1944

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Years: 1941 1942 1943 - 1944(MCMXLIV) - 1945 1946 1947

Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1944 by topic: Arts Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television Science and technology Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science Countries Australia - Canada - Ireland - South Africa - Sport Other Births - Deaths - State leaders - Religious leaders

1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

Contents 1 Events 1.1 World War II 1.1.1 January 1.1.2 February 1.1.3 March 1.1.4 May 1.1.5 June 1.1.6 July 1.1.7 August 1.1.8 September 1.1.9 October 1.1.10 November-December 1.2 Other events 1.2.1 January-July 1.2.2 August-November 1.2.3 December 1.3 Unknown dates 1.4 Ongoing events 2 Births 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June-October 2.7 November-December 3 Deaths 3.1 January-May 3.2 July-August 3.3 September-December 4 Nobel Prizes

Events

World War II

January

• January 4 - The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• January 5 - Murder of Danish playwright Kaj Munk.
• January 14 - The Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.
• January 17 - British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River.
• January 17 - Meat Rationing ends in Australia.
• January 20 - The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin. The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River.
• January 22 - Allies begin Operation Shingle, the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.
• January 27 - The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• January 29 - The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
• January 30 - United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• January 31 - American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February

• February 1 - United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
• February 3 - United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
• February 7 - In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.
• February 14 - Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
• February 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - the monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
• February 17 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ended in an American victory on February 22.
• February 20 - "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
• February 20 - The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
• February 29 - The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.

March

• March - The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.
• March 1 - USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge laid down.
• March 1 - Anti-fascist strike in northern Italy.
• March 2 - Train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy - 426 choke to death
• March 3 - The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov were instituted in USSR
• March 10 - In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
• March 12 - The Creation of the politic Committee of national liberation in Greece.
• March 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
• March 15 - The National Counsil of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
• March 17 - The hitlerists assassinate at Rîbniţa almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians.
• March 18 - German forces occupy Hungary.
• March 20 - RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade's bomber is hit over Germany and he has to bail out without a parachute from the height of over 4000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow

May

• May 5 - Mohandas Gandhi released in India.
• May 9 - Soviet troops liberate Sevastopol.
• May 12 - Soviet troops finalize the liberation of Crimea.
• May 18 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
• May 18 - Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.

June

Image:NormandySupply.jpeg.

• June 2 - The provisional French gouverment is established.
• June 4 - 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.
• June 4 - American, English and French troops enter Rome.
• June 5 - Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.
• June 5 - More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
• June 6 - Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
• June 9 - Stalin launches an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
• June 10 - 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
• June 13 - Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
• June 15 - Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
• June 17 - The proclamation of the Republic of Iceland.
• June 22 - 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.
• June 25 - The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.
• June 26 - American troops enter Cherbourg.

July

• July 3 - Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
• July 9 - British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
• July 10 - Soviet troops start the operations for freeing the Baltic countries.
• July 13 - Liberation of Vilnius.
• July 17 - The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
• July 17 - SS E.A.Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes in the Port Chicago naval base - 320 dead
• July 18 - Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
• July 20 - Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt. See Claus von Stauffenberg
• July 21 - Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
• July 21 - The creation of the Polish Committee for national liberation.
• July 25 - Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.

August

• August 1 - Warsaw Uprising begins.
• August 2 - Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
• August 7 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
• August 12 - Allies capture Florence, Italy.
• August 12 - World's first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto
• August 15 - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.
• August 19 - (August 25) Victorious insurrection in Paris.
• August 23 - Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government is established. Romania exits the war against Russia joining the Allies.
• August 24 - Allies enter Paris.
• August 25 - Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
• August 29 - Slovak National Uprising begins

September

• September 1 - In Bulgaria, the Bagrianov government resigns.
• September 2 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
• September 3 - Allies liberate Brussels.
• September 4 - The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
• September 4 - Finnish gouverment brakes relations with Germany.
• September 5 - The Soviets declare war on Bulgaria.
• September 7 - The Belgian government returns from emigration.
• September 8 - London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
• September 8 - The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
• September 9 - Insurrection in Sofia.
• September 11 - Northern and southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
• September 17 - Operation Market Garden begins.
• September 19 - Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union signed. (End of the Continuation War)
• September 24 - The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Epinal before crossing the Moselle River and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.
• September 26 - Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.

