Everything Totally Explained


Ask & we'll explain, totally!
1943
Totally Explained


  NEW! All the latest news in the worlds of computer gaming, entertainment, the environment,  
finance, health, politics, science, stocks & shares, technology and much, much, more.  


View this entry using RSS

Everything about 1943 totally explained

Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1943

» : (Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)

January

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:
  • February 7 - WWII: In the United States, it's 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:
  • February 16 - WWII: Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov
  • February 18
  • February 20
  • 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 - 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
  • 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 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's 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 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 carries 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:
  • 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 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 Jędrzejów

    June

  • June 1 - British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
  • 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:
  • 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 Ploieşti, 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 US 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:
  • 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:
  • 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:
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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.

    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.
  • Jacques-Yves Cousteau co-invents, with Emile Gagnan, the first commercially successful open circuit type of scuba diving equipment, the aqua-lung..
  • Publication of Martin Noth's groundbreaking Uberlieferungsgeschischtliche Studien: Die sammelnden und bearbeitenden Geschichtswerke im Alten Testament [Schriftender Konigsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft: Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse; 18,2 (trans: "Writings of the Konigsberger Scholarly Society:Spiritual Scientific Class No. 18.2")]: (Halle ["Hallean der Saale"]: M. Niemeyer, 1943)

    Ongoing

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

    Births

    January-February

  • January 1 - Don Novello, American actor
  • January 2 - Barış Manço, Turkish singer and television personality (d. 1999)
  • January 4 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, American writer
  • January 6 - Terry Venables, English football manager
  • January 7 - Sadako Sasaki, Japanese atomic bomb sickness victim (d. 1955)
  • January 9 - Freddie Starr, English comedian and singer
  • January 10 - Jim Croce, American singer (d. 1973)
  • January 11 - Jim Hightower, American radio host and author
  • January 13 - Richard Moll, American actor
  • January 16 - Brian Ferneyhough, British composer
  • January 18 - Kay Granger, American politician
  • January 19
  • January 20 - Mel Hague, English singer and author
  • January 24 - Sharon Tate, American actress and murder victim (d. 1969)
  • January 25 - Tobe Hooper, American film director
  • January 26 - César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
  • January 29 - Tony Blackburn, British radio disc jockey
  • January 30 - Marty Balin, American musician
  • February 2 - Erkan Genis, Turkish artist
  • February 3 - Blythe Danner, American actress
  • February 4 - Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese politician
  • February 5
  • February 6 - Fabian, American singer
  • February 7 - Gareth Hunt, English actor
  • February 9
  • February 14 - Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
  • February 18 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, comedian, and actor
  • February 19
  • February 20 - Mike Leigh, British film director
  • February 21 - David Geffen, American record executive and film producer
  • February 23 - Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
  • February 24 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer
  • February 25 - George Harrison, British musician (The Beatles) (d. 2001)
  • February 26 - Bill Duke, American actor and director
  • February 27

    March-April

  • March - John Leeson, British actor
  • March 1
  • March 2
  • March 3 - Trond Mohn, Norwegian billionaire
  • March 4
  • March 8 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress
  • March 9
  • March 15 - David Cronenberg, Canadian film director
  • March 16
  • March 18 - Kevin Dobson, American actor
  • March 19
  • March 20
  • March 21
  • March 22
  • March 25 - Royston MaldoomOBE, British choreographer (1943)
  • March 26 - Bob Woodward, American journalist
  • March 29
  • March 31 - Christopher Walken, American actor
  • April 2 - Frank Feather, British-born international business futurist and author
  • April 5 - Max Gail, American actor
  • April 7 - Mick Abrahams, British rock guitarist
  • April 8 - Miller Farr, American football player
  • April 10 - Andrzej Badeński, Polish athlete
  • April 20 - John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor
  • April 22 - Louise Glück, American poet and 12th US Poet Laureate
  • April 23
  • April 25 - James G. Mitchell, Canadian computer scientist
  • April 28 - John O. Creighton, astronaut

