Timeline April 1943

Events in April 1943 13

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Jews resist Nazi deportations Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against Nazi deportations on April 19, 1943. The uprising lasted nearly a month before being crushed. It was the largest Jewish armed resistance of the Holocaust.
• 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.