Events

Below, the events of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

have the "WWII" prefix.

January

January 1 January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the yea ...

– WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. *

January 4 Events Pre-1600 *46 BC – Julius Caesar fights Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina. * 871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred are defeated by a Danish invasion army. 1601–1900 *1649 – Engli ...

– WWII: Greek-Polish athlete and saboteur

Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz ( el, Γεώργιος Ιβάνωφ-Σαϊνόβιτς, ''Georgios Ivanof-Sainovits''; 14 December 1911 – 4 January 1943) was a Polish-Greek athlete who fought as a saboteur in the Greek Resistance during World War II a ...

is executed by the Germans at

Kaisariani Kaisariani ( el, Καισαριανή) is a suburb and a municipality in the eastern part of the Athens agglomeration in Greece. Geography Kaisariani is located about southeast of Athens city centre, and of the Acropolis of Athens. The munic ...

. *

January 11 Events Pre-1600 * 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople: A quarrel between supporters of different chariot teams—the Blues and the Greens—in the Hippodrome escalates into violence. * 630 – Conquest of Mecca: The prophet Muhamma ...

** The United States and United Kingdom revise previously

unequal treaty Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...

relationships with the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. ** Italian-American anarchist

Carlo Tresca Carlo Tresca (March 9, 1879 – January 11, 1943) was an Italian-American newspaper editor, orator, and labor organizer who was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World during the 1910s. He is remembered as a leading public opponent of fas ...

is assassinated in New York City. *

January 13 Events Pre-1600 * 27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. * 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing ...

– Anti-

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

protests in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

result in 200 arrests and 36 executions. *

January 14 Events Pre-1600 *1236 – King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence. *1301 – Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary. 1601–1900 *1639 – The "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, Fundamenta ...

– 24 – WWII: Casablanca Conference:

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, President of the United States;

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and Generals

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

and Henri Giraud of the Free French forces meet secretly at the Anfa Hotel in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, to plan the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

European strategy for the next stage of the war. *

January 15 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, beginning a reign of only three months. * 1541 – King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of ...

- WWII:

Guadalcanal Campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in th ...

–

Operation Ke was the largely successful withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal, concluding the Guadalcanal Campaign of . The operation took place between 14 January and 7 February 1943, and involved both Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial ...

: Japanese forces begin to withdraw from

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

. *

January 16 Events Pre-1600 * 27 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. * 378 – General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spear ...

–

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

declares war on the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

. *

January 18 Events Pre-1600 * 474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later. * 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail. * 1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chi ...

** WWII:

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

officials announce that the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

has broken the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...

as part of

Operation Iskra Operation Iskra (russian: операция Искра , translation = Operation Spark), a Soviet military operation in January 1943 during World War II, aimed to break the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shortl ...

, opening a narrow land corridor to the city.

Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( rus, Георгий Константинович Жуков, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐukəf, a=Ru-Георгий_Константинович_Жуков.ogg; 1 December 1896 – ...

is promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union. ** The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins: several days engagement with the Germans limits the number of Jews deported at this time. *

January 21 Events Pre-1600 * 763 – Following the Battle of Bakhamra between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa, the Alid rebellion ends with the death of Ibrahim, brother of Isa ibn Musa. * 1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Co ...

– WWII:

Pan Am Flight 1104 Pan Am Flight 1104, trip no. 62100, was a Martin M-130 flying boat nicknamed the ''Philippine Clipper'' that crashed on the morning of January 21, 1943, in Northern California. The aircraft was operated by Pan American Airways and was carrying t ...

– Pan American Airways Martin M-130

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

crashes about southwest of

Ukiah, California Ukiah ( ; Pomo: ''Yokaya'', meaning "deep valley") is the county seat and largest city of Mendocino County, California, with a population of 16,607 at the 2020 census. With its accessible location along the U.S. Route 101 corridor, Ukiah serves ...

. All 10 passengers and 9 crew aboard are killed, including Admiral Robert H. English (at this time COMSUBPAC). *

January 22 Events Pre-1600 * 613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (''Caesar'') by his father Heraclius at Constantinople. * 871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vi ...

** WWII:

Battle of Buna–Gona The battle of Buna–Gona was part of the New Guinea campaign in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. It followed the conclusion of the Kokoda Track campaign and lasted from 16 November 1942 until 22 January 1943. The battle was fought by ...

: American and Australian forces secure control of the

territory of Papua The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the a ...

. **

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

Round up of Marseille The Marseille roundup was the systematic deportation of the Jews of Marseille in the Old Port between 22 and 24 January 1943 under the Vichy regime during the German occupation of France. Assisted by the French police, directed by René Bousquet, ...

begins – Over 4,000 Jews are detained in Nazi-occupied

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

as part of "Action Tiger", before being transported to

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

s in Poland. *

January 23 Events Pre-1600 * 393 – Roman emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor. * 971 – Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant corps of the Southern Han at Shao. *1264 & ...

** WWII: British forces capture

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

from the

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

. ** American critic and commentator

Alexander Woollcott Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic and commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio p ...

suffers an eventually fatal heart attack, during a regular broadcast of the CBS Radio round-table program ''People's Platform''. *

January 27 Events Pre-1600 * 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire will reach its maximum extent. * 945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to becom ...

– WWII: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany: Wilhelmshaven is the target. *

January 29 Events Pre-1600 * 904 – Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher. * 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu'izz al-Dawla, ruler o ...

** Nazi German police arrest alleged

necrophiliac Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving Cadaver, corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...

and

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

Bruno Lüdke Bruno Lüdke (3 April 1908 – 8 April 1944) was a German alleged serial killer. Police officials connected him to at least 51 murder victims, mainly women, killed in a 15-year period, which began in 1928 and ended with his arrest in 1943. ...

. ** The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) is created. *

– 30 – WWII: Battle of Rennell Island – The

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

resists the United States Navy's attempt to interrupt the withdrawal of Japanese forces from

, in the last major

naval battle Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large lan ...

of the

. *

– 31 – WWII:

Battle of Wau The Battle of Wau, 29 January – 4 February 1943, was a battle in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Forces of the Empire of Japan sailed from Rabaul and crossed the Solomon Sea and, despite Allied air attacks, successfully reached Lae, w ...

– Australian forces, with United States support, resist a Japanese advance in the

New Guinea campaign The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Australian-administered Mandated Territory of New Guinea (23 Jan ...

. *

January 30 Events Pre-1600 *1018 – Poland and the Holy Roman Empire conclude the Peace of Bautzen. *1287 – King Wareru founds the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom. 1601–1900 *1607 – An estimated ...

– WWII: German General

Friedrich Paulus Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (23 September 1890 – 1 February 1957) was a German field marshal during World War II who is best known for commanding the 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). The battle ended ...

is promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and instructed to fight to the death in

, while

Karl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (sometimes spelled Doenitz; ; 16 September 1891 24 December 1980) was a German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government follo ...

is promoted to Commander in Chief of the German Navy, replacing Erich Raeder.

February

February 2 Events Pre-1600 * 506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths, promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (''Breviarium Alaricianum'' or ''Lex Romana Visigothorum''), a collection of "Roman law". * 880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King ...

– WWII: In Russia, the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

comes to an end, with the surrender of the German 6th Army. *

February 3 Events Pre-1600 * 1112 – Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence, marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states. *1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire. *1488 – ...

