1943

Events in 1943 110

• 1854 – 1943 Henri La Fontaine (1854-1943) Died 14 May 1943, aged 89 Henri La Fontaine was a Belgian international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913. With Paul Otlet he founded the Mundaneum, a project to catalogue all the world's knowledge.
• 1856 – 1943 Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) Died 7 January 1943, aged 86 Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and engineer whose alternating current induction motor and polyphase system underpin modern power distribution. He also pioneered radio, wireless power transmission and high-voltage devices. He died alone and in debt in a room at the Hotel New Yorker.
• 1858 – 1943 Beatrice Webb (1858-1943) Died 30 April 1943, aged 85 Beatrice Webb was an English social reformer, economist and Fabian socialist. With her husband Sidney Webb she co-founded the London School of Economics and the New Statesman. She helped shape the ideas behind the British welfare state.
• 1862 – 1943 David Hilbert (1862-1943) Died 14 February 1943, aged 81 David Hilbert was a German mathematician and one of the most influential of his era. His 23 problems, presented in 1900, shaped twentieth-century mathematics, and he laid the foundations of modern axiomatics and functional analysis. He died in Göttingen after the Nazis had gutted its mathematics institute.
• 1863 – 1943 Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) Died 1 March 1943, aged 79 Alexandre Yersin was a Swiss-French bacteriologist who discovered the plague bacillus in Hong Kong in 1894. The organism, Yersinia pestis, is named after him. He spent most of his life in Vietnam, where he founded Pasteur Institutes and a medical school.
• 1866 – 1943 Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) Died 22 December 1943, aged 77 Beatrix Potter was an English author and illustrator of children's books, including The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She was also a farmer and conservationist in the Lake District. She left most of her land to the National Trust.
• 1868 – 1943 Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) Died 26 June 1943, aged 75 Karl Landsteiner was an Austrian-American pathologist who discovered the ABO blood groups, which made safe blood transfusion possible. He received the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He later co-discovered the Rh factor.
• 1868 – 1943 Lin Sen (1868-1943) Died 1 August 1943, aged 75 Lin Sen was chairman of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1931. The post was largely ceremonial. Chiang Kai-shek succeeded him as chairman after his death.
• 1873 – 1943 Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) Died 31 October 1943, aged 70 Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theatre and film director who transformed stagecraft in Berlin and Vienna. He co-founded the Salzburg Festival. He left Europe because of the Nazis and died in exile in New York.
• 1873 – 1943 Sergei Rachmaninoff Late Romantic pianist & composer Russian composer and pianist known for his Piano Concerto No. 2, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Vocalise. One of the last great Romantic composers.
• 1877 – 1943 Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) Died 2 September 1943, aged 66 Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter. He is known for his German military paintings and his later landscapes of Maine. He was part of Alfred Stieglitz's circle.
• 1881 – 1943 Władysław Sikorski (1881-1943) Died 4 July 1943, aged 62 Władysław Sikorski was prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile and commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces. His aircraft crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Gibraltar. His death came weeks after the Katyn revelations had strained Polish-Soviet relations.
• 1884 – 1943 Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943) Died 18 April 1943, aged 59 Isoroku Yamamoto was commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet and planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. American codebreakers learned his itinerary. US P-38 fighters shot down his aircraft over Bougainville.
• 1887 – 1943 Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943) Died 26 January 1943, aged 55 Nikolai Vavilov was a Soviet botanist and geneticist who identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants and built a world-leading seed bank. He opposed Trofim Lysenko's pseudoscience, and in 1940 he was arrested. He died of starvation in Saratov prison.
• 1888 – 1943 Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943) Died 13 April 1943, aged 54 Oskar Schlemmer was a German painter, sculptor and designer who taught at the Bauhaus. He created the Triadic Ballet. The Nazis condemned his art as degenerate.
• 1889 – 1943 R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943) Died 9 January 1943, aged 53 Robin George Collingwood was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist of Roman Britain. His works include The Principles of Art and The Idea of History, which was published after his death. He argued that historians must re-enact past thought.
