Timeline June 1944

Events in June 1944 18

• 1886 – 1944 Marc Bloch (1886-1944) Died 16 June 1944, aged 57 French medieval historian and co-founder of the Annales school, author of Feudal Society. He joined the French Resistance and was captured by the Gestapo in Lyon. He was tortured and then shot by the Germans.
• 1944 Battle of Anzio Allied landing behind the Gustav Line Allied forces landed at Anzio to outflank German defences and open the road to Rome. The beachhead was quickly contained and endured four months of bitter fighting. The Allies broke out in late May and linked up with the main front.
• 1944 Normandy Normandy, France The neurosurgical units, the helmets and the penicillin all went ashore together, in the operation Cairns had spent six years preparing for.
• 1944 Colossus Mark 2 enters service Improved codebreaking computer at Bletchley Park The Colossus Mark 2, an electronic codebreaking machine designed by Tommy Flowers, went into service at Bletchley Park. It helped break the German Lorenz cipher used by the high command. Its intelligence confirmed that Hitler had been deceived about the Normandy landing site.
• 1944 Allies liberate Rome First Axis capital to fall Allied forces entered Rome on June 4, 1944, making it the first Axis capital to be liberated. The news was overshadowed two days later by the Normandy landings.
• 1944 Liberation of Rome Allied troops enter the Italian capital The US Fifth Army under Mark Clark entered Rome after the Germans withdrew without defending the city. Rome became the first Axis capital to fall to the Allies. News of the liberation was quickly overshadowed by the Normandy landings two days later.
• 1944 Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for D-Day After a days delay for weather he decides the invasion of Normandy will go ahead on 6 June.
• 1944 D-Day Normandy landings On June 6, 1944, over 156,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy — the largest seaborne invasion in history.
• 1944 – present Phillip Allen Sharp American Molecular Biologist American geneticist and molecular biologist who co-discovered RNA splicing, fundamentally changing the understanding of how genes work. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Richard J. Roberts for demonstrating that genes in higher organisms are not continuous stretches of DNA but are interrupted by non-coding sequences called introns. Raised on a farm in rural Kentucky, he paid for college by raising cattle and growing tobacco before becoming one of the most influential figures in modern biology. He co-founded two pioneering biotechnology companies — Biogen (1978) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (2002) — and has spent his career at MIT, where his doctoral students have included fellow Nobel laureate Andrew Fire.
• 1944 Phillip Allen Sharp born in Falmouth, Kentucky Born Phillip Allen Sharp on a small farm in Falmouth, Pendleton County, Kentucky, where his family grew tobacco and corn. He enjoyed science and maths at school but was not particularly drawn to biology as a child.
• 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane massacre Waffen-SS destroys a French village Soldiers of the Das Reich division killed 643 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane and burned the village. The men were shot and the women and children were burned in the church. The ruins have been preserved as a memorial.
• 1944 First V-1 flying bomb hits London Nazi terror weapon targets civilians Germany launched its first V-1 flying bomb attack on London on June 13, 1944, a week after D-Day. Over 9,500 V-1s were launched at Britain, killing 6,184 people.
• 1944 First V-1 flying bombs hit London Germany opens its flying bomb campaign Germany launched the first V-1 flying bombs against London a week after D-Day. Nearly 10,000 were fired at England and killed more than 6,000 people. Fighters, anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons eventually brought down most of them.
• 1944 Battle of Saipan US forces capture a key Mariana island US Marines and Army troops captured Saipan after three weeks of heavy fighting. Nearly the entire Japanese garrison died, and many civilians killed themselves rather than surrender. The island brought the Japanese home islands within range of B-29 bombers, and its loss led to the fall of Tojo's government.
• 1944 Iceland becomes a republic Union with Denmark is dissolved Iceland formally ended its personal union with the Danish crown and proclaimed a republic at Þingvellir. Sveinn Björnsson became the first president. The date, 17 June, is celebrated as Iceland's National Day.
• 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot US carrier forces decisively defeated the Japanese fleet west of the Mariana Islands. Japan lost three carriers and around 600 aircraft, which crippled its naval air arm. American pilots nicknamed the one-sided air battle the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
• 1944 GI Bill signed Servicemen's Readjustment Act becomes law President Roosevelt signed the act giving returning American veterans funds for college, unemployment pay and low-cost home loans. Millions of veterans used it to attend university. It reshaped American higher education and suburban housing.
• 1944 Operation Bagration Soviet offensive destroys German Army Group Centre The Red Army launched a massive summer offensive in Belarus. It shattered German Army Group Centre and inflicted one of the worst defeats in German military history. Soviet forces advanced hundreds of kilometres to the Vistula and the edge of East Prussia.