January
Main article: January 1943
January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
January 4 – Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California, is succeeded by Earl Warren.
January 11 – The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
January 13 – 36 people are executed and 200 arrested in anti-Nazi protests in Sofia.
January 15
WWII: Guadalcanal Campaign – Operation Ke: Japanese forces begin to withdraw from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
January 16 – Iraq declares war on the Axis powers.
January 18
WWII: Soviet officials announce that the Red Army has broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad as part of Operation Iskra, opening a narrow land corridor to the city. Georgy Zhukov is promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.
The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.
January 22
WWII: Battle of Buna–Gona ends with American and Australian forces securing control of the territory of Papua.
Holocaust: Over 4,000 Jews are detained in Nazi-occupied Marseille as part of "Action Tiger" before being transported to extermination camps in Poland.
January 23
WWII: British forces capture Tripoli from the Italians.
Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
American critic and commentator Alexander Woollcott suffers an eventually fatal heart attack during a regular broadcast of the CBS Radio round-table program People's Platform.
January 27 – WWII: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany: Wilhelmshaven is the target.
January 29
Nazi German police arrest alleged necrophiliac and serial killer Bruno Lüdke.
United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) created.
January 29–30 – WWII: Battle of Rennell Island – The Imperial Japanese Navy resists the United States Navy's attempt to interrupt the withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal in the last major naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign.
January 29–31 – WWII: Battle of Wau – Australian forces with United States support resist a Japanese advance in the New Guinea campaign.
February
Main article: February 1943
February 2 – WWII: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army.
February 3 – WWII: The Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are among those drowned when their ship, United States Army Transport Dorchester, is struck by a German torpedo in the North Atlantic.
February 5 – Lt. General Frank M. Andrews is selected to command the U.S. armies in Europe, while General Dwight D. Eisenhower is assigned command in North Africa; General Andrews will serve only three months before dying in an airplane crash.
February 7 – WWII:
North Atlantic convoy SC 118 is attacked by U-boats sinking eight ships.[1]
In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in 2 days.
February 9 – WWII:
Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomon Islands ends with United States forces in command of Guadalcanal, the evacuation of Japanese forces in Operation Ke having been completed two days earlier.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army begin with the Parośla I massacre within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.
February 10–March 3 – Mohandas Gandhi (under arrest by forces of the British Raj in Pune as a member of the Quit India Movement) keeps a hunger strike to protest at his imprisonment.
February 14 – WWII: Rostov-on-Don in Russia is liberated.
February 14–17 – WWII: Battle of Sidi Bou Zid: In the Tunisia Campaign, German Panzer divisions commanded by Hans-Jürgen von Arnim are victorious over the United States Army.
February 16 – WWII: The Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov.
February 18
In a Sportpalast speech in Berlin, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declares a "total war" against the Allies, tacitly admitting that Nazi Germany faces serious dangers.
The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose German Resistance movement.
February 19–25 – WWII: Battle of Kasserine Pass: German General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps and other Axis forces launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war. On February 22 an Anglo-American force halts the German advance near Thala, forcing the Germans to retreat, US bombers harass the retreating Panzers.
February 20
American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
The Parícutin volcano begins to appear in a cornfield in Mexico.[2][3][4]
February 21 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy ON 166 is attacked by U-boats sinking eleven ships.[5]
February 22 – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
February 23–24 – Cavan Orphanage Fire: 35 girls and a cook from St Joseph's Orphanage, an industrial school at Cavan, Ireland are killed in a fire in their dormitories. A subsequent inquiry absolves the Poor Clares of blame.
February 27 – Smith Mine disaster: an explosion at Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, United States kills 74 coal miners.
February 28 – Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant at Vemork.
March
Main article: March 1943
A low level attack on a Japanese ship during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
Jewish prisoners being deported from the Kraków Ghetto
March – Publication in New York of exiled French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's self-illustrated children's novella The Little Prince, the all-time best-selling book originated in French.
March–December – History of computing hardware: Construction of British prototype Mark I Colossus computer, the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device, to assist in cryptanalysis of German signals at Bletchley Park.[6]
March 1 – Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.
March 1 –2 – WWII: Koriukivka massacre – Mass murder of the inhabitants of Koriukivka in the Ukraine by German SS troops.
March 2 – WWII: 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, London.
March 4 – The 15th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles. Mrs. Miniver wins the Best Picture award.
March 5 – The Gloster Meteor, the first operational military jet aircraft for the Allies, has its first test flight, in England.
