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Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (July 28, 1915–August 12, 1944) was the oldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Older brother of future President John F. Kennedy, he was expected to bear the family's political hopes. Joseph, Jr. entered Harvard University in 1934 and graduated in 1938. There he played football, rugby, and was on the Harvard Row team, with captain John Arthur Garber Sr., and served on the student council. He spent a year studying under the tutelage of Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, before enrolling in Harvard Law School. He left Harvard Law before his final year to volunteer as a United States Navy flier. He earned his wings in May 1942 and was sent to England in September 1943. He piloted the PB4Y Liberator on anti-submarine and other missions on two tours of duty throughout the winter of 1943-44. In July 1944, he volunteered for a special mission piloting a modified version of the PB4Y Liberator intended to counter the German V-2 rocket attacks on England. The plane was to be loaded with 21,170 pounds (9600 kg) of high explosives, flown across the English Channel, where the pilot and co-pilot would parachute out, and then crash into a German V-2 base. The final crash was to be guided remotely by an escort fighter through radio-control. The pilot and co-pilot were to be recovered by ships in the Channel. Before Kennedy jumped, the plane was engulfed in a massive explosion. Kennedy's body was never recovered, and he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. In 1946, the Navy named a destroyer for him, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850). Among the highlights of its service include the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the afloat recovery teams for Gemini 6 and Gemini 7. It is now a floating museum in Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts. Kennedy never married but romantically was linked to at least two women: Edith Bouvier Beale, the beautiful cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Katharine Mortimer, a New York socialite who declined to become more seriously involved with Joe Jr. because, she claimed, his family was too loud to consider marrying into.

See also


- Kennedy Curse Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II Kennedy, Joseph P. II

July 28

July 28 is the 209th day (210th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 156 days remaining.

Events


- 1493 - Great fire in Moscow
- 1540 - Thomas Cromwell, is executed on order from Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
- 1794 - Maximilien Robespierre is guillotined in front of a cheering crowd, for sending thousands of others to a similar fate during the French Revolution.
- 1821 - Peru declares independence from Spain.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church begins - Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1866 - The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the standardization of weights and measures in the United States.
- 1868 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
- 1873 - The Japanese government implements land and tax reform as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.
- 1878 - Great Britain's William Gowland becomes the first non-Japanese to reach Yarigatake peak (3,180 meters), and he names the mountain the Japanese Alps, a name that is eventually used to refer to the entire mountain range.
- 1914 - World War I begins: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it failed to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serbian assassin. This event leads to the outbreak of war.
- 1932 - US President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC.
- 1942 - World War II: USSR leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into Russia. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately killed.
- 1943 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah - The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
- 1945 - A US Army bomber accidentally crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 injuring 26.
- 1965 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
- 1973 - Watkins Glen, New York concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead.
- 1976 - The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude flattens Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
- 1990 - Alberto Fujimori becomes president of Peru
- 1992 - Mary J. Blige releases her album What's the 411?. It is considered the album that started the new subgenre, hip-hop soul (also see 1992 in music).
- 1995 - Network Solutions announces a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.
- 1996 - Kennewick Man, the remains of a prehistoric man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.
- 1997 - Guatemala becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1998 - Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern, Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with US President Bill Clinton.
- 2002 - Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.
- 2003 - NPR broadcasts the first episode of Day to Day, a one-hour radio newsmagazine
- 2005 - Larry Brown is introduced as the head coach of the New York Knicks NBA franchise, at a press conference in Madison Square Garden.