• 1893 – 1943 Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) Died 9 August 1943, aged 50 Chaïm Soutine was a Belarusian-born French painter of the School of Paris, known for his distorted, intensely coloured Expressionist works. As a Jew he spent the German occupation in hiding. He died in Paris after surgery for a perforated ulcer.
• 1893 – 1943 Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) Died 3 April 1943, aged 50 Conrad Veidt was a German actor who starred in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Man Who Laughs. He left Germany after the Nazis came to power and worked in Britain and Hollywood. His last famous role was Major Strasser in Casablanca.
• 1893 – 1943 Leslie Howard (1893-1943) Died 1 June 1943, aged 50 Leslie Howard was an English actor and director known for Gone with the Wind, Pygmalion and The Scarlet Pimpernel. German fighters shot down his civilian airliner, BOAC Flight 777, over the Bay of Biscay while he was flying home from Lisbon. Everyone on board was killed.
• 1894 – 1943 Boris III of Bulgaria (1894-1943) Died 28 August 1943, aged 49 Boris III was tsar of Bulgaria from 1918, and he aligned his country with the Axis. He refused to deport Bulgaria's Jews to German death camps. He died suddenly soon after a stormy meeting with Hitler.
• 1895 – 1943 Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) Died 22 November 1943, aged 48 Lorenz Hart was an American lyricist who wrote songs with Richard Rodgers, including Blue Moon, My Funny Valentine and The Lady Is a Tramp. Their partnership ended as Hart's alcoholism worsened. He died of pneumonia days after a revival of A Connecticut Yankee opened.
• 1898 – 1943 Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) Died 13 March 1943, aged 44 Stephen Vincent Benét was an American poet and writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for John Brown's Body, his epic poem of the Civil War, and wrote the short story The Devil and Daniel Webster. He was awarded a second Pulitzer after his death.
• 1899 – 1943 Jean Moulin (1899-1943) Died 8 July 1943, aged 44 Jean Moulin was a French prefect whom Charles de Gaulle sent to unify the Resistance. He brought the movements together in the National Council of the Resistance. He was betrayed and arrested near Lyon, and died after torture by the Gestapo under Klaus Barbie.
• 1904 – 1943 Fats Waller (1904-1943) Died 15 December 1943, aged 39 Fats Waller was an American jazz pianist, composer and entertainer, and a master of stride piano. He wrote Ain't Misbehavin' and Honeysuckle Rose. He died of pneumonia on a train near Kansas City.
• 1909 – 1943 Simone Weil (1909-1943) Died 24 August 1943, aged 34 Simone Weil was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist whose writings include Gravity and Grace and The Need for Roots. She limited what she ate in solidarity with people in occupied France. She died of tuberculosis and heart failure in Ashford, Kent.
• 1918 – 1943 Hans Scholl (1918-1943) Died 22 February 1943, aged 24 Hans Scholl was a medical student and a founding member of the White Rose resistance group. He wrote and distributed leaflets condemning Nazi crimes. He was executed in Munich together with his sister Sophie and Christoph Probst.
• 1921 – 1943 Sophie Scholl (1921-1943) Died 22 February 1943, aged 21 Sophie Scholl was a German student and member of the White Rose resistance group in Munich. She and her brother Hans were caught distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at the University of Munich. The People's Court condemned them, and they were guillotined the same day.
• 1922 – 1943 Mussolini takes power Fascist era begins Benito Mussolini established a fascist dictatorship while Italy remained formally a monarchy.
• 1942 – 1943 Battle of Stalingrad Turning point on the Eastern Front The Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 - February 1943) was the largest and bloodiest battle in history, with nearly 2 million casualties. The German 6th Army was encircled and destroyed, marking the turning point of the war in the East.
• 1943 Aqua-Lung developed Cousteau and Gagnan build the first practical scuba regulator Jacques-Yves Cousteau and engineer Émile Gagnan developed the Aqua-Lung in occupied France. Its demand regulator supplied compressed air to a diver at the surrounding water pressure. It made modern recreational scuba diving possible.
