Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Kenesaw Mountain Landis (20 November, 1866 – 25 November, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a federal judge from 1905 to 1922, and subsequently as the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. Born in Millville, Ohio to Abraham Hoch Landis and Mary (Kumler) Landis, he died in Chicago, Illinois. His name comes from a variant spelling of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, the site of a battle his father, a physician, fought in on the Union side during the American Civil War. Two of his brothers served in the United States Congress.

Judicial career

After being appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to the bench of the Northern District of Illinois in 1905, Landis dealt with several cases of historical significance during his career as a US federal judge. In 1907, he presided over a Standard Oil antitrust trial fining them $29 million for accepting rail freight rebates, although the verdict was later set aside. In 1918, he held the trial of a number of union leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (including Big Bill Haywood) for violating the Espionage Act. He also presided over the trial of several Socialist Party leaders, including Milwaukee editor and congressman Victor Berger.

Baseball commissioner

While serving as a federal judge, Landis was selected in 1920 to become the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball, serving from 1920 until his death in 1944. The position was created to restore public confidence in the integrity of baseball following the 1919 Black Sox scandal, which was only the worst of a number of incidents that had made the honesty of the game questionable. He achieved this by permanently banishing eight players from the sport for their involvement, including superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson, and by dealing harshly with others proven to have thrown individual games or consorted with gamblers. The owners had hoped he would then settle into a comfortable retirement as the titluar head of baseball. Instead, Landis established a fiercely independent Commissioner's Office that would go on to often make both players and owners miserable with decisions that were, generally, in the best interests of the game. He worked to clean up the hooliganism that was tarnishing the reputation of players in the 1920s, and inserted his office into negotiations with players where he deemed appropriate to end a few of the labor practices of owners like Charles Comiskey that had contributed to the players' discontent. His detractors claim he perpetuated the color line and prolonged the segregation of organized baseball. He tried to curb the growth of minor league farm systems by innovators such as Branch Rickey, in the name of protecting the lower levels of professional ball (the farm systems ultimately proved to be the salvation of minor league ball). Landis argued that because a parent club could unilaterally call up players from teams which were involved in pennant races, the organization was unfairly interfering with the minor competitions; his position was that the championship of each minor league was of no less importance than the championships of the major leagues, and that minor league fans and supporters had the right to see their teams cometing as best they could. Yet he also prevented the formation of a powerful third major league when he turned away a challenge by Pants Rowland and his Pacific Coast League in the 1940s. Whether his decisions were praised or criticized, he was satisfied with being respected and feared. Dubbed 'the baseball tyrant' by journalists of the day, his rule was absolute. In the context of ensuring the integrity of the game itself, baseball historians generally regard him as the right man at the right time when appointed, but also as a man who perhaps held office too long. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1944, in a special election held one month after his death. Despite his standard argument against integration, that the ballplayers from the Negro Leagues and elsewhere were "not good enough" to be major leaguers, the signing of the first black ballplayer, Jackie Robinson, came less than a year after Landis's death. It came on the watch of the new, progressive Commissioner A. B. "Happy" Chandler and was engineered by one of Landis's old nemeses, Branch Rickey. Major League Baseball's Most Valuable Player Award is officially known as the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Award in his honor. Landis's body is interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago.

Bibliography


- Pietrusza, David, Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, South Bend (IN): Diamond Communications, 1998.
- Spink, J. G. Taylor, Judge Landis and Twenty-Five Years of Baseball, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1947.

External links


- [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers%5Fand%5Fhonorees/hofer%5Fbios/landis%5Fkenesaw.htm Baseball Hall of Fame]
- [http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Landis.Kenesaw.Obit.html An obituary] Landis, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Kenesaw Mountain

20 November

November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 41 days remaining.