Births


- 1659 - Charles Ancillon, French Huguenot pastor (d. 1715)
- 1804 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (d. 1872)
- 1844 - Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
- 1866 - Beatrix Potter, English author (d. 1943)
- 1867 - Charles Dillon Perrine, American-born astronomer (d. 1951)
- 1872 - Albert Sarraut, French politician (d. 1962)
- 1874 - Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (d. 1945)
- 1887 - Marcel Duchamp, French painter (d. 1968)
- 1896 - Barbara La Marr, American actress (d. 1926)
- 1901 - Rudy Vallee, American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer (d. 1986)
- 1902 - Karl Popper, Austrian-born philosopher of science (d. 1994)
- 1904 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- 1907 - Earl Tupper, American inventor (d. 1983)
- 1909 - Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (d. 1957)
- 1914 - Carmen Dragon, composer (d. 1984)
- 1915 - Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1915 - Frankie Yankovic, American musician (d. 1998)
- 1916 - David Brown, American film producer
- 1922 - Jacques Piccard, Belgian-born undersea explorer
- 1925 - Baruch S. Blumberg, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1927 - John Ashbery, American poet
- 1929 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)
- 1934 - Jacques d'Amboise, American dancer and choreographer
- 1935 - Simon Dee, British television broadcaster
- 1936 - Garfield Sobers, West Indian cricketer
- 1938 - Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru
- 1940 - Philip Proctor, American comedian
- 1941 - Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
- 1943 - Bill Bradley, basketball player and U.S. Senator
- 1945 - Jim Davis, American cartoonist
- 1945 - Richard Wright English keyboard player (Pink Floyd)
- 1948 - Sally Struthers, American actress
- 1949 - Steve Peregrin Took, English singer and songwriter (d. 1980)
- 1951 - Santiago Calatrava, Spanish architect
- 1952 - Yoshitaka Amano, Japanese artist
- 1952 - Vajiralongkorn, Crown Prince of Thailand
- 1954 - Steve Morse, American guitarist
- 1954 - Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela
- 1958 - Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (d. 1981)
- 1962 - Rachel Sweet, American singer
- 1965 - Lori Loughlin, American actress
- 1972 - Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
- 1976 - Jacoby Shaddix, American singer (Papa Roach)
- 1977 - Tiago Andres Vaz, Brazilian composer
- 1977 - Emanuel Ginóbili, Argentine basketball player
- 1979 - Birgitta Haukdal, Icelandic singer

Deaths


- 450 - Theodosius II, Roman Emperor (b. 401)
- 1057 - Pope Victor II
- 1128 - William Clito, Count of Flanders (b. 1102)
- 1230 - Duke Leopold VI of Austria (b. 1176)
- 1527 - Rodrigo de Bastidas, Spanish conquistador
- 1540 - Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman
- 1631 - Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish dramatist (b. 1569)
- 1655 - Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet (b. 1619)
- 1667 - Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)
- 1675 - Bulstrode Whitelocke, English lawyer (b. 1605)
- 1685 - Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)
- 1718 - Etienne Baluze, French scholar (b. 1630)
- 1741 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (b. 1678)
- 1750 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)
- 1762 - George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (b. 1691)
- 1794 - Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1758)
- 1794 - Louis de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1767)
- 1835 - Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French marshal (b. 1768)
- 1842 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (b. 1778)
- 1844 - Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I and King of Naples and Spain (b. 1768)
- 1849 - King Charles Albert of Sardinia (b. 1798)
- 1869 - Jan Evangelista Purkyně, Czech anatomist (b. 1787)
- 1930 - Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1862)
- 1934 - Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (b. 1868)
- 1942 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
- 1957 - Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)
- 1965 - Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese author (b. 1894)
- 1968 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
- 1971 - Myril Hoag, baseball player (b. 1908)
- 1972 - Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)
- 1982 - Keith Green, American gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist (b. 1953)
- 1996 - Marguerite "Marge" Ganser, American singer (Shangri-Las) (b. 1948)
- 1999 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 2002 - Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Lady Valerie Goulding, Irish Senator and campaigner for the disabled (b. 1918)
- 2004 - Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Sam Edwards, American actor (b. 1915)
- 2004 - Tiziano Terzani, Italian journalist (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances


- Canada - Commemoration of the deportation of the Acadians
- Faroe Islands - Ólavsøka Eve
- Peru - Independence Day
- San Marino - Fall of the Fascist Government

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/28 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 27 - July 29 - June 28 - August 28 -- listing of all days ko:7월 28일 ms:28 Julai ja:7月28日 simple:July 28 th:28 กรกฎาคม

August 12

August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 141 days remaining. It is also known as the "Glorious Twelfth" in the UK, as it marks the traditional start of the grouse shooting season.

Events


- 490 BC - the Battle of Marathon, in which Athens defeated an invasion army of Persians, may have been fought on this date in the proleptic Julian calendar - but see 12 September.
- 1099 - The First Crusade concluded with a decisive victory in the Battle of Ascalon over Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah.
- 1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg - Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time
- 1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under the Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol
- 1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shot and killed Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
- 1851 - Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine
- 1854 - Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon is executed by shooting, in regard to the Battle of Guaymas.
- 1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos
- 1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam
- 1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War
- 1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
- 1908 - First Model T Ford built
- 1914 - World War I - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.
- 1914 - World War I: Beginning of the Battle of Cer between Austria-Hungary and Serbia
- 1952 - The Night of the Murdered Poets - Prominent Jewish intellectuals were murdered in Moscow.
- 1953 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
- 1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched
- 1966 - Massacre of Braybrook Street as three policemen are shot dead in East Acton, London.
- 1966 - John Lennon apologizes at a Chicago news conference for saying the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus."
- 1978 - Japan and China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China.
- 1981 - The IBM PC, an early personal computer, is introduced
- 1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture Japan killing 520 in the world's worst single-plane air disaster. Four people miraculously survive.
- 1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, was discovered near Faith, South Dakota.
- 1992 - Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
- 1994 - The Woodstock '94 rock concert takes place.
- 1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage will force the cancellation of the World Series.
- 2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
- 2004 - Sweden's nine millionth inhabitant is born.
- 2004 - Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as Singapore's 3rd Prime Minister.
- 2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by a sniper in his home.
- 2005 - An F2 rated tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.
- 2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives

