Timeline December 1944

Events in December 1944 16

• 1866 – 1944 Romain Rolland (1866-1944) Died 30 December 1944, aged 78 French novelist, dramatist and pacifist, best known for the multi-volume novel Jean-Christophe. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915. He also wrote biographies of Beethoven, Tolstoy and Gandhi.
• 1866 – 1944 Wassily Kandinsky Abstract Art · Russia Wassily Kandinsky (December 16, 1866 – December 13, 1944) was a Russian painter widely credited with creating the first purely abstract works. He believed colour and form could express spiritual and emotional states independent of subject matter.
• 1876 – 1944 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) Died 2 December 1944, aged 67 Italian poet and founder of Futurism, whose 1909 Futurist Manifesto celebrated speed, machines and violence. He was a prominent supporter of Italian Fascism. He died at Bellagio while serving the Italian Social Republic.
• 1884 – 1944 Harry Langdon (1884-1944) American silent comedian, briefly ranked with Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.
• 1904 – 1944 Glenn Miller (1904-1944) Died 15 December 1944, aged 40 American bandleader whose swing orchestra was the best-selling act of its era, with hits such as In the Mood and Moonlight Serenade. He led the Army Air Forces Band during the war. His aircraft disappeared over the English Channel on a flight to Paris and was never found.
• 1944 Moe Berg attends a lecture in Zurich with a pistol Under orders to shoot if Germany sounded close to a bomb The former baseball catcher, sent by the OSS, decided it was not necessary.
• 1944 Dekemvriana begins in Athens Fighting between British and communist-led forces Police fired on a large left-wing demonstration in Syntagma Square, killing more than twenty people. Fighting then broke out between the ELAS resistance army and British and Greek government forces. The clashes lasted into January 1945 and set the stage for the Greek Civil War.
• 1944 – 1983 Dennis Wilson (1944-1983) Died 28 December 1983, aged 39 Dennis Wilson was an American musician and the drummer of the Beach Boys, the only member of the band who was an actual surfer. He drowned off Marina del Rey, California, becoming the first Beach Boy to die. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band.
• 1944 Chicago Convention signed Founding treaty of international civil aviation Fifty-two states signed the Convention on International Civil Aviation at the end of a conference in Chicago. It set out the rules for airspace, aircraft registration and safety. It established the International Civil Aviation Organization.
• 1944 Tōnankai earthquake Magnitude 8.1 earthquake strikes central Japan A great earthquake and tsunami struck the coast of central Japan off the Kii Peninsula, killing more than 1,200 people. Wartime censorship kept news of the disaster from spreading. The damage to aircraft factories around Nagoya hampered Japanese war production.
• 1944 Battle of the Bulge Liberation and a last German push Liberated in 1944, Luxembourg is then caught in the Battle of the Bulge, Germany's final western offensive, before final freedom in early 1945.
• 1944 Battle of the Bulge Germany's last major offensive in the West Germany launched its final major offensive on the Western Front on December 16, 1944, catching the Allies by surprise in the Ardennes forest. The US 101st Airborne held Bastogne. The German offensive was repulsed by January.
• 1944 German Ardennes offensive launched Start of the Battle of the Bulge Germany launched a surprise offensive through the forested Ardennes region against thinly held American lines, aiming to split the Allies and capture Antwerp. The attack created a deep salient in the Allied front. It became the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in the Second World War.
• 1944 Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted to General of the Army He receives the new five-star rank.
• 1944 Siege of Bastogne Encircled US troops hold a vital crossroads The US 101st Airborne Division and other units were surrounded in the Belgian town of Bastogne during the Ardennes offensive. When asked to surrender, General Anthony McAuliffe replied "Nuts!". Patton's Third Army broke through the encirclement on 26 December.
• 1944 Harry Langdon dies in Los Angeles Harry Langdon dies aged 60.