Events


- 284 - Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor.
- 1407 - A solemn truce between John, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans is agreed under the auspicies of John, Duke of Berry. Orléans would be assassinated three days later by Burgundy.
- 1490 - Joanot Martorell's book Tirant lo Blanc is published for the first time.
- 1695 - Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, was executed.
- 1700 - Great Northern War: Battle of Narva - King Charles XII of Sweden defeats the army of Tsar Peter the Great at Narva.
- 1789 - New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
- 1820 - An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).
- 1902 - Henri Desgrange and fellow journalist Géo Lefèvre dream up the idea of the Tour de France over lunch at the Café de Madrid in Paris.
- 1910 - Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero denounces President Porfirio Díaz, declares himself president, and calls for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico.
- 1917 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.
- 1917 - Ukraine is declared a republic.
- 1940 - World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
- 1943 - World War II: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.
- 1945 - Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
- 1947 - The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
- 1955 - RCA offers a $35,000 contract for Elvis Presley.
- 1955 - Bo Diddley becomes the first African American performer to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Apparently Sullivan was infuriated when Diddley sang his self-titled song instead of Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit, "Sixteen Tons."
- 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union's agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
- 1966 - Cabaret opens at the Imperial Theatre, New York.
- 1968 - Vietnam War: Eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit.
- 1969 - Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
- 1974 - The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the break up of AT&T and its Bell System.
- 1982 - Andy Kaufman was forever voted off of Saturday Night Live by a live phone poll.
- 1983 - In the U.S., an estimated 100 million people watch the controversial made-for-television movie The Day After, depicting a nuclear war and its effects on the United States.
- 1989 - Velvet Revolution: The number of protestors assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
- 1992 - In England, a fire breaks out in the Private Chapel room of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period).
- 1993 - Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
- 1994 - The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).
- 1998 - The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.
- 1998 - A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
- 2001 - In Washington, D.C., U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates the United States Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday.
- 2003 - After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Holdings and the British consulate.
- 2003 - Michael Jackson is arrested by police on charges of child molestation.

Births


- 1602 - Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor (d. 1686)
- 1620 - Peregrine White, first English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1704)
- 1621 - Avvakum, Russian priest and writer (d. 1682)
- 1625 - Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (d. 1654)
- 1660 - Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian (d. 1741)
- 1761 - Pope Pius VIII (d. 1830)
- 1762 - Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist (d. 1833)
- 1765 - Sir Thomas Fremantle, British naval captain and politician (d. 1819)
- 1841 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1919)
- 1851 - Queen Margherita of Italy (d. 1926)
- 1858 - Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
- 1864 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (d. 1931)
- 1866 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, American judge and first baseball commissioner, named for Kenesaw Mountain in Georgia (d. 1944)
- 1884 - Norman Thomas, American social reformer (d. 1968)
- 1886 - Karl von Frisch, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)
- 1889 - Edwin Hubble, American astronomer. Discoverer of the wide prevelance of the Red Shift in astronomy, at Mt. Wilson Observatory in California, and for whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named (d. 1953)
- 1903 - Alexandra Danilova, Russian ballerina (d. 1997)
- 1904 - Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (d. 1977)
- 1908 - Alistair Cooke, British-born journalist who covered the United States extensively, and who became an American citizen. (d. 2004)
- 1912 - Otto von Habsburg, German head of the Austrian imperial family
- 1913 - Judy Canova, American actress (d. 1983)
- 1914 - Emilio Pucci, Italian fashion designer (d. 1992)
- 1917 - Robert Byrd, Long-time U.S. Senator from West Virginia, and a leader in the Senate
- 1917 - Bobby Locke, South African golfer (d. 1987)
- 1919 - Evelyn Keyes, American actress
- 1921 - Jim Garrison, American detective, author, and politician (d. 1992)
- 1923 - Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1924 - Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-born mathematician who made discoveries in fracals. For whom the Mandelbrot set is named
- 1925 - Kaye Ballard, American comic actress
- 1925 - Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General, Senator from New York State, and brother of President John F. Kennedy (d. 1968)
- 1925 - Maya Plisetskaya, Russian ballet dancer
- 1926 - Andrzej W. Schally, Polish-born endocrinologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1927 - Estelle Parsons, American actress
- 1928 - Aleksey Batalov, Russian actor
- 1932 - Richard Dawson, British actor and game show host. Played Corporal Newkirk on "Hogan's Heroes"
- 1936 - Don DeLillo, American author
- 1937 - René Kollo, German tenor
- 1939 - Dick Smothers, American comedian - member of the Smothers Brothers duo
- 1940 - Bob Einstein, American actor better known as Super Dave Osborne
- 1942 - Joseph Biden, Long-time U.S. Senator from Delaware, and a leader in the Senate.
- 1942 - Norman Greenbaum, American singer
- 1943 - Veronica Hamel, American actress
- 1946 - Duane Allman, American guitarist. Member of the "Allman Brothers" band (d. 1971)
- 1946 - Greg Cook, American football player
- 1947 - Joe Walsh, American musician
- 1948 - John R. Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the UN
- 1948 - Barbara Hendricks, American-born soprano
- 1948 - Richard Masur, American actor
- 1949 - Thelma Drake, U.S. Congresswoman from Virginia
- 1951 - David Walters, Governor of Oklahoma
- 1956 - Bo Derek, American actress, model, and all-around sex-symbol. Star of the movie "10"
- 1957 - Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education
- 1959 - Sean Young, Noted American actress
- 1959 - James P. McGovern, U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts
- 1960 - Cathy Moriarty, American actress
- 1963 - Timothy Gowers, British mathematician
- 1963 - Ming-Na Wen, Macau-born actress
- 1965 - Mike D, American musician (Beastie Boys)
- 1966 - Kevin Gilbert, American musician (d. 1996)
- 1970 - Matt Blunt, Governor of Missouri
- 1970 - Delia Gonzalez, American boxer
- 1971 - Joey Galloway, American football wide receiver
- 1975 - Dierks Bentley, American singer
- 1975 - Timea Vagvoelgyi, Hungarian model
- 1976 - Dominique Dawes, American gymnast
- 1977 - Rudy Charles, American professional wrestling referee (TNA Wrestling)
- 1978 - Tjerk van Kampen, Leader of the revolution of The Hague
- 1983 - Neil Monk, Webmaster and founder of www.neilmonk.com
- 1988 - Jia Tolentino, actress on Boys vs. Girl's, Puerto Rico