March 6 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 121 is attacked by U-boats sinking seven ships.[7]
March 9 – Şükrü Saracoğlu forms the new government of Turkey (14th government; Şükrü Saracoğlu had served twice as a prime minister).
March 10 – Banco Bradesco is founded in Marília, São Paulo, Brazil.
March 13 – Holocaust: Nazi German forces liquidate the Jews of the Kraków Ghetto in Occupied Poland.
March 14 – WWII: British submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.[8][9]
March 15 – WWII
The Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci sinks the Canadian Pacific liner RMS Empress of Canada off Sierra Leone. Nearly half of the 392 fatalities are Italian prisoners of war.
German forces recapture Kharkov after four days of house-to-house fighting against Soviet troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkov.
March 16–19 – WWII: 22 ships from Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.
March 17 (Saint Patrick's Day) – Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes the speech "The Ireland That We Dreamed Of", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech, in Dublin Castle.
March 22 – WWII: Khatyn massacre – The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by the German occupation forces.
March 23 – The drugs Vicodin and Lortab are first produced in Germany.
March 26 – WWII – Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands, the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
March 27 – WWII – British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.
March 28 – In Italy a ship full of weapons and ammunition explodes in the port of Naples, killing 600.
March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway, heralds a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time (1948).
April
Main article: April 1943
April 3 – Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after being adrift for 130 days.
April 13 – WWII: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
April 16 – Albert Hofmann self-administers the hallucinogenic drug LSD (which he first synthesized in 1938) for the first time in history, and records the details of his experience (April 22).
April 19 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins when Nazi troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up remaining Jews.
April 21 – WWII: Worst bombing of Aberdeen, Scotland, killing 125 people.[10]
April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (last time 1886; next time 2038) in the Western Christian Church.
April 26 – The Easter Riots in Uppsala, Sweden.
April 27 – The U.S. Federal Writers' Project ceases operation.
May
Main article: May 1943
This photograph, from the Stroop Report, shows captured fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The Möhne Dam breached following Operation Chastise, carried out by the "Dambusters" of the RAF.
May 6 – WWII: Six U-boats are sunk after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5 in the last major North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.
May 9–12 – Japanese troops carry out the Changjiao massacre in Changjiao, Hunan, China.
May 11 – WWII: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands, in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
May 12 – The Trident Conference begins in Washington, D.C., with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill taking part.
May 13 – WWII: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
May 14
The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur is sunk off the coast of Queensland by Japanese submarine I-177, killing 268 of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard.
358th Bombardment Squadron, 303d Bombardment Group B-17F Hell's Angels is the first USAAF bomber to complete 25 missions.
May 15 – The Comintern is dissolved in Moscow.
May 16–17 – WWII: Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: No. 617 Squadron RAF use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.
May 16 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
May 17 – WWII:
The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the computer ENIAC.
The Memphis Belle's crew becomes the first aircrew in the 8th Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. The aircraft and crew are the first to return to the U.S. intact for a War Bond drive.
May 19 – Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the United States Congress.
May 29 – Norman Rockwell's illustration of Rosie the Riveter first appears on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
May 30 – Holocaust: Dr. Josef Mengele begins his service as a medical officer in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
June
Main article: June 1943
June 1 – BOAC Flight 777, a DC-3 with registration G-AGBB (formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), on a scheduled passenger flight, is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by eight German Junkers Ju 88s; all 17 persons aboard perish, including the actor Leslie Howard. There is speculation that the downing was an attempt to kill the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, as the Germans may have had wrong information he was aboard.
June 3 – The Zoot Suit Riots erupt between military personnel and Mexican American youths in East Los Angeles.[11]
June 4 – A military coup d'état in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
June 8 – WWII: Japanese battleship Mutsu is destroyed by an accidental magazine explosion in Hashirajima anchorage
June 20 – Race riots in Detroit: killed 34 people — 25 African Americans, nine whites — wounded hundreds more and damaged and destroyed property worth millions.
June 21 – WWII: British saboteurs blow up the strategically significant railway viaduct at Asopos in Greece.
June 22 – WWII: The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division lands in North Africa, prior to training at Arzew, French Morocco.
June 30 – United States Civilian Conservation Corps abolished.
June (late) – Holocaust: The last trainload of Jewish prisoners is moved from Bełżec extermination camp in Occupied Poland (for gassing at Sobibór) and for the remainder of the year the Nazis make efforts to obliterate the site.[12][13]
[14]
July
The U.S. Liberty ship SS Robert Rowan explodes during the Allied invasion of Sicily, July 11, 1943.