• 1943 Being and Nothingness published Sartre's major work of existentialist philosophy Gallimard published Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Être et le néant in occupied Paris. The treatise sets out Sartre's ideas of consciousness, freedom and bad faith. It became a founding text of postwar existentialism.
• 1943 Bengal famine Millions die of starvation in British India Famine struck Bengal in British India. Its causes included the loss of rice imports from Burma, a cyclone, crop disease, wartime inflation and failures of colonial policy. An estimated 2 to 3 million people died of starvation and disease.
• 1943 – 2022 Christine McVie (1943-2022) Died 30 November 2022, aged 79 British singer and songwriter of Fleetwood Mac, who wrote Everywhere, Don't Stop and Songbird.
• 1943 – 1945 Coca-Cola supplied to WWII troops 64 bottling plants built near front lines Robert Woodruff pledged that every US soldier would get a Coca-Cola for 5 cents wherever they were in the world, regardless of cost to the company. The US government supported this as a morale booster, and 64 bottling plants were built near the front lines, introducing Coke to the world.
• 1943 – 2024 David Soul (1943-2024) Died 4 January 2024, aged 80 American actor and musician best known for Starsky & Hutch, who also topped the charts with Don't Give Up on Us.
• 1943 – 2024 Dickey Betts (1943-2024) Died 18 April 2024, aged 80 American guitarist of the Allman Brothers Band, who wrote Ramblin' Man.
• 1943 – present IKEA IKEA — founded in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad in Älmhult, Sweden — is the world's largest furniture retailer and one of the most recognised brands on earth. From a mail-order business selling pens and picture frames, IKEA invented flat-pack furniture, the destination retail experience and the idea that well-designed, functional furniture should be affordable for everyone. IKEA's stores are visited by over 800 million people annually. Its Swedish meatballs are more famous than most restaurants. Its flat-pack Allen key is a universal cultural reference. Kamprad built an empire worth over $50 billion from the forests of Småland — and remained famously frugal until his death in 2018.
• 1943 – 1970 Janis Joplin (1943-1970) Died 4 October 1970, aged 27 Janis Joplin, the American rock and blues singer known for her raw, powerful vocal style, died in Los Angeles of a heroin overdose. Her death, following Jimi Hendrix's by less than a month, cemented the "27 Club" as a cultural touchstone.
• 1943 – 2024 Judith Jamison (1943-2024) Died 9 November 2024, aged 81 American dancer of striking presence who led the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1989 to 2011.
• 1943 – 2024 Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024) Died 9 December 2024, aged 81 American poet whose work ranged from calls for Black power to poems for children.
• 1943 Penicillin goes to war North Africa Working with Howard Florey, Cairns ran field trials of penicillin on wounded men in North Africa. It worked, and the case for mass production in time for the invasion of Europe was made on that evidence.
• 1943 Pentagon completed Pentagon completed The Pentagon was completed on 15 January 1943 after sixteen months of building, consolidating the War Department's scattered offices into one five-sided structure across the Potomac from Washington. It remains among the largest office buildings in the world, with roughly 26,000 staff. It was struck by a hijacked airliner on 11 September 2001.
• 1943 – 2023 Robbie Robertson (1943-2023) Died 9 August 2023, aged 80 Canadian guitarist and songwriter of the Band, who wrote The Weight and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.
• 1943 – 2022 Ronnie Spector (1943-2022) Died 12 January 2022, aged 78 American singer of the Ronettes, whose voice on Be My Baby defined the girl-group era.
• 1943 – 2019 Scott Walker (1943-2019) Died 22 March 2019, aged 76 Scott Walker was an American-born singer and composer who found fame in the UK with the Walker Brothers before pursuing an influential and increasingly experimental solo career. His later avant-garde work drew acclaim from a generation of alternative musicians. He died in London.
• 1943 – 2022 Vangelis (1943-2022) Died 18 May 2022, aged 79 Greek composer whose electronic scores for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner reshaped film music.
