1944 in France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: 1943 in France, other events of 1944, 1945 in France and the list of 'years in France'.

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[edit] Events

• June 6 - Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allies troops on the beaches of Normandy.
• June 10 - 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre.
• June 30 - The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
• August 15 - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France.
• August 19 - Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
• September 8 - The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
• September 11 - Northern and Southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
• October 5 - Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
• December 8 - PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) begins operations supplying Allied invasion forces in France with gasoline.

[edit] Births

• January 17 - Françoise Hardy, French singer

[edit] Deaths

• January 31 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
• February 4 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)
• March 5 - Max Jacob, French poet (b. 1876)
• March 22 - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and French Resistance fighter (b. 1903)
• July 31 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer (b. 1900)
• July 6 - Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1919)
• July 7 - Georges Mandel, French politician and World War II hero (executed) (b. 1885)
• September 9 - Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (executed) (b. 1895)
• September 11 - Yolande Beekman, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1911)
• September 11 - Madeleine Damerment, French World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1917)
• November 5 - Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
• December 30 - Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)