istoryworld
All Events
The monastery and town of Monte Cassino are left in ruins after the Allies finally break through the German defences
Fancy Free becomes On the Town, a Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein, directed by Jerome Robbins
The World Bank and IMF are conceived at an international conference in the USA, at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor co-stars with a horse in the film National Velvet
Boston writer Robert Lowell publishes his first book of poems, Land of Unlikeness
Jorge Luis Borges publishes Fictions, a collection of short stories
The separate poems forming T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets are brought together for the first time as a single volume, published in New York
Laurence Olivier directs and stars in a patriotic film of Henry V with stirring music by William Walton
An uprising in Guatemala brings in a revolutionary junta and a left-wing programme of reform
Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring has choreography by Martha Graham
US general Dwight Eisenhower is appointed to command the Allied invasion of Normandy
Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law, is sentenced to death at the Verona trials and is executed
The RAF's first jet, the Gloster Meteor, flies with a Whittle engine
In Operation Shingle an Allied force lands at Anzio, on the west coast of Italy behind the German lines
The German siege of Leningrad is finally broken, after 900 days
After relieving Leningrad, the Russians begin to drive the Germans back on all fronts
US bombers destroy Japanese warships and planes in Operation Hailstone, a radar-guided night attack on the Truk Islands
A volunteer force, known as Merrill's Marauders, is commanded by Frank Merrill in US operations against the Japanese in Burma
William Slim secures the first Allied victories in the Burma campaign, at Imphal and Kohima in northeast India
After a campaign of four months the monastery at Monte Cassino is captured, by Polish troops
A multinational Allied force moves fast from Monte Cassino to capture Rome
The Allies cross the Channel on D-day for the Normandy invasion
British general Bernard Montgomery commands the Allied land forces in the Normandy Landing on D-day
Two pre-constructed harbours, known by the code name Mulberries, are towed across the Channel to Normandy
German troops massacre more than 600 civilians in the French village of Oradour