File:Bombing of Hamburg.oggPlay media
The bombing of Hamburg during 1943.
Main article: July 1943
July 1 – United States Women's Army Corps (WAC) converted to full status.
July 4 – 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash: The aircraft carrying General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashes, killing him and fifteen others, leading to a lasting controversy over the circumstances.
July 5 – WWII:
Battle of Kursk – The largest tank battle in history begins.
A fleet sets sail for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Conclusion of the National Bands Agreement in Greece.
July 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
July 10 (0245 GMT (4:45 am local time)) – WWII – Allied invasion of Sicily: The Allied invasion of Axis-controlled Europe begins with landings on the island of Sicily off mainland Italy by the Seventh United States Army and the British Eighth Army including the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.
July 11 – WWII:
United States Army forces make an assault on Piano Lupo, just outside Gela, Sicily.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
July 12 – WWII: Main engagement of the Battle of Prokhorovka – The Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight to a draw in one of the largest tank battles in military history.
July 19 – WWII: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
July 24 – WWII: Operation Gomorrha begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night; the American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 42,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
Mussolini
July 25 – Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Prime Minister of Italy since 1925, is arrested after the Grand Council of Fascism withdraws its support. "Il Duce" is replaced by General Pietro Badoglio.
August
B-24d's fly over Ploieşti during Operation Tidal Wave.
Mackenzie King, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the 1943 Quebec Conference.
Main article: August 1943
August 1 – Operation Tidal Wave: 177 B-24 Liberator bombers from the U.S. Army Air Force bomb oil refineries at Ploiești, Romania.
August 2 – WWII: John F. Kennedy's Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by a destroyer.
August 4 – WWII: The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11) is launched at Newport News, Virginia.
August 5 – WWII:
United States Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) formed, consolidating the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WFTD).
John F. Kennedy and crew are found by Solomon Islands coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana with their dugout canoe.
August 6 – WWII – Battle of Vella Gulf: Americans defeat a Japanese convoy off Kolombangara, as the U.S. Army drives the Japanese out of Munda airfield on New Georgia.
August 14 – WWII: Rome is declared an open city by the Italian government, with Italy offering to demilitarize the capital in return for an Allied agreement not to bomb the city further.[15]
August 14 – The Quadrant Conference begins in Quebec City; Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
August 17 – WWII:
The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton meets the British 8th Army under General Montgomery in Messina, Sicily, completing the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Operation Hydra: The British Royal Air Force sets out to bomb the Peenemünde Army Research Center to disrupt the German V-weapons programme.
August 23 – WWII: The Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces.
August 24 – WWII: – Heinrich Himmler is named Reichminister of the Interior in Germany .
August 26 – WWII: Lord Mountbatten named Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia.
August 28 – WWII: King Boris III of Bulgaria dies under suspicious circumstances; his 6-year-old son, Simeon II (who would be elected in 2001 as Prime Minister under the name Simeon Sakskoburggotski), ascends to the throne.
August 29 – WWII: Occupation of Denmark – Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
September
Main article: September 1943
September 3 – WWII: Allied invasion of Italy: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under General Sir Bernard Montgomery, for the first time in the war.
September 5 – WWII: The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae in northeastern Papua New Guinea.
September 7 – Gulf Hotel fire: A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas kills 55.
September 8 –
WWII: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
WWII: Frascati bombing raid: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone.
The first classes commence at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska.
September 9 – Bertolt Brecht's play Life of Galileo (German: Leben des Galilei) receives its first theatrical production at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
September 12 – WWII: Gran Sasso raid – German paratroopers rescue Mussolini from imprisonment, in Unternehmen Eiche ("Operation Oak").
September 16 – WWII: The Salerno Mutiny occurs when soldiers of the British Army's X Corps refuse postings to new units.
September 17 – WWII: Villefranche-de-Rouergue Mutiny – a group of pro-Partisan soldiers led by Ferid Džanić and others within the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) training in Occupied France rise against Nazi German troops in the Division; the revolt is rapidly suppressed.
September 23 – WWII: The Italian Social Republic ("Republic of Salò") is founded in northern Italy as a puppet state of Nazi Germany.
September 27 – WWII: Four days of Naples begins: a popular uprising drives German occupying forces from the city.
October
Main article: October 1943
October 1 – WWII: United States forces enter liberated Naples.
October 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Vella Lavella.
October 7 – WWII: The Naples post office explosion kills 100.