Births


- 1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (d. 1559)
- 1566 - Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)
- 1604 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
- 1626 - Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (d. 1690)
- 1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia (d. 1676)
- 1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
- 1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)
- 1647 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
- 1686 - John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
- 1696 - Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)
- 1720 - Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)
- 1774 - Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)
- 1831 - Helena Blavatsky, Ukrainian-born author (d. 1891)
- 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)
- 1866 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
- 1867 - Edith Hamilton, German classicist (d. 1963)
- 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author (d. 1958)
- 1880 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (d. 1943)
- 1880 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player (d. 1925)
- 1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (d. 1959)
- 1883 - Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938)
- 1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1892 - Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1904 - Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, Tsarevich (d. 1918)
- 1906 - Pauline Frederick, American journalist (d. 1990)
- 1906 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)
- 1907 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)
- 1911 - Cantinflas, Mexican actor (d. 1993)
- 1911 - Jane Wyatt, American actress
- 1924 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer
- 1924 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
- 1925 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
- 1925 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
- 1926 - John Derek, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1927 - Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor
- 1927 - Porter Wagoner, American singer
- 1928 - Bob Buhl, baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1928 - Dan Curtis, film and television producer and director
- 1929 - Buck Owens, American singer
- 1930 - George Soros American businessman
- 1931 - William Goldman, American screenwriter
- 1932 - Somdej Phra Nangchao Sirikit Phra Boromarajininat HM Queen Sirikit of Thailand
- 1933 - Parnelli Jones, American race car driver
- 1939 - George Hamilton, American actor
- 1945 - Ann M. Martin, American author
- 1949 - Mark Knopfler, British guitarist
- 1951 - Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist
- 1954 - Pat Metheny, American guitarist
- 1962 - Miss Cleo, American psychic
- 1967 - Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer
- 1971 - Michael Ian Black, American comedian
- 1971 - Pete Sampras, American tennis player
- 1972 - Rebecca Gayheart, American actress
- 1973 - Richard Reid, English terrorist
- 1974 - Matt Clement, baseball pitcher
- 1976 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player
- 1977 - Plaxico Burress, American football player
- 1980 - Dominique Swain, American actress
- 1980 - Matt Thiessen, Canadian-born singer (Reliant K)
- 1981 - Djibril Cisse, French footballer

Deaths


- 30 BC - Cleopatra (b. 30 BC)
- 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)
- 1424 - Yongle, Emperor of China (b. 1460)
- 1484 - George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)
- 1484 - Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)
- 1512 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
- 1577 - Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)
- 1588 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (b. 1543)
- 1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
- 1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)
- 1648 - Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)
- 1674 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)
- 1689 - Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)
- 1827 - William Blake, English poet and printmaker (b. 1757)
- 1778 - Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
- 1810 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)
- 1848 - George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)
- 1864 - Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)
- 1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)
- 1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
- 1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)
- 1901 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
- 1914 - John Philip Holland, Irish submarine designer (b. 1840)
- 1918 - Anna Held, Polish-born actress and singer (b. 1872)
- 1922 - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (b. 1871)
- 1928 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- 1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)
- 1943 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
- 1948 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)
- 1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
- 1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (b. 1908)
- 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
- 1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
- 1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
- 1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)
- 1982 - Joe Tex, American singer (b. 1933)
- 1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (plane crash) (b. 1941)
- 1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)
- 1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)
- 1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)
- 2000 - Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
- 2002 - Enos Slaughter, baseball player (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1919)
- 2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)

Holidays and observations


- United Nations - International Youth Day (since 1999)
- Glorious Twelfth at the Yorkshire Dales
- Zaraday (Discordianism)
- Zimbabwe - Defence Force Day
- International Ponce de Leon day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/12 BBC: On This Day] ---- August 11 - August 13 - July 12 - September 12 -- listing of all days ko:8월 12일 ja:8月12日 simple:August 12 th:12 สิงหาคม

1944

1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

World War II

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 -