1944

**1944** (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Events

- January 4 – The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
- January 5 – Murder of Danish playwright Kaj Munk
- 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.

## Births

- January 9 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
- February 23 – Johnny Winter
- March 1 - Roger Daltrey, English singer (The Who)
- March 28 – Ken Howard (d. 2016)
- April 7 – Gerhard Schröder
- April 9 – Leila Khaled
- May 8 – Gary Glitter
- May 14 – George Lucas
- May 19 – Peter Mayhew (d. 2019)
- June 4 - Michelle Phillips, American singer and musician (The Mamas & the Papas)
- July 13 – Ernő Rubik
- July 19 - Tim McIntire (d. 1986)
- August 21 - Peter Weir, Australian director
- September 10 – Judit Pogány, Hungarian actress
- September 18 - Veronica Carlson, British actor (d. 2022)
- October 9 - John Entwistle, English bass guitarist (The Who) (d. 2002)
- October 24 – Ray Downs
- November 2 - Michael Buffer, American ring announcer
- November 2 - Keith Emerson, English keyboardist (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) (d. 2016)
- November 10 - Sir Tim Rice, English lyricist
- November 25 – Ben Stein

## Deaths

- 7 January 1944 – Lou Henry Hoover, First Lady of the United States
- 21 July 1944 – Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German army officer
- 14 October 1944 – Erwin Rommel, German army officer
- 26 October 1944 Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom Princess Henry of Battenberg youngest daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe - Coburg and Gotha

## New books

- _An American Dilemma_ – Gunnar Myrdal
- _Au rendez-vous allemand_ – (_To the German Rendezvous_) – Paul Éluard
- _A Bell for Adano_ – John Hersey
- _Beyond the Palisade_ (poetry) – James K. Baxter
- _The Book of Imaginary Beings_ – Jorge Luis Borges
- _Book of Naturalists_ – Charles William Beebe
- _The Case of Mrs. Wingate_ – Oscar Micheaux
- _Dangling Man_ – Saul Bellow
- _The Dawn Appears_ – Annie Greene Nelson
- _Friday's Child_ – Georgette Heyer
- _The Golden Fleece_ – Robert von Ranke Graves
- _The Horse's Mouth_ – Joyce Cary
- _Johnny Tremain_ – Esther Forbes
- _The Lost Weekend_ – Charles R. Jackson
- _Our Lady of the Flowers_ – Jean Genet
- _The Razor's Edge_ – W. Somerset Maugham
- _The Tall Book of Nursery Tales_ – Feodor Rojankovsky
- _Terras do Sem Fim_ (The Violent Land) – Jorge Amado
- _Thou That Dwellest in the Gardens_ – Hayyim Hazaz
- _Two Frontiers_ (poetry) – Edwin James Bradley

## Nobel prizes

- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Joseph Erlanger, American doctor, (1874-1965), and Herbert Gasser, American doctor (1888-1963)