Date in year · 1944 · The 1940s

October 20, 1944

On October 20, 1944, world War II: The Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade. Kathy Acker, Philip Jackson, James Heckman would arrive in the same year.

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1944

1940s

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 October 20, 1944

  1. 1944 World War II: The Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade.

    Soviet army and air force from 1918 to 1946

    The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often referred by its shortened name as the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army was renamed the "Soviet Army".

  2. 1944 Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes, leveling 30 blocks and killing 130 people.

    Form of natural gas for easier storage and transport

    Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up approximately 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state at standard temperature and pressure.

  3. 1944 World War II: American general Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he comes ashore during the Battle of Leyte.

    American general (1880–1964)

    Douglas MacArthur was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and awarded it for his WWII service in the Philippines.

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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