1944 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Vice President: Henry A. Wallace
• Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn
• Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley
• Congress: 78th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January 20 – The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Gari River.
• January 22 – World War II – Battle of Anzio: the Allies begin the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stands their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.
• January 30 – World War II: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• January 31 –
• * World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
• * USS Franklin is commissioned.

  February

• February 1 – World War II: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
• February 3 – World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
• February 14 – SHAEF headquarters is established in Britain by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• February 17 – World War II: the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; it ends in an American victory on February 22.
• February 20 – The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
• February 22 – United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe organized from the Eighth Air Force's strategic planning staff; subsuming strategic planning for all US Army Air Forces in Europe and Africa.
• February 29 – World War II – Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer: the Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces.

  March

• March 1 – Essex-class aircraft carriers and are laid down, at Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Brooklyn Navy Yard respectively.
• March 2 – The 16th Academy Awards ceremony is held, the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue, Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Casablanca wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.
• March 4 – In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing prison, along with Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss and Louis Capone.

  April

• April 3 – Smith v. Allwright decided in the Supreme Court prohibits white primaries.
• April 25 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
• April 28 – World War II: 749 American troops are killed in Exercise Tiger at Start Bay, Devon, England.

  May

• May 8 – World War II: USS Ticonderoga is commissioned.
• May 24 – World War II: Six LSTs are accidentally destroyed and 163 men killed in Pearl Harbor's West Loch disaster.
• May 31 – World War II: Destroyer escort sinks the sixth Japanese submarine in two weeks. This anti-submarine warfare performance remains unmatched through the twentieth century.

  June

• June 4 – A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
• June 5 – US and British paratrooper divisions jump over Normandy, in preparation for D-Day. All including 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions of the United States.
• June 6 – World War II – Battle of Normandy: Operation Overlord, commonly known as 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. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.
• June 15
• *Battle of Saipan: the United States invades Saipan.
• *American forces push back the Germans in Saint-Lô, capturing the city.
• June 26 – World War II: American troops enter Cherbourg.

  July

• July 1 – The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
• July 6
• *Hartford Circus Fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.
• *World War II: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus. He is eventually acquitted.
• July 17 – Port Chicago disaster: The SS E. A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago, California, Naval Magazine, killing 320 sailors and civilian personnel.
• July 19 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt is renominated for a fourth term at the 1944 Democratic National Convention. Missouri Senator Harry Truman is selected to be the vice presidential nominee.
• July 21 – Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam.

  August

• August 6 – USS Bennington is commissioned.
• August 7 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled computer, the electromechanical Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator.
• August 9 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
• August 12 – Major fire at Luna Park, Coney Island, New York.
• August 14 – Fort Lawton riot
• August 15 – World War II: Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.
• August 20 – World War II: American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Gap.
• August 22 – World War II: Tsushima Maru, an unmarked Japanese passenger/cargo ship, is sunk by torpedoes launched by the submarine off Akuseki-jima, killing 1,484 civilians including 767 schoolchildren.
• August 31 – The mysterious "Mad Gasser of Mattoon" attacks in Mattoon, Illinois, apparently resume.

  September

• September 3 – Black mother Recy Taylor is kidnapped and gang raped by six white men in Abbeville, Alabama; failure to indict any of her assailants provokes nationwide protest and activism among the African American community.
• September 5 – The 5.8 Cornwall–Massena earthquake affects the northern New York town of Massena at the Canada–United States border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII, causing $2 million in damage, but no deaths. Across the border, Cornwall, Ontario suffers greater damage.
• September 14 – USS Shangri-La is commissioned.
• September 17 – World War II: Operation Market Garden begins.
• September 24 – World War II: 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 25 – World War II: Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.

  October

• October 8 – The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio show debuts in the United States.
• October 9 -
• * The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the St. Louis Browns, 4 games to 2, to win their 5th World Series Title. This is the only all St. Louis World Series.
• * USS Randolph is commissioned.
• October 20
• * World War II: American and Filipino troops begin the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines. American forces land on Red Beach in Palo, Leyte, as General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines with Philippine Commonwealth president Sergio Osmeña and Armed Forces of the Philippines Generals Basilio J. Valdes and Carlos P. Romulo. American forces land on the beaches in Dulag, Leyte, accompanied by Filipino troops entering the town, and fiercely opposed by the Japanese occupation forces. The combined forces liberate Tacloban.
• * An LNG explosion destroys a square mile of Cleveland, Ohio.
• October 21 – World War II: Aachen, the first German city to fall, is captured by American troops.
• October 23–26 – World War II: Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines – In the largest naval battle in history by most criteria and the last naval battle in history between battleships, combined U.S. and Australian naval forces decisively defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy.
• October 25 – Florence Foster Jenkins gives a notorious recital in Carnegie Hall, New York City.
• October 30 – Appalachian Spring, a ballet by Martha Graham with music by Aaron Copland, debuts at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Graham in the lead role.

