December 16, 1944

1944Jeff Kanew, American director and screenwriter^[†]

Jeffrey Roger Kanew is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and film editor who early in his career made trailers for many films of the 1970s and is probably best known for directing the film Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and for editing Ordinary People (1980).

1944Don Meyer, American basketball player and coach (died 2014)^[†]

Donald Wayne Meyer was an American college basketball coach who completed his career in 2010 as head coach of the men's team at Northern State University. He was previously head coach at Hamline University and Lipscomb University.

1944Betsie ten Boom, Dutch Holocaust victim (born 1885)^[†]

Elisabeth ten Boom was a Dutch woman, the daughter of a watchmaker, who suffered persecution under the Nazi regime in World War II, including incarceration in Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died aged 59. The daughter of Casper ten Boom, she is one of the leading characters in The Hiding Place, a book written by her sister Corrie ten Boom about the family′s experiences during World War II. Nicknamed Betsie, she had suffered from pernicious anemia since birth. The oldest of four Ten Boom children, she neither left the family nor married, but remained at home until World War II. She was honored by the State of Israel in 2008 as a Righteous Among the Nations.

1944World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.^[†]

World War II or the Second World War was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.