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| Jonathan Demme |
Jonathan DemmeJonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an American film director, producer and writer.
Demme won the Academy Award for Directing for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.
One of his common directoral motifs is to allow characters to look directly into the camera.
Jonathan formed his production company, Clinica Estetico, with producers Edward Saxon and Peter Saraf. They were based out of New York for fifteen years.
Filmography
- Caged Heat (1974)
- Crazy Mama (1975)
- Fighting Mad (1976)
- Handle with Care (1977)
- Last Embrace (1979)
- Melvin and Howard (1980)
- Who Am I This Time? (1983)
- Swing Shift (1984)
- Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads concert film) (1984)
- Something Wild (1986)
- Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
- Haiti: Dreams of Democracy (1987)
- Married to the Mob (1988)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Cousin Bobby (1991)
- Philadelphia (1993)
- Beloved (1998)
- Storefront Hitchcock (1998)
- The Truth About Charlie (2002)
- The Agronomist (2003)
- The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
- Prairie Wind (2006?)
External links
;General biographical information
:
-
:
- [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/demme.html Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database]
Demme, Jonathan
Demme, Jonathan
Demme, Jonathan
Demme, Jonathan
Demme, Jonathan
Demme, Jonathan
ja:ジョナサン・デミ
February 22
February 22 is the 53rd day of every year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 312 days remaining, 313 in leap years.
Events
- 1290s BC - The coronation of Ramses II, on whose face the sun's rays fall each year in Abu Simbel temple.
- AD 1281 - Martin IV becomes Pope.
- 1288 - Nicholas IV becomes Pope.
- 1495 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
- 1632 - Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
- 1744 - The Battle of Toulon begins.
- 1819 - By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
- 1847 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
- 1855 - The Pennsylvania State University is founded.
- 1856 - The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- 1865 - Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
- 1876 - Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
- 1879 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
- 1889 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
- 1904 - UK recognises the South Orkney Islands as part of Argentina, in 1908 claims them again.
- 1915 - Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1920 - In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
- 1923 - The United States begins the first transcontinental air mail route.
- 1923 - Barcelona (Catalonia): Albert Einstein visits the city, invited by the scientist Esteban Terradas i Illa, as part of the monografics course of High Studies and Exchange organized by the Mancomunitat de Catalunya and conducted by Rafael de Campalans.
- 1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
- 1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.
- 1943 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
- 1948 - Start of the Czechoslovak Revolution.
- 1949 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.
- 1956 - Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".
- 1958 - Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
- 1959 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- 1969 - Barbara Jo Rubin wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first woman to do so.
- 1973 - Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.
- 1979 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
- 1980 - The United States ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in an upset dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".
- 1994 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1997 - In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.
- 2002 - A MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashes into the ocean near the Philippines, killing all 10 aboard.
Births
- 1040 - Rashi, French rabbi and commentator (d. 1105)
- 1403 - King Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
- 1440 - King Ladislaus Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1457)
- 1500 - Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian humanist (d. 1564)
- 1612 - George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English statesman (d. 1677)
- 1705 - Peter Artedi, Swedish naturalist (d. 1735)
- 1714 - Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French historian (d. 1795)
- 1732 (N.S.) - George Washington, first President of the United States (d. 1799)
- 1778 - Rembrandt Peale, American artist (d. 1860)
- 1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
- 1796 - Alexis Bachelot, French missionary (d. 1838)
- 1796 - Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1874)
- 1817 - Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
- 1819 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (d. 1891)
- 1839 - Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (d. 1906)
- 1840 - August Bebel, German politician (d. 1913)
- 1849 - Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d 1915)
- 1857 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, English founder of the Boy Scouts (d. 1941)
- 1857 - Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (d. 1894)
- 1878 - Walter Ritz, Swiss physicist (d. 1909)
- 1880 - Frigyes Riesz, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1956)
- 1883 - Marguerite Clark, American silent film actress (d. 1940)
- 1886 - Hugo Ball, German author and poet (d. 1927)
- 1887 - Ksawery Tartakower, Polish chess player (d. 1956)
- 1889 - Lady Olave Baden-Powell, English Chief Girl Guide (d. 1977)
- 1892 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, American writer (d. 1950)
- 1899 - Dwight Frye, American actor (d. 1943)
- 1899 - George O'Hara, American actor (d. 1966)
- 1899 - Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1986)
- 1900 - Luis Buñuel, Spanish-born film director (d. 1983)
- 1902 - Fritz Strassmann, German physicist (d. 1980)
- 1903 - Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (d. 1990)
- 1903 - Frank Plumpton Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1903)
- 1907 - Sheldon Leonard, American actor, writer, director, and producer (d. 1997)
- 1907 - Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1908 - Sir John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
- 1914 - Renato Dulbecco, Italian-born virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1918 - Sid Abel, Canadian hockey player (d. 2000)
- 1918 - Charlie Finley, American sports entrepreneur (d. 1996)