  November

• November 6 – Hanford Site in Washington produces its first plutonium.
• November 7
• *U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term.
• *A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, due to excessive speed on a declining hill; 16 are killed, 50 injured.
• November 26 – USS Bon Homme Richard is commissioned.

  December

• December 10 – Legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads a concert performance of the first half of Beethoven's Fidelio on NBC Radio, starring Rose Bampton. He chooses this opera for its political message – a statement against tyranny and dictatorship. Conducting it in German, Toscanini intends it as a tribute to the German people who are being oppressed by Hitler. The second half is broadcast a week later. The performance is later released on LP and CD, the first of 7 operas that Toscanini conducts on radio.
• December 13 – Battle of Mindoro: United States, Australian and Philippine Commonwealth troops land in Mindoro Island, the Philippines.
• December 16 – General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General.
• December 22 – World War II: Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the U.S. forces defending Bastogne, refuses to accept demands for surrender by sending a one-word reply, "Nuts!", to the German command.
• December 24–26 – Agana race riot
• December 26
• *World War II: American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
• *The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams premieres in Chicago.
• December 30 – Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, filling the seat left by Cordell Hull.

  Ongoing

• World War II, U.S. involvement

  Births

January

• January 1 – Bob Minor, American actor, stunt performer
• January 3 – Chris von Saltza, American swimmer
• January 4
• * Frank Alesia, American actor and television director
• * Charlie Manuel, American baseball player and manager
• January 5 – Carolyn McCarthy, American nurse and politician
• January 6 – Bonnie Franklin, American actress, singer, dancer and television director
• January 9 – Ian Hornak, American painter
• January 10 – Frank Sinatra Jr., American singer, songwriter and actor
• January 12 – Joe Frazier, African American boxer, world heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973
• January 19
• * Shelley Fabares, American actress, singer
• * Dan Reeves, American football player and coach
• January 20 – Linda Moulton Howe, American journalist and producer
• January 25 – Evan Chandler, American screenwriter, dentist
• January 26
• * Angela Davis, African-American political activist, academic, and author
• * Jerry Sandusky, American child molester, Penn State coach
• January 28 – Susan Howard, American actress
• January 31 – Connie Booth, American writer, actress

  February

• February 1 – Mike Enzi, American politician
• February 5 – Al Kooper, American rock musician
• February 8 – Bunky Henry, American professional golfer
• February 9 – Alice Walker, African-American novelist and poet
• February 11 – Michael G. Oxley, American politician
• February 12 – Moe Bandy, American country music singer
• February 13
• * Stockard Channing, American actress
• * Michael Ensign, American actor
• February 14 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist
• February 16 – Richard Ford, American novelist
• February 19 – Donald F. Glut, American writer, film director, and screenwriter
• February 22
• * Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer and screenwriter
• * Robert Kardashian, American attorney and businessman
• February 23 – Johnny Winter, American rock musician
• February 27 – Ken Grimwood, American writer
• February 29
• * Dennis Farina, American actor
• * Phyllis Frelich, deaf actress

  March

• March 1 – John Breaux, American politician
• March 3 – Odessa Cleveland, American actress
• March 4 – Bobby Womack, African-American singer and songwriter
• March 6 – Mary Wilson, African-American singer
• March 7
• * Michael Rosbash, American geneticist and chronobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017
• * Townes Van Zandt, American country singer
• March 14 – Steve Daskewisz, American actor
• March 15 – Ralph MacDonald, American percussionist, songwriter
• March 17 – John Sebastian, American singer-songwriter
• March 23 – Ric Ocasek, American singer, songwriter, and record producer
• March 24 – R. Lee Ermey, U.S. Marine and actor
• March 26 – Diana Ross, African-American actress and singer
• March 28
• * Rick Barry, American basketball player
• * Ken Howard, American actor
• March 29 – Denny McLain, American baseball player
• March 31 – Angus King, American politician

