1943

This is an article about the year 1943. For the Nintendo game, see 1943.

1943 is a common year starting on Friday.

Years: 1940 1941 1942 - 1943 - 1944 1945 1946
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Template:C20YearInTopic

Events

January

January 4 - End of term for Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Earl Warren.
January 11 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
January 11 - General Juanto dies in Argentina - Ramon Castillo succeeds him
January 12 - Jan Campert, Dutch journalist and writer, dies in Neuengamme concentration camp
January 13 - Richard Moll, actor
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 - World War II: Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.
January 15 - The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated (Arlington, Virginia).
January 18 - World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad.
January 18 - The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up for the first time, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
January 23 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
January 23 - In Spearfish, South Dakota, temperature rises from -20 to +7 degrees Celsius in two minutes
January 23 - Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
January 24 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
January 27 - World War II: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven was the target).

February

February 1 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Prime Minister of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
February 2 - World War II: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army.
February 3 - World War II: The death of the Four Chaplains when their ship was struck by a torpedo.
February 7 - World War II: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days.
February 8 - World War II: Battle of Kursk - the Russian army captures the city.
February 8 - World War II: 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 - World War II: Rostov, Russia is liberated.
February 14 - World War II: 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 - World War II: Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov
February 18 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
February 20 - American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
February 22 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
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 - "Panzer General" Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army during World War II.
March 2 - World War II: 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 8 - World War II: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
March 13 - World War II: On Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
March 13 - Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
March 26 - World War II: 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.

April

April 3 - Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after he has been adrift for 130 days
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 11 - World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
May 13 - World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
May 16 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Sqdn on German dams.
May 16 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
May 17 - World War II: Surviving RAF Dam Busters return.
May 17 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
May 24 - Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes Chief Medical Officer in Auschwitz.

June

June 4 - Military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
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 - World War II: Battle of Kursk - The largest tank battle in history begins.
July 5 - World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails to Sicily.
July 6 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
July 10 - World War II: The Allies begin their invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy by the U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division.
July 12 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Kolombangara.
July 19 - World War II: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
July 24 - World War II: 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 27 - World War II: USSR leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into Russia. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately killed.
July 28 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah - The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.

August

August 6 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Vella Gulf off Kolombangara.
August 17 - World War II: The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
August 29 - World War II: 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 - World War II: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under Bernard L. Montgomery, for the first time in the war.
September 5 - World War II: 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 8 - World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
September 8 - World War II: Julius Fucik is executed by Nazis.
September 23 - World War II: Republic of Salò is founded.

October

October 6 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Vella Lavella.
October 13 - World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
October 22 - World War II: RAF delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel

November

November 1 - World War II: In Operation Goodtime, United States Marines land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
November 2 - World War II: In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville.
November 2 - World War II: British troops, in Italy, reach the Garigliano River.
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 - World War II: After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
November 16 - World War II: Japanese submarine sinks surfaced USA submarine USS Corvina near Truk
November 18 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
November 20 - World War II: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.
November 22 - World War II: 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.
November 22 - 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 - World War II: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape St. George between Buka and New Ireland.
November 28 - World War II: 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 4 - World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
December 4 - Great Depression 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 - World War II: US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander.
December 30 - Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.

Undated

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.

Ongoing

Second World War (1939-1945)
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Year in Topic

1943 in film
- Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart.
- Ossessione by Luchino Visconti.
1943 in music
1943 in rail transport
- After a few years of only producing diesel engines for the United States Navy during World War II, General Motors Electro-Motive Division returns to manufacturing railroad locomotives.