October 10 – The Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky is instituted in the Soviet Union.
October 13 – WWII: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
October 14
WWII: During the Second Raid on Schweinfurt, the United States VIII Bomber Command suffers so many losses that it loses air supremacy over Germany for several months.
Holocaust: Uprising in Sobibór extermination camp; about half the inmates escape. Three days later, the camp is closed.
José P. Laurel takes the oath of office as President of the Philippines (Second Philippine Republic).
October 17 – WWII: The last commerce raider hilfskreuzer Michel, is sunk off Japan by United States submarine Tarpon.[16]
October 18 – Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as Chairman of the National Government of China.
October 21 – Lucie Aubrac and others in her French Resistance cell liberate Raymond Aubrac from Gestapo imprisonment.
October 22 – WWII: The British Royal Air Force delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel.
October 24 – WWII: British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Eclipse (H08) is sunk by a mine in the Aegean Sea with the loss of 119 of the ship's company and 134 troops.[17]
October 28 – Alleged date of the Philadelphia Experiment, in which the destroyer escort USS Eldridge (DE-173) was supposed to be rendered invisible to human observers for a brief period.
October 30
WWII: Moscow Declaration.
The Merrie Melodies animated cartoon Falling Hare, one of the only shorts with Bugs Bunny getting out-smarted, is released in the United States.
November
Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Cairo Conference, 25 November 1943.
The first Lebanese flag hand drawn and signed by the deputies of the Lebanese parliament, November 11, 1943. The French Mandate ends and Lebanon gains independence in November 1943.
Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill on the verandah of the Soviet Embassy in Tehran during the Tehran Conference
November 1 – WWII: Operation Goodtime: United States Marines land on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands.
November 2 – WWII: In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville Island.
November 2 – WWII: British troops in Italy reach the Garigliano River.
November 9 – Agreement
for foundation of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration signed by 44 countries in the White House, Washington, D.C.
November 10 – Execution of the Lübeck martyrs, four men of religion, for supposedly treasonable views.
November 14 – Leonard Bernstein, substituting at the last minute for ailing principal conductor Bruno Walter, directs the New York Philharmonic in its regular Sunday afternoon broadcast concert over CBS Radio. The event receives front-page coverage in The New York Times the following day.
November 15 – Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
November 16
WWII: After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
WWII: A Japanese submarine sinks the surfaced U.S. submarine USS Corvina near Chuuk Lagoon (Truk).
November 18 – WWII: Battle of Berlin – The British Royal Air Force opens its bombing campaign against Berlin with 440 planes causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators.
November 19 – Holocaust: Inmates of Janowska concentration camp near Lwów (at this time in German-occupied Poland), stage a failed uprising, after which the SS liquidates the camp, resulting in at least 6,000 deaths.
November 20 – WWII: Battle of Tarawa: United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati from 1979) and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.
November 22 –26 – WWII: Cairo Conference ("Sextant") – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Chairman of the National Government of China Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo in Egypt to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the Pacific War.
November 22 – Lebanon gains independence on ending of the French Mandate.
November 23 – The Deutsches Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg is destroyed in an air raid (It is reopened in 1961 as the Deutsche Oper Berlin).
November 25 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape St. George between Buka and New Ireland.
November 28 – WWII – Tehran Conference: U.S. 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 establish an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord.
November 29 – The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to determine the post-war ordering of the country.
December
December 2 – WWII: Bari chemical warfare disaster: A surprise Luftwaffe air raid on Bari in Italy sinks 28 Allied ships in the harbor, including the American Liberty ship SS John Harvey, releasing its secret cargo of mustard gas bombs, inflating the number of casualties.[18]
December 3
In reprisal for an act of sabotage, the SS and Gestapo execute 100 Warsaw Tramway workers.[19]
Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio, describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin.
December 4
WWII: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government-in-exile.
The Great Depression officially ends in the United States: With unemployment figures falling fast due to WWII-related employment, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration
December 4 – WWII: Bolivia declares war on Romania and Hungary.
December 7 – Chiara Lubich starts the humanitarian Focolare Movement in Trento, Italy.
December 13 – WWII: Massacre of Kalavryta: The occupying 117th Jäger Division (Wehrmacht) machine-gun all adult males from Kalavryta in Greece, subsequently burning the town.
December 20 – A military coup is staged in Bolivia.
December 24 – WWII: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He establishes Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in London.
December 30 – Subhas Chandra Bose sets up a pro-Japanese Indian government at Port Blair, India.
