The Australians took Tarakan Island.
More heavy fighting occurred on Okinawa.
The Czechoslovak Extraordinary People's Court distributed over twenty thousand sentences - seven percent of them being for life or the death sentence - to "traitors, collaborators and fascist elements."
Philipp Bouhler, age 45, Nazi official and philosopher committed suicide with a cyanide capsule while in a U.S. internment camp.
French troops landed in Syria and Lebanon to reassert control over the region. The landings sparked protests from Arab nationalists.
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German radio broadcast that Adolf Hitler was in the "main fighting line" in Berlin and would "remain there despite all rumors."
The Allies suspected he was in Bavaria organizing resistance there.
Göring sent a telegram asking for permission to assume leadership of the Third Reich which Hitler regarded as treason, ordering his arrest.
The Flossenburg concentration camp was liberated by the U.S. Army.
The U-183 was sunk off of Borneo by the U.S. submarine Besugo.
The Navy deployed Bat air to ship missiles against Japanese ships in Balipapan Harbor in Borneo, marking their first use.
Those arrested in the Freeman Field Mutiny were released.
The Soviet Union renounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact of April 1941.
The Georgian Legion, a German foreign legion, rose up against the Germans on the Dutch island of Texel. The battle would result in large-scale casualties incurred until the end of the war by both sides.
The uprising is regarded as heroic, but the late war uprising was naive. It counted on an Allied landing which did not occur, and it presumed favorable post war treatment by the Allies.
African American members of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate an all-white officers' club at Freeman Field, Indiana, resulting in the predictable scuffles and arrests although the ultimate punishment was minor.
Gen. MacArthur was appointed control of all Army forces in the Pacific and Adm. Nimitz all naval forces. The move was made in anticipation of the Invasion of Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso (小磯 國昭), frustrated in his attempts to be involved in military decisions, resigned.
The U-242 sank in St. George's Channel after hitting a mine.
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The Royal Navy forced the German light cruiser SMS Dresden to scuttle, ending the German East Asia Squadron.
The UK, France and the Russian Empire agreed to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in the event of victory.
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Syria declared war on the Axis powers.
Fighting ended on Corregidor.
The British Indian 17th Division took Tahlaing and the Thabuktong airfield.
A midnight curfew on bars, nightclubs and all other places of entertainment went into effect in the US in order to save coal.
USAAF Gen. Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr. and Brig. Gen. James Roy Andersen disappeared in an aircraft over the Pacific.
The USAAF bombs Berlin heavily.
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Typhoon Cobra struck the Pacific Fleet doing severe damage to the ships of Task Force 28. The destroyers Hull, Monaghan and Spence all foundered in the storm. Other ships were damaged.
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The Fourth Moscow Conference began, with Churchill, Stalin (of course), and W. Averell Harriman in attendance. The Allies, knowing that victory was coming, discussed post war Europe.
Polish delegates attended some of the meetings.
As odd as it may seem, to many in Germany, the coming defeat was not yet a mental reality. There's a lesson in there about believing what you want to believe, in spite of the evidence.
The St. Louis Cardinals took the 1944 World Series in the sixth game.
The Canadian 3d Division landed at Breskens on the south bank of the Scheldt.
A U.S. task force bombarded Marcus Island.
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The outnumbered Finns fought the Red Army to a draw in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, which concluded on this day.
The Battle of Studzianki began in Poland as a German counter offensive.
The Germans began the liquidation of the Łódź Ghetto, which would result in 60,000 Jews and some Roma being deported to Auschwitz.
MacArthur received a letter from Roosevelt endorsing MacArthur's plan to make the Philippines the next priority for the Allies in the Pacific.
The 3d Army liberated Le Mans.
The French Provisional Government ordered the Republic restored and Vichy laws nullified.
The very first Smokey the Bear poster appeared.
Actor Sam Elliot was born in Sacramento, California.
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The Red Army began its attack on Sevastapol with a massive artillery strike, the Red Army norm.
The Biltmore Conference opened in New York City. It was a convention of Zionist meeting in the context of the Second World War at a point at which the mass murder of Jews was fairly openly known, and was certainly known amongst Jews. The topic was the British Palestinian Mandate.
The USS Gunard attacked the Take Ichi convoy, sinking three freighters.
The U-473 was sunk southeast of Ireland by the Royal Navy.
The U66 was rammed and sunk by the USS Buckley off of Cape Verde.
Pensive won the Kentucky Derby.
MGM released the Million Dollar Cat episode of Tom and Jerry.
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Just a few days after U.S. ships shelled US Army troops at Slapton Sands in Operation Tiger in a friendly fire incident, the PT-346 was sunk, killing nine sailors and wounding nine, by Marine Corps Corsairs.
Lieutenant James Burk ordered medic John Frkovich to take his Burk's life jacket so he could survive and treat the wounded. Wilbur Larsen, USNR, received the Navy Marine Corps medal for saving wounded non-swimmer Forrest May's life.
An American air raid on Truk destroyed most of the island's Japanese aircraft.
On New Guinea, the captured Japanese airfields at Hollandia and Aitape become operational for Allied aircraft.
The HMCS Athabaskan was sunk in the English Channel by the T24, once again showing active Kriegsmarine activity in the Channel. The T24 picked up 83 men as prisoners, 44 were rescued by the Allies, and 123 went down with the ship.
The I-183 was sunk off the Bungo Strait by the USS Pogy.
The U-421 was sunk at Toulon in an American air raid.
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An RAF Mosquito raid destroys the Central Population Registry building in The Hague, destroying the records of the Gestapo.
The Red Army captures Dzhankoy and Kerch, Crimea.
The USS Redfin sank the Akigumo.
The U-108 was destroyed in its pen at Stettin in a U.S. Army Air Force air raid.
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