– WWII: The Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are among those drowned when their ship, , is struck by a German

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

in the North Atlantic. *

February 5 Events Pre-1600 * 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy. * 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion. * 1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians ar ...

– Lt. General

Frank M. Andrews Lieutenant General Frank Maxwell Andrews (February 3, 1884 – May 3, 1943) was a senior officer of the United States Army and one of the founders of the United States Army Air Forces, which was later to become the United States Air Force. ...

is selected to command the U.S. armies in Europe, while General

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

is assigned command in North Africa. Andrews will serve only 3 months, before dying in an airplane crash. *

February 6 Events Pre-1600 * 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop. 1601–1900 * 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of ...

– WWII: RCN corvette HMCS ''Louisburg'' is bombed and sunk off

Oran Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

by Italian aircraft. *

February 7 Events Pre-1600 * 457 – Leo I becomes the Eastern Roman emperor. * 987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II. * 1301 &nd ...

– WWII: North Atlantic

convoy SC 118 Convoy SC 118 was the 118th of the numbered series of World War II slow convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island, to Liverpool. The ships departed New York City on 24 January 1943Hague 2000 p.135 and were met by Mid-Ocean Escor ...

is attacked by

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s, who sink 8 ships. *

February 9 Events Pre-1600 * 474 – Zeno is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire. * 1003 – Boleslaus III is restored to authority with armed support from Bolesław I the Brave of Poland. * 1539 – The first recorded race is hel ...

** WWII: The

in the

ends with United States forces in command of

, the evacuation of Japanese forces in

having been completed two days earlier. ** WWII: Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army begin, with the Parośla I massacre within the

Reichskommissariat Ukraine During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Min ...

. **

Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup The rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup was a Nazi raid and mass arrest of Jews in Lyon's Sainte-Catherine street by the Gestapo. The raid, ordered and personally overseen by Klaus Barbie, took place on 9 February 1943 at the (Federation of Jewish Soc ...

– The

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

, directed by Klaus Barbie, arrest 86 Jews in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. *

February 10 Events Pre-1600 * 1258 – Mongol invasions: Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end. * 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, sparkin ...

–

March 3 Events Pre-1600 * 473 – Gundobad (nephew of Ricimer) nominates Glycerius as emperor of the Western Roman Empire. * 724 – Empress Genshō abdicates the throne in favor of her nephew Shōmu who becomes emperor of Japan. * 1575 &nd ...

–

Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

(under arrest by forces of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

as a member of the

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

) keeps a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. *

February 14 Events Pre-1600 * 748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt. * 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis ...

– WWII:

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

in Russia is liberated. *

– 17 – WWII:

Battle of Sidi Bou Zid The Battle of Sidi Bou Zid /Operation Spring Breeze) took place during the Tunisia Campaign from 14–17 February 1943, in World War II. The battle was fought around Sidi Bou Zid, where a large number of US Army units were mauled by German and I ...

: In the Tunisia Campaign, German

Panzer division A Panzer division was one of the armored (tank) divisions in the army of Nazi Germany during World War II. Panzer divisions were the key element of German success in the blitzkrieg operations of the early years of World War II. Later the Waffe ...

s commanded by Hans-Jürgen von Arnim are victorious over the United States Army. *

February 16 Events Pre-1600 * 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire. * 1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Kar ...

– WWII: The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

reconquers

February 18 Events Pre-1600 * 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy. * 1268 &ndas ...

** In a ''Sportpalast'' speech in Berlin, German Propaganda Minister

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

declares a "

total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...

" against the Allies, tacitly admitting that

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

faces serious dangers. ** The

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

arrest the members of the White Rose

German Resistance German resistance can refer to: * Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government * German resistance to Nazism * Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...

movement. *

February 19 Events Pre-1600 * 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies. * 356 – The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan ...

– 24 – WWII: Battle of Kasserine Pass: German General

Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

's Afrika Korps and other Axis forces launch an offensive against

defenses in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

; 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 Events Pre-1600 *1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated. *1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland ...

** American

movie studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

executives agree to allow the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

to censor movies. ** The

Parícutin Parícutin (or Volcán de Parícutin, also accented Paricutín) is a cinder cone volcano located in the Mexican state of Michoacán, near the city of Uruapan and about west of Mexico City. The volcano surged suddenly from the cornfield of lo ...

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

begins to appear in a cornfield in Mexico. *

February 21 Events Pre-1600 * 452 or 453 – Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, is martyred in Palestine. * 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery. * 1440 – The Prus ...

– WWII: North Atlantic

convoy ON 166 Convoy ON 166 was the 166th of the numbered ON series of merchant ship convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America. Sixty-three ships departed Liverpool 11 February 1943 and were met the following day by Mid-Ocean Escort Force Gr ...

is attacked by

s, who sink eleven ships. *

February 22 Events Pre-1600 * 1076 – Having received a letter during the Lenten synod of 14–20 February demanding that he abdicate, Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. * 1316 – The Battle of Picotin, between Ferdina ...

**WWII: RCN corvette HMCS ''Weyburn'' sinks east of

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, after being mined. **Members of the White Rose are executed in

. *

February 23 Events Pre-1600 * 303 – Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution. * 532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I lays the foundation stone of a ...

– 24 – Cavan Orphanage Fire: 35 girls and a cook from St Joseph's

Orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

, an

industrial school Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

, Ireland, are killed in a fire in their dormitories. A subsequent inquiry absolves the Poor Clares of blame. *

February 28 Events Pre-1600 *202 BC – Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty. * 870 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes. *1525 – Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on ...

– Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians, led by

Joachim Rønneberg Joachim Holmboe Rønneberg (30 August 1919 – 21 October 2018) was a Norwegian Army Officer (armed forces), officer and broadcaster. He was known for his Norwegian resistance movement, resistance work during World War II, most notably commandin ...

, successfully attack the heavy water plant at

Vemork Vemork is a hydroelectric power plant outside Rjukan in Tinn, Norway. The plant was built by Norsk Hydro and opened in 1911, its main purpose being to fix nitrogen for the production of fertilizer. At opening, it was the world's largest power pl ...

March

* March – Exiled French aviator

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...

's self-illustrated children's

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

, ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...

'', is published in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the all-time best-selling book originating in French. * March–

December December is the twelfth and final month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is also the last of seven months to have a length of 31 days. December got its name from the Latin word ''decem'' (meaning ten) because it was or ...

–

History of computing hardware The history of computing hardware covers the developments from early simple devices to aid calculation to modern day computers. Before the 20th century, most calculations were done by humans. The first aids to computation were purely mechan ...

: British prototype Mark I Colossus computer is constructed (the world's first totally ''electronic'' programmable computing device) to assist in

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic sec ...

of German signals at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

. *

March 1 Events Pre-1600 *509 BC – Publius Valerius Publicola celebrates the first Roman triumph, triumph of the Roman Republic after his victory over the deposed king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus at the Battle of Silva Arsia. * 293 – Emperor ...

– Heinz Guderian becomes Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. *

– 2 – WWII:

Koriukivka massacre The Koriukivka massacre was a mass murder of 6,700 residentsKoriukivka Koriukivka (, ) is a town in Chernihiv Oblast (oblast, province) of Ukraine. It was founded in 1657, over 350 years ago. It is the administrative center of Koriukivka Raion. It hosts the administration of Koriukivka urban hromada, one of the hrom ...

are murdered in the

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, by a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

SS unit. *

March 2 Events Pre-1600 * 537 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his ''bucellarii'' are almost cut o ...