• 1943 Casablanca Conference Roosevelt and Churchill demand unconditional surrender Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met at Casablanca in French Morocco to plan the next phase of Allied strategy. They agreed to invade Sicily after the North African campaign ended. Roosevelt announced that the Allies would accept only the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.
• 1943 Sliced bread is banned A wartime measure to save wax paper and steel The public complained so loudly that the ban was lifted after 47 days.
• 1943 Japan evacuates Guadalcanal The Guadalcanal campaign ends in an Allied victory Japanese forces finished evacuating Guadalcanal, and the six-month struggle for the island ended. The campaign was the first major Allied land offensive against Japan in the Pacific. It marked a turning point in the Pacific War.
• 1943 Battle of Kasserine Pass Rommel's forces defeat inexperienced US troops in Tunisia German and Italian forces under Erwin Rommel attacked through the Kasserine Pass in western Tunisia and routed American units. This was the US Army's first major battle against the Germans. The defeat led to sweeping changes in American command and training.
• 1943 Parícutin volcano erupts from a Mexican cornfield A new volcano is born in Michoacán A volcano began erupting from a farmer's cornfield near the village of Parícutin in Michoacán, Mexico. It grew hundreds of metres over the following years and buried two villages. Scientists were able to document a volcano's whole life from its birth onwards.
• 1943 – 2025 Horst Kohler (1943-2025) Died 1 February 2025, aged 81 German economist who was managing director of the International Monetary Fund and then president of Germany from 2004 to 2010.
• 1943 – 2001 George Harrison Guitarist, singer-songwriter Lead guitarist of the Beatles, who brought Indian music to the West and made All Things Must Pass and the first charity rock concert.
• 1943 Battle of the Bismarck Sea Allied aircraft destroy a Japanese troop convoy US and Australian aircraft attacked a Japanese convoy carrying troops to New Guinea. They sank all eight transports and four of the escorting destroyers, using skip bombing. Japan stopped sending large convoys to New Guinea afterwards.
• 1943 Tony Meehan born Hampstead, London Daniel "Tony" Meehan was born on 2 March 1943 in Hampstead, London. He would become the original drummer of The Shadows, the youngest member of the founding lineup.
• 1943 – 2008 Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) Died 17 January 2008, aged 64 American chess grandmaster who became world champion in 1972 after defeating Boris Spassky in a Cold War-era match watched around the world. He spent his later years in self-imposed exile and died in Reykjavik, Iceland.
• 1943 Liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto German forces destroy the Kraków Ghetto German SS and police forces cleared the Kraków Ghetto. Those judged able to work were sent to the Płaszów camp, and thousands of others were shot or deported to Auschwitz. Amon Göth commanded the operation.
• 1943 Oklahoma! opens on Broadway Rodgers and Hammerstein's first musical premieres Oklahoma!, the first musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the St. James Theatre in New York. It wove its songs and dance into the story and ran for 2,212 performances. It is regarded as the start of the golden age of the Broadway book musical.
• 1943 Los Alamos Laboratory begins work The Manhattan Project's bomb design laboratory opens Scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer began working at a new secret laboratory on a mesa in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Its task was to design and build the first atomic bombs. The laboratory produced the weapons used in 1945.
• 1943 The Little Prince published Saint-Exupéry's novella appears in New York Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince was published by Reynal & Hitchcock in New York, in English and in French. The author wrote and illustrated it while in exile in the United States. It became one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published.
• 1943 Germany announces discovery of Katyn graves Mass graves of Polish officers found near Smolensk Germany announced that it had found mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. The prisoners had been shot by the Soviet NKVD in 1940. When the Polish government-in-exile called for a Red Cross inquiry, Moscow broke off relations with it.
• 1943 Jefferson Memorial dedicated Roosevelt dedicates the memorial in Washington President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. The ceremony was held on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. Because of wartime metal shortages, the bronze statue was only installed in 1947.
• 1943 Albert Hofmann discovers the effects of LSD The first deliberate LSD trip takes place on Bicycle Day Chemist Albert Hofmann at Sandoz in Basel absorbed a small amount of LSD by accident on 16 April and noticed unusual effects. On 19 April he deliberately took 250 micrograms and rode home by bicycle as the drug took hold. The date is now remembered as Bicycle Day.
