1943

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Years: 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 - 1943 - 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948

Events

January

January 11 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
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.
January 23 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
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 Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
February 2 - World War II: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end.
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 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: Russia reconquers 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 28 - OPERATION GUNNERSIDE, 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant Vemork.

March-April

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 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 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.

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: Americanss 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.
July 12 - World War II: Americanss 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-October

August 6 - World War II: Americanss 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 followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
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 Nazdab, 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.
October 6 - World War II: Americanss 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 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 25 - World War II: Americanss 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).

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 24 - World War II: US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander.
December 30 - Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
Development of the Colossus computer by British to break German encryption (see History of computing hardware).