– WWII: Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships, then strafe survivors in the water. *

– 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an

air-raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

Bethnal Green, London Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By th ...

. *

March 4 Events Pre-1600 *AD 51 – Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title '' princeps iuventutis'' (head of the youth). * 306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia. * 852 – Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a st ...

** As part of

The Holocaust in Bulgarian-occupied Greece In March 1943, about 4,075 Jews living in Bulgarian-occupied eastern Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace (annexed as the Bulgarian province of Belomorie) were deported to Treblinka extermination camp and murdered. In an operation coordinated by ...

, almost all Jews in the region are rounded up to be taken to Treblinka extermination camp. ** The

15th Academy Awards The 15th Academy Awards was held in the Cocoanut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on March 4, 1943, honoring the films of 1942. The ceremony is most famous for the speech by Greer Garson; accepting the award for Best Actress, Gar ...

ceremony is held in Los Angeles. ''

Mrs. Miniver ''Mrs. Miniver'' is a 1942 American romantic war drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Inspired by the 1940 novel '' Mrs. Miniver'' by Jan Struther, it shows how the life of an unassuming British h ...

'' wins the Best Picture Award. *

– 6 – WWII:

Battle of Fardykambos The Battle of Fardykambos ( el, Μάχη του Φαρδύκαμπου), also known as the Battle of Bougazi (Μάχη στο Μπουγάζι), was fought between the National Liberation Front (EAM-ELAS) of the Greek Resistance against the I ...

– Greek partisans and armed civilians force the surrender of an Italian army battalion. *

March 5 Events Pre-1600 * 363 – Roman emperor Julian leaves Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sasanian Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death. * 1046 – Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern ...

– The Gloster Meteor, the first

jet fighter, makes its first flight, in England. *

March 9 Events Pre-1600 *141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han dynasty of China. *1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg. * 1226 – ...

– 10 – WWII: North Atlantic

convoy SC 121 Convoy SC 121 was the 121st of the numbered series of World War II Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island to Liverpool. The ships departed New York City 23 February 1943; and were met by the Mid-Ocean Escort Force Grou ...

is attacked by

s sinking seven ships. *

– 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 São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, Brazil. *

March 12 Events Pre-1600 * 538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius. * 1088 – Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Cat ...

– WWII: Italian occupation of Greece: The Italian occupying forces abandon the town of

Karditsa Karditsa ( el, Καρδίτσα ) is a city in western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The city of Karditsa is the capital of Karditsa regional unit of region of Thessaly. Inhabitation is attested from 9000 BC. Karditsa ls linked with GR-30, the ...

to the partisans. On the same day, an Italian motorized column razes the village of

Tsaritsani Tsaritsani or Tsiaritsiani ( el, Τσαριτσάνη, or el, Τσαρίτσιανη, ) is a village and a community of the Elassona municipality. Before the 2011 local government reform, it was an independent community. The 2011 census recorded ...

, burning 360 of its 600 houses and shooting 40 civilians. *

March 13 Events Pre-1600 *624 – The Battle of Badr, the first major battle between the Muslims and Quraysh. *1567 – The Battle of Oosterweel, traditionally regarded as the start of the Eighty Years' War. *1591 – At the Battle of Tond ...

–

: Nazi German forces liquidate the Jews of the

Kraków Ghetto The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos created by Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, an ...

, in

Occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

. *

March 14 Events Pre-1600 * 1074 – Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza and Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland. * 1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguen ...

– WWII: British submarine HMS ''Thunderbolt'' is sunk off

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

by an Italian

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands. *

March 15 Events Pre-1600 * 474 BC – Roman consul Aulus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years' truce. *44 BC – The assassination of Julius Caesar takes place. * 493 – Odoa ...

– WWII: ** Italian submarine ''Leonardo da Vinci'' sinks Canadian Pacific

liner A low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) is a type of galactic nucleus that is defined by its spectral line emission. The spectra typically include line emission from weakly ionized or neutral atoms, such as O, O+, N+, and S+. ...

RMS ''Empress of Canada'' off

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. Nearly half of the 392 fatalities are Italian

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

. ** German forces recapture

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkiv. * March 16– 19 – WWII: 22 ships from

Convoys HX 229/SC 122 During the Battle of the Atlantic, British merchant shipping was formed into convoys for protection against German submarine attack. In March 1943 convoys HX 229 and SC 122 were the focus of the largest convoy battle of the war. ''Kriegsmarine'' ...

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 The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

, makes the speech "

The Ireland That We Dreamed Of "On Language & the Irish Nation" was the title of a radio address made by Éamon de Valera, then Taoiseach of Ireland, on Raidió Éireann on St. Patrick's Day (17 March) 1943. It is often called The Ireland that we dreamed of, a phrase which is ...

", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech, in

Dublin Castle Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. Until 1922 it was the se ...

. *

March 22 Events Pre-1600 * 106 – Start of the Bostran era, the calendar of the province of Arabia Petraea. * 235 – Roman emperor Severus Alexander is murdered, marking the start of the Crisis of the Third Century. * 871 – Æthelr ...

– WWII:

Khatyn massacre Khatyn ( be, Хаты́нь, Chatyń, ; russian: Хаты́нь, ) was a village of 26 houses and 157 inhabitants in Belarus, in Lahoysk Raion, Minsk Region, 50 km away from Minsk. On 22 March 1943, almost the entire population of the vil ...

– The entire population of Khatyn,

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

is burnt alive by German occupation forces. * March 23 – The drugs Vicodin and

Lortab Hydrocodone/paracetamol (also known as hydrocodone/acetaminophen) is the combination of the pain medications hydrocodone and paracetamol (acetaminophen). It is used to treat moderate to severe pain. It is taken by mouth. Recreational use is co ...

are first produced in Germany. * March 26 – WWII:

Battle of the Komandorski Islands The Battle of the Komandorski Islands was a naval battle between American and Imperial Japanese forces which took place on 27 March 1943 in the North Pacific, south of the Soviet Komandorski Islands. The battle was a daylight surface engageme ...

: In the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

, the battle begins when

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at

Kiska Kiska ( ale, Qisxa, russian: Кыска) is one of the Rat Islands, a group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. It is about long and varies in width from . It is part of Aleutian Islands Wilderness and as such, special permission is required ...

. * March 27 – WWII: British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft ...

is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...

, killing 379 of the crew of 528. *

March 28 Events Pre-1600 * AD 37 – Roman emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, bestowed on him by the Senate. * 193 – After assassinating the Roman Emperor Pertinax, his Praetorian Guards auction off the throne to Di ...

– In Italy a ship full of weapons and ammunition explodes in the port of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, killing 600.

April

* April 3 – Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim, BEM, is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after being adrift for 133 days. *

April 13 Events Pre-1600 *1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. * 1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. 1601–1900 *1612 – In one of the epic samurai ...

– WWII: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by

of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

. *

April 19 Events Pre-1600 *AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested. * 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at ...

History of lysergic acid diethylamide The psychedelic drug (or entheogen) lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was first synthesized on November 16, 1938, by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz (now Novartis) laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.Albert Hofmann; translated from ...

