1943
The year is 1943, the year in which Robert Carol Schwab was born in Dell Rapids, South Dakota
Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common
year starting on Fridayof the Gregorian calendar.
January
* January 4 - End of term for Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California. He
is succeeded by Earl Warren.
* January 11
o The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
o General Juanto dies in Argentina - Ramón Castillo succeeds him
* January 12 - Dutch journalist and writer Jan Campert, dies in Neuengamme concentration
camp
* January 13 - Helmut Schenk is the first person to use an ejection seat from
an aircraft
* January 14 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United
States to travel by airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet
with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).
* January 15
o WWII: Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.
o The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington,
Virginia.
* January 18
o WWII: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of
Leningrad.
o Beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
* January 23
o WWII: British forces capture Tripoli from the Italians.
o Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
+ Critic and commentator Alexander Woollcott suffers an eventually fatal heart
attack during a regular broadcast of the CBS Radio roundtable program "People's
Platform".
* January 27 - WWII: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against
Germany (Wilhelmshaven was the target).
* January 29 - German police arrest alleged necrophiliac Bruno Ludke
February
* February 2 - WWII: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with
the surrender of the German 6th Army.
* February 3 - WWII:
o The death of the Four Chaplains when their ship was struck by a torpedo
* February 7 - WWII: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing
will go into effect in two days.
* February 8 - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal - United States forces defeat Japanese
troops.
* February 10 - March 3 - Mohandas Gandhi keeps a hunger strike to protest his
imprisonment
* February 11 - General Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies
in Europe.
* February 14 - WWII:
o Rostov-na-Donu, Russia is liberated.
o Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika
Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United
States' first major battle defeat of the war.
* February 16 - WWII: Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out
in the Third Battle of Kharkov
* February 18
o In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast German Propagandaminister (Propaganda
Minister) Joseph Goebbels declare a "Total War" against the allies
o The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
* February 20
o American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information
to censor movies.
o The Mexican volcano Parícutin is born in a farmer's cornfield.
* February 22 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
* February 23 - A fire breaks out at St Joseph's Orphanage ,Co Cavan , Ireland
, killing 36 people (35 of whom were children)
* February 27 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, United States explodes,
killing 74 men.
* February 28 - Operation Gunnerside, 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg
successfully attack the heavy water plant Vemork.
March
* March 1 - Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops
for the German Army.
* March 2 - WWII: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian
forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
* March 3 - 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid
shelter at Bethnal Green tube station in London.
* March 4 - 15th Academy Awards ceremony
* March 8 - WWII: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700
in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
* March 13
o WWII: On Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces
at Hill 700.
o Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
* March 17 - Éamon de Valera makes the speech "The Ireland That
We Dreamed Of", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech
* March 19 - Frank Nitti suicides
* March 22 - WWII: The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive
by the German occupation forces.
* March 23- the drug in Vicodin and Lortab is made in Germany.
* March 26 - WWII: Battle of Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the
battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to
reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
* March 28 - In Italy a ship full of weapons and ammunitions explode in the
port of Naples, over 600 dead
* March 31 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway, heralds
a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous
stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that
time (1948).
April
* April 3 - Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim is rescued by Brazilian fishermen
after he has been adrift for 130 days
* April 13 - WWII: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass
graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
* April 19 - Albert Hofmann self administers the drug LSD for the first time
in history, and records the details of his trip.
* April 19 - A BOAC scheduled passenger flight, a DC-3 with registration: G-AGBB,
(formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), enroute between Lisbon and Bristol, is attacked
over the Bay of Biscay by German fighters. They manage to escape and land in
England. Other attacks on the same aircraft and on the same scheduled route:
November 15 1942 and June 1 1943 (fatal).
* April 21 - Worst Bombing of Aberdeen in WW2.
* April 22 - Albert Hofmann writes his first report about the hallucinogenic
properties of LSD, which he first synthesized in 1938.
* April 25 - Easter occurs on the latest possible date. Last time 1886 next
time 2038.
* April 27 - The U.S. Federal Writers' Project is shuttered.
May
* May 9-12 - Japanese troops carry out the Changjiao massacre in Changjiao,
Hunan, China.
