• An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina killing an estimated 10,000 people in the worst natural disaster in Argentina's history.

• British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River.
• Meat Rationing ends in Australia.
• Soviet Union ceases the production of Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.

February

• SHAEF headquarters established in Britain by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.

• "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
• The United States takes Eniwetok Island.

March

• USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge laid down.
• Anti-fascist strike in northern Italy.

• Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
• The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.

• The Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome, Italy. 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups.
• In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jewish people they were hiding.

April

May

• Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
• Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.

June

• A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
• Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.

• More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
• At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem to the underground resistance indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.
• The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.

• Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
• American forces push back Germans in St. Lo, capturing the city.

• WWII: The proclamation of the Republic of Iceland.
• Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.

• Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
• Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.

July

• Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
• Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle in a British victory.

• Hartford Circus Fire: More than 100 children died in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.
• WWII: 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.

• The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
• SS E.A.Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes in the Port Chicago naval base - 320 dead.

• Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
• The creation of the Polish Committee for national liberation.

August

• Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
• the First Assembly of ASNOM was held in the Prohor Pchinski monastery

• Allies capture Florence, Italy.
• World's first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto

September

• The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
• Finland breaks off relations with Germany.

• London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
• The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.

• On middle front of Gothic Line Brazilians troops controlled the Serchio valley region after ten days of fighting.

October

• Warsaw Uprising ends.
• Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.

• Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
• LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio.
• Landed by the American forces in Red Beach in Palo, Leyte, since general Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines with the Philippine Commonwealth president Sergio Osmeña with the Philippine generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are general Basilio Valdes and general Carlos P. Romulo.
• The United States and Filipino troops with the Filipino guerillas started in the Battle of Leyte.
• The American forces landed the beaches in Dulag, Leyte, the Philippines by the attacked from the Japanese occupation forces, and continued by the Filipino troops entered to the town.

• Florence Foster Jenkins recital in the Carnegie Hall
• WWII: Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated from German occupation.

November

• U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term.
• Passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico due to excessive speed in a declining hill. 16 killed; 50 injured.

December

• Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later to become known as Battle of the Bulge.
• General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General.

• WWII: American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
• Premiere of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Undated

Ongoing

Births

January-February

• Bonnie Franklin, American actress
• Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• Peter Akinola, Nigerian religious leader
• Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• Nick Mason, English drummer (Pink Floyd)

• Susan Howard, American actress
• John Tavener, British composer

• Stockard Channing, American actress
• Jerry Springer, English-born television host

• Carl Bernstein, American journalist
• Alan Parker, English-born film director, actor, and writer

• Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer, and writer
• Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player

March-April

• John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana
• Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)

• Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and race car designer (d. 1999)
• Mary Wilson (singer), American singer
• Bobby Womack, American singer and songwriter

• Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
• Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy

• Jimmy Walker, American professional basketball player (d.2007)
• Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter

May-June

• Joe Cocker, British singer
• Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer
• Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman

• John Newcombe, Australian tennis player
• Avraham Oz, Israeli Professor of Theatre, translator, and political activist

• Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City
• Gladys Knight, American singer
• Patricia Quinn, Northern Irish actress
• Rita MacNeil, Canadian folk singer

• Tommie Smith, American athlete
• Colm Wilkinson, Irish singer

• Don Grady, American actor and singer
• Mark Belanger, baseball player (d. 1998)

• Jeff Beck, British musician
• John "Charlie" Whitney, British rock guitarist (Family)

July-August

• Tony Scott, English film director
• Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)

• Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
• Robert C. Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
• Orhan Gencebay, Turkish musician, baglama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor.

• Peter Weir, Australian film director
• Kari S. Tikka, Finnish Professor of Finance (d. 2006)

• Roger Dean, British artist
• Jos LeDuc, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1999)

September-October

• Earl Manigault, American basketball player (d. 1998)
• Bora Milutinovic, Serbian football coach

• Leonard Peltier, U.S. Presidential candidate
• Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)

• John Entwistle, English musician (The Who) (d. 2002)
• Nona Hendryx, singer (LaBelle)
• Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1987)

• David Trimble, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• Şerif Gören, Turkish film director

• Dennis Franz, American actor
• Ian Marter, British actor (d. 1986)

November-December