Deaths


- 870 - King Edmund of East Anglia
- 1316 - King John I of France (d. 1316)
- 1518 - Marmaduke Constable, English soldier
- 1518 - Pierre de La Rue, Flemish composer
- 1529 - Karl von Miltitz, papal nuncio
- 1591 - Christopher Hatton, English politician (b. 1540)
- 1612 - John Harington, English writer (b. 1561)
- 1651 - Mikołaj Potocki, Polish soldier (b. 1595)
- 1662 - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (b. 1614)
- 1695 - Zumbi, Brazilian runaway slave
- 1737 - Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of George II of Great Britain (b. 1683)
- 1742 - Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (b. 1661)
- 1758 - Johan Helmich Roman, Swedish composer (b. 1694)
- 1764 - Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (b. 1690)
- 1778 - Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (b. 1726)
- 1894 - Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1829)
- 1910 (N.S.) - Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (b. 1828)
- 1925 - Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (b. 1844)
- 1936 - Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish anarchist (b. 1896)
- 1936 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish activist and politician (b. 1903)
- 1945 - Francis William Aston, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
- 1950 - Francesco Cilea, Italian composer (b. 1866)
- 1973 - Allan Sherman, American comedian (b. 1924)
- 1975 - Francisco Franco, Dictator of Spain (b. 1892)
- 1978 - Vasilisk Gnedov, Russian poet (b. 1890)
- 1980 - John McEwen, eighteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1900)
- 1998 - Galina Starovoitova, Russian politician (b. 1946)
- 2000 - Mike Muuss, American computer programmer (b. 1958)
- 2000 - Kalle Päätalo, Finnish writer (b. 1919)
- 2003 - Robert Addie, British actor (cancer) (b. 1960)
- 2003 - David Dacko, first President of the Central African Republic (b. 1930)
- 2003 - Eugene Kleiner, American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (b. 1923)
- 2003 - Roger Short, British Consulate General in Istanbul (truck bomb) (b. 1944)
- 2003 - Jim Siedow, American actor (b. 1920)
- 2003 - Kerem Yilmazer, Turkish actor (b. 1945)
- 2004 - David Grierson, Canadian radio host (b. 1955)
- 2005 - Sheldon Gardner, American psychologist (b. 1934)
- 2005 - James King, American tenor (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances


- Church of England - Edmund the Martyr
- Brazil - Zumbi Day (Since 1978)
- Britain - wedding day of H.M. the Queen (1947), official flag day
- Mexico - Anniversary of the Revolution (1910)
- UNICEF - Universal Children's Day
- Vietnam - Teacher's Day (Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam)
- Transgender Day of Remembrance (since 1999) [http://www.gender.org/remember/day/]

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20051120.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- November 19 - November 21 - October 20 - December 20 -- listing of all days ko:11월 20일 ms:20 November ja:11月20日 simple:November 20 th:20 พฤศจิกายน

25 November

November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 36 days remaining.