: Albert Hofmann self-administers the psychedelic drug LSD (which he first synthesized in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

) for the first time in history and records the details of his experience. **

: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins when Nazi troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up remaining Jews. *

April 21 Events Pre-1600 *753 BC – Romulus founds Rome ( traditional date). * 43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered ...

– WWII: **

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, Scotland, experiences its worst bombing, with 125 people killed. ** The first German

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a German heavy tank of World War II that operated beginning in 1942 in Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. It gave the German Army its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted ...

tank is captured in North Africa by British forces. * April 25 –

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

occurs on the latest possible date (last time

1886 Events January–March * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ''Strange ...

; next time

2038 The 2030s (pronounced "twenty-thirties"; shortened to the '30s) is the next decade in the Gregorian calendar that will begin on 1 January 2030, and will end on 31 December 2039. Plans and goals * NASA plans to execute a crewed mission to Mars be ...

) in the Western Christian Church. *

April 27 Events Pre-1600 * 247 – Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ''ludi saeculares''. * 395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of ...

– The U.S.

Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It ...

ceases operation.

May

Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 08

* May 6 – WWII: Six U-boats are sunk, after sinking 12 ships from

Convoy ONS 5 ONS 5 was the 5th of the numbered ONS series of Slow trade convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America. The North Atlantic battle surrounding it in May 1943 is regarded as the turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic in World ...

, in the last major North Atlantic U-boat " wolfpack" attack of the war. *

May 9 Events Pre-1600 * 328 – Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria. *1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy. *1386 – England and Portugal formally rati ...

– 12 – Japanese troops carry out the

Changjiao massacre The Changjiao massacre () was a massacre of Chinese civilians by the China Expeditionary Army in Changjiao, Hunan. Gen. Shunroku Hata was the commander of the Japanese forces. For four days, from May 9-12, 1943, more than 30,000 civilians were ki ...

in Changjiao,

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

, China. *

May 11 Events 1601–1900 *1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is Assassination of Spencer Perceval, assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons. *1813 – William Lawson (explorer), William Lawson, Grego ...

– WWII: American troops invade Attu in the

, in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces. * May 12 – The

Third Washington Conference The Third Washington Conference (Code name, codenamed Trident) was held in Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C from May 12 to May 25, 1943. It was a World War II Military strategy, strategic meeting between the heads of government of the United Kin ...

("Trident") begins in Washington, D.C., with

and

taking part. *

May 13 Events Pre-1600 *1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book '' Revelations of Divine Love''. * 1501 – Amerigo Vespu ...

– WWII: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to

forces. *

May 14 Events Pre-1600 * 1027 – Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks. *1097 – The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade. * 1264 – Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forc ...

** Australian Hospital Ship ''Centaur'' is sunk off the coast of Queensland by , killing 268 of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard. ** The

358th Bombardment Squadron The 358th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 303d Bombardment Wing at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where it was inactivated on 15 June 1964. History World War II The 358 ...

303d Bombardment Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

B-17F ''Hell's Angels'' is the first USAAF

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

to complete 25 missions. *

May 15 Events Pre-1600 * 221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. * 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbog ...

– The

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

is dissolved in Moscow. *

May 16 Events Pre-1600 * 946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan. *1204 – Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. * 1364 ...

– 17 – WWII: Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place:

No. 617 Squadron RAF Number 617 Squadron is a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron, originally based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and currently based at RAF Marham in Norfolk. It is commonly known as "''The Dambusters''", for its actions during Operation Chastise ag ...

use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley. *

–

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. 13,000 Jews have been killed in the ghetto and almost all the remaining 50,000 residents are deported to

Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...

and Treblinka extermination camps. * May 17 – WWII: ** The

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

contracts with the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

'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 –

addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. * May 23 – WWII: The

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

is commissioned at

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. *

May 27 Events Pre-1600 * 1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens. At least 600 Jews are killed. * 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death. * 1153 &ndash ...

– The port city of Maizuru is founded in Japan. * May 29 –

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

's illustration of ' Rosie the Riveter' first appears, on the cover of ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

''. *

May 30 Events Pre-1600 * 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall. The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometres ...

: Dr. Josef Mengele begins his position as a medical officer in the

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. ** WWII: The Battle of Attu ends in the Aleutian Islands with an American victory over the Japanese forces there.

June

June 1 Events Pre-1600 *1215 – Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under the control of the Jurchen people, Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Zhongdu. *1252 – Alfonso X is pr ...

–

BOAC Flight 777 BOAC Flight 777A was a KLM flight scheduled as a British Overseas Airways Corporation civilian airline flight from Portela Airport in Lisbon, Portugal to Whitchurch Airport near Bristol, England. On 1 June 1943, the Douglas DC-3 serving the f ...

, a scheduled passenger flight, is shot down over the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

by German Junkers Ju 88s; all 17 persons aboard perish, including actor Leslie Howard. *

June 3 Events Pre-1600 * 350 – The Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators. * 713 – The Byzantine Empire, Byzantine emperor Philippikos Ba ...

** The

Zoot Suit Riots The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that took place from June 3–8, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States, involving American servicemen stationed in Southern California and young Latino and Mexican American city resident ...

erupt between military personnel and Mexican-American youths in East Los Angeles. ** The

French Committee of National Liberation The French Committee of National Liberation (french: Comité français de Libération nationale) was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organiz ...

(''Comité Français de Libération Nationale'', CFLN) is formed with headquarters in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

and Generals

and Henri Giraud as co-presidents. * June 4 – A military

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

ousts

Ramón Castillo Ramón Antonio Castillo Barrionuevo (November 20, 1873 – October 12, 1944) was a conservative Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from June 27, 1942 to June 4, 1943. He was a leading figure in the period known as t ...

. *

June 8 Events Pre-1600 * 218 – Battle of Antioch: With the support of the Syrian legions, Elagabalus defeats the forces of emperor Macrinus. * 452 – Attila leads a Hun army in the invasion of Italy, devastating the northern provinces ...

– WWII: Japanese battleship ''Mutsu'' is destroyed by an accidental magazine explosion, in

Hashirajima is an island in southern Hiroshima Bay of the Inland Sea, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Located southeast of Iwakuni, it is part of the Kutsuna Islands within the Bōyo Islands group. The island covers and as of 2013 had a population of 184 ...

anchorage. *

– 9 – WWII:

Battle of Porta The Battle of Porta ( el, Μάχη της Πόρτας) was fought on 8–9 June 1943 at the Porta and Mouzaki passes in western Thessaly, between the partisans of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the Royal Italian Army, during the ...

: The

Royal Italian Army The Royal Italian Army ( it, Regio Esercito, , Royal Army) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfre ...

is defeated by the

Greek People's Liberation Army Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. *

June 20 Events Pre-1600 * 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. * 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting ...

– 23 – The Detroit race riot of 1943 in the United States kills 34 people (25 African Americans, 9 whites), wounds hundreds more and damages and destroys property worth millions. *

June 21 Events Pre-1600 * 533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date). * 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mo ...

– WWII: As part of

Operation Animals Operation Animals was a World War II mission by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), in cooperation with the Greek Resistance groups ELAS, Zeus, EDES, PAO and the United States Army Air Force. The operation took place between 21 June ...

