August 1943

Monday 02:

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

Wednesday 11:

First Quebec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, T. V. Soong and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.

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.