Main article: January 1943
January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
January 4 – Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California, is succeeded by Earl Warren.
January 11 – The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
January 13 – 36 people are executed and 200 arrested in anti-Nazi protests in Sofia.
January 15
WWII: Guadalcanal Campaign – Operation Ke: Japanese forces begin to withdraw from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
January 16 – Iraq declares war on the Axis powers.
January 18
WWII: Soviet officials announce that the Red Army has broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad as part of Operation Iskra, opening a narrow land corridor to the city. Georgy Zhukov is promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.
The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.
January 22
WWII: Battle of Buna–Gona ends with American and Australian forces securing control of the territory of Papua.
Holocaust: Over 4,000 Jews are detained in Nazi-occupied Marseille as part of "Action Tiger" before being transported to extermination camps in Poland.
January 23
WWII: British forces capture Tripoli from the Italians.
Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
American critic and commentator Alexander Woollcott suffers an eventually fatal heart attack during a regular broadcast of the CBS Radio round-table program People's Platform.
January 27 – WWII: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany: Wilhelmshaven is the target.
January 29
Nazi German police arrest alleged necrophiliac and serial killer Bruno Lüdke.
United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) created.
January 29–30 – WWII: Battle of Rennell Island – The Imperial Japanese Navy resists the United States Navy's attempt to interrupt the withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal in the last major naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign.
January 29–31 – WWII: Battle of Wau – Australian forces with United States support resist a Japanese advance in the New Guinea campaign.
February
Main article: February 1943
February 2 – WWII: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army.
February 3 – WWII: The Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are among those drowned when their ship, United States Army Transport Dorchester, is struck by a German torpedo in the North Atlantic.
February 5 – Lt. General Frank M. Andrews is selected to command the U.S. armies in Europe, while General Dwight D. Eisenhower is assigned command in North Africa; General Andrews will serve only three months before dying in an airplane crash.
February 7 – WWII:
North Atlantic convoy SC 118 is attacked by U-boats sinking eight ships.[1]
In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in 2 days.
February 9 – WWII:
Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomon Islands ends with United States forces in command of Guadalcanal, the evacuation of Japanese forces in Operation Ke having been completed two days earlier.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army begin with the Parośla I massacre within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.
February 10–March 3 – Mohandas Gandhi (under arrest by forces of the British Raj in Pune as a member of the Quit India Movement) keeps a hunger strike to protest at his imprisonment.
February 14 – WWII: Rostov-on-Don in Russia is liberated.
February 14–17 – WWII: Battle of Sidi Bou Zid: In the Tunisia Campaign, German Panzer divisions commanded by Hans-Jürgen von Arnim are victorious over the United States Army.
February 16 – WWII: The Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov.
February 18
In a Sportpalast speech in Berlin, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declares a "total war" against the Allies, tacitly admitting that Nazi Germany faces serious dangers.
The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose German Resistance movement.
February 19–25 – WWII: Battle of Kasserine Pass: German General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps and other Axis forces launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war. On February 22 an Anglo-American force halts the German advance near Thala, forcing the Germans to retreat, US bombers harass the retreating Panzers.
February 20
American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
The Parícutin volcano begins to appear in a cornfield in Mexico.[2][3][4]
February 21 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy ON 166 is attacked by U-boats sinking eleven ships.[5]
February 22 – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
February 23–24 – Cavan Orphanage Fire: 35 girls and a cook from St Joseph's Orphanage, an industrial school at Cavan, Ireland are killed in a fire in their dormitories. A subsequent inquiry absolves the Poor Clares of blame.
February 27 – Smith Mine disaster: an explosion at Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, United States kills 74 coal miners.
February 28 – Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant at Vemork.
March
Main article: March 1943
A low level attack on a Japanese ship during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
Jewish prisoners being deported from the Kraków Ghetto
March – Publication in New York of exiled French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's self-illustrated children's novella The Little Prince, the all-time best-selling book originated in French.
March–December – History of computing hardware: Construction of British prototype Mark I Colossus computer, the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device, to assist in cryptanalysis of German signals at Bletchley Park.[6]
March 1 – Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.
March 1 –2 – WWII: Koriukivka massacre – Mass murder of the inhabitants of Koriukivka in the Ukraine by German SS troops.
March 2 – WWII: 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, London.
March 4 – The 15th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles. Mrs. Miniver wins the Best Picture award.
March 5 – The Gloster Meteor, the first operational military jet aircraft for the Allies, has its first test flight, in England.