Events


- 1034 - Malcolm II of Scotland dies. Duncan, the son of his second daughter, inherits the throne ahead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter.
- 1120 - The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, son of Henry I of England.
- 1177 - Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.
- 1491 - The siege of Granada, last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins.
- 1542 - Battle of Solway Moss. The English army defeats the Scottish.
- 1758 - French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control.
- 1783 - American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
- 1795 - Partitions of Poland: Stanislaus August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, is forced to abdicate and exiled to Russia.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Missionary Ridge - At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.
- 1874 - The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873.
- 1876 - Indian Wars: In retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.
- 1905 - The danish Prins Carl arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway
- 1913 - Panama becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1936 - In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests" in case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation.
- 1940 - Woody Woodpecker first appears, in the film "Knock Knock".
- 1943 - Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina was re-established at the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia.
- 1944 - World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, UK, killing 160 shoppers.
- 1947 - Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.
- 1947 - New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
- 1950 - The People's Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river border to fight United Nations forces.
- 1952 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London and eventually becomes the longest continuously-running play in history.
- 1953 - The England football team suffer their first home defeat against continental opposition, losing to Hungary.
- 1958 - French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community.
- 1960 - The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated .
- 1963 - President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
- 1970 - In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and two compatriots commit ritualistic suicide after an unsuccessful coup attempt.
- 1973 - Greek President George Papadopoulos is ousted in a military coup led by Lieutenant General Phaidon Gizikis.
- 1975 - Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands.
- 1980 - No Más Fight: Sugar Ray Leonard regains the WBC world welterweight boxing title in a bout against Roberto Duran.
- 1984 - 36 top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
- 1984 - A KCR train derails between Sheung Shui and Fanling, Hong Kong.
- 1986 - Iran Contra Affair: US Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
- 1992 - The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia from January 1, 1993.
- 1994 - Sony founder Akio Morita announces he will be stepping down as CEO of the company.
- 1999 - The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution designating November 25 as the annual International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women.
- 2001 - Richard Burns becomes first ever English World Rally Championship champion.
- 2002 - US President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law.
- 2002 - Reported assassination attempt on Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov.

Births


- 1501 - Yi Hwang, Confucian scholar (d. 1570)
- 1562 - Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright (d. 1635)
- 1577 - Piet Hein, Dutch naval commander and folk hero (d. 1629)
- 1609 - Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I of England (d. 1669)
- 1638 - Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II of England (d. 1705)
- 1703 - Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist (d. 1784)
- 1712 - Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of 'Signed French' (d. 1789)
- 1714 - Yoriyuki Arima, Japanese mathematician (d. 1783)
- 1814 - Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (d. 1878)
- 1817 - John Bigelow, American statesman and author (d. 1911)
- 1835 - Andrew Carnegie, British-born industrialist and philanthropist (d. 1919)
- 1844 - Karl Benz, German engineer (d. 1929)
- 1845 - José Maria Eça de Queiróz, Portuguese novelist (d. 1900)
- 1846 - Carrie Nation, American temperance advocate (d. 1911)
- 1858 - Alfred Capus, French author (d. 1922)
- 1862 - Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (d. 1901)
- 1869 - Ben Lindsey, American judge and social reformer (d. 1934)
- 1870 - Winthrop Ames, American theatrical director (d. 1937)
- 1874 - Joe Gans, American boxer (d. 1910)
- 1881 - Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)
- 1883 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic (d. 1939)
- 1883 - Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher and aviation promoter (d. 1968)
- 1895 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)
- 1895 - Ludvík Svoboda, President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1979)
- 1896 - Virgil Thomson, American composer and music critic (d. 1989)
- 1904 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)
- 1904 - Ba Jin, Chinese novelist (d. 2005)
- 1913 - Lewis Thomas, American physician and essayist (d. 1993)
- 1914 - Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 1999)
- 1915 - Augusto Pinochet, Chilean politician
- 1920 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, King of Malaysia (d. 2000)
- 1920 - Ricardo Montalban, Mexican actor
- 1920 - Noel Neill, American actress
- 1924 - Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, critic, and philosopher.
- 1925 - Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (d. 1969)
- 1926 - Poul Anderson, American writer (d. 2001)
- 1933 - Kathryn Grant, American actress
- 1940 - Reinhard Furrer, American physicist and astronaut (d. 1995)
- 1940 - Joe Gibbs, American football coach
- 1944 - Ben Stein, American actor, game show host, and political consultant
- 1945 - Percy Sledge, American musician
- 1947 - John Larroquette, American actor
- 1951 - Bucky Dent, American baseball player
- 1951 - Bill Morrissey, American musician
- 1952 - Imran Khan, Pakistani test cricketer
- 1959 - Charles Kennedy, British politician
- 1960 - Amy Grant, American singer
- 1960 - John F. Kennedy, Jr., American publisher (d. 1999)
- 1965 - Cris Carter, American football player
- 1965 - Bernie Kosar, American football player
- 1966 - Tim Armstrong, American musician (Rancid and The Transplants)
- 1968 - Jill Hennessy, Canadian actress
- 1968 - Erick Sermon, American rap music artist
- 1971 - Christina Applegate, American actress
- 1971 - Magnus Arvedson, Swedish hockey player
- 1976 - Donovan McNabb, American football player
- 1978 - Shina Ringo, Japanese musician, singer, and songwriter
- 1979 - Thea Gilmore, British singer and songwriter
- 1981 - Xabi Alonso, Spanish international footballer
- 1981 - Barbara and Jenna Bush, daughters of U.S. President George W. Bush

