The crew of the USS Maine killed in the explosion of the prior year were reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Polish movie director and entertainer Eugeniusz Bodo was born, probably in Geneva, Switzerland. He was murdered by the Soviets via starvation of Gulag prisoners in 1943.
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End of the Siege of Bastogne which was an American victory. Beginning of the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army.
Germans forces were forced out of Celles by 30 Corps.
The US 8th Air Force bombs Coblenz, Bonn and Kaiserslautern (nominally railway targets) and the RAF Munchen-Gladbach and Bonn.
Sára Salkaházi, a Hungarian religious sister was executed by the Arrow Cross Party for working to save Jews. She was 45 years old.
The U-877 was sunk northwest of the Azores by Canadian corvette HMCS St. Thomas.
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, announced his retirement from Parliament.
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The USS Utah was launched.
She'd be lost at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Fifty eight of her crew died as a result. She was not recovered and remains in the harbor near Ford Island.
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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 Kaga Maru departed Yokohama with 2,000 cherry blossom trees for the U.S.
The National Geographic Society acknowledged Robert E. Peary as the first to reach the North Pole.
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The 3d Army captured the V-rocket factory at Wittring in eastern France.
Harold Alexander was promoted to Field Marshal and made Supreme Commander of Allied Force Headquarters in the Mediterranean.
The British commenced an offensive towards Akyab, Burma.
The RAF attacked Witten in a daylight raid. They were escorted by American P-51s. The city was the last industrial city in the Ruhr to have escaped bombing.
Greek communists asked for cease fire terms.
The U-416 collided with a German minesweeper and sank. The Z35 and Z36 destroyers were sunk by mines in the Gulf of Finland. Japanese destroyer sYūzuki and Uzuki were sunk by the U.S. Navy.
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The late Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Noble Prizes for 1943 and1944 were awarded, in New York, to Isidor Isaac Rabi (United States), Chemistry to Otto Hahn (Germany), Physiology or Medicine to Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser (United States), Literature to Johannes V. Jensen (Denmark) and the Peace Prize to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Otto Stern of the United States for Physics, George de Hevesy (Germany) for Chemistry and Carl Peter Henrik Dam (Denmark) and Edward Adelbert Doisy (United States) for Physiology or Medicine.
They had not been awarded since 1939.
The William S. Ladd was sunk by kamikazes off of Leyte.
On Leyte, the 77th Division took Ormoc.
The French and Soviet governments signed a twenty year treaty of cooperation in Moscow.
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A U.S. counterattack halted the Japanese offensive on Leyte.
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Kamikazes damaged the USS Mahan and USS Ward beyond repair during landings at Ormoc Bay.
The Ward figures prominently in the story of the Battle of Pearl Harbor.
Today in World War II History—December 7, 1939 & 1944: At Ormoc Bay, destroyer USS Ward is damaged by a kamikaze; three years earlier to the day, USS Ward fired the first shots during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The 77th Division landed against Japanese opposition, but it was not heavy.
General Nicolae Radescu took office as Prime Minister of Romania.
The International Civil Aviation Organization was established.
The Arab Women's Congress of 1944 took place in Cairo.
An earthquake at Tokai, Japan, killed 1200 people and halted production at the Mitsubishi plant.
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Labels: 1940s, 1944, Airborne, Aircraft, Battle of Leyte, boats and ships, Charles de Gaulle, Dekemvriana (Δεκεμβριανά), Greek Civil War, Imperial Japanese Army, Joseph Stalin, Royal Air Force, World War Two
The Japanese conducted an airborne landing on Leyte, combined with a ground infantry offensive.
The UK began to return displaced British to their homes, save for areas subject to V-weapon attacks.
Germany began stripping the Netherlands of locomotives and sending them to Germany. They were electric trains.
The RAF conducted strafing runs on communist positions in Greece.
The U-297 was sunk by the RAF. The HMS Bullen was sunk by the U-775
Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger had its first flight.
A very late war German fighter, only 120 were made.
Stalin met with General de Gaulle in Moscow.
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The Germans cut Dutch bread rations to two pounds per week.
Martial law was declared in Greece.
Heilbroon was firebombed, resulting in the deaths of 7,147 people.
The Kishinami was sunk in the South China Sea by the USS Flasher.
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Quebec nationalist René Chaloult stated that Quebec should secede from Canada if the province was not allowed to decide its own policies on conscription. Oddly enough, the Terrace Mutiny ended the same day.
The liberation of Albania was completed by Albanian partisans.
US forces successfully counterattack at Kilay Ridge on Leyte.
The USS Archerfish sank the carrier Shinano in waters off Honshu.
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The Red Army took Mohács, Hungary.
Heavy fighting continued in Leyte.
The U-80 went down with all hands in an accident off of Pillau.
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