| 1943-08-02
World War II: PT-109 rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.
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| 1943-07-01
Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city).
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| 1943-08-31
The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.
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| 1943-12-02
A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including an American Liberty ship, the John Harvey, with a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas.
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| 1943-09-08
World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
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| 1943-03-03
World War II: In London, England, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.
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| 1943-03-05
First flight of Gloster Meteor jet aircraft in the United Kingdom.
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| 1943-09-29
World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.
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| 1943-06-04
A military coup in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
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| 1943-11-24
World War II: The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks with nearly 650 men killed.
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| 1943-02-27
The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
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| 1943-05-17
World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.
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| 1943-04-25
The Demyansk Shield for German troops in commemoration of Demyansk Pocket is instituted.
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| 1943-10-19
Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
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| 1943-05-19
World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
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| 1943-05-31
Zoot Suit Riots begin
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| 1943-02-07
Imperial Japanese naval forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
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| 1943-11-15
Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". (see Porajmos)
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| 1943-01-11
World War II: The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
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| 1943-09-07
World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban River bridgehead (Taman Peninsula) in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea.
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| 1943-07-10
World War II: The launching of Operation Husky begins the Italian Campaign.
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| 1943-10-13
World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
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| 1943-04-08
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.
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| 1943-09-07
A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.
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| 1943-08-23
World War II: Kharkov liberated.
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| 1943-03-14
World War II – The Kraków Ghetto is 'liquidated'.
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| 1943-09-09
World War II: The Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy.
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| 1943-09-10
World War II: German forces begin their occupation of Rome.
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| 1943-11-16
World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
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| 1943-10-14
Prisoners at the Nazi German Sobibor extermination camp in Poland revolted against the Germans, killing eleven SS troops who were guards there, and wounding many more. About 300 of the Sobibor Camp's 600 prisoners escaped from this Nazi extermination camp, and about 50 of these survived past the end of World War II (on May 8, 1945, European time).
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| 1943-01-11
Italian-American Anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York
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| 1943-12-24
World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
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| 1943-05-24
Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
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| 1943-06-19
Race riots occur in Beaumont, Texas.
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| 1943-09-08
World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati is bombed by USAAF.
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| 1943-10-17
Burma Railway (Burma-Thailand Railway) is completed.
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| 1943-05-11
World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
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| 1943-02-23
A fire breaks out at St. Joseph's Orphanage, Co Cavan, Ireland, killing 36 people (35 of whom are children).
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| 1943-02-18
Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
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| 1943-01-30
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The USS Chicago (CA-29) is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
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| 1943-02-19
World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
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| 1943-08-28
World War II: in Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
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| 1943-12-26
World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
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| 1943-05-14
A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.
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| 1943-11-06
World War II: the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, the Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings.
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| 1943-07-05
World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).
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| 1943-07-05
Beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle at Prokhorovka village.
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| 1943-05-16
Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
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| 1943-03-01
World War II: Battle of Bismarck Sea begins.
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| 1943-10-01
World War II: Naples falls to Allied soldiers.
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| 1943-02-27
The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.
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| 1943-07-14
In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.
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| 1943-07-25
World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
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| 1943-09-18
World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.
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| 1943-08-12
Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
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| 1943-05-17
The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
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| 1943-02-20
The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
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| 1943-02-18
The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
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| 1943-05-13
World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
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| 1943-09-23
World War II: The so-called Salò Republic is born.
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| 1943-09-17
World War II: The Russian city of Bryansk is liberated from Nazis.
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| 1943-12-05
World War II: U.S. Army Air Force begins attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow .
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| 1943-04-07
Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka where they are shot dead and buried in ditches.
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| 1943-11-01
World War II: In support of the landings on Bougainville, U.S. aircraft carrier forces attack the huge Japanese base at Rabaul.
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| 1943-11-03
World War II: 500 aircraft of the U.S. 8th Air Force devastate Wilhelmshafen harbor in Germany.
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| 1943-10-31
World War II: An F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception.
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| 1943-05-15
Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International).
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| 1943-09-13
Chiang Kai-shek elected president of the Republic of China.
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| 1943-02-09
World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
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| 1943-03-27
World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands – In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
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| 1943-11-23
World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
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| 1943-07-28
World War II: Operation Gomorrah: The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
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| 1943-12-04
World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States.
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| 1943-10-04
World War II: U.S. captures Solomon Islands.