• 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Jewish fighters resist the deportation of the ghetto Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto took up arms against German forces that had come to deport the remaining inhabitants. The poorly armed fighters held out for nearly a month. The Germans burned the ghetto block by block, and the uprising ended when the Great Synagogue was blown up on 16 May.
• 1943 Operation Mincemeat A corpse carrying fake plans deceives the Axis British intelligence released a corpse dressed as a Royal Marines officer off the coast of Spain. It carried forged documents suggesting the Allies would invade Greece and Sardinia rather than Sicily. The deception helped draw German forces away from Sicily.
• 1943 The Fountainhead published Ayn Rand's novel of individualism appears Bobbs-Merrill published Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, about the uncompromising architect Howard Roark. Twelve publishers had rejected the book, and it sold slowly at first. It then became a lasting bestseller and set out the ideas Rand later developed as Objectivism.
• 1943 The proof: deaths down by three quarters Oxford, United Kingdom A second BMJ paper, with the physicist A. H. S. Holbourn, showed army motorcycle deaths had fallen from around 200 a month to about 50. Cairns concluded that helmets for civilian riders would save a great many lives. It took Britain another thirty years to act on it.
• 1943 Axis forces surrender in Tunisia The North African campaign ends The last German and Italian forces in Tunisia surrendered, and about 250,000 soldiers were taken prisoner. The surrender ended the North African campaign. It cleared the way for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
• 1943 – 2014 Jack Bruce (1943-2014) Died 25 October 2014, aged 71 Jack Bruce, the Scottish bassist and singer for the rock band Cream, died in Suffolk, England. His playing helped define the power trio format alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. Cream was one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s.
• 1943 Stalin announces the dissolution of the Comintern The Communist International is wound up The Soviet leadership announced that the Communist International would be dissolved. The move was intended to reassure the Western Allies that Moscow was not directing revolution abroad. The dissolution became formal the following month.
• 1943 Dambusters raid RAF bouncing bombs breach dams in the Ruhr No. 617 Squadron of the RAF attacked dams in western Germany with Barnes Wallis's bouncing bombs. The raid breached the Möhne and Edersee dams and caused severe flooding and loss of life. Eight of the nineteen aircraft were lost.
• 1943 Zoot Suit Riots Servicemen attack Mexican American youths in Los Angeles US servicemen roamed Los Angeles attacking young Mexican Americans who wore zoot suits. They stripped and beat their victims, and the police largely arrested the victims rather than the attackers. The violence ended after military authorities declared the city off-limits to personnel.
• 1943 Detroit race riot Three days of racial violence in Detroit Violence broke out at Belle Isle in Detroit and spread across the city, which was under strain from wartime migration and housing shortages. Thirty-four people were killed, 25 of them Black. Federal troops restored order.
• 1943 – 1970 Alan Wilson (1943-1970) Canned Heat singer and guitarist Blind Owl — the singer, harmonica and slide-guitar player of Canned Heat, voice of On the Road Again and Going Up the Country. Died aged 27.
• 1943 Battle of Kursk The largest tank battle in history ends Germany's offensive in the East Germany launched Operation Citadel against the Soviet salient at Kursk, and the Soviet defence stopped it. Red Army counteroffensives then recaptured Orel and Belgorod and ended at Kharkov. After Kursk, Germany never again mounted a major strategic offensive on the Eastern Front.
• 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily Operation Husky opens the Italian campaign American, British and Canadian forces landed in southern Sicily in one of the largest amphibious operations of the war. They took the island in 38 days, although many German troops escaped across the Strait of Messina. The invasion hastened the fall of Mussolini.
• 1943 – 1993 Arthur Ashe The Trailblazer First Black man to win Wimbledon and the US Open; the US Open stadium is named for him.
• 1943 Operation Gomorrah Allied bombing creates a firestorm in Hamburg RAF and US bombers carried out a series of raids on Hamburg. On the night of 27–28 July the bombing caused a firestorm that destroyed much of the city. About 37,000 people were killed.