, British

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

saboteurs destroy the railway bridge over the Asopos River in "

Operation Washing Operation Washing was the successful destruction of the railway bridge over the Asopos River in Central Greece by four British SOE saboteurs. It took place on 21 June 1943, as part of Operation Animals Operation Animals was a World War II missi ...

", and guerrillas of the

ambush and destroy a German convoy at the

Battle of Sarantaporos The Battle of Sarantaporo, also variously transliterated as Sarantaporon or Sarandaporon ( el, Μάχη του Σαρανταπόρου, tr, Sarantaporo Muharebesi, links=no), took place on 9–10 October, 1912. It was the first major battle ...

. * June 22 – WWII: The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division lands in North Africa, prior to training at Arzew, French Morocco. *

June 30 Events Pre-1600 * 296 – Pope Marcellinus begins his papacy. * 763 – The Byzantine Empire, Byzantine army of emperor Constantine V defeats the First Bulgarian Empire, Bulgarian forces in the Battle of Anchialus (763), Battle of Anc ...

** The United States

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

is abolished. ** WWII: The

New Georgia campaign The New Georgia campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied strategy in the South Pacific to isolate the ...

begins in the

, an Allied offensive against the Japanese forces stationed there. *

June June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summer solstice in ...

(late) –

: The last trainload of Jewish prisoners is moved from

Bełżec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...

(for gassing at

Sobibór Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As ...

), and for the remainder of the year the

make efforts to obliterate the site.

July

July 1 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. * 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the ...

– The United States Women's Army Corps (WAC) is converted to full status. *

July 4 Events Pre-1600 * 362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans. * 414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaim ...

–

1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash The 1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash was an aircraft crash that resulted in the death of General Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile. Sikorski's Liberator II ...

: The aircraft carrying General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

, crashes, killing him and 15 others, leading to a lasting controversy over the circumstances. * July 5 – WWII: **

commences Operation Citadel. It will eventually lead to the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

, the largest tank battle in history. ** A fleet sets sail for the Allied invasion of Sicily. ** The

National Bands Agreement The National Bands Agreement ( el, Σύμφωνο των Εθνικών Ομάδων) was an agreement concluded on 5 July 1943 at the village of Liaskovo, between the British military mission to occupied Greece and the three main Greek Resistan ...

is concluded in Greece. * July 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off

Kolombangara Kolombangara (sometimes spelled ''Kulambangara'') is an island in the New Georgia Islands group of the nation state of Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The name is from a local language, a rough translation of its meaning is ...

. *

July 10 Events Pre-1600 * 138 – Emperor Hadrian of Rome dies of heart failure at his residence on the bay of Naples, Baiae; he is buried at Rome in the Tomb of Hadrian beside his late wife, Vibia Sabina. * 645 – Isshi Incident: Prin ...

** (0245 GMT (4:45 a.m. local time)) – WWII: Allied invasion of Sicily – The

invasion of Axis-controlled Europe begins, with landings on the island of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

off mainland Italy by the

Seventh United States Army The Seventh Army was a United States army created during World War II that evolved into the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) during the 1950s and 1960s. It served in North Africa and Italy in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and Fran ...

and the

British Eighth Army The Eighth Army was an Allied field army formation of the British Army during the Second World War, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. Units came from Australia, British India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Free French Forces, ...

, including the

1st Canadian Infantry Division The 1st Canadian Division (French: ''1re Division du Canada'' ) is a joint operational command and control formation based at CFB Kingston, and falls under Canadian Joint Operations Command. It is a high-readiness unit, able to move on very short ...

. **

: Jedwabne pogrom – At least 340 Polish Jews are marched to a local barn, locked inside and subsequently burned to death. *

July 11 Events Pre-1600 * 472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. * 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abd ...

– WWII: **

forces make an assault on Piano Lupo, just outside Gela,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. ** Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the

(

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...

) peak. *

July 12 Events Pre-1600 * 70 – The armies of Titus attack the walls of Jerusalem after a six-month siege. Three days later they breach the walls, which enables the army to destroy the Second Temple. * 927 – King Constantine II of ...

– WWII: Main engagement of the Battle of Prokhorovka – The

and the

fight to a draw in one of the largest tank battles in

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians norma ...

. *

July 19 Events Pre-1600 *AD 64 – The Great Fire of Rome causes widespread devastation and rages on for six days, destroying half of the city. * 484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is re ...

– WWII: Rome is bombed by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, for the first time in the war. * July 24 – WWII:

Operation Gomorrha The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacke ...

: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

by night; 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 mezzobusto

July 25 Events Pre-1600 * 306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. * 315 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. ...

–

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

, Fascist

Prime Minister of Italy The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...

since 1922, is arrested after the Grand Council of Fascism withdraws its support. "Il Duce" is replaced by General

Pietro Badoglio Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino (, ; 28 September 1871 – 1 November 1956), was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regime ...

August

* August 1 –

Operation Tidal Wave Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of ...

: 177

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

bombers from the

U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

bomb oil refineries at Ploiești, Romania. *

August 2 Events Pre-1600 *338 BC – A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean. *216 BC – The Carthaginian arm ...

– WWII:

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the wa ...

''PT-109'' is run down by Japanese destroyer ''Amagiri''. * August 4 – WWII: The

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

is launched at

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

. *

August 5 Events Pre-1600 *AD 25 – Guangwu claims the throne as Emperor of China, restoring the Han dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin dynasty. * 70 – Fires resulting from the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem are ...

– WWII: ** United States Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) are formed, consolidating the

Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

(WAFS) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WFTD). **

and crew are found by

coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, with their

dugout canoe A dugout canoe or simply dugout is a boat made from a hollowed tree. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. ''Monoxylon'' (''μονόξυλον'') (pl: ''monoxyla'') is Greek – ''mono-'' (single) + '' ξύλον xylon'' (t ...

. *

August 6 Events Pre-1600 *1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean. * 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada ...

– WWII:

Battle of Vella Gulf The was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on the night of 6–7 August 1943 in Vella Gulf between Vella Lavella Island and Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands of the Southwest Pacific. This engagement was t ...

: Americans defeat a Japanese convoy off

, as the U.S. Army drives the Japanese out of Munda airfield on New Georgia. *

August 14 Events Pre-1600 * 74 BC – A group of officials, led by the Western Han minister Huo Guang, present articles of impeachment against the new emperor, Liu He, to the imperial regent, Empress Dowager Shangguan. The articles, enumerating t ...

** WWII: Rome is declared an

open city In war, an open city is a settlement which has announced it has abandoned all defensive efforts, generally in the event of the imminent capture of the city to avoid destruction. Once a city has declared itself open the opposing military will be ...

by the Italian government, with Italy offering to demilitarize the capital, in return for an Allied agreement not to bomb the city further. ** The

Quadrant Conference The First Quebec Conference, codenamed "Quadrant", was a highly secret military conference held during World War II by the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It took place in Quebec City on August 17–24, 1943, at ...

begins in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

; Canadian

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

MacKenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Li ...

meets with

and

. * August 17 – WWII: ** The Seventh U.S. Army, under General

George S. Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

, meets the Eighth British Army under

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

B. L. Montgomery in

Messina, Sicily Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

, completing the Allied invasion of Sicily ** Operation Hydra: The British

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

sets out to bomb the Peenemünde Army Research Center, to disrupt the German V-weapons programme. *

August 21 Events Pre-1600 * 959 – Eraclus becomes the 25th bishop of Liège. * 1140 – Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin dynasty general Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars. *1169 – Battle o ...