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| 1943-04-13
James Boarman, Fred Hunter, Harold Brest and Floyd G. Hamilton take part in an attempt to escape from Alcatraz .
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| 1943-11-22
Lebanon gains independence from France.
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| 1943-09-18
World War II: The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.
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| 1943-11-25
World War II: Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina is re-established at the State Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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| 1943-10-22
World War II: in the Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless.
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| 1943-08-02
Rebellion in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka.
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| 1943-09-13
The Municipal Theatre of Corfu is destroyed during an aerial bombardment by Luftwaffe.
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| 1943-12-13
World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying forces in Greece.
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| 1943-01-31
German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of World War II's fiercest battles.
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| 1943-02-20
American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
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| 1943-06-01
British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
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| 1943-07-22
World War II: Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.
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| 1943-03-04
World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.
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| 1943-08-17
The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.
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| 1943-02-16
World War II: Soviet troops re-enter Kharkov.
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| 1943-10-26
World War II: First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil".
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| 1943-09-12
World War II: Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny.
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| 1943-08-17
World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
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| 1943-01-24
World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
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| 1943-02-14
World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
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| 1943-11-28
World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran to discuss war strategy.
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| 1943-11-19
Holocaust: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine, murdering at least 6,000 Jews after a failed uprising and mass escape attempt.
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| 1943-04-13
World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, alienating the Western Allies, the Polish government in exile in London, from the Soviet Union.
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| 1943-01-15
The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
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| 1943-03-13
The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków. Hans Finke arrives in Auschwitz with 963 other prisoners. 473 are put to death in the gas chambers. 491 are assigned to slave labor.
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| 1943-11-29
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.
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| 1943-01-29
The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, U.S. cruiser Chicago is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
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| 1943-12-30
Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
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| 1943-02-02
World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces.
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| 1943-04-13
The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
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| 1943-02-22
World War II: Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
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| 1943-12-04
World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
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| 1943-01-27
World War II: The VIII Bomber Command dispatched ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-Boat construction yards at Wilhemshafen, Germany. The first American bombing attack on Germany.
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| 1943-07-09
World War II: Operation Husky – Allied forces perform an amphibious invasion of Sicily.
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| 1943-04-30
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.
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| 1943-04-18
World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
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| 1943-11-20
World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins – United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.
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| 1943-11-22
World War II: War in the Pacific – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan (see Cairo Conference)
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| 1943-11-01
World War II: Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, United States Marines, the 3rd Marine Division, land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
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| 1943-03-13
World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
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| 1943-01-18
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
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| 1943-09-05
World War II: The 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.
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| 1943-08-29
German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy;Germany dissolves the Danish government.
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| 1943-07-12
World War II: Battle of Prokhorovka – German and Soviet forces engage in the largest tank engagement of all time.
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| 1943-10-14
The American Eighth Air Force loses 60 B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in aerial combat during the second mass-daylight air raid on the Schweinfurt ball-bearing factories in western Nazi Germany.
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| 1943-06-12
Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Berezhany, western Ukraine. 1,180 Jews are led to the city's old Jewish graveyard and shot.
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| 1943-02-11
World War II: General Dwight Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
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| 1943-04-19
World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
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| 1943-01-23
World War II: Troops of Montgomery's 8th Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.
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| 1943-07-24
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.
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| 1943-02-20
The Parícutin volcano begins to form in Parícutin, Mexico.
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| 1943-03-22
World War II: the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by German occupation forces.
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| 1943-10-10
Double Tenth Incident in Japanese controlled Singapore
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| 1943-01-23
World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign ends.
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| 1943-07-11
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia.
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| 1943-07-11
World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily – German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
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| 1943-01-23
World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
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| 1943-11-18
World War II: Battle of Berlin: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses nine aircraft and 53 air crew.
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| 1943-03-15
World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov – the Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
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| 1943-01-15
World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.
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| 1943-01-23
Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
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| 1943-08-17
World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives 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.
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| 1943-09-06
The Monterrey Institute of Technology, one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America, is founded in Monterrey, Mexico.
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| 1943-04-19
Bicycle Day – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.
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| 1943-03-02
World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
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| 1943-11-23
World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces.
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| 1943-03-19
Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
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| 1943-02-14
World War II: Tunisia Campaign – General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
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| 1943-12-28
World War II – After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.
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| 1943-08-27
Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
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| 1943-06-23
World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
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| 1943-04-16
Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD.
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