• 1943 Mussolini deposed The Fascist Grand Council and the King remove Il Duce The Fascist Grand Council voted against Benito Mussolini, and the next day King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed him and had him arrested. Marshal Pietro Badoglio became prime minister. More than twenty years of Fascist rule in Italy came to an end.
• 1943 Operation Tidal Wave US bombers raid the Ploiești oil refineries US B-24 bombers flew at low level from Libya to attack oil refineries around Ploiești in Romania. Fifty-three aircraft and 660 airmen were lost. The raid did only temporary damage to production.
• 1943 Treblinka uprising Prisoners revolt at the Treblinka extermination camp Prisoners at the Treblinka extermination camp seized weapons, set fire to the camp and tried to break out. About 200 escaped, but most were hunted down and killed. Around 70 survived the war.
• 1943 – 2026 Louis E. Brus (1943-2026) Died 11 January 2026, aged 82 American physical chemist who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and production of quantum dots.
• 1943 – 2023 Pervez Musharraf (1943-2023) Died 5 February 2023, aged 79 Pakistani general who seized power in a 1999 coup and ruled as president until 2008.
• 1943 Italian armistice announced Italy surrenders to the Allies Italy signed an armistice with the Allies at Cassibile in Sicily on 3 September, and it was announced publicly on 8 September. Germany immediately occupied northern and central Italy and disarmed the Italian army. The King and Badoglio fled Rome to Brindisi.
• 1943 Allied landings at Salerno Operation Avalanche puts Allied troops on the Italian mainland The US Fifth Army landed at Salerno, south of Naples. German counterattacks almost drove the beachhead back into the sea. The landing held, and Allied forces entered Naples on 1 October.
• 1943 Gran Sasso raid German commandos free Mussolini German glider-borne troops landed at the Campo Imperatore hotel on the Gran Sasso, where Benito Mussolini was being held. They freed him without a shot being fired. Mussolini was flown to Germany and later installed as head of a puppet state in northern Italy.
• 1943 – 1998 Sani Abacha (1943-1998) Died 8 June 1998, aged 54 Sani Abacha, the military dictator who ruled Nigeria from 1993 until his death, died suddenly on 8 June 1998, reportedly of a heart attack. His rule was marked by widespread human rights abuses and the execution of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
• 1943 Italian Social Republic established Mussolini heads a German puppet state in northern Italy Mussolini proclaimed a new Fascist state in German-occupied northern Italy, with its government based at Salò on Lake Garda. It depended entirely on German support. It lasted until the German surrender in Italy in 1945.
• 1943 Rescue of the Danish Jews Most of Denmark's Jews escape to Sweden Denmark's Jews were warned of a German round-up planned for the night of 1–2 October. Ordinary Danes hid them and ferried them across the Øresund to neutral Sweden in fishing boats. About 7,200 of roughly 7,800 Danish Jews escaped.
• 1943 Himmler's Posen speeches Himmler speaks openly of exterminating the Jews Heinrich Himmler addressed SS officers and Nazi Party leaders in Posen. In these speeches he spoke explicitly about the extermination of the Jewish people. Recordings and transcripts of the speeches later became key evidence of the Holocaust.
• 1943 Italy declares war on Germany The Badoglio government joins the Allies as a co-belligerent The Italian government under Pietro Badoglio declared war on Nazi Germany. The Allies recognised Italy as a co-belligerent, though not a full ally. Italian units then fought alongside the Allies.
• 1943 Sobibor uprising Prisoners kill SS guards and escape from Sobibor Prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp, led by Alexander Pechersky and Leon Feldhendler, killed eleven SS men and broke out. About 300 escaped, and around 50 survived the war. The Germans closed and demolished the camp soon afterwards.
• 1943 Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers The Allies agree on a future international organisation The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union met in Moscow. The resulting Moscow Declarations committed the Allies to create a general international organisation and to restore Austria's independence. They also pledged to punish German war crimes.