October

• October 2 - Warsaw Uprising ends.
• October 5 - Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
• October 9 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
• October 12 - The Allies land at Athens.
• October 13 - Riga, the capital of Latvia is liberated by the Red Army.
• October 14 - German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
• October 14 - Given the choice of a public treason trial followed by death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel chooses the latter.
• October 18 - Volkssturm founded on Hitler's orders.
• October 20 - Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
• October 20 - LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio
• October 21 - Aachen is the first German city to fall.
• October 23 - Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins (lasts until October 26).
• October 25 - Florence Foster Jenkins recital in the Carnegie Hall
• October 31 - Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris metro station

November-December

• November 6 - Two Lehi assassins kill Lord Moyne in Cairo
• November 12 - East Turkestan Republic declared
• November 12 - The Royal Air Force carries out one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of the war, sinking the German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of Norway.
• November 19 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
• November 24 - Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
• November 25 - A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, killing 160 shoppers.
• November 26 - Gas chambers at Auschwitz and Stutthof are destroyed.
• November 29 - Albania is liberated from German occupation.
• December 16 - Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later to become known as Battle of the Bulge.
• December 16 - General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General
• December 17 - German troops carry out the Malmédy massacre.
• December 24 - The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.
• December 26 - American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
• December 31 - Hungary declares war on Germany

Other events

January-July

• January 5 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• February 26 - - Shooting begins of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.
• March 1 - USS Tarawa laid down
• March 4 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.
• March 24 - In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jewish people they were hiding.
• April 25 - The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
• May 30 - Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne resigns from her rights in favor of her son Prince Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, later reigning Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
• June 17 - Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.
• July 17 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California killing 232.

August-November

• August 4 - Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
• August 5 - Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
• August 7 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
• August 9 - The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.
• September 2 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
• October 2 - Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
• October 8 - The radio show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuts.
• October 10 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp
• November 7 - 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.
• November 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).

December

• December 3 - Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
• December 1 - Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, by filling the seat left by the Cordell Hull.
• December 26 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was first publicly performed.
• December 30 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.

Unknown dates

• In Sweden, the law of 1864 that criminalizes homosexuality is abolished.
• Swedish author of children's books Astrid Lindgren publishes her first book Pippi Longstocking.
• In Sweden, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.
• Barbados General election - Grantley Adams, black lawyer, first majority party leader in the House of Assembly, as leader of Barbados Labour Party
• Bretton Woods Agreement
• Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger's Syndrome
• The Mad Gasser of Mattoon carries out a series of mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.

Ongoing events

• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Births

For more 1944 births see Category:1944 births

January

• January 2 - Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
• January 6 - Bonnie Franklin, American actress
• January 9 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
• January 12 - Joe Frazier, American boxer
• January 17 - Françoise Hardy, French singer
• January 18 - Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
• January 23 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
• January 24 - Neil Diamond, American singer
• January 26 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
• January 27 - Mairead Corrigan, Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• January 27 - Nick Mason, English drummer (Pink Floyd)

February

• February 3 - Dave Davies, British musician (The Kinks)
• February 5 - Al Kooper, American musician (Blood, Sweat, and Tears)
• February 5 - Michael Mann, American film, director, writer, producer
• February 9 - Alice Walker, American writer
• February 10 - Vernor Vinge, American writer
• February 11 - Michael G. Oxley, American politician
• February 13 - Jerry Springer, English-born television host
• February 14 - Carl Bernstein, American journalist
• February 14 - Alan Parker, English-born film director, actor, and writer
• February 16 - Richard Ford, American writer
• February 20 - Willem van Hanegem, Dutch football player and coach
• February 22 - Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer, and writer
• February 22 - Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
• February 23 - Johnny Winter, American musician
• February 24 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994)
• February 28 - Sepp Maier, German footballer

March

• March 1 - John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana
• March 1 - Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)
• March 2 - Uschi Glas, German actress
• March 6 - Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano
• March 11 - Don MacLean, British comedian
• March 15 - Sly Stone, American singer
• March 17 - John Sebastian, American singer and songwriter (The Lovin' Spoonful)
• March 19 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
• March 19 - Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy
• March 24 - R. Lee Ermey, U.S. Marine and actor
• March 26 - Diana Ross, American singer
• March 28 - Rick Barry, American basketball player
• March 29 - Denny McLain, baseball player

April

• April 3 - Tony Orlando, American musician
• April 4 - Craig T. Nelson, American actor
• April 6 - Felicity Palmer, English soprano
• April 7 - Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
• April 8 - Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter
• April 11 - John Milius, American film director, producer, and screenwriter
• April 19 - James Heckman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 22 - Steve Fossett, American millionaire adventurer
• April 28 - Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician
• April 29 - Richard Kline, American actor and television director
• April 30 - Jill Clayburgh, American actress

May

• May 1 - Suresh Kalmadi, Indian politician
• May 5 - John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor
• May 8 - Gary Glitter, English singer
• May 9 - Richie Furay, American musician (Poco and Buffalo Springfield)
• May 10 - Jim Abrahams, American film director
• May 13 - Armistead Maupin, American author
• May 12 - Sara Kestelman, British actor
• May 14 - George Lucas, American film director and producer
• May 20 - Joe Cocker, British singer
• May 20 - Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer
• May 20 - Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman
• May 21 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
• May 25 - Frank Oz, English puppeteer and film director
• May 28 - Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of New York City
• May 28 - Gladys Knight, American singer
• May 30 - Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)