–

1943 Australian federal election The 1943 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Labor Party, led by Prime Minister John Curtin, ...

: John Curtin's Labor

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

defeats the

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

/ UAP

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

, led by former

Arthur Fadden. Labor achieves its greatest ever electoral result, including winning every seat (except one) outside of the eastern states. Notably, this election marked the first time that a woman has been elected to both the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and the House of Representatives. Fadden will step down from the Opposition leadership, handing it over to

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

, who will go on to dissolve the UAP and form the Liberal Party shortly after. * August 23 – WWII: The

ends, with a strategic defeat for the German forces. *

August 24 Events Pre-1600 * 367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus at the age of eight by his father. * 394 – The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom, the latest known inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs, is written. ...

– Heinrich Himmler is named Reichsminister of the Interior in Germany. * August 26 – WWII:

Louis Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German ...

is named Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia. *

August 28 Events Pre-1600 * 475 – The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna. * 489 – Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way ...

– WWII: King

Boris III of Bulgaria Boris III ( bg, Борѝс III ; Boris Treti; 28 August 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier) , was the Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1918 until hi ...

dies under suspicious circumstances; his 6-year-old son, Simeon II, ascends to the throne. * August 29 – WWII:

Occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate and then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy Denmark was taken in Berlin on 17 December ...

– 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

September 3 Events Pre-1600 *36 BC – In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey, thus ending Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate. * 301 – San Marino, one of the s ...

– WWII: Allied invasion of Italy **

Armistice of Cassibile The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brig ...

: The

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

surrenders to the

in a document signed on

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

but not made public at this time. ** Operation Baytown: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under General

Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and t ...

, for the first time in the war. * September 5 – WWII: The 503rd Parachute Regiment (under American General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

) lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of

Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

, in northeastern

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. *

September 7 Events Pre-1600 * 70 – A Roman army under Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem. * 878 – Louis the Stammerer is crowned as king of West Francia by Pope John VIII. *1159 – Pope Alexander III is chosen. *1191 – Third Cru ...

–

Gulf Hotel fire The Gulf Hotel fire claimed 55 lives in the early-morning hours of September 7, 1943 in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The fire remains the worst loss of life in a fire in the city's history. Hotel The hotel was located on the northwes ...

: A fire at the Gulf Hotel in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

kills 55. * September 8 ** WWII: United States General

publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the

. ** WWII:

Frascati air raid An air raid of USAAF planes against Frascati, a historic town near Rome, Italy, was made on 8 September 1943. The target was the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone (O.B.S.) and the Italian headquarters, scattered in buildings a ...

: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone. ** The first classes commence at

Grace University Grace University was a private Christianity, Christian university in Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska. The university included undergraduate programs and the Grace University College of Professional and Graduate Studies. The university ceased all ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. * September 9 –

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's play ''

Life of Galileo ''Life of Galileo'' (), also known as ''Galileo'', is a play by the 20th century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and collaborator Margarete Steffin with incidental music by Hanns Eisler. The play was written in 1938 and received its first theatri ...

'' () receives its first theatrical production, at the

Schauspielhaus Zürich The Schauspielhaus Zürich ( en, Zürich playhouse) is one of the most prominent and important theatres in the German-speaking world. It is also known as "Pfauenbühne" (Peacock Stage). The large theatre has 750 seats. The also operates three st ...

. * September 12 – WWII: Gran Sasso raid – German paratroopers rescue Mussolini from imprisonment, in ''Unternehmen Eiche'' ("Operation Oak"). *

September 16 Events Pre-1600 * 681 – Pope Honorius I is posthumously excommunicated by the Sixth Ecumenical Council. *1400 – Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers. 1601–1900 * 1620 – A determined band of 35 relig ...

– WWII: Salerno Mutiny – Soldiers of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

X Corps 10th Corps, Tenth Corps, or X Corps may refer to: France * 10th Army Corps (France) * X Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * X Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army * X ...

refuse postings to new units. *

September 17 Events Pre-1600 * 1111 – Highest Galician nobility led by Pedro Fróilaz de Traba and the bishop Diego Gelmírez crown Alfonso VII as "King of Galicia". * 1176 – The Battle of Myriokephalon is the last attempt by the Byzantine Empi ...

– WWII: Villefranche-de-Rouergue Mutiny – A group of pro-

Partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

soldiers, led by

Ferid Džanić Ferid Džanić (1918 – 17 September 1943) was a Bosniak soldier during World War II. A member of the SS ''Handschar'' Division, he was one of the leaders of an unsuccessful anti-German mutiny in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, in which he was killed ...

and others within the

13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS ''Handschar'' (1st Croatian) was a Gebirgsjäger, mountain infantry Division (military), division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formall ...

, training in

Occupied France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

, rise against Nazi German troops in the Division; the revolt is rapidly suppressed. *

September 21 Events Pre-1600 * 455 – Emperor Avitus enters Rome with a Gallic army and consolidates his power. * 1170 – The Kingdom of Dublin falls to Norman invaders. * 1217 – Livonian Crusade: The Estonian leader Lembitu and Livonian ...

– 26 – WWII:

Massacre of the Acqui Division The massacre of the Acqui Division, also known as the Cephalonia massacre, was the mass execution of the soldiers of the Italian 33rd Infantry Division "Acqui" by German soldiers on the island of Cephalonia, Greece, in September 1943, following t ...

– German soldiers of the

1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht) The 1st Mountain Division (german: 1. Gebirgs-Division) was an elite formation of the German ''Wehrmacht'' during World War II, and is remembered for its involvement in multiple large-scale war crimes. It was created on 9 April 1938 in Garmisc ...

kill over 5,100 Italian military internees resisting disarmament on the Greek island of

Cephalonia Kefalonia or Cephalonia ( el, Κεφαλονιά), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It i ...

. *

September 22 Events Pre-1600 * 904 – The warlord Zhu Quanzhong kills Emperor Zhaozong, the penultimate emperor of the Tang dynasty, after seizing control of the imperial government. * 1236 – The Samogitians defeat the Livonian Brothers of th ...

–

October 2 Events Pre-1600 * 829 – Theophilos succeeds his father Michael II as Byzantine Emperor. * 939 – Battle of Andernach: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, crushes a rebellion against his rule, by a coalition of Eberhard of Franconia and ot ...

– WWII:

Landing at Scarlet Beach The Landing at Scarlet Beach (Operation Diminish) (22 September 1943) took place in New Guinea during the Huon Peninsula campaign of the Second World War, involving forces from Australia, the United States and Japan. Allied forces landed at Sca ...

on the Huon Peninsula of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

by Allied forces, the first time Australian troops have made an opposed amphibious landing since the Gallipoli Campaign of

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...

. *

September 23 Events Pre-1600 * 38 – Drusilla, Caligula's sister who died in June, with whom the emperor is said to have an incestuous relationship, is deified. * 1122 – Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agree to the Concordat ...

– WWII: The

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

("Republic of Salò") is founded in northern Italy as a puppet state of

. *

September 25 Events Pre-1600 * 275 – For the last time, the Roman Senate chooses an emperor; they elect 75-year-old Marcus Claudius Tacitus. * 762 – Led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the Hasanid branch of the Alids begins the Alid Revolt a ...