* May 11 - WWII: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt
to expel occupying Japanese forces.
* May 12 - Trident Conference begins in Washington, D.C. with Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Winston Churchill taking part.
* May 13 - WWII: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender
to Allied forces.
* May 14 - Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of
Queensland, by a Japanese submarine.
* May 15 - Comintern is dissolved.
* May 16 - WWII: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Sqdn on German dams.
* May 16 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
* May 17 - WWII:
o Surviving RAF Dam Busters return.
o The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore
School to develop the ENIAC.
o The Memphis Belle Becomes the first airplane in the 8th Air Force to complete
a 25-mission tour of duty.
* May 19 - Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
* May 24 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes Chief Medical Officer in Auschwitz.
* May 29 - Norman Rockwell's illustration of "Rosie the Riveter" first
appears on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
* May 31 - Rioting between military personnel and Mexican American youths erupts
in East Los Angeles and is dubbed the "Zoot Suit Riots".
* May 31 - Helmut Kapp has been killed in Jedrzejów
June
* June 1 - British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777, a DC-3 with registration:
G-AGBB, (formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), on a scheduled passenger flight, is shot
down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, all 17 persons aboard
perish, including the actor Leslie Howard. There is speculation that the downing
was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the Germans
may have had wrong information he was aboard. Previous (for the occupants more
fortunate) attacks on the same aircraft and on the same scheduled route happened
on November 15 1942 and April 19 1943.
* June 4 - Military Coup d'état in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
* June 13 - The Looney Tunes animated short Porky Pig's Feat, is released to
theaters in the U.S.
* June 22 - U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division land in North Africa prior to training
at Arzew, French Morocco while serving in World War II.
July
* July 5 - WWII:
o Battle of Kursk - The largest tank battle in history begins.
o An Allied invasion fleet sails to Sicily.
* July 6 - WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
* July 10 - WWII: The Allied invasion of Sicily marks the beginning allied invasion
of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland
Italy by the U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division.
* July 11 - United States Army forces assault the village of Piano Lupo, just
outside of Gela, Sicily.
* July 12 - WWII: the Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight the Battle of Prokhorovka.
* July 13 - WWII: the invasion of Sicily begins with British landings at Augusta
on the island's eastern side and American landings to the south.
* July 19 - WWII: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
* July 24 - WWII: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes
bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation
in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people
and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
* July 25 - *In Italy the Gran Consiglio del Fascismo retires its consent to
Mussolini; Mussolini is arrested and the power is given to Maresciallo d'Italia
Gen. Pietro Badoglio.
* July 28 - WWII: Operation Gomorrah - The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm
that kills 42,000 German civilians.
August
* August 1 - Operation Tidal Wave: 177 B-24 Liberator bombers from the U.S.
Army Air Force bomb oil refineries at Ploiesti, Romania.
* August 3 - WWII: John F. Kennedy's PT-109 is rammed by a destroyer, the Battle
of Vella Gulf will be more successful.
* August 4 - WWII: USS Intrepid (CV-11) is launched
* August 5 - WWII: John F. Kennedy and crew are found by coastwatcher scouts
Solomon Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana with their dugout canoe.
* August 6 - WWII: Americans defeat a Japanese convoy at the Battle of Vella
Gulf off Kolombangara as the U.S. Army drives the Japanese out of Munda airfield
on New Georgia.
* August 13 - WWII: Rome is declared an open city.
* August 14 - Quadrant Conference begins in Quebec City. Canadian Prime Minister
MacKenzie King meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
* August 17 - WWII: The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton arrive in
Messina, Sicily followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field
Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
* August 23 - The Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the
German forces.
* August 24 - WWII: Germany - Heinrich Himmler is named Reichminister of the
Interior.
* August 26 - WWII: Lord Louis Mountbatten is named Supreme Allied Commander
for Southeast Asia.
* August 28 - WWII: Bulgaria - King Boris III dies under peculiar circumstances.
His six-year-old son, Simeon II, ascends to the throne.
* August 29 - WWII: Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses
to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German
authorities. (See: Occupation of Denmark)
September
* September 3 - WWII: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under Bernard
L. Montgomery, for the first time in the war.
* September 5 - WWII: The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas
MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae in northeastern
Papua New Guinea.
