The year in history
1944
Someone born in 1944 turns 82 in 2026
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1944th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 944th year of the 2nd millennium, the 44th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1940s decade.
What happened in 1944
WWII:
2,765 drown when American submarine USS Snook torpedoes Japanese troop transport Lima Maru.
WWII: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbnița.
WWII: Allied convoy T4, forming part of amphibious Exercise Tiger (a full-scale rehearsal for the Normandy landings) in Start Bay, off the Devon coast of England, is attacked by E-boats, resulting in the deaths of 749 American servicemen from LSTs.
Operation Perch, a British attempt to capture Caen from the Germans, commences; it is abandoned on June 14.
21 – WWII: Dortan massacre – 35–36 French civilians are killed by Ostlegionen (Cossacks) serving with the Wehrmacht.
The First Assembly of ASNOM (the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia) is held in the Prohor Pčinjski monastery.
WWII:
The French town of Menton is liberated from German forces.
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference concludes.
Serial killer Dr Marcel Petiot is apprehended at a Paris Métro station after 7 months on the run.
Battle of Metz – After three months of fighting, American troops led by General George S. Patton liberate the city of Metz.
Famous people born in 1944
Omar al-Bashir
7th President of Sudan
January 1 →
Joe Frazier
African-American boxer (d. 2011)
January 12 →
John Tavener
English composer (d. 2013)
January 28 →
Carl Bernstein
American journalist
February 14 →
Ken Grimwood
American fantasy fiction writer (d. 2003)
February 27 →
Ralph MacDonald
American percussionist, songwriter (d. 2011)
March 15 →
Anita Pallenberg
Italian-born model and actress (d. 2017)
April 6 →
Len Goodman
British ballroom dancer and television personality (d. 2023)
April 25 →
Jim Abrahams
American film director
May 10 →
Jan Schakowsky
U.S. Representative, Illinois's 9th congressional district
May 26 →
Phillip Allen Sharp
American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
June 6 →
Chris Wood
English rock musician (Traffic) (d. 1983)
June 21 →
Vicente de la Mata
Argentine football midfielder
July 2 →
Neil Vant
Canadian Anglican clergyman, prospector, businessman and political figure
July 11 →
Jozo Križanović
Bosnian politician (d. 2009)
July 28 →
Larry Troutman
American funk musician (d. 1999)
August 12 →
Pat Martino
American jazz guitarist (d. 2021)
August 25 →
Margaret Hodge
British politician
September 8 →
Ian Garnett
British admiral
September 27 →
Elizabeth Loftus
American cognitive psychologist and memory specialist
October 16 →
Scherrie Payne
American singer
November 4 →
Harold Ramis
American actor, director and comedy writer (d. 2014)
November 21 →
Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto
80th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (d. 2020)
December 9 →
William Christie
American-born French conductor and musician
December 19 →