| Share

News and Events of 1944

Year by Year: 1900-2012 View a 1944 calendar

World Events

World Statistics

population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize:
International Red Cross

More World Statistics...

Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6). Background: Normandy campaign
Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Dumbarton Oaks Conference—U.S., British Commonwealth, and U.S.S.R. propose establishment of United Nations.
Battle of the Bulge begins as Germans penetrate Allied front in Belgium (Dec. 16 to Jan. 1945).
Anne Frank and her family betrayed and sent to concentration camps. She will die in 1945.

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Franklin D Roosevelt
Vice President: Henry A. Wallace
Population: 138,397,345

More U.S. Statistics...

FDR is reelected, beating Republican challenger Thomas Dewey. Background: Presidential Elections, 1789–present
GI Bill of Rights is passed, providing benefits for armed-service veterans.

Economics

Federal spending:   $91.30 billion
Federal debt:   $204.1 billion
Consumer Price Index:   17.6
Unemployment:   1.2%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.03

More Economics...

Sports

Sports Links

Pro Football Summary

Pro Basketball Summary

Pro Baseball Summary

World Series

St. Louis Cardinals d. St. Louis Browns (4-2)

Stanley Cup

Montreal d. Chicago (4-0)

Wimbledon

Women: Not held (World War II)
Men: Not held (World War II)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Pensive

NCAA Basketball Championship

Utah d. Dartmouth (42-40 OT)

NCAA Football Champions

Army (9-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Journey in the Dark, Martin Flavin
Music: Symphony No. 4 (Op. 34), Howard Hanson

Oscars awarded in 1944
Academy Award, Best Picture: Casablanca (Warner Bros.)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Johannes V. Jensen (Denmark)

Miss America: Venus Ramey (DC)

More Entertainment Awards...

Events

The first instance of network censorship occurs. The sound is cut off on the Eddie Cantor and Nora Martin duet, "We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me."
The DuMont network goes on the air. Paramount Pictures backs the start-up enterprise, but its lack of affiliated radio networks leads to its early demise in 1956.

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Otto Hahn (Germany), for work on atomic fission1945

Physics: Isidor Isaac Rabi (US), for work on magnetic movements of atomic particles

Physiology or Medicine: Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser (both U.S.), for work on functions of the nerve threads

Scientists at Harvard University construct the first automatic, general-purpose digital computer.
DNA is isolated by Oswald Avery.
The Germans develop the V-2, the first true missile.