February 22, 1944

1944Jonathan Demme, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2017)^[†]

Robert Jonathan Demme was an American filmmaker, whose career directing, producing, and screenwriting spanned more than 30 years and 70 feature films, documentaries, and television productions. He was an Academy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award winner, and received nominations for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three Independent Spirit Awards.

1944Mick Green, English guitarist (died 2010)^[†]

Michael Robert Green was an English rock and roll guitarist who played with The Pirates, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.

1944Robert Kardashian, American lawyer and businessman (died 2003)^[†]

Robert George Kardashian was an American attorney and businessman. He gained national recognition as O. J. Simpson's friend and defense attorney during Simpson's 1995 murder trial.

1944Christopher Meyer, English diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (died 2022)^[†]

Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer was a British diplomat who served as Ambassador to the United States (1997–2003), Ambassador to Germany (1997), and the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (2003–2009).

1944Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist (born 1869)^[†]

Kasturba Mohandas Gandhi was an Indian political activist who was involved in the Indian independence movement during British India. She was married to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi. National Safe Motherhood Day is observed in India annually on April 11, coinciding with Kasturba's birthday.

1944Fritz Schmenkel, anti-Nazi German who joined Soviet partisans (born 1916)^[†]

Fritz Paul Schmenkel was a German communist and resistance fighter against Nazism, who fought alongside the Soviet partisans in German-occupied Byelorussia during World War II.

1944World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.^[†]

The bombing of Nijmegen on 22 February 1944 was a target-of-opportunity aerial bombing raid by the United States Army Air Forces on the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, then occupied by Nazi Germany. In terms of the number of victims, it was one of the largest bombardments of a Dutch city during World War II. Officially, nearly 800 people were killed due to carelessness in inaccurate bombing, but because people in hiding were not counted, the actual death toll was likely higher. A large part of the historic city centre was destroyed, including Saint Steven's Church. Saint Augustine's Church and Nijmegen railway station were heavily damaged as well.

1944World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog.^[†]

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". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army.