The following events occurred in January 1944:
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- The Syrian Republic was recognized as independent.
- RAF Bomber Command sent 421 aircraft to attack Berlin overnight.[1]
- USC Trojans beat the Washington Huskies 29-0 in the Rose Bowl.
- The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defeated Tulsa Golden Hurricane 20-18 in the Sugar Bowl.
- LSU Tigers beat the Texas A&M Aggies 19-14 in the Orange Bowl.
- The Cotton Bowl Classic ended in a 7–7 tie between the Randolph Field Ramblers and the Texas Longhorns.
- Born: Omar al-Bashir, 7th President of Sudan, in Hosh Bannaga, Sudan; Jimmy Hart, professional wrestling manager, executive and musician, in Jackson, Mississippi; Robert Lee Minor, stunt performer and actor, in Birmingham, Alabama
- Died: Edwin Lutyens, 74, British architect; Charles Turner, 81, Australian cricketer
- During the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive, the Soviets announced the capture of Berdychiv itself.[2]
- With Red Army forces about to cross the Polish border, the Polish government-in-exile issued a declaration describing itself as "the only and legal steward and spokesman of the Polish Nation" and calling for the Soviet Union to respect the rights and interests of Poland. The statement also proposed the re-establishment of a liberated republic in Poland as quickly as possible as well as the negotiation of an agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and the Soviet Union that would permit the co-ordination of Polish resistance actions with the Red Army.[9][10][11]
- Soviet forces crossed the pre-war Polish border and captured the town of Rokitno.[12]
- Britain and the U.S. announced that a jet-propelled aircraft would soon be in production.[2]
- Born: Bonnie Franklin, actress, in Santa Monica, California (d. 2013); Alan Stivell, Celtic folk and rock musician, in Riom, France; Rolf M. Zinkernagel, professor of immunology and Nobel Laureate, in Riehen, Switzerland
- Died: Ida Tarbell, 86, American teacher, author and journalist
- The Soviets took Polonne and Kamianets-Podilskyi.[2]
- German submarine U-81 was bombed and sunk at Pola, Italy by American aircraft.
- Born: Ian Hornak, painter and draughtsman, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2002); Jimmy Page, guitarist, songwriter, record producer and founder of Led Zeppelin, in Heston, Greater London, England
- Action of 11 January 1944: The Japanese cruiser Kuma was torpedoed and sunk off Penang, Malaya by the British submarine Tally-Ho.
- U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the annual State of the Union Address to Congress, in which he proposed the Second Bill of Rights guaranteeing such things as housing, medical care and education.
- The Soviet Union responded to the Polish declaration of January 5 with a statement through TASS. The Soviet government disputed Polish territorial claims and insisted that the Soviet-Polish border had been determined through "the plebiscite carried out in 1939 on a broad democratic basis". The statement also accused the Polish government-in-exile of being "incapable of establishing friendly relations with the USSR, and has also shown itself incapable of organizing active resistance against German invaders inside Poland. Moreover, by its erroneous policy it has often played into the hands of German invaders."[11][13]
- The P-51 Mustang joined the P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt in U.S. long-range escort missions over Germany.[7]
- The Alfred Hitchcock-directed drama thriller film Lifeboat starring Talullah Bankhead and William Bendix was released.
- The Moroccan Nationalist Movement released the Proclamation of Independence, a manifesto demanding full independence from France, Spain, and the international legislative body governing Tangier; national reunification; and a democratic constitution.[14]
- Died:
- Emilio De Bono, 77, Italian general and member of the Fascist Grand Council (executed)
- Galeazzo Ciano, 40, Foreign Minister of Italy from 1936 to 1943 and son-in-law of Benito Mussolini (executed)
- Charles King, 57, American actor
- Giovanni Marinelli, 64, Italian Fascist leader (executed)
- Edgard Potier, 40, Belgian air force officer (suicide after being tortured by the Germans)
- The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captured Korets.[17]
- German submarine U-231 was bombed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of the Azores by a Vickers Wellington bomber of No. 172 Squadron RAF.
- The director of the United States Typhus Commission warned that Naples faced a serious threat "and the menace can be expected to extend to Southern Italy. No cases have yet been reported among the military forces, but the growing typhus rate is a potential menace to the Allied military effort."[18]
- In the northern sector of the Eastern Front, the Soviets began the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive (the first of Stalin's ten blows) and the Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive
- The Japanese destroyer Sazanami was torpedoed and sunk southeast of Yap by the submarine USS Albacore.