March 6 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 121 is attacked by U-boats sinking seven ships.[7]
March 9 – Şükrü Saracoğlu forms the new government of Turkey (14th government; Şükrü Saracoğlu had served twice as a prime minister).
March 10 – Banco Bradesco is founded in Marília, São Paulo, Brazil.
March 13 – Holocaust: Nazi German forces liquidate the Jews of the Kraków Ghetto in Occupied Poland.
March 14 – WWII: British submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.[8][9]
March 15 – WWII
The Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci sinks the Canadian Pacific liner RMS Empress of Canada off Sierra Leone. Nearly half of the 392 fatalities are Italian prisoners of war.
German forces recapture Kharkov after four days of house-to-house fighting against Soviet troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkov.
March 16–19 – WWII: 22 ships from Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.
March 17 (Saint Patrick's Day) – Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes the speech "The Ireland That We Dreamed Of", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech, in Dublin Castle.
March 22 – WWII: Khatyn massacre – The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by the German occupation forces.
March 23 – The drugs Vicodin and Lortab are first produced in Germany.
March 26 – WWII – Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands, the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
March 27 – WWII – British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.
March 28 – In Italy a ship full of weapons and ammunition explodes in the port of Naples, killing 600.
March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway, heralds a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time (1948).
April
Main article: April 1943
April 3 – Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after being adrift for 130 days.
April 13 – WWII: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
April 16 – Albert Hofmann self-administers the hallucinogenic drug LSD (which he first synthesized in 1938) for the first time in history, and records the details of his experience (April 22).
April 19 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins when Nazi troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up remaining Jews.
April 21 – WWII: Worst bombing of Aberdeen, Scotland, killing 125 people.[10]
April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (last time 1886; next time 2038) in the Western Christian Church.
April 26 – The Easter Riots in Uppsala, Sweden.
April 27 – The U.S. Federal Writers' Project ceases operation.
May
Main article: May 1943
This photograph, from the Stroop Report, shows captured fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The Möhne Dam breached following Operation Chastise, carried out by the "Dambusters" of the RAF.
May 6 – WWII: Six U-boats are sunk after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5 in the last major North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.
May 9–12 – Japanese troops carry out the Changjiao massacre in Changjiao, Hunan, China.
May 11 – WWII: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands, in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
May 12 – The Trident Conference begins in Washington, D.C., with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill taking part.
May 13 – WWII: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
May 14
The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur is sunk off the coast of Queensland by Japanese submarine I-177, killing 268 of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard.
358th Bombardment Squadron, 303d Bombardment Group B-17F Hell's Angels is the first USAAF bomber to complete 25 missions.
May 15 – The Comintern is dissolved in Moscow.
May 16–17 – WWII: Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: No. 617 Squadron RAF use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.
May 16 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
May 17 – WWII:
The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the computer ENIAC.
The Memphis Belle's crew becomes the first aircrew in the 8th Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. The aircraft and crew are the first to return to the U.S. intact for a War Bond drive.
May 19 – Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the United States Congress.
May 29 – Norman Rockwell's illustration of Rosie the Riveter first appears on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
May 30 – Holocaust: Dr. Josef Mengele begins his service as a medical officer in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
June
Main article: June 1943
June 1 – BOAC Flight 777, a DC-3 with registration G-AGBB (formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), on a scheduled passenger flight, is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by eight German Junkers Ju 88s; all 17 persons aboard perish, including the actor Leslie Howard. There is speculation that the downing was an attempt to kill the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, as the Germans may have had wrong information he was aboard.
June 3 – The Zoot Suit Riots erupt between military personnel and Mexican American youths in East Los Angeles.[11]
June 4 – A military coup d'état in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
June 8 – WWII: Japanese battleship Mutsu is destroyed by an accidental magazine explosion in Hashirajima anchorage
June 20 – Race riots in Detroit: killed 34 people — 25 African Americans, nine whites — wounded hundreds more and damaged and destroyed property worth millions.
June 21 – WWII: British saboteurs blow up the strategically significant railway viaduct at Asopos in Greece.
June 22 – WWII: The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division lands in North Africa, prior to training at Arzew, French Morocco.
June 30 – United States Civilian Conservation Corps abolished.
June (late) – Holocaust: The last trainload of Jewish prisoners is moved from Bełżec extermination camp in Occupied Poland (for gassing at Sobibór) and for the remainder of the year the Nazis make efforts to obliterate the site.[12][13]
[14]
July
The U.S. Liberty ship SS Robert Rowan explodes during the Allied invasion of Sicily, July 11, 1943.
