List of Famous people who died in 1944

Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan, GC, also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British spy in World War II who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Thomas Midgley Jr. was an American mechanical and chemical engineer. He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (Tetraethyllead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the USA by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned due to concerns about their impact on human health and the environment. He was granted more than 100 patents over the course of his career.

Amal al-Atrash, better known by her stage name Asmahan, was an Egyptian singer from Syrian background who lived and rose to fame in Egypt. Having immigrated to Egypt at the age of three years old, her family knew the composer Dawood Hosni, and she sang the compositions of Mohamed El Qasabgi and Zakariyya Ahmad. She also sang the compositions of Mohammed Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash, a then rising star musician in his own right. Her voice was one of the few female voices in Arab music world to pose serious competition to that of Umm Kulthum, who is considered to be one of the Arab world's most distinguished singers of the 20th century. Her mysterious death in an automobile accident shocked the public. Journalists spread gossip about her turbulent personal life and an alleged espionage role in World War II.

Bertha Benz was a German automotive pioneer and inventor. She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Karl Benz. On 5 August 1888, she was the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance, field testing the patent Motorwagen, inventing brake lining and solving several practical issues during the journey of 65 miles (105 km). In doing so, she brought the Benz Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales.

Zinaida Martynovna Portnova was a Soviet teenager, partisan and posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union.

Hazel Ying Lee was a Chinese-American pilot who flew for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II.

Michael Wittmann was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War. He is known for his ambush of elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, during the Battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944. While in command of a Tiger I tank, Wittmann destroyed up to fourteen tanks and fifteen personnel carriers, along with two anti-tank guns, within the space of fifteen minutes. The news was picked up and disseminated by the Nazi propaganda machine and added to Wittmann's stature in Germany.

Wendell Lewis Willkie was an American lawyer, corporate executive, and the 1940 Republican nominee for President of the United States. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican field's only interventionist: although the U.S. remained neutral prior to Pearl Harbor, he favored greater U.S. involvement in World War II to support Britain and other Allies. His Democratic opponent, incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, won the 1940 election with about 55% of the popular vote and took the electoral college vote by a wide margin.

Tatyana Nikolayevna Savicheva, commonly referred to as Tanya Savicheva was a Russian child diarist who endured the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. During the siege, Savicheva recorded the successive deaths of each member of her family in her diary, with her final entry indicating her belief to be the sole living family member. Although Savicheva was rescued and transferred to a hospital, she succumbed to intestinal tuberculosis in July 1944 at age 14.

Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair and remove the Nazi Party from power. Along with Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster, he was one of the central figures of the German resistance to Nazism within the Wehrmacht. For his involvement in the movement, he was executed by firing squad shortly after Operation Valkyrie.