1944 in France
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| See also: | Other events of 1944 History of France • Timeline • Years | ||||
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Events from the year 1944 in France.
Events
- 15 March - The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
- 1 June - BBC transmits a coded message (the first line of a poem by Paul Verlaine) to underground resistance fighters in France warning that the invasion of Europe is imminent.
- 2 June - The provisional French government is established.
- 5 June - More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
- 5 June - At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem to the underground resistance indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.
- 6 June - Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy.
- 6 June - Battle of Cherbourg begins.
- 7 June - Bayeux liberated by British troops.
- 9 June - Over 200 people are killed by 2nd SS Panzer Division ("Das Reich") in the Tulle massacre
- 10 June - 642 people are killed by 2nd SS Panzer Division ("Das Reich") in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre.
- 10 June - Battle of Carentan begins.
- 13 June - Battle of Bloody Gulch, near Carentan, United States forces victory.
- 14 June - Battle of Carentan ends with Allied victory.
- 26 June - American troops enter Cherbourg.
- 30 June - Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
- 9 July - British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
- 12 August - The world's first undersea oil pipeline is laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto.
- 15 August - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France.
- 19 August - Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
- 20 August - American forces successfully defeat German forces at Chambois. This victory closed the Falaise Gap.
- 25 August - Surrender of occupying German garrison in Paris.
- 26 August - Toulon liberated in Battle of Toulon (1944)
- 28 August - Marseille liberated in Battle of Marseille
- 8 September - Menton is liberated from Germany.
- 11 September - Northern and Southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
- 24 September - 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.
- 5 October - Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
- 31 October - Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris Métro station.
Births
January to June
- 17 January - Françoise Hardy, singer.
- 10 February - Jean-Daniel Cadinot, film director and producer (died 2008)
- 25 February - François Cevert, motor racing driver (died 1973)
- 7 April - Jean-Pierre Brucato, soccer player (died 1998)
- 22 May - Henri Guédon, percussionist (died 2006)
- 25 May - Pierre Bachelet, singer songwriter (died 2005)
- 22 June - Pierre Goldman, left-wing intellectual, convicted of several robberies and assassinated (died 1979)
- 24 June - Ticky Holgado, actor (died 2004)
July to December
- 12 July - Jean-François Jenny-Clark, double bass player (died 1998)
- 9 August - Patrick Depailler, motor racing driver (died 1980)
- 14 August - Jean-François Bizot, journalist and writer (died 2007)
- 2 September - Gilles Marchal, songwriter and singer
- 6 September - Christian Boltanski, photographer, sculptor and installation artist
Full date unknown
- Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec, urban violence victim (died 2005)
- Laurent-Michel Vacher, philosopher, writer and journalist (died 2005)
Deaths
- 31 January - Jean Giraudoux, novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright (born 1882)
- 4 February - Yvette Guilbert, singer and actress (born 1865)
- 5 March - Max Jacob, poet, painter, writer, and critic (born 1876)
- 22 March - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and Resistance fighter (born 1903)
- 30 April - Paul Poiret, fashion designer (born 1879)
- 20 May - Fraser Barron, New Zealand bomber pilot at Le Mans (born 1921 in Dunedin)
- 6 July - Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (executed) (born 1919)
- 6 July - Sonia Olschanezky, German-born French Jewish World War II heroine (executed) (born 1923)
- 7 July - Georges Mandel, politician and Resistance leader (executed) (born 1885)
- 31 July - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and writer (born 1900)
- 9 September - Robert Benoist, motor racing driver and war hero (executed) (born 1895)
- 11 September - Yolande Beekman, World War II heroine (executed) (born 1911)
- 13 September - Madeleine Damerment, World War II heroine (executed) (born 1917)
- 1 November - Lucien Cayeux, sedimentary petrographer (born 1864)
- 5 November - Alexis Carrel, surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1873)
- 13 December- Wassily Kandinsky, artist. (born 1866)
- 30 December - Romain Rolland, writer, Nobel Prize in Literature (born 1866)
Full date unknown
- Eugène Louis Bouvier, entomologist and carcinologist (born 1856)