• 1943 Streptomycin discovered The first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis Albert Schatz, a graduate student in Selman Waksman's laboratory at Rutgers University, isolated streptomycin from soil bacteria. It was the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis. Waksman received the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the work.
• 1943 Provisional Government of Free India proclaimed Subhas Chandra Bose forms a government in exile Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore with Japanese backing. It commanded the Indian National Army. It declared war on Britain and the United States.
• 1943 – 2017 Sam Shepard (1943-2017) Died 27 July 2017, aged 73 American playwright, actor, and director who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Right Stuff. His plays, including True West and Fool for Love, reshaped American theater. He died of complications from ALS.
• 1943 Red Army liberates Kiev Soviet forces retake the Ukrainian capital Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front recaptured Kiev after crossing the Dnieper. Kiev was the third-largest city in the Soviet Union and had been under German occupation since 1941. The Germans had destroyed large parts of the city before retreating.
• 1943 – present Joni Mitchell Singer-songwriter, painter Canadian musician and painter — Both Sides, Now, Big Yellow Taxi, Blue — one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century.
• 1943 – present Michael Byrne British Character Actor English character actor whose seven-decade career encompassed the National Theatre, over 170 film and television roles, and some of cinema's most memorable villains. He played a ruthless Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the elderly dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and a rapist soldier in Braveheart. He worked alongside Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith at the National Theatre and appeared in a string of major war films including The Eagle Has Landed, A Bridge Too Far and Force 10 from Navarone.
• 1943 Battle of Tarawa US Marines take Betio atoll at heavy cost US Marines landed on Betio in the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Coral reefs stranded the landing craft, and the garrison fought almost to the last man. About 1,000 Americans and nearly all of some 4,700 defenders died in 76 hours of fighting.
• 1943 – present Billie Jean King The Pioneer Winner of 12 singles majors and advocate for gender equality; won the "Battle of the Sexes".
• 1943 Cairo Conference Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek set war aims against Japan Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss the war against Japan. The Cairo Declaration said that Japan would be stripped of territories it had seized, including Manchuria, Taiwan and Korea. It also promised that Korea would become independent in due course.
• 1943 Lebanon gains independence France releases Lebanon's imprisoned leaders Free French authorities had arrested Lebanon's president and ministers after the country amended its constitution to end the French mandate. After strikes and international pressure, the leaders were released on 22 November. The date is celebrated as Lebanon's Independence Day.
• 1943 Tehran Conference The first meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met together for the first time, in Tehran. They agreed that the Western Allies would invade northern France in May 1944. Stalin promised to join the war against Japan after Germany was defeated.
• 1943 Air raid on Bari German bombers sink ships in an Allied harbour, releasing mustard gas German aircraft attacked the crowded harbour at Bari in southern Italy and sank 28 ships. One of them, the SS John Harvey, was secretly carrying mustard gas bombs. The gas was released, and many sailors and civilians were poisoned.
• 1943 – 1971 Jim Morrison American singer, songwriter & poet James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (1943-1971) was the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, celebrated for his baritone voice, poetic lyrics and theatrical, unpredictable stage presence. Known as "The Lizard King", he became one of the defining and most controversial icons of 1960s counterculture before his death in Paris at the age of 27.
• 1943 – present Queen Silvia First Non-Noble Queen A German-Brazilian woman who has been pivotal in work for children's rights.
• 1943 – present Tarja Halonen First Female President Finlands 11th President and the first woman to hold the office (2000-2012).
• 1943 – 1999 Rick Danko (1943-1999) Died 10 December 1999, aged 55 Rick Danko was a Canadian musician and founding member of The Band, playing bass and contributing vocals on albums such as Music from Big Pink. The group was highly influential in shaping American roots rock. He died in his sleep at his home in New York.
• 1943 – 1997 John Denver (1943-1997) Died 12 October 1997, aged 53 John Denver was an American singer-songwriter known for hits including Take Me Home, Country Roads and Rocky Mountain High. He died when the experimental aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Monterey, California. He had sold tens of millions of records over his career.