Deaths


- 311 - Peter of Alexandria, Christian martyr (b. 300)
- 1034 - King Malcolm II of Scotland (killed)
- 1120 - William Adelin, son of Henry I of England (drowned) (b. 1104)
- 1185 - Pope Lucius III (b. 1097)
- 1326 - Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (b. 1264)
- 1374 - Philip II of Taranto, Emperor of Costantinople (b. 1329)
- 1456 - Jacques Cœur, French merchant
- 1560 - Andrea Doria, Italian naval leader (b. 1466)
- 1626 - Edward Alleyn, English actor (b. 1566)
- 1694 - Ismael Bullialdus, French astronomer (b. 1605)
- 1700 - Stephanus Van Cortlandt, first native Mayor of New York (b. 1643)
- 1748 - Isaac Watts, British hymnwriter (b. 1674)
- 1755 - Johann Georg Pisendel, German musician (b. 1687)
- 1785 - Richard Glover, British poet (b. 1712)
- 1865 - Heinrich Barth, German explorer (b. 1821)
- 1881 - Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute (b. 1794)
- 1884 - Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b. 1818)
- 1920 - Gaston Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and automobile pioneer (b. 1892)
- 1944 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball commissioner (b. 1866)
- 1947 - Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet (b. 1876)
- 1950 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1873)
- 1959 - Gérard Philipe, French actor (b. 1922)
- 1968 - Upton Sinclair, American journalist, politician, and writer (b. 1878)
- 1965 - Dame Myra Hess, British pianist (b. 1890)
- 1970 - Yukio Mishima, Japanese writer (b. 1925)
- 1972 - Henri Coanda, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (b. 1886)
- 1973 - Laurence Harvey, Lithuanian-born actor (b. 1928)
- 1974 - Nick Drake, British singer and songwriter (b. 1948)
- 1974 - U Thant, Burmese UN Secretary-General (b. 1909)
- 1981 - Jack Albertson, American actor (b. 1907)
- 1987 - Harold Washington, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1922)
- 1998 - Nelson Goodman, American philosopher (b. 1906)
- 1998 - Flip Wilson, American actor and comedian (b. 1933)
- 2002 - Karel Reisz, Czech theater director (b. 1926)
- 2005 - George Best, Irish footballer (b. 1946)
- 2005 - Richard Burns, English rally driver (b.1971)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. Saints - Saint Catherine of Alexandria; Moses?
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: National Day (1943)
- Surinam - Independence Day (from the Netherlands, 1975)
- In 2003, celebration of the Muslim festival of Eid (which has no set date in the Gregorian calendar because the Muslim calendar is based on the lunar, not the solar, cycle)
- International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/25 BBC: On This Day] ---- November 24 - November 26 - October 25 - December 25 -- listing of all days ko:11월 25일 ms:25 November ja:11月25日 simple:November 25 th:25 พฤศจิกายน

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 -