- 1918 - Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer
- 1918 - Robert Wadlow, tallest person in history (d. 1940)
- 1921 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Republic (d. 1996)
- 1921 - Wayne Booth, American literary critic (d. 2005)
- 1922 - Steven Hill, American actor
- 1925 - Edward Gorey, American illustrator (d. 2000)
- 1926 - Kenneth Williams, English actor (d. 1988)
- 1926 - Bud Yorkin, American film director
- 1927 - Guy Mitchell, American singer
- 1928 - Paul Dooley, American actor
- 1928 - Bruce Forsyth, British entertainer
- 1929 - Rebecca Schull, American actress
- 1930 - Marni Nixon, American singer
- 1932 - Ted Kennedy, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
- 1934 - Sparky Anderson, baseball manager
- 1936 - J. Michael Bishop, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1938 - Ishmael Reed, American writer
- 1941 - Hipólito Mejía, President of the Dominican Republic
- 1944 - Jonathan Demme, American director
- 1944 - Robert Kardashian, American lawyer
- 1944 - Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
- 1945 - Leslie Charleson, American actress
- 1949 - Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver
- 1949 - Olga Morozova, Russian tennis player
- 1950 - Julius Erving, American basketball player
- 1950 - Ellen Greene, American actress
- 1950 - Miou-Miou, French actress
- 1950 - Julie Walters, English actress
- 1952 - Bill Frist, American politician
- 1959 - Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
- 1962 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist and televison personality
- 1963 - Vijay Singh, Fiji golfer
- 1966 - Rachel Dratch, American actress and comedienne
- 1966 - Brian Greig, Australian politician
- 1967 - Alf Poier, Austrian comedian
- 1968 - Jeri Ryan, American actress
- 1969 - Byron Stroud, American bassist (Fear Factory)
- 1971 - Lea Salonga, Filipina actress and singer
- 1972 - Claudia Pechstein, German speed skater
- 1975 - Drew Barrymore, American actress
- 1979 - Brett Emerton, Australian footballer
- 1982 - Jenna Haze, American actress
Deaths
- 965 - Odo, Duke of Burgundy
- 1071 - Arnulf III, Count of Flanders (killed in battle)
- 1111 - Roger Borsa, King of Sicily
- 1371 - King David II of Scotland (b. 1324)
- 1512 - Amerigo Vespucci, Italian merchant and explorer (b. 1454)
- 1627 - Olivier van Noort, Dutch navigator (b. 1558)
- 1674 - Jean Chapelain, French writer (b. 1595)
- 1680 - Catherine Monvoisin, French sorceress
- 1690 - Charles Le Brun, French artist (b. 1619)
- 1727 - Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer (b. 1661)
- 1731 - Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)
- 1732 - Francis Atterbury, English bishop and man of letters (b. 1663)
- 1742 - Charles Rivington, English publisher (b. 1688)
- 1797 - Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German officer and adventurer (b. 1720)
- 1816 - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1723)
- 1875 - Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (b. 1796)
- 1875 - Sir Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (b. 1797)
- 1890 - John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
- 1890 - Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter (b. 1834)
- 1892 - Herman Koeckemann, German Catholic prelate (b. 1828)
- 1901 - George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
- 1903 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
- 1939 - Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
- 1943 - Hans Scholl, German resistance fighter (b. 1918)
- 1943 - Sophie Scholl, German resistance fighter (b. 1921)
- 1945 - Osip Brik, Russian writer (d. 1888)
- 1961 - Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (b. 1889)
- 1965 - Felix Frankfurter, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (b. 1882)
- 1968 - Peter Arno, American cartoonist (b. 1904)
- 1976 - Angela Baddeley, English actress (b. 1904)
- 1976 - Florence Ballard, American singer (The Supremes) (b. 1943)
- 1980 - Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian artist (b. 1886)
- 1983 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
- 1984 - Jessamyn West, American writer (b. 1902)
- 1985 - Alexander Scourby, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1985 - Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist (b. 1889)
- 1987 - Andy Warhol, American artist, director, and writer (b. 1928)
- 1994 - Papa John Creech, American musician
- 1995 - Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
- 1997 - Joseph Aiuppa, American gangster (b. 1907)
- 1998 - Abraham Ribicoff, American politician (b. 1910)
- 2000 - Fernando Buesa, Spanish politician (b. 1946)
- 2002 - Chuck Jones, American animator (b. 1912)
- 2002 - Jonas Savimbi, Angolan rebel leader (b. 1934)
- 2004 - Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1917)
- 2004 - Andy Seminick, baseball player (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish artist (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
Holidays and observances
- Roman Catholic Church - Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter
- United States - Washington's Birthday (traditionally)
- Saint Lucia - independence (1979)
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/22 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050222.html The New York Times: On This Day]
----
February 21 - February 23 - January 22 - March 22 -- listing of all days
ko:2월 22일
ja:2月22日
simple:February 22
th:22 กุมภาพันธ์
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
United States:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American.
The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America.
The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.
Geography and climate
The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas.
Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization.
When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²).
The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity.
Hawaii
The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.
History
American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200.
Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there.
During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655.
This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule.
British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]]
In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed.
From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments.
Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]]
During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946.
During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics.
In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and | | |