File:Bombing of Hamburg.oggPlay media
The bombing of Hamburg during 1943.
Main article: July 1943
July 1 – United States Women's Army Corps (WAC) converted to full status.
July 4 – 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash: The aircraft carrying General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashes, killing him and fifteen others, leading to a lasting controversy over the circumstances.
July 5 – WWII:
Battle of Kursk – The largest tank battle in history begins.
A fleet sets sail for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Conclusion of the National Bands Agreement in Greece.
July 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
July 10 (0245 GMT (4:45 am local time)) – WWII – Allied invasion of Sicily: The Allied invasion of Axis-controlled Europe begins with landings on the island of Sicily off mainland Italy by the Seventh United States Army and the British Eighth Army including the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.
July 11 – WWII:
United States Army forces make an assault on Piano Lupo, just outside Gela, Sicily.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
July 12 – WWII: Main engagement of the Battle of Prokhorovka – The Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight to a draw in one of the largest tank battles in military history.
July 19 – WWII: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
July 24 – WWII: Operation Gomorrha begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night; the American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 42,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
Mussolini
July 25 – Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Prime Minister of Italy since 1925, is arrested after the Grand Council of Fascism withdraws its support. "Il Duce" is replaced by General Pietro Badoglio.
August
B-24d's fly over Ploieşti during Operation Tidal Wave.
Mackenzie King, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the 1943 Quebec Conference.
Main article: August 1943
August 1 – Operation Tidal Wave: 177 B-24 Liberator bombers from the U.S. Army Air Force bomb oil refineries at Ploiești, Romania.
August 2 – WWII: John F. Kennedy's Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by a destroyer.
August 4 – WWII: The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11) is launched at Newport News, Virginia.
August 5 – WWII:
United States Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) formed, consolidating the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WFTD).
John F. Kennedy and crew are found by Solomon Islands coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana with their dugout canoe.
August 6 – WWII – Battle of Vella Gulf: Americans defeat a Japanese convoy off Kolombangara, as the U.S. Army drives the Japanese out of Munda airfield on New Georgia.
August 14 – WWII: Rome is declared an open city by the Italian government, with Italy offering to demilitarize the capital in return for an Allied agreement not to bomb the city further.[15]
August 14 – The Quadrant Conference begins in Quebec City; Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
August 17 – WWII:
The US 7th Army under General George S. Patton meets the British 8th Army under General Montgomery in Messina, Sicily, completing the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Operation Hydra: The British Royal Air Force sets out to bomb the Peenemünde Army Research Center to disrupt the German V-weapons programme.
August 23 – WWII: The Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces.
August 24 – WWII: – Heinrich Himmler is named Reichminister of the Interior in Germany .
August 26 – WWII: Lord Mountbatten named Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia.
August 28 – WWII: King Boris III of Bulgaria dies under suspicious circumstances; his 6-year-old son, Simeon II (who would be elected in 2001 as Prime Minister under the name Simeon Sakskoburggotski), ascends to the throne.
August 29 – WWII: Occupation of Denmark – Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
September
Main article: September 1943
September 3 – WWII: Allied invasion of Italy: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under General Sir Bernard Montgomery, for the first time in the war.
September 5 – WWII: The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae in northeastern Papua New Guinea.
September 7 – Gulf Hotel fire: A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas kills 55.
September 8 –
WWII: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
WWII: Frascati bombing raid: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone.
The first classes commence at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska.
September 9 – Bertolt Brecht's play Life of Galileo (German: Leben des Galilei) receives its first theatrical production at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
September 12 – WWII: Gran Sasso raid – German paratroopers rescue Mussolini from imprisonment, in Unternehmen Eiche ("Operation Oak").
September 16 – WWII: The Salerno Mutiny occurs when soldiers of the British Army's X Corps refuse postings to new units.
September 17 – WWII: Villefranche-de-Rouergue Mutiny – a group of pro-Partisan soldiers led by Ferid Džanić and others within the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) training in Occupied France rise against Nazi German troops in the Division; the revolt is rapidly suppressed.
September 23 – WWII: The Italian Social Republic ("Republic of Salò") is founded in northern Italy as a puppet state of Nazi Germany.
September 27 – WWII: Four days of Naples begins: a popular uprising drives German occupying forces from the city.
October
Main article: October 1943
October 1 – WWII: United States forces enter liberated Naples.
October 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Vella Lavella.
October 7 – WWII: The Naples post office explosion kills 100.
