Prime Minister 1992 - 1998 (d. 2005).
- November 9 - Melvin Maskin, American teacher
- November 10 - Silvestre Reyes, American politician
- November 12 - Booker T. Jones, American musician, singer, and songwriter (Booker T. and the M.G.'s)
- November 12 - Al Michaels, American sportscaster
- November 17 - Danny DeVito, American actor
- November 17 - Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect
- November 17 - Lorne Michaels, American film producer
- November 17 - Tom Seaver, baseball player
- November 21 - Dick Durbin, American politician
- November 25 - Ben Stein, American law professor, actor, and author
- December 7 - Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
- December 17 - Jack L. Chalker, American novelist (d. 2005)
- December 21 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
- December 22 - Steve Carlton, baseball player
- December 23 - Wesley Clark, U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander
- December 25 - Jairzinho, Brazilian football player
- December 28 - Kary Mullis, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
For more 1944 deaths see :Category:1944 deaths
January-May
- January 1 - Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (b. 1862)
- January 11 - Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (b. 1903)
- January 20 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
- January 31 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
- January 31 - William Allen White, American journalist (b. 1868)
- February 1 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
- February 4 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)
- February 11 - Carl Meinhof, German linguist (b. 1857)
- February 21 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
- February 23 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
- March 5 - Max Jacob, French poet (b. 1876)
- March 22 - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and French Resistance fighter (b. 1903)
- March
June 27
June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining.
Events
- 678 - Saint Agatho begins his reign as a Catholic Pope.
- 1542 - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo claims California for Spain.
- 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.
- 1759 - General James Wolfe starts siege of Quebec.
- 1806 - The British capture Buenos Aires.
- 1844 - Joseph Smith, Jr. is murdered along with his brother Hyrum in the jail in Carthage, Illinois.
- 1864 - Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the American Civil War.
- 1867 - The Bank of California opens its doors
- 1893 - Crash of the New York Stock Exchange.
- 1898 - First solo circumnavigation of the globe completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island Nova Scotia.
- 1905 - Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin.
- 1950 - The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
- 1953 - Joseph Laniel becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1954 - World's first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
- 1957 - Hurricane Audrey kills 500 people in Louisiana and Texas.
- 1966 - The first broadcast of Dark Shadows aired on ABC-TV.
- 1967 - World's first ATM installed in Enfield, London.
- 1972 - ATARI is established by Nolan Bushnell.
- 1974 - U.S president Richard Nixon visits the U.S.S.R.
- 1977 - France grants independence to Djibouti.
- 1979 - Muhammad Ali announces his retirement from boxing.
- 1980 - A commercial DC-9 (Itavia Flight 870) was apparently shot down.
- 1984 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau wins Albert Einstein Peace Prize.
- 1985 - Route 66 ceases to be an official highway.
- 1986 - International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in the Nicaragua v. United States.
- 1991 - Slovenia, after declaring independence two days previous, is invaded by Yugoslavia troops, tanks, and aircraft.
- 1995 - Jodi Huisentruit, an anchorwoman in Mason City, Iowa disappears, presumably abducted.
- 2001 - International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in the LaGrand Case.
- 2005 - AMD files broad antitrust complaint against Intel Corporation in US Federal District Court, alleging abuse of monopoly powers and antitrust violations.
Births
1040 to 1899
- 1040 - King Ladislaus I of Hungary (d. 1095)
- 1462 - King Louis XII of France (d. 1515)
- 1550 - King Charles IX of France (d. 1574)
- 1696 - William Pepperrell, British colonial soldier (d. 1759)
- 1717 - Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, French botanist (d. 1799)
- 1838 - Paul von Mauser, German weapon designer (d. 1914)
- 1846 - Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish independence fighter (d. 1891)
- 1850 - Lafcadio Hearn, Greek-born author (d. 1904)
- 1869 - Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-born anarchist and feminist (d. 1940)
- 1869 - Hans Spemann, German embryologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1941)
- 1870 - Frank Rattray Lillie, American zoologist and embryologist (d. 1947)
- 1880 - Helen Keller, American spokeswoman for the deaf and blind (d. 1968)
- 1882 - Eduard Spranger, German philosopher, psychologist, and educator (d. 1963)
- 1884 - Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (d. 1962)
1900 to 1999
- 1913 - Willie Mosconi, American billiards player (d. 1993)
- 1924 - Rosalie Allen, American singer and disc jockey (d. 2003)
- 1924 - Bob Appleyard, English cricketer
- 1925 - Doc Pomus, American musician and composer (d. 1991)
- 1928 - Rudy Perpich, American politician (d. 1995)
- 1930 - Ross Perot, American billionaire and politician
- 1931 - Charles Bronfman, Canadian industrialist
- 1931 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1932 - Anna Moffo, American soprano
- 1941 - Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (d. 1996)
- 1949 - Vera Wang, American fashion designer
- 1951 - Mary McAleese, President of Ireland
- 1955 - Isabelle Adjani, French actress
- 1956 - Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player
- 1958 - Magnus Lindberg, Finnish composer
- 1959 - Clint Boon, English musician (Inspiral Carpets)
- 1962 - Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Hong Kong actor
- 1963 - Meera Syal, English comedian, writer, singer, journalist, and actress
- 1964 - Chuck Person, basketball player
- 1966 - J.J. Abrams, American television writer and producer
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