– WWII: The Russian city of Smolensk is liberated by Soviet forces as part of the successful

Smolensk operation The second Smolensk operation (7 August – 2 October 1943) was a Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943. Staged almost simultaneously with the Lower Dnieper Offensive (13 Au ...

against German defenders. * September 27 – WWII: Four days of Naples begins: a popular uprising drives German occupying forces from the city.

October

* October 1 – WWII: United States forces enter liberated

. * October 3 – WWII: Nazi

forces commit the

Lyngiades massacre The Lingiades massacre, on 3 October 1943, was a Nazi German war crime committed by members of the 1st Mountain Division of the ''Wehrmacht Heer'' during the Axis occupation of Greece. The village of Lingiades ( el, Λιγκιάδες), near ...

in northwest Greece as an arbitrary reprisal. * October 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the

naval Battle of Vella Lavella The was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on the night of 6 October 1943, near the island of Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands. It marked the end of a three-month fight to capture the central Solomon Islands, as pa ...

. * October 7 – WWII: The Naples post-office bombing kills 100. * October 10 ** WWII: Double Tenth incident (

Japanese occupation of Singapore , officially , was the name for Singapore when it was occupied and ruled by the Empire of Japan, following the fall and surrender of British military forces on 15 February 1942 during World War II. Japanese military forces occupied it after ...

): The Japanese military police, the Kempeitai, arrest and torture more than 50 civilians and civilian internees, on false suspicion of their involvement in a raid on

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Harbour during Operation Jaywick. ** The Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky is instituted in the

. * October 13 – WWII: The new government of Italy sides with the

and declares war on Germany. *

October 14 Events Pre-1600 *1066 – The Norman conquest of England begins with the Battle of Hastings. * 1322 – Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's i ...

** WWII: During the

Second Raid on Schweinfurt The second Schweinfurt raid, also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German ''Luftwaffe'' fighter arm (''Jagdwaffe''). ...

, the United States

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...

suffers so many losses, that it loses air supremacy over Germany for several months. **

: Uprising in Sobibór extermination camp; about half the inmates escape. Three days later, the camp is closed. **

José P. Laurel José Paciano Laurel y García (; March 9, 1891 – November 6, 1959) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, and judge, who served as the president of the Japanese-occupied Second Philippine Republic, a puppet state during World War II, from 1943 ...

takes the oath of office as President of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

( Second Philippine Republic). * October 16 – The Holocaust: Raid of the Ghetto of Rome – Over a thousand Jews are rounded up in Rome by the

; only 16 will survive their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp. The public silence of Pope Pius XII on the raid becomes a matter of historical controversy. * October 17 – WWII: ** The last commerce raider, German auxiliary cruiser ''Michel'', is sunk off Japan by United States

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

''Tarpon''. ** The Burma Railway is completed between

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

, Burma (modern-day

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

) () by the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

, to support its forces in the Burma campaign, using the

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

of Asian civilians and

Prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

. *

October 18 Events Pre-1600 * 33 – Heartbroken by the deaths of her sons Nero and Drusus, and banished to the island of Pandateria by Tiberius, Agrippina the Elder dies of self-inflicted starvation. * 320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philos ...

–

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

takes the oath of office as Chairman of the National Government of China. * October 19 – WWII: Allied aircraft sink the German-controlled cargo ship in the Mediterranean, killing over 2,000 people, mostly Italian military internees. * October 21 –

Lucie Aubrac Lucie Samuel (29 June 1912 – 14 March 2007), born Lucie Bernard, and better known as Lucie Aubrac (), was a French history teacher and member of the French Resistance during World War II. In 1938, she earned an agrégation of history (somethi ...

and others in her

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

cell liberate Raymond Aubrac from

imprisonment. * October 22 – WWII:

Bombing of Kassel in World War II The Kassel World War II bombings were a set of Allied strategic bombing attacks which took place from February 1942 to March 1945. In a single deadliest raid on 22–23 October 1943, 150,000 inhabitants were bombed-out, at least 6,000 people die ...

: The British

delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

; at least 10,000 are killed and 150,000 are made homeless. * October 24 – WWII: British

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

is sunk by a mine in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

, with the loss of 119 of the ship's company and 134 troops. * October 30 ** WWII: Signing of

Moscow Declarations The Moscow Declarations were four declarations signed during the Moscow Conference (1943), Moscow Conference on October 30, 1943. The declarations are distinct from the Communique that was issued following the Moscow Conference (1945), Moscow Confe ...

: the

Declaration of the Four Nations The Declaration of the Four Nations on General Security, or Four Power Declaration, was signed on October 30, 1943, at the Moscow Conference (1943), Moscow Conference by the Four Policemen, Big Four: the United States, the United Kingdom, the So ...

on general security, by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and Republic of China; and the Declarations on Italy, Austria and Atrocities by the first three governments. ** The

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

'' Falling Hare'', one of the only

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

s with

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

getting out-smarted, is released in the United States.

November

November 1 Events Pre-1600 * 365 – The Alemanni cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Emperor Valentinian I moves to Paris to command the army and defend the Gallic cities. * 996 – Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, ...

– WWII: Operation Goodtime: United States Marines land on

Bougainville Island Bougainville Island (Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. It was previously the main landmass in the German Empire-associated North Solomons. Its land area is ...

in the

. * November 2 – WWII: **

Battle of Empress Augusta Bay The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, on 1–2 November 1943 – also known as the Battle of Gazelle Bay, Operation Cherry Blossom, and in Japanese sources as the Sea Battle off Bougainville Island (ブーゲンビル島沖海戦) – was a naval ba ...

off

: American and Japanese ships fight to a draw. ** WWII: British troops in Italy reach the

Garigliano River The Garigliano () is a river in central Italy. It forms at the confluence of the rivers Gari (also known as the Rapido) and Liri. Garigliano is actually a deformation of "Gari-Lirano" (which in Italian means something like "Gari from the Liri"). ...

. *

November 3 Events Pre-1600 * 361 – Emperor Constantius II dies of a fever at Mopsuestia in Cilicia; on his deathbed he is baptised and declares his cousin Julian rightful successor. *1333 – The River Arno floods causing massive damage in F ...

– 4 –

: ''

Aktion Erntefest Operation Harvest Festival (german: Aktion Erntefest) was the murder of up to 43,000 Jews at the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki concentration camps by the SS, the Order Police battalions, and the Ukrainian ''Sonderdienst'' on 3–4 Novembe ...

'' ("Operation Harvest Festival") – The largest single day massacre of Jews in the entire war takes place when over 43,000 Jews are shot-gunned to death by the SS, the ''

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction w ...

'' and the " Trawniki men" (Ukrainian collaborators) in ''

Sonderdienst ''Sonderdienst'' (german: Special Services) were the Nazi German paramilitary formations created in semicolonial General Government during the occupation of Poland in World War II. They were based on similar '' SS'' formations called ''Volksdeuts ...

'' formations at the

, Trawniki and Poniatowa concentration camps in the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

territory of

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

. *

November 5 Events Pre-1600 * 1138 – Lý Anh Tông is enthroned as emperor of Vietnam at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign. * 1499 – The '' Catholicon'', written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc in Tréguier, is published; this is the first Br ...

