1944

The War Refugee Board is established to assist European Jews and other foreign nationals displaced by World War II.

The U. S. Congress authorizes the Missouri River Basin Project; the building of dams and reservoirs becomes an important issue between Native American reservations and the government.

Allied forces liberate Rome.

The U. S. Congress passes the GI Bill of Rights, which authorizes economic and educational assistance for World War II veterans.

Evangelist Billy Graham holds the first of his masive revival meetings.

Representatives of 44 countries meet in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; the resulting Bretton Woods Agreement lays the foundations of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The D day invasion of Europe begins on June 6; the Allies penetrate the Normandy coastline of German-occupied France.

The Allies liberate Paris.

Along with saxophonist Charlie Parker and others, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie launches the bebop movement in jazz.

In Smith v. Allwright, the U. S. Supreme Court rules that the exclusion of African Americans from the Texas Democratic Party is a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal publishes An American Dilemma, his study of race relations in the United States.

U. S. forces begin to liberate the Philippines from Japan.

President Roosevelt is reelected for a fourth term over Republican challenger Thomas Dewey.

In Korematsu v. United States, the U. S. Supreme Court upholds the wartime relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans. On the same day, the Court rules in Ex parte Endo that the government cannot hold loyal American citizens.

German forces launch an offensive effort to retake Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge; surprised American forces repel the attack.