On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device
War rev, Commons
US troops make extensive gains along typhoon-swept Ormoc rd, Leyte; MacArthur claims Jap 16th Div has been smashed; repts 35,000 Jap reinforcements, including 35th Imperial Army, have been landed on Leyte; US shelling and bombing Ormoc noted; US troops smash Jap ridge positions south and east of Limon; send patrols into central mt range; precarious US supply situation noted; US planes destroy 6 parked planes, down 4 interceptors in strike at Alicante and Fabrica airfields, Negros
Winter supply outlook surveyed; increase for East Coast and Middle West householders seen likely; PAW cautions against hopes for increase
USSR troops switch main assault from Budapest to northeastern area; establish 45-mi Tisza River west bank bridgehead between Kis-Koere and Mezoecsat; threaten to split Ger armies defending Budapest and those in eastern Slovakia; capture Igrici; approach Miskolc-Budapest rr and highway on 25-mi front; take Mezoekeresztes, Mezoetarkany and Besenyoetelek; drive toward Hatvan; Ger repts USSR forces win Danube bridgehead west of Apatin, 125 mi south of Budapest; repts USSR attacks Ger Danube bridgehead opposite Dunafoeldvar; other troops take Bessenszoeg, Szolnok area; advance up Zagyva River west bank; take Rekas; others battle to clear Budapest-Szolnok rr; take Alberti, Irsa and Cegledbercel; patrol activity reptd, Czechoslovakia; Yugoslavia repts Ger resistance crumbles, Kraljevo and Cacak areas; 100,000 Gers head for Sarajevo in flight from Greece; large Ger force covers retreat, Yugoslavia
1944Askar Akayev, Kyrgyzstani economist and politician, 1st President of Kyrgyzstan[†]
Askar Akayevich Akayev is a Kyrgyz former politician who served as President of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until being overthrown in the March 2005 Tulip Revolution.
1944Mark E. Neely, Jr., American historian, author, and academic[†]
Mark E. Neely Jr. is an American historian best known as an authority on the U.S. Civil War in general and Abraham Lincoln in particular.
1944Silvestre Reyes, American sergeant and politician[†]
Silvestre "Silver" Reyes is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for Texas's 16th congressional district, serving from 1997 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence between 2007 and 2011. In the Democratic primary election on May 29, 2012, Reyes lost by a margin wide enough to avert a runoff election to former El Paso city councilman Beto O'Rourke.
1944Tim Rice, English lyricist and author[†]
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice is an English songwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita; Chess ; Aida ; and, for Disney, Aladdin, The Lion King, and the stage adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. He also wrote lyrics for the Alan Menken musical King David, and for DreamWorks Animation's The Road to El Dorado.
1944Claude Rodier, physicist (born 1903)[†]
Claude Rodier was a physicist, teacher and staff sergeant in the Mouvements Unis de la Résistance (MUR), part of the French Resistance in Auvergne, France.
1944The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371.[†]
USS Mount Hood (AE-11) was the lead ship of her class of ammunition ships for the United States Navy in World War II. She was the first ship named after Mount Hood, a volcano in the Cascade Range in the US state of Oregon. On 10 November 1944, shortly after 18 men had departed for shore leave, the rest of the crew were killed when the ship exploded in Seeadler Harbor at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. The ship was obliterated while also sinking or severely damaging 22 smaller craft nearby.