    May-June

  • May 5 - Michael Palin, British comedian
  • May 7 - Terry Allen, American country music singer
  • May 8
  • May 10 - Richard (Dick) Darman, American federal government official and businessman
  • May 14
  • May 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, King of Malaysia
  • May 22 - Betty Williams, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • May 25 - Jessi Colter, American singer and composer
  • May 26 - Erica Terpstra, Dutch swimmer, politician and president of the Dutch Olympic Committee
  • May 27 - Bruce Weitz, American actor
  • May 30 - James Chaney, American civil rights worker (d. 1964)
  • May 31
  • June 2 - Ilayaraaja, Indian composer
  • June 3 - John Burgess, Australian game show host and actor
  • June 4 - Joyce Meyer, Christian author and speaker
  • June 6 - Richard Smalley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • June 7- Nikki Giovanni, American poet
  • June 8 - Colin Baker, British actor
  • June 14 - Jim Sensenbrenner, American politician
  • June 15
  • June 16 - Joan Van Ark, American actress
  • June 17
  • June 21 - Marika Green French-Swedish actress
  • June 23 - James Levine, American conductor
  • June 26
  • June 27 - Rico Petrocelli, baseball player
  • June 29

    July-August

  • July 1 - Jeff Wayne, musician
  • July 3
  • July 4
  • July 5 - Curt Blefary, baseball player (d. 2001)
  • July 7 - Joel Siegel, American film critic (d. 2007)
  • July 10 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (d. 1993)
  • July 12 - Christine McVie, British musician (Fleetwood Mac)
  • July 15 - Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Irish astrophysicist
  • July 16 - Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban writer (d. 1990)
  • July 20 - Wendy Richard, British actress
  • July 21 - Edward Herrmann, American actor
  • July 23
  • July 25 - Jim McCarty, British musician (The Yardbirds)
  • July 26 - Mick Jagger, English singer (Rolling Stones)
  • July 28 - Rick Wright, English keyboardist (Pink Floyd)
  • July 31 - Sab Shimono, American actor
  • August 2
  • August 4 - Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
  • August 5 - Nelson Briles, baseball player (d. 2005)
  • August 6 - Jim Hardin, former Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves pitcher (d. 1991)
  • August 7 - Dino Valente, American musician (d. 1994)
  • August 11
  • August 14 - Jimmy Johnson, American football coach and television analyst
  • August 17 - Robert De Niro, American actor
  • August 18 - Gianni Rivera, Italian footballer
  • August 20 - Sylvester McCoy, British actor
  • August 24 - John Cipollina, American musician (d. 1989)
  • August 28 - Lou Piniella, baseball player and manager
  • August 30 - Jean-Claude Killy, French skier

    September-October

  • September 1 - Don Stroud, American actor
  • September 5 - Dulce Saguisag, Filipino politician and former DSWD Secretary. (d. 2007)
  • September 6
  • September 9 - Art LaFleur, American actor
  • September 10 - Daniel Truhitte, American actor
  • September 11
  • September 14 - Irwin Goodman, Finnish singer (d. 1991)
  • September 19 - Joe Morgan, Hall of Fame baseball player
  • September 22 - Toni Basil, American musician and video artist
  • September 28 - J. T. Walsh, American actor (d. 1998)
  • September 29 - Lech Wałęsa, President of Poland, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • September 30 - Johann Deisenhofer, German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • September 30 - Ian Ogilvy, English actor
  • October - Judy Graubart, American actress
  • October 2 - Franklin Rosemont, American poet
  • October 6 - Michael Durrell, American actor
  • October 8 - Chevy Chase, American comedian and actor
  • October 14 - Lois Hamilton, American model, actress, and artist (d. 1999)
  • October 16 - Paul Rose, Canadian terrorist
  • October 18 - Birthe Rønn Hornbech, Danish politician
  • October 31 - Paul Frampton, English physicist

    November-December

  • November 1 - John McEnery, English actor
  • November 4 - Chuck Scarborough American News Anchor on NBC
  • November 5
  • November 7
  • November 11 - Doug Frost, Australian swimming coach
  • November 12 - Wallace Shawn, American actor
  • November 14 - Peter Norton, American software engineer and businessman
  • November 19 - Aurelio Monteagudo, Cuban Major League Baseball player (d. 1990)
  • November 20 - Mie Hama, Japanese actress
  • November 21 - Larry Mahan, American rodeo cowboy
  • November 26 - Marilynne Robinson, American writer
  • December 2 - Wayne Allard U.S Senator from Colorado - Senior Senator
  • December 5 - Eva Joly, Norwegian-born French magistrate
  • December 8 - James Douglas "Jim" Morrison, American musician (d. 1971)
  • December 11 - John Kerry, American politician
  • December 12 - Grover Washington, Jr., American saxophonist (d. 1999)
  • December 13 - Ferguson Jenkins, baseball player
  • December 14 - Mike Gorman, American sports announcer (