Calendar

The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.

1944 Literary Facts

Commentary, a monthly magazine of Jewish cultural advancement, begins publication; notable early contributors include Norman Mailer, Lionel Trilling, and Bernard Malamud

Jorge Luis Borges publishes Ficciones 1935-1944

Jean Anouilh’s Antigone is produced

William Sansom publishes Fireman Flower, and Other Stories

Saul Bellow publishes Dangling Man

Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace is produced

Dorothy Livesay publishes Day and Night

William Meredith publishes Love Letter from an Impossible Land

John Hersey publishes A Bell for Adano

Alberto Pincherle publishes Agostino: Romanzo (Two Adolescents: Agostino and Disobedience)

Melvin B. Tolson publishes Rendezvous with America

Allied forces land on the Normandy coast on D-Day, establishing a western front to the European Theater of operations in World War II

German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun designs the V-2 rocket for long-range use against Britain

First operational jet airplane, the ME-262, is tested in Germany

Vietnam, long a French colony, declares its independence from France

Friedrich A. von Hayek publishes The Road to Serfdom

Martin Flavin receives the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Journey in the Dark

Johannes V. Jensen receives the Nobel Prize for Literature

Karl Shapiro publishes V-Letter and Other Poems

Marilynne Robinson is born

Terry Brooks is born

Angela Davis is born

Explore: Angela Davis

Jean Giraudoux dies

Explore: The Madwoman of Chaillot, Tiger at the Gates

Alice Walker is born

Explore: The Color Purple, Everyday Use, Alice Walker

Richard Ford is born

Explore: Independence Day, Rock Springs, Richard Ford

Felice Picano is born

Barry Beckham is born

Frederick Schiller Faust dies

Explore: Destry Rides Again, Montana Rides Again

Armistead Maupin is born

Explore: Armistead Maupin

George Ade dies

Janet Dailey is born

Leroy V. Quintana is born

Explore: Leroy V. Quintana

An assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life, involving a briefcase-bomb, fails

Explore: Adolf Hitler

Buchi Emecheta is born

Explore: Buchi Emecheta, Second-Class Citizen, The Slave Girl

Antoine de Saint-Exupery dies

Explore: Wind, Sand and Stars, The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Richard Rodriguez is born

Explore: Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory, Days of Obligation

Jacques Roumain dies

Sherley Anne Williams is born

Explore: Dessa Rose, Sherley Anne Williams

Eavan Boland is born

Explore: It's a Woman's World, Eavan Boland, Mother Ireland

Paul Durcan is born

Mary Chase’s drama Harvey is first performed

Explore: Harvey, Mary Chase

Rita Mae Brown is born

Explore: Rita Mae Brown

Romain Rolland dies

Explore: Jean-Christophe