1944 in the United States

Events from the year 1944 in the United States.

Incumbents

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

President: Franklin D. Roosevelt
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|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

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 23.
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, hosted by Jack Benny, is held, the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue, Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Michael Curtiz's Casablanca wins the Outstanding Motion Picture, with Curtiz winning Best Director. Henry King's The Song of Bernadette receives the most nominations with 12 and wins the most awards with four.
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 16 – George Stinney, a 14-year old African-American, is executed after being accused of killing two white girls in his hometown, Alcolu, South Carolina. The execution takes place in South Carolina Penitentiary in Columbia, South Carolina by electric chair.
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 – 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 (state) 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. Presenting 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 in Guam between white and black United States Marines.
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.

Undated

National Committee for Education on Alcoholism, predecessor of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, is established by Marty Mann.
14-year-old Warren Buffett's father introduces him to a newspaper office to do the job of taking a newspaper to the subscriber. Then, with a salary of US$1,200, he buys 40 acres of land and starts a sub-leased tenant farming business.
Rio Grande company is founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Ongoing

World War II, U.S. involvement

Births

January

January 1
* Jimmy Hart, American wrestling manager and singer
* Robert Lee Minor, American actor, stunt performer
January 2 – Lowell M. Snow, General authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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 11 – Jim McAndrew, American baseball player
January 12 – Joe Frazier, African American boxer, world heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973
January 13 – Chris von Saltza, American swimmer
January 19
* Shelley Fabares, American actress, singer
* Dan Reeves, American football player and coach
January 25 – Evan Chandler, American screenwriter and dentist
January 26
* Angela Davis, African-American political activist, academic and author
* Jerry Sandusky, American football coach and child molester
January 27 – Sam Smith, American basketball player
January 28 – Susan Howard, American actress

February

February 1
* Paul Blair, American baseball player
* Mike Enzi, American politician
February 3 – Wayne Comer, American baseball player
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 – Mike Oxley, American politician
February 12 – Moe Bandy, American country music singer
February 13
* Sal Bando, American baseball player and manager
* Stockard Channing, American actress
* Michael Ensign, American actor
* Sheldon Silver, American politician, attorney and convicted felon
February 14 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist
February 15 – Rommy Hunt Revson, singer and inventor
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
* Ed Flanagan, American football player
* Johnny Winter, American rock musician
February 27 – Ken Grimwood, American writer
February 29
* Dennis Farina, American actor
* Phyllis Frelich, American deaf actress

March

March 1 – John Breaux, American politician
March 3 – Odessa Cleveland, American actress
March 4 – Bobby Womack, African-American singer-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 8 – Carole Bayer Sager, American singer, songwriter
March 11 – Richard McGeagh, American Olympic swimmer and water polo player
March 14 – Steve Daskewisz, American actor
March 15 – Ralph MacDonald, American percussionist, songwriter
March 16 – Granville Van Dusen, American actor
March 17 – John Sebastian, American singer-songwriter
March 20 – Camille Cosby, philanthropist
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 27 – Thomas H. Lee, American private equity investor
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 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
* Robert Hanssen, American double agent
* Charlie Tuna, American disc jockey and game show announcer
April 19
* Robert Holmes Bell, American district judge
* James Heckman, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000
* Bernie Worrell, American rock keyboardist,
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
* Linda Hirshman, American lawyer and academic
* 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
* Richie Furay, American musician
* Laurence Owen, American figure skater
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 18 – Marianne Battani, American jurist
May 24
* David Mark Berger, American-born Israeli weightlifter
* Patti LaBelle, African-American singer, actress and entrepreneur
May 26 – Jan Schakowsky, American politician
May 27
* Jon Brittenum, American football player
* 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
* Edith McGuire, American sprinter, Olympic champion
* Mary Thom, American journalist and author
June 4 – Michelle Phillips, American singer and actress
June 5 – Whitfield Diffie, American cryptographer
June 6
* Bud Harrelson, American baseball player
* 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 9
* Roger Bonk, American football player
* Wally Gabler, American football player
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
* 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 16 – Randy Kehler, American political activist
July 17 – Tom Kalinske, American businessman
July 18 – Thomas Markle, American lighting director. father of Meghan Markle
July 20 – W. Cary Edwards, American politician
July 21 – Paul Wellstone, American politician
July 26
* Betty Davis, American singer, songwriter and model
* 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
* Denny Freeman, American guitarist
* 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 11 – Frederick W. Smith, American businessman
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, co-founder of Oracle Corporation
August 19 – Steve Sloan, American football player and coach
August 24
* Henry Braden, lawyer and politician
* Gregory Jarvis, astronaut
* Christine Chubbuck, American television reporter
August 27 – G. W. Bailey, American actor
August 28 – Karen Durbin, American journalist and film critic
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 of Beanie Babies
September 7
* Earl Manigault, American basketball player
* Jerry Relph, American politician, member of the Minnesota Senate
September 8 – Bill Parkyn, scientist
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 14 – Colleen Barrett, American business executive
September 18
* Bill Cottrell, American football player
* 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
* Kinky Friedman, American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and columnist
* Hal Wick, American politician

November

November 1
* Florindo Fabrizio, American politician
* Bobby Heenan, American professional wrestling manager and commentator
November 2 – Michael Buffer, American ring announcer and actor
November 3 – Tom Shales, American writer and television critic
November 4 – Linda Gary, American voice actress
November 5 – Leland Wilkinson, American statistician and computer scientist
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
* Gary Goldman, American animator, film producer and director
* Tom Seaver, American baseball player
* Sammy Younge Jr., American civil rights activist
November 18
* Lorinda Cherry, American computer scientist
* Ed Krupp, American astronomer, Director of the Griffith Observatory and science popularizer
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
November 30 - Dian Parkinson, former model

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 20 – Bobby Colomby, American drummer and producer
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
December 31 – Lois Galgay Reckitt, American activist and politician

Undated

Donald Nicolaisen, American SEC chief accountant

Deaths

January 6 – Ida Tarbell, investigative journalist
January 7 – Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, First Lady of the United States
March 7 – August Busck, entomologist and author of works on microlepidoptera
March 11 – Irvin S. Cobb, writer
March 19 – Henry Francis Bryan, governor of American Samoa
April 21 – Florence Trail, educator and author
April 25 – George Herriman, cartoonist
May 8 – Albert Leo Stevens, balloonist
May 23 – Thomas Curtis, hurdler
June 30 – Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate
August 12 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Navy lieutenant
September 26 – John Sheridan Weller, attorney and politician
September 27 – Aimee Semple McPherson, Pentecostal evangelist
October 4 – Al Smith, politician
October 21 – Lionel Pape, actor
October 22 – Richard Bennett, stage and silent screen actor
November 2 – Thomas Midgley Jr., mechanical and chemical engineer
November 4 – Sir John Dill, British Army field marshal
November 9
* Jane Grey, actress
* Frank Marshall, chess player
November 12 – George Houston, actor
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
December 15 - Glenn Miller, conductor, trombonist
December 16 – Stuart Paton, British-born screenwriter and film director
December 21 – James Redmond, artist, killed in action in Belgium
December 31 – Ruth Hanna McCormick, politician, activist and publisher