1943 - What happened in 1943 ?

January 1943

Monday 11:

The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.

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).

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

Monday 01:

World War II: Vidkun Quisling appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.

Sunday 07:

World War II: In the United States it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days.

Thursday 18:

Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech

Friday 19:

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

Saturday 20:

The Paricutín volcano begins to form in Paricutín, México.

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 15:

the Germans retook the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.

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

Friday 16:

Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.

Thursday 22:

Albert Hofmann writes his first report about the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.

Sunday 25:

The Demyansk Shield for German troops in commemoration of Demyansk Pocket was instituted.

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.

Sunday 16:

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

Monday 17:

The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.

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

Monday 05:

World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).

Friday 09:

Allied forces perform an amphibious invasion of Sicily.

Monday 12:

German and Soviet forces engage in largest tank engagement of all time.

Tuesday 20:

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

Thursday 22:

Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.

August 1943

Monday 02:

PT-109, with future president of the United States Lieutenant John F. Kennedy aboard, sinks.

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.

September 1943

Sunday 05:

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

Sunday 12:

Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest by German commando Otto Skorzeny

Friday 17:

Russian city of Bryansk liberated from Nazis.

Saturday 18:

The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.

Wednesday 29:

U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off the shore of Malta.

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 15:

German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies were to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps." (see Porajmos)

Tuesday 16:

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

Monday 22:

Lebanon gains independence from France.

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.

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.