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)