1943 - What happened in 1943 ?

January 1943

Thursday 14:

Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).

Friday 15:

The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated (Arlington, Virginia).

Saturday 23:

Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.

Sunday 24:

World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.

Wednesday 27:

World War II: 50 bombers mount the first entirely American air raid against Germany, targeting Wilhelmshaven.

February 1943

Thursday 04:

Battle of Stalingrad ends.

Monday 08:

United States forces defeat Japanese troops.

Thursday 18:

Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech

Friday 19:

World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.

Saturday 27:

The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, United States explodes, killing 74 men.

March 1943

Tuesday 02:

United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.

Wednesday 03:

World War II: In London, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.

Friday 05:

First flight of Gloster Meteor jet aircraft in Britain.

Monday 08:

World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.

Friday 26:

In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.

April 1943

Wednesday 07:

First synthesis of LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, by Albert Hoffman

Tuesday 13:

The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC, on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.

Friday 16:

Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.

Monday 19:

Bicycle Day – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.

Friday 30:

World War II: Operation Mincemeat – The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.

May 1943

Wednesday 05:

The film curator of the Library of Congress, Howard Walls, announces that about 5,000 films will be preserved in the library.

Tuesday 11:

World War II: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.

Thursday 13:

World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.

Sunday 16:

World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.

Monday 24:

Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer in Auschwitz concentration camp.

June 1943

Tuesday 01:

A civilian flight from Lisbon to London is shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.

Thursday 03:

A mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory beats up everyone perceived to be Hispanic, starting a week-long race riot (see Zoot Suit Riots).

Friday 04:

Military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.

Saturday 19:

Race riots occur in Beaumont, Texas, United States.

July 1943

Sunday 11:

German troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.

Wednesday 14:

In Joplin, Missouri, George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.

Monday 19:

World War II: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.

Tuesday 20:

World War II: Axis leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini confer in northern Italy

Sunday 25:

World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

August 1943

Tuesday 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.

Monday 23:

World War II: Kharkov liberated.

Saturday 28:

In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.

Sunday 29:

German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves Danish government.

Tuesday 31:

The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.

September 1943

Friday 03:

World War II: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces for the first time in the war.

Sunday 05:

World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nazdab in Papua New Guinea.

Friday 10:

German forces began their occupation of Rome during World War II.

Friday 17:

Russian city of Bryansk liberated from Nazis.

Saturday 18:

The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.

October 1943

Thursday 07:

Japan executes 100 American prisoners on Wake Island.

Wednesday 13:

World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.

Tuesday 19:

Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.

Friday 22:

Kassel: RAF conducts an air raid on the city of 236,000 people, killing 10,000, rendering 150,000 homeless. Second firestorm raid in Germany

Thursday 28:

The Philadelphia Experiment supposedly occured.

November 1943

Monday 01:

United States Marines invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.

Tuesday 16:

World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vermork, Norway.

Sunday 28:

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy.

Monday 29:

The 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.

Tuesday 30:

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin establish an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord.

December 1943

Saturday 04:

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.

Friday 24:

US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander

Sunday 26:

The German warship Scharnhorst sinks off the coast of North Cape in Norway after being attacked by the British Royal Navy late the previous evening.

Thursday 30:

Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.