  April

• April 1 – Rusty Staub, American baseball player and coach
• April 3 – Tony Orlando, American musician
• April 4 – Craig T. Nelson, American actor
• April 5 – Peter T. King, American politician
• April 6 – Judith McConnell, American actress
• April 7
• * Shel Bachrach, American insurance broker, investor, businessman and philanthropist
• * Warner Fusselle, American sportscaster
• April 8 – Jimmy Walker, American professional basketball player
• April 11 – John Milius, American film director, producer and screenwriter
• April 13 – Jack Casady, American rock musician
• April 18 – Charlie Tuna, American disc jockey and game show announcer
• April 19
• * Bernie Worrell, American rock keyboardist,
• * James Heckman, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000
• April 21 – Paul Geremia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• April 22 – Steve Fossett, American millionaire adventurer
• April 24 – Tony Visconti, American record producer, musician and singer
• April 26 – Larry H. Miller, American sports owner
• April 27 – Cuba Gooding Sr., African-American actor and singer
• April 29 – Richard Kline, American actor and television director
• April 30 – Jill Clayburgh, American actress

  May

• May 1 – Marva Whitney, American singer
• May 3 – Rusty Wier, American singer-songwriter
• May 4 – Russi Taylor, American actress
• May 9
• * Laurence Owen, American figure skater
• * Richie Furay, American musician
• May 10 – Jim Abrahams, American film director
• May 13
• * Carolyn Franklin, American singer
• * Armistead Maupin, American fiction writer
• May 14
• * Connie Lawn, American journalist
• * George Lucas, American filmmaker and entrepreneur
• May 16 – Danny Trejo, Hispanic-American actor
• May 17 – Jesse Winchester, American-Canadian musician and songwriter
• May 24
• * David Mark Berger, American-born Israeli weightlifter
• * Patti LaBelle, African-American singer, actress and entrepreneur
• May 27 – Chris Dodd, American politician
• May 28
• * Rudy Giuliani, American politician, former Mayor of New York City
• * Gladys Knight, African-American singer
• * Sondra Locke, American actress and director
• May 30 – Meredith MacRae, American actress

  June

• June 2
• * Garo Yepremian, American football player
• * Marvin Hamlisch, American composer, conductor
• June 3 – Mary Thom, American journalist and author
• June 4 – Michelle Phillips, American singer and actress
• June 5 – Whitfield Diffie, American cryptographer
• June 6
• * Phillip Allen Sharp, American geneticist and molecular biologist
• * Tommie Smith, African-American track athlete
• June 8
• * Mark Belanger, American baseball player
• * Don Grady, American actor and singer
• * Boz Scaggs, American singer and guitarist
• June 17 – Bill Rafferty, American comedian and impressionist
• June 18
• * Sandy Posey, American musician
• * Rick Griffin, American artist
• June 21 – Kenny O'Dell, American country singer-songwriter
• June 29 – Gary Busey, American actor
• June 30
• * Daniel Kablan Duncan, Ivorian politician
• * Terry Funk, American professional wrestler
• * Raymond Moody, American parapsychologist
• * Alan C. Fox, American author, philanthropist and entrepreneur

  July

• July 1 – Diron Talbert, American football player
• July 2 – Paul Schudel, American football player and coach
• July 8
• * Jaimoe, American drummer
• * Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
• July 17 – Tom Kalinske, American businessman
• July 20 – W. Cary Edwards, American politician
• July 21 – Paul Wellstone, American politician
• July 26
• * Celeste Yarnall, American actress
• * Kiel Martin, American actor
• July 31
• * Geraldine Chaplin, English-American actress
• * Robert C. Merton, American economist

  August

• August 4
• * Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
• * William Frankfather, American actor
• August 7
• * John Glover, American actor
• * Robert Mueller, American lawyer and former FBI director
• August 8 – Michael Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• August 9 – Sam Elliott, American actor
• August 12 – Larry Troutman, American musician
• August 13 – Kevin Tighe, American actor
• August 15
• * Linda Ellerbee, American journalist and author
• * Thomas J. Murphy, Jr., American politician, 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh
• August 17 – Larry Ellison, American co-founder of Oracle Corporation
• August 24 – Gregory Jarvis, American astronaut
• August 25 – Christine Chubbuck, American television reporter
• August 27 – G. W. Bailey, American actor
• August 30 – Tug McGraw, American baseball player
• August 31 – Earnie Shavers, African-American professional wrestler

