December 31st, 1944

Born on December 31st, 1944

Age in days, weeks and months
Wow, over 28,000 days old!

Why not celebrate an alternative birthday? In 15 days, exactly on May 25th, 2024, people who were born on December 31st, 1944 will be 29,000 days old!

... in seconds, minutes and hours

What happened on December 31st, 1944?

December 31st, 1944

World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major Wehrmacht offensive on the Western Front, begins.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwind_(1944)

What else happened on December 31st?

December 31st, 1950

Korean War: North Korean troops attacked United Nations forces in the first of two battles at Wonju.

December 31st, 2010

28 tornadoes (one depicted) touched down in midwestern and southern United States, part of an outbreak that led to the deaths of nine people and large property damage.

December 31st, 1999

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin became acting president upon President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation.

December 31st, 1998

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism froze the exchange rates of the legacy currencies in the eurozone, establishing the value of the euro.

December 31st, 1993

Brandon Teena, an American trans man, was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska; his death led to increased lobbying for hate crime laws in the United States.

December 31st, 1986

Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others, making it the second-deadliest hotel fire in United States history.

December 31st, 1972

Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to victims of that year's Nicaragua earthquake.

December 31st, 1965

Central African military officers led by Jean-Bédel Bokassa began a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.

December 31st, 1961

RTÉ, Ireland's first television network, began broadcasting.

December 31st, 1909

The Manhattan Bridge, connecting Lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn and considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges, opened to traffic.

December 31st, 1907

New York City held its first annual ball drop event in Times Square as part of New Year's Eve celebrations.

December 31st, 1862

The Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, began with an engagement in which both sides would suffer their highest casualty rates in the American Civil War.

December 31st, 1857

Queen Victoria announced the choice of Ottawa (pictured), then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada.

December 31st, 1775

American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Quebec, British forces repulsed an attack by the Continental Army to capture Quebec City and enlist French Canadian support.

Birthdays
... of famous people, actors, celebrities and stars on December 31st

Born on December 31st, 1944

79

Dieter Weirich

German journalist and politician

*December 31st, 1944, Sülzbach

79

Marcel Rufo

French pediatrician

*December 31st, 1944, Toulon

79

Taylor Hackford

American film director, and president of the Directors Guild of America

*December 31st, 1944, Santa Barbara

79

Neil Ross

British actor

*December 31st, 1944, London

62

Gary Epper

American stunt performer, coordinator and occasional actor

*December 31st, 1944, Los Angeles †December 1st, 2007, Los Angeles

70

Dietrich Hildebrandt

German politician (1944-2015)

*December 31st, 1944, Luckenwalde †September 17th, 2015, Heidelberg

Same Day
Who's birthday is on December 31st?

78

Vernon Wells

Australian actor

*December 31st, 1945, Rushworth

80

Ben Kingsley

English actor

*December 31st, 1943, Snainton

86

Anthony Hopkins

Welsh actor and director (born 1937)

*December 31st, 1937, Port Talbot

82

Alex Ferguson

Scottish association football manager and player (born 1941)

*December 31st, 1941, Govan

78

Leonard Adleman

American theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California

*December 31st, 1945, California

53

John Denver

American musician (1943–1997)

*December 31st, 1943, Roswell †October 12th, 1997, Monterey

31

Manu Attri

Badminton player

*December 31st, 1992, Meerut

80

Wolfgang Gerhardt

German politician

*December 31st, 1943, Ulrichstein

67

Vaughan Jones

New Zealand mathematician and Fields Medalist

*December 31st, 1952, Gisborne †September 6th, 2020, Nashville

57

Rudy Gunawan

Badminton player

*December 31st, 1966, Surakarta City

70

James Remar

American actor

*December 31st, 1953, Boston

88

Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

King of Saudi Arabia since 2015

*December 31st, 1935, Riyadh

63

Donna Summer

American singer

*December 31st, 1948, Boston †May 17th, 2012, Naples

84

Henri Matisse

French artist (1869–1954)

*December 31st, 1869, Le Cateau-Cambrésis †November 3rd, 1954, Nice

49

Bas Böttcher

German writer and poetry slam performer

*December 31st, 1974, Bremen

65

Bebe Neuwirth

American actress

*December 31st, 1958, Newark

82

Sarah Miles

British actress

*December 31st, 1941, Ingatestone

78

Barbara Carrera

Nicaraguan-American model and actress

*December 31st, 1945, Bluefields

69

Christine Scheiblich

East German rower

*December 31st, 1954, Wilsdruff

93

Francesco Alberoni

Italian journalist and professor of sociology (1929–2023)

*December 31st, 1929, Borgonovo Val Tidone †August 14th, 2023, Milan

Same year
Born in 1944

79

Udo Kier

German actor

*October 14th, 1944, Cologne

80

Joachim Schimpke

Badminton player

*March 8th, 1944, Hohenstein-Ernstthal

79

Dieter Planck

German archaeologist

*August 14th, 1944, Rottenburg am Neckar

79

Poul Michelsen

Faroese businessperson and politician

*July 22nd, 1944, Tórshavn

79

Nils Ole Oftebro

Norwegian actor

*December 1st, 1944, Sarpsborg Municipality

73

Jonathan Demme

American film director (1944–2017)

*February 22nd, 1944, Baldwin †April 26th, 2017, Manhattan

80

John Rhys-Davies

Welsh actor (born 1944)

*May 5th, 1944, Ammanford

80

Syed Mohammed Arif

Badminton player and trainer

*January 29th, 1944, Hyderabad

80

Gernot Erler

German politician

*May 3rd, 1944, Meissen

79

Michael Douglas

American actor and film producer

*September 25th, 1944, New Brunswick

80

Gerhard Schröder

Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005

*April 7th, 1944, Mossenberg-Wöhren

80

Gert Audring

German historian of classical antiquity

*February 6th, 1944, Śrem

80

Alice Walker

American author and activist (1944- )

*February 9th, 1944, Eatonton

79

Ban Ki-moon

8th Secretary-General of the United Nations

*June 13th, 1944, Eumseong County

77

Judi Rollick

Badminton player

*August 17th, 1944, Seattle †April 5th, 2022

80

Alexander Van der Bellen

President of Austria since 2017

*January 18th, 1944, Vienna

77

Volker Lechtenbrink

German actor and singer

*August 18th, 1944, Zelenogradsk †November 22nd, 2021, Hamburg

72

David Chandler

American chemist (1944-2017)

*October 15th, 1944, New York City †April 18th, 2017, Berkeley

72

Helena Štáchová

Czech actress, theatre director, manager and puppeteer

*November 18th, 1944, Prague †March 22nd, 2017, Prague

79

Serge Haroche

French physicist, Nobel laureate

*September 11th, 1944, Casablanca

Birthdays of famous people

Public holidays on December 31st

Fixed holidays (Christian feast day, New Year's Eve) which are celebrated on December 31st.

Date as a Roman numeral / digit

Born on December 31st, 1944
Future birthdays

Leap year

Yes: 1944 is a leap year, therefore has a 29th of February with an additional leap day and a total of 366 days (instead of the usual 365 days in a normal year).

Calendar
December 1944