June-October

• June 3 - Edith McGuire, American sprinter
• June 5 - Tommie Smith, American athlete
• June 8 - Mark Belanger, baseball player (d. 1998)
• June 24 - Jeff Beck, British musician
• June 29 - Gary Busey, American actor
• June 30 - Raymond Moody, parapsychologist
• July 13 - Ernő Rubik, Hungarian inventor
• July 21 - Tony Scott, English film director
• July 21 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)
• July 27 - Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor, and musician (d. 2003)
• July 31 - Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
• July 31 - Robert Carhart Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 2 - Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)
• August 4 - Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
• August 8 - Brooke Bundy, American actress
• August 9 - Sam Elliott, American actor
• August 11 - Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
• August 21 - Peter Weir, Australian film director
• August 23 - Saira Banu, Indian actress
• August 26- Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
• September 1 - Leonard Slatkin, American conductor
• September 2 - Al Matthews, American actor (d. 2002)
• September 7 - Earl Manigault, American basketball player (d. 1998)
• September 7 - Bora Milutinovic, Serbian football coach
• September 12 - Leonard Peltier, U.S. Presidential candidate
• September 12 - Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)
• September 22 - Frazer Hines, British actor
• September 25 - Michael Douglas, American actor
• September 26 - Anne Robinson, British television host
• October 9 - John Entwistle, English bassist (The Who) (d. 2002)
• October 9 - Nona Hendryx, singer (LaBelle)
• October 9 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1987)
• October 15 - David Trimble, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• October 28 - Dennis Franz, American actor
• October 28 - Ian Marter, British actor (d. 1986)

November-December

• November 9 - Melvin Maskin, American teacher
• November 10 - Silvestre Reyes, American politician
• November 12 - Booker T. Jones, American musician, singer, and songwriter (Booker T. and the M.G.'s)
• November 12 - Al Michaels, American sportscaster
• November 17 - Danny DeVito, American actor
• November 17 - Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect
• November 17 - Lorne Michaels, American film producer
• November 17 - Tom Seaver, baseball player
• November 21 - Dick Durbin, American politician
• November 25 - Ben Stein, American law professor, actor, and author
• December 7 - Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
• December 17 - Jack L. Chalker, American novelist (d. 2005)
• December 21 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
• December 22 - Steve Carlton, baseball player
• December 23 - Wesley Clark, U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander
• December 25 - Jairzinho, Brazilian football player
• December 28 - Kary Mullis, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

For more 1944 deaths see Category:1944 deaths

January-May

• January 1 - Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (b. 1862)
• January 11 - Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (b. 1903)
• January 20 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
• January 31 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
• January 31 - William Allen White, American journalist (b. 1868)
• February 1 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
• February 4 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)
• February 11 - Carl Meinhof, German linguist (b. 1857)
• February 21 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
• February 23 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
• March 5 - Max Jacob, French poet (b. 1876)
• March 22 - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and French Resistance fighter (b. 1903)
• March 24 - Orde Wingate, British soldier (b. 1903)
• April 9 - Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1920)
• April 17 - J.T. Hearne English cricketer (b. 1867)
• April 28 - Paul Poiret, French couturier (b. 1879)
• April 29 - Bernardino Machado, President of Portugal (b. 1851)
• May 12 - Max Brand, American author (b. 1892)
• May 12 - Q, British writer (b. 1863)
• May 16 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)

July-August

• July 6 - Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1919)
• July 6 - Vera Leigh, English World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1903)
• July 6 - Sonia Olschanezky, German World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1923)
• July 6 - Diana Rowden, English World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1915)
• July 26 - Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1877)
• July 31 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer (b. 1900)
• August 8 - Chaim Soutine, Russian painter (b. 1893)
• August 12 - Suzanne Spaak, Belgian World War II heroine (executed)
• August 23 - Abdul Mejid II, Caliph of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1868)
• August 26 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat (executed) (b. 1909)
• August 27 - Princess Mafalda Maria Elisabetta of Savoy (executed) (b. 1902)

September-December

• September 6 - Gustave Biéler, Swiss World War II hero (executed) (b. 1904)
• September 9 - Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (executed) (b. 1895)
• September 11 - Yolande Beekman, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1911)
• September 11 - Madeleine Damerment, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1917)
• September 11 - Noor Inayat Khan, Indian princess and World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1914)
• September 13 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator (b. 1872)
• September 14 - John Kenneth Macalister, Canadian World War II hero (executed) (b. 1914)
• September 14 - Frank Pickersgill, Canadian World War II hero (executed) (b. 1915)
• September 14 - Roméo Sabourin, Canadian World War II hero (executed) (b. 1923)
• October 14 - Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal (b. 1891)
• October 21 - Alois Kayser, German missionary (b. 1877)
• October 23 - Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
• October 26 - William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1881)
• November 2 - Thomas Midgley, American chemist and inventor (b. 1889)
• November 7 - Hannah Szenes, Hungarian World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1921)
• December 2 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (b. 1874)
• December 4 - Roger Bresnahan, baseball player (b. 1879)
• December 13 - Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born artist (b. 1866)
• December 30 - Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Isidor Isaac Rabi
• Chemistry - Otto Hahn
• Medicine - Joseph Erlanger, Herbert Spencer Gasser
• Literature - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
• Peace - International Committee of the Red Cross.