  September

• September 1 – Leonard Slatkin, American conductor
• September 3 – Ty Warner, American Businessman, Inventor: Beanie Babies
• September 7 – Earl Manigault, American basketball player
• September 12
• * Leonard Peltier, Native American activist and convicted murderer
• * Barry White, African-American R&B and soul singer
• September 13 – Peter Cetera, lead singer and guitarist of American rock group Chicago
• September 18 – Satan's Angel, American exotic dancer
• September 21
• * Caleb Deschanel, American cinematographer and film director
• * Hamilton Jordan, American politician, 8th White House Chief of Staff
• September 25 – Michael Douglas, American actor and producer

  October

• October 2 – Vernor Vinge, American science fiction author and mathematician
• October 4 – Tony La Russa, American baseball player and manager
• October 6 – Mylon LeFevre, American singer and evangelist
• October 8 – Dale Dye, American actor, technical advisor, radio personality and U.S. Marine
• October 9 – Nona Hendryx, American R&B singer
• October 11 – William T. Greenough, American neuroscientist
• October 13 – Margo Lion, American theatrical producer
• October 15
• * Mac Collins, American politician
• * Kay Ivey, American politician
• October 16 – Elizabeth Loftus, American psychologist
• October 19 – George McCrae, American soul and disco singer
• October 28 – Dennis Franz, American actor
• October 31 – Hal Wick, American politician

  November

• November 1
• * Florindo Fabrizio, American politician
• * Kinky Friedman, American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and columnist
• * Bobby Heenan, American professional wrestling manager and commentator
• November 2 – Michael Buffer, American Ring announcer, and actor
• November 4 – Linda Gary, American voice actress
• November 7 – Joe Niekro, American baseball player
• November 10 – Silvestre Reyes, American politician
• November 12
• * Booker T. Jones, African-American musician, singer and songwriter
• * Al Michaels, American sportscaster
• November 17
• * Jim Boeheim, American basketball player and coach
• * Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter
• * Danny DeVito, American actor, film producer and director
• * Tom Seaver, American baseball player
• * Sammy Younge Jr., American civil rights activist
• November 18 – Edwin C. Krupp, American astronomer author, and Director of the Griffith Observatory
• November 20 – Donald DiFrancesco, American lawyer and politician, 51st Governor of New Jersey
• November 21
• * Dick Durbin, American politician
• * Harold Ramis, American actor, director and comedy writer
• November 24 – Candy Darling, American actress
• November 25 – Ben Stein, American law professor, actor and author
• November 27 – Mickey Leland, American politician
• November 28 – Rita Mae Brown, American fiction writer and political activist

  December

• December 1 – John Densmore, drummer, member of The Doors.
• December 2 – Cathy Lee Crosby, American actress
• December 4 – Dennis Wilson, American drummer
• December 6
• * Kit Culkin, American stage actor
• * Ron Kenoly, American Christian leader
• December 7 – Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
• December 9 – Ki Longfellow, American novelist
• December 11
• * Teri Garr, American actress
• * Lynda Day George, American actress
• * Brenda Lee, American singer
• December 19 – Tim Reid, African-American actor and film director
• December 21 – Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
• December 22 – Steve Carlton, American baseball player
• December 23 – Wesley Clark, U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander
• December 26 – Bill Ayers, American education theorist and former radical anti-war activist
• December 28
• * Johnny Isakson, American politician
• * Kary Mullis, American biochemist
• December 30 – Joseph Hilbe, American statistician and author

  Special events

Deaths

• January 6 – Ida Tarbell, investigative journalist
• January 7 – Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, First Lady of the United States
• January 9 – Thomas Curtis, hurdler
• March 7 – August Busck, entomologist and author of works on microlepidoptera
• March 11 – Irvin S. Cobb, writer
• April 25 – George Herriman, cartoonist
• June 30 – Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate
• August 12 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Navy lieutenant
• November 2 – Thomas Midgley Jr., mechanical and chemical engineer
• November 9 – Frank Marshall, chess player
• November 26 – Florence Foster Jenkins, socialite and amateur soprano
• December 4
• * Grace Denio Litchfield, poet and novelist
• * Benjamin Wistar Morris, architect
• * Georgiana Simpson, African American philologist