- The Polish government-in-exile reiterated its refusal to accept unilateral decisions made about Polish territory, but said it was approaching the British and U.S. governments to mediate "all outstanding questions, the settlement of which should lead to friendly and permanent co-operation between Poland and the Soviet Union. The Polish Government believes this to be desirable in the interest of the victory of the United Nations and harmonious relations in post-war Europe."[10][19]
- The adventure film Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez was released.
- The San Juan earthquake devastated the province of San Juan in Argentina. Some 10,000 people were killed and one-third of the province's population was left homeless.
- The U.S. II Corps in Italy captured Monte Trecchio.[7]
- German submarine U-377 made her last radio report before being lost in the Atlantic Ocean to an unknown cause, possibly sunk by the British destroyer Wanderer and frigate Glenarm on January 17.
- The Battle of Monte Cassino began in Italy.
- Three divisions of the British X Corps launched an attack across the Garigliano. The river was crossed on the left flank but the Germans held fast on the right.[7]
- German submarine U-305 sank in the Atlantic Ocean from an unknown cause.
- The Soviet Union rejected Poland's proposal for negotiation over the Polish frontier.[4]
- A diplomatic incident occurred when the Soviet newspaper Pravda published a report claiming that representatives of Britain and Germany had met somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula to discuss making a separate peace.[20] The British Foreign Office swiftly denied the rumor in an official message sent to the Soviet government.[21]
- Meat rationing was introduced in Australia.[17]
- Born:
- British bombers conducted their heaviest raid on Berlin yet, dropping 2,300 tons of bombs in just over half an hour.[4]
- German submarine U-641 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by the British corvette Violet.
- Born: Shelley Fabares, actress and singer, in Santa Monica, California
- Died: Harold Fraser-Simson, 71, English composer
- The Battle of Rapido River began on the Italian front.
- German submarine U-263 struck a mine and sank in the Bay of Biscay.
- Winston Churchill met with representatives of the Polish government-in-exile in an effort to break the diplomatic impasse with the Soviets. Churchill pressed the Poles to accept the Curzon Line as a basis for discussion, explaining that the Soviets' need for security as well as their enormous battlefield sacrifices to liberate Poland from the Germans entitled them to ask for revision of Polish frontiers. Churchill promised in return to challenge Moscow's demand for changes in the Polish government.[9]
- Died: James McKeen Cattell, 83, American psychologist
- Argentina bowed to pressure from the United States and severed diplomatic relations with the Axis powers.[27]
- Soviet forces captured Krasnogvardeisk near Leningrad. Two days later the city's pre-1923 name of Gatchina would be restored.[25]
- The U.S. II Corps in Italy established a bridgehead over the Rapido.[25]
- Born: Angela Davis, political activist, scholar and author, in Birmingham, Alabama;
- The Red Army lifted the Siege of Leningrad after 2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days.
- Nearly 500 Allied bombers raided Berlin in very bad weather. The greatest threat was not anti-aircraft fire or the Luftwaffe which did not show up, but the danger of collisions in poor visibility.[7]
- Liberia declared war on Germany and Japan.[28]
- Born: Peter Akinola, Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria, in Abeokuta, Nigeria; Mairead Maguire, peace activist and recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Nick Mason, drummer (Pink Floyd), in Edgbaston, England
- German submarines U-271 and U-571 were both sunk in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland by Allied aircraft.
- A British telegram to Joseph Stalin warned that "the creation in Warsaw of another government other than that now recognized, as well as disturbances in Poland, would confront Great Britain and the United States with a problem, which would preclude agreement among the great powers."[11]
- Omar Bradley took command of the First United States Army.[29]
- Born: Susan Howard, actress, writer and political activist, in Marshall, Texas; John Tavener, composer, in Wembley, London, England (d. 2013)
Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945. Research Publications. 1990. pp. 232–233. ISBN 978-0-88736-568-3. Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 594. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3. Scholz, Albert August (1964). Silesia: Yesterday and Today. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 40–41.
Kersten, Krystyna (1991). The Establishment of Communist Rule in Poland, 1943–1948. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 39–41. ISBN 978-0-520-06219-1. "Soviets Acknowledge London Repudiation Of Peace Move Claim". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 19, 1944. p. 1.
Sicker, Martin (2002). The Geopolitics of Security in the Americas: Hemispheric Denial from Monroe to Clinton. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-275-97255-4. Belmessous, Saliha (2013). Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541–1954. Oxford University Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-19-165102-1.