Date in year · 1944 · The 1940s

January 31, 1944

On January 31, 1944, world War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. Kathy Acker, Philip Jackson, James Heckman would arrive in the same year.

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1944

1940s

Featured · January 31, 1944

World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents often shorten to Kwaj. The total land area of the atoll is just over 6 square miles (16 km2).

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Around 1944

The year in brief

1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1944th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 944th year of the 2nd millennium, the 44th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1940s decade.

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What happened

On January 31, 1944

  1. 1944 World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

    Atoll in the Marshall Islands

    Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents often shorten to Kwaj. The total land area of the atoll is just over 6 square miles (16 km2).

  2. 1944 World War II: During the Anzio campaign, the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

    1944 battle in Italy

    The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced 22 January 1944. The battle began with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, and ended on 4 June 1944, with the invasion of Rome. The operation was opposed by German and by Italian Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno.

Farewells

Died on January 31, 1944

Jean Giraudoux French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright (1882–1944)

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1944

The class of 1944

Others born in 1944

Kathy Acker 1944– American author and poet (died 1997)
Philip Jackson 1944– Scottish sculptor and photographer
James Heckman 1944– American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
Bernie Worrell 1944– American keyboard player and songwriter (died 2016)
Monty Alexander 1944– Jamaican jazz pianist
Phillip Allen Sharp 1944– American molecular biologist; 1993 Nobel Prize laureate (Physiology or Medicine)

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