Top News Stories from 1944
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: International Red Cross
More World Statistics... - Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6). Background: Normandy campaign
- Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
- Battle of the Bulge begins as Germans penetrate Allied front in Belgium (Dec. 16 to Jan. 1945).
- Anne Frank and her family betrayed and sent to concentration camps. She will die in 1945.
- Dumbarton Oaks Conference—U.S., British Commonwealth, and U.S.S.R. propose establishment of United Nations.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Franklin D Roosevelt
Vice President: Henry A. Wallace
Population: 138,397,345
More U.S. Statistics... - GI Bill of Rights is passed, providing benefits for armed-service veterans.
- FDR is reelected, beating Republican challenger Thomas Dewey. Background: Presidential Elections, 1789–present
Economics
Federal spending: $91.30 billion
Federal debt $204.1 billion
Consumer Price Index: $17.6
Unemployment: 1.2%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
St. Louis Cardinals d. St. Louis Browns (4-2)Stanley Cup
Montreal d. ChicagoKentucky Derby Champion
PensiveNCAA Basketball Championship
Utah d. DartmouthNCAA Football Champions
Army (9-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
Journey in the Dark, Martin Flavin
Music: Symphony No. 4 (Op. 34), Howard Hanson
Academy Award, Best Picture: Casablanca (Warner Bros.)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Johannes V. Jensen (Denmark)
Miss America: Venus Ramey (DC)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The first instance of network censorship occurs. The sound is cut off on the Eddie Cantor and Nora Martin duet, "We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me."
- The DuMont network goes on the air. Paramount Pictures backs the start-up enterprise, but its lack of affiliated radio networks leads to its early demise in 1956.
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Otto Hahn (Germany), for work on atomic fission1945
Physics: Isidor Isaac Rabi (US), for work on magnetic movements of atomic particles
Physiology or Medicine: Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Spencer Gasser (both U.S.), for work on functions of the nerve threads
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...