Births

January

January 2 - Baris Manco, Turkish celebrity
January 4 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, writer
January 6 - Terry Venables, football (soccer) manager
January 10 - Jim Croce, singer (d. 1973)
January 11 - Jim Hightower, radio host, author
January 16 - Brian Ferneyhough, composer
January 18 - Kay Granger, American politician
January 19 - Janis Joplin, blues singer (d. 1970)
January 19 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
January 24 - Sharon Tate, actress (d. 1969)
January 25 - Tobe Hooper, director
January 26 - César Gutiérrez, Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
January 30 - Marty Balin, musician

February

February 2 - Erkan Genis, impressionist artist
February 3 - Blythe Danner, actress
February 4 - Alberto_João_Jardim, politician
February 5 - Nolan Bushnell, video game pioneer
February 5 - Craig Morton, US football star
February 6 - Fabian Forte, singer
February 7 - Gareth Hunt. actor
February 9 - Joe Pesci, actor
February 10 - Frank-Patrick Steckel, theater director
February 11 - Ian Cameron, British brigadier
February 12 - Samuel Karokikki, Nauruan athlete (d. 2004)
February 13 - Geoff Edwards, game show host
February 14 - Maceo Parker, musician (P-Funk)
February 15 - Elke Heidenreich, journalist and writer
February 18 - Graeme Garden, English writer, comedian, actor
February 20 - Mike Leigh, director
February 21 - David Geffen, producer
February 23 - Fred Biletnikoff, US football star, coach
February 24 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer
February 25 - George Harrison, English musician, member of The Beatles (d. 2001)
February 26 - Bill Duke, actor
February 27 - Morten Lauridsen, composer

March

March 1 - Gil Amelio, former CEO of National Semiconductor and Apple Computer, now a venture capitalist
March 2 - Peter Straub, American author
March 8 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress
March 9 - Bobby Fischer, American chess player
- Charles Gibson, American television journalist
March 15 - David Cronenberg, director
March 19 - Mario Monti, aka "Super Mario"
March 21 - Vivian Stanshall, English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster and musician (d. 1995)
March 22 - Bruno Ganz, actor
- Keith Relf, British musician, vocals/harmonica with The Yardbirds (d. May 14, 1976)
March 26 - Bob Woodward, American journalist
March 29 - Eric Idle, actor, writer, composer
March 29 - John Major, English Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
March 29 - Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, aka Vangelis, new age musician
March 31 - Christopher Walken, actor

April

April 8 - Miller Farr, American football player
April 10 - Andrzej Badeński, Polish athlete
April 20 - John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor
April 23 - Edie Sedwick actor, model
April 23 - Dominik Duka, Czech Roman Catholic bishop and theologian

May

May 8 - Toni Tennille, singer
May 10 - Richard (Dick) Darman, government bureaucrat and businessman
May 14 - Jack Bruce, bass guitarist
May 14 - Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, president of Iceland
May 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, later Raja of Perlis and Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
May 22 - Betty Williams, politician, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Peace
May 23 - John Newcombe, tennis player
May 25 - Jessi Colter, country music singer
May 31 - Joe Namath, American football quarterback
May 31 - Sharon Gless, actress

June

June 15 - Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
June 17 - Newt Gingrich, American politician
June 17 - Barry Manilow, American musician
June 23 - James Levine, American conductor
June 27 - Rico Petrocelli, baseball player

July

July 4 - Konrad "Conny" Bauer, musician, free jazz trombonist
July 4 - Geraldo Rivera, reporter, talk show host
July 5 - Curt Blefary, American baseball player (d. 2001)
July 10 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (d. 1993)
July 26 - Mick Jagger, English singer with the Rolling Stones

August

August 4 - Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
August 5 - Nelson Briles, Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
August 7 - Dino Valente, American musician, (d. 1994)
August 11 - Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani general and leader
August 14 - Jimmy Johnson, former American Football coach, TV analyst
August 17 - Robert De Niro, United States actor
August 24 - John Cipollina, American musician, (d. 1989)
August 28 - Lou Piniella, Major League Baseball player and manager
August 30 - Jean-Claude Killy, skier

September

September 6 - Roger Waters, English musician
September 11 - Gilbert Proesch, artist, half of Gilbert and George
September 11 - Raymond Villeneuve, FLQ terrorist
September 22 - Toni Basil, musician, video artist
September 28 - J. T. Walsh, American actor (d. 1998)
September 30 - Johann Deisenhofer, scientist

October

October 2 - Franklin Rosemont, co-founder of the Surrealist Movement in the United States
October 14 - Lois Hamilton, model, actress, artist (d. 1999)
October 16 - Paul Rose, FLQ terrorist, convicted murderer