October 10 – The Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky is instituted in the Soviet Union.
October 13 – WWII: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
October 14
WWII: During the Second Raid on Schweinfurt, the United States VIII Bomber Command suffers so many losses that it loses air supremacy over Germany for several months.
Holocaust: Uprising in Sobibór extermination camp; about half the inmates escape. Three days later, the camp is closed.
José P. Laurel takes the oath of office as President of the Philippines (Second Philippine Republic).
October 17 – WWII: The last commerce raider hilfskreuzer Michel, is sunk off Japan by United States submarine Tarpon.[16]
October 18 – Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as Chairman of the National Government of China.
October 21 – Lucie Aubrac and others in her French Resistance cell liberate Raymond Aubrac from Gestapo imprisonment.
October 22 – WWII: The British Royal Air Force delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel.
October 24 – WWII: British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Eclipse (H08) is sunk by a mine in the Aegean Sea with the loss of 119 of the ship's company and 134 troops.[17]
October 28 – Alleged date of the Philadelphia Experiment, in which the destroyer escort USS Eldridge (DE-173) was supposed to be rendered invisible to human observers for a brief period.
October 30
WWII: Moscow Declaration.
The Merrie Melodies animated cartoon Falling Hare, one of the only shorts with Bugs Bunny getting out-smarted, is released in the United States.
November
Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Cairo Conference, 25 November 1943.
The first Lebanese flag hand drawn and signed by the deputies of the Lebanese parliament, November 11, 1943. The French Mandate ends and Lebanon gains independence in November 1943.
Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill on the verandah of the Soviet Embassy in Tehran during the Tehran Conference
November 1 – WWII: Operation Goodtime: United States Marines land on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands.
November 2 – WWII: In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville Island.
November 2 – WWII: British troops in Italy reach the Garigliano River.
November 9 – Agreement
for foundation of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration signed by 44 countries in the White House, Washington, D.C.
November 10 – Execution of the Lübeck martyrs, four men of religion, for supposedly treasonable views.
November 14 – Leonard Bernstein, substituting at the last minute for ailing principal conductor Bruno Walter, directs the New York Philharmonic in its regular Sunday afternoon broadcast concert over CBS Radio. The event receives front-page coverage in The New York Times the following day.
November 15 – Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
November 16
WWII: After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
WWII: A Japanese submarine sinks the surfaced U.S. submarine USS Corvina near Chuuk Lagoon (Truk).
November 18 – WWII: Battle of Berlin – The British Royal Air Force opens its bombing campaign against Berlin with 440 planes causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators.
November 19 – Holocaust: Inmates of Janowska concentration camp near Lwów (at this time in German-occupied Poland), stage a failed uprising, after which the SS liquidates the camp, resulting in at least 6,000 deaths.
November 20 – WWII: Battle of Tarawa: United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati from 1979) and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.
November 22 –26 – WWII: Cairo Conference ("Sextant") – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Chairman of the National Government of China Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo in Egypt to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the Pacific War.
November 22 – Lebanon gains independence on ending of the French Mandate.
November 23 – The Deutsches Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg is destroyed in an air raid (It is reopened in 1961 as the Deutsche Oper Berlin).
November 25 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape St. George between Buka and New Ireland.
November 28 – WWII – Tehran Conference: U.S. 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 establish an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord.
November 29 – The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to determine the post-war ordering of the country.
December
December 2 – WWII: Bari chemical warfare disaster: A surprise Luftwaffe air raid on Bari in Italy sinks 28 Allied ships in the harbor, including the American Liberty ship SS John Harvey, releasing its secret cargo of mustard gas bombs, inflating the number of casualties.[18]
December 3
In reprisal for an act of sabotage, the SS and Gestapo execute 100 Warsaw Tramway workers.[19]
Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio, describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin.
December 4
WWII: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government-in-exile.
The Great Depression officially ends in the United States: With unemployment figures falling fast due to WWII-related employment, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration
December 4 – WWII: Bolivia declares war on Romania and Hungary.
December 7 – Chiara Lubich starts the humanitarian Focolare Movement in Trento, Italy.
December 13 – WWII: Massacre of Kalavryta: The occupying 117th Jäger Division (Wehrmacht) machine-gun all adult males from Kalavryta in Greece, subsequently burning the town.
December 20 – A military coup is staged in Bolivia.
December 24 – WWII: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He establishes Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in London.
December 30 – Subhas Chandra Bose sets up a pro-Japanese Indian government at Port Blair, India.