* September 7 - A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.
* September 8 - WWII:
o United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender
of Italy to the Allies and the USAAF bombed the German General Headquarter for
the Mediterranean zone Frascati bombing raid September 8, 1943.
o Julius Fucik is executed by Nazis.
* September 8 - First classes commence at Grace University.
* September 12 - WWII: German paratroopers rescue Mussolini from imprisonment,
in "Operation Oak".
* September 16 - WWII: Salerno Mutiny
* September 17 - WWII: The Villefranche-de-Rouergue uprising takes place.
* September 23 - WWII: Republic of Salò is founded.
* September 27 - WWII: First of the four days of Naples uprising.
October
* October 1 - WWII: American forces enter liberated Naples.
* October 6 - WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Vella Lavella.
* October 7 - WWII: Naples post office explosion
* October 10 - The Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky instituted in the USSR.
* October 13 - WWII: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares
war on Germany.
* October 18 - Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as president of China.
* October 21 - Lucie Aubrac and others in her French Resistance cell liberate
Raymond Aubrac from Gestapo imprisonment
* October 22 - WWII: RAF delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German
industrial and population center of Kassel
* October 30 - The Merrie Melodies short, Falling Hare, the only short with
Bugs getting out-smarted is released.
November
* November 1 - WWII: In Operation Goodtime, United States Marines land on
Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
* November 2 - WWII:
o In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive
Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville.
o British troops, in Italy, reach the Garigliano River.
* November 14 - Leonard Bernstein, substituting at the last minute for ailing
principal conductor Bruno Walter, directs the New York Philharmonic in its regular
Sunday afternoon broadcast concert over CBS Radio. The event receives front
page coverage in the New York Times the following day.
* November 15 - Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies
and "part-Gypsies" were to be put "on the same level as Jews
and placed in concentration camps."
* November 16 - WWII:
o After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power
facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
o Japanese submarine sinks surfaced USA submarine USS Corvina near Truk
* November 18 - WWII: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light
damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
* November 20 - WWII: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on
Tawara and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese
shore guns.
* November 22
o WWII: War in the Pacific - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill, and ROC leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt,
to discuss ways to defeat Japan.
o Lebanon gains independence from France.
* November 23 - The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin
neighborhood of Charlottenburg was destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1961 and called
the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
* November 25 - WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape
St. George between Buka and New Ireland.
* November 28 - WWII: Tehran Conference - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet
in Tehran to discuss war strategy (on November 30 they established an agreement
concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord).
* November 29 - Second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national
liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining
the post-war ordering of the country.
December
* December 2 - A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks
an American ship with a mustard gas stockpile. Numerous fatalities (though the
exact death toll is unresolved as the bombing raid itself caused hundreds of
deaths too).
* December 3 - Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell"
broadcast over CBS Radio describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid
on Berlin.
* December 4
o WWII: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional
democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
o Great Depression officially ends in the United States: With unemployment figures
falling fast due to World War II-related employment, US President Franklin D.
Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration.
* December 20 - Military coup in Bolivia
* December 24 - WWII: US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied
Commander in Europe.
* December 30 - Subhash Chandra Bose sets up a pro-Japanese Indian government
at Port Blair, India.
Also in 1943
* Development of the Colossus computer by British to break German encryption
(see History of computing hardware).
* Mondragón cooperative begins in Basque Country in Spain
* Arana Hall, Otago founded.
* Jacques-Yves Cousteau co-invents, with Emile Gagnan, the first commercially
successful open circuit type of scuba diving equipment, the aqua-lung.[1].
* Publication of Martin Noth's groundbreaking Uberlieferungsgeschischtliche
Studien: Die sammelnden und bearbeitenden Geschichtswerke im Alten Testament
[Schriften der Konigsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft: Geisteswissenschaftliche
Klasse; 18,2 (trans: "Writings of the Konigsberger Scholarly Society:Spiritual
Scientific Class No. 18.2")]: (Halle ["Halle an der Saale"]:
M. Niemeyer, 1943)
Ongoing
* Second World War (1939-1945)
* Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)