– WWII: First

Bombing of the Vatican Bombings of Vatican City occurred twice during World War II. The first occasion was on the evening of 5 November 1943, when a plane dropped bombs on the area south-west of St. Peter's Basilica, causing considerable damage but no casualties. The ...

– Four bombs are dropped on the neutral

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

; the aircraft responsible is never certainly identified. * November 6 – WWII: The Ukrainian capital of

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

is liberated by Soviet forces from its German occupiers as part of the Battle of Kiev. *

November 9 Events Pre-1600 * 694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery. * 1277 – The Treaty of Aberconwy, a humiliating settlement f ...

�
An agreement
for the foundation of the

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

is signed by 44 countries in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

, Washington, D.C. * November 10 – The

Lübeck martyrs The Lübeck Martyrs were three Roman Catholic priests – Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange – and the Evangelical-Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink. All four were executed by beheading on 10 November 1943 less than ...

, four men of religion, are executed for supposedly treasonable views. *

November 14 Events Pre-1600 1601–1900 *1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope. * 1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile. * ...

–

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, 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 New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' the following day. *

November 15 Events Pre-1600 * 655 – Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. *1315 – Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I in the Battle of Morg ...

–

Porajmos The Romani Holocaust or the Romani genocide—also known as the ''Porajmos'' (Romani pronunciation: , meaning "the Devouring"), the ''Pharrajimos'' meaning the hard times ("Cutting up", "Fragmentation", "Destruction"), and the ''Samudaripen'' (" ...

: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

." * November 16 – WWII: ** After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled

, Norway. ** A Japanese

sinks the surfaced U.S. submarine , near Chuuk Lagoon (Truk). * November 18 – WWII:

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

– The British

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 Events Pre-1600 * 461 – Libius Severus is declared emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The real power is in the hands of the ''magister militum'' Ricimer. * 636 – The Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire at the Battle o ...

–

: Inmates of Janowska concentration camp, near

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

(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 Events Pre-1600 * 284 – Diocletian is chosen as Roman emperor. * 762 – During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptures Luoyang from the rebels. *1194 – Palermo is conquered by Henry ...

– WWII:

Battle of Tarawa The Battle of Tarawa was fought on 20–23 November 1943 between the United States and Japan at the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, and was part of Operation Galvanic, the U.S. invasion of the Gilberts. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, an ...

: United States Marines land on

Tarawa Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati
''

Makin

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

s in the

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

(

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

from

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

) and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns. *

November 22 Events Pre-1600 * 498 – After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Palace, while Laurentius is elected Pope in Santa Maria Maggiore. * 845 – The first duke of Brittany, Nominoe, defeats the Fra ...

– 26 – WWII:

Cairo Conference The Cairo Conference (codenamed Sextant) also known as the First Cairo Conference, was one of the 14 summit meetings during World War II that occurred on November 22–26, 1943. The Conference was held in Cairo, Egypt, between the United Kingdo ...

("Sextant") –

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

and Chairman of the National Government of China

meet at

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. *

–

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

gains independence, upon the ending of the

French Mandate The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate foun ...

. * November 23 – The Deutsches Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße, in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg, is destroyed in an air raid (it is reopened in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

, as the Deutsche Oper Berlin). *

November 25 Events Pre-1600 *571 BC – Servius Tullius, king of Rome, celebrates the first of his three triumphs for his victory over the Etruscans. *1034 – Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots, dies. His grandson, Donnchad, son of Bethó ...

– WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the naval

Battle of Cape St. George The Battle of Cape St. George was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on 25 November 1943, between Cape St. George, New Ireland, and Buka Island (now part of the North Solomons Province in Papua New Guinea). It was ...

, between Buka and New Ireland. *

November 26 Events Pre-1600 * 783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is held at a monastery to prevent her king from retaking the throne from Mauregatus. *1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ...

– WWII: British troopship HMT ''Rohna'' is sunk off the north African coast by a ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

Henschel Hs 293 The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German radio-guided glide bomb. It is the first operational anti-shipping missile, first used unsuccessfully on 25 August 1943 and then with increasing success over the next year, ultimately damaging or sink ...

radio controlled glide bomb, killing 1,015. *

November 27 Events Pre-1600 *AD 25 – Luoyang is declared capital of the Eastern Han dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han. * 176 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of " Imperator" and makes him Supreme Commander of the ...

– The

1943 Tosya–Ladik earthquake The 1943 Tosya–Ladik earthquake occurred at 00:20 local time on 27 November, near Tosya, Kastamonu Province, in northern Turkey. The earthquake had an estimated moment magnitude of 7.5 and a maximum felt intensity of between IX–X (''Viol ...

in Turkey kills thousands. * November 28 – WWII:

Tehran Conference The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy i ...

: U.S. President

, British Prime Minister

and Soviet leader

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

meet in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, to discuss war strategy. On

November 30 Events Pre-1600 * 978 – Franco-German war of 978–980: Holy Roman Emperor Otto II lifts the siege of Paris and withdraws. 1601–1900 * 1707 – Queen Anne's War: The second Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the Br ...

, they establish an agreement concerning a planned

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

invasion of Europe, codenamed

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...

. *

November 29 Events Pre-1600 * 561 – Following the death of King Chlothar I at Compiègne, his four sons, Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I, divide the Frankish Kingdom. * 618 – The Tang dynasty scores a decisive victory over t ...

– The second session of

AVNOJ The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia,, mk, Антифашистичко собрание за народно ослободување на Југославија commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ, was a deliberat ...

, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, is held in

Jajce Jajce (Јајце) is a town and municipality located in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 2013 census, the town has a population of 7,172 inhabitants, with ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, to determine the post-war ordering of the country.

December

December 2 Events Pre-1600 * 1244 – Pope Innocent IV arrives at Lyon for the First Council of Lyon. *1409 – The University of Leipzig opens. 1601–1900 *1697 – St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt to the design of Sir Christopher Wren followin ...

– WWII: Bari chemical warfare disaster: A surprise

air raid on Bari The air raid on Bari (german: Luftangriff auf den Hafen von Bari, it, Bombardamento di Bari) was an air attack by German bombers on Allied forces and shipping in Bari, Italy, on 2 December 1943, during World War II. 105 German Junkers Ju 88 bo ...

, Italy sinks 28

ships in the harbor, including the American Liberty ship , releasing its secret cargo of

mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...

bombs, inflating the number of casualties. * December 3 ** In reprisal for an act of sabotage, the SS and

execute 100

Warsaw Tramway The Warsaw tram network is a The figure given in the source is of single track, it is assumed that the length of all routes (nearly all of them being double track) is about half that figure. tram system serving a third of Warsaw, Poland, ...

workers. ** Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio, describing a

nighttime bombing raid on Berlin. *

December 4 Events Pre-1600 * 771 – Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne as sole king of the Frankish Kingdom. * 963 – The lay papal protonotary is elected pope and takes the name Leo VIII, being consecrated on 6 D ...

** WWII: In

, resistance leader Marshal

Tito Tito may refer to: People Mononyms * Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman * Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journ ...

proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government-in-exile. ** With unemployment figures falling fast due to WWII-related employment, U.S. President

closes the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. ** WWII:

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

declares war on

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and Hungary. * December 7 –

Chiara Lubich Chiara Lubich (born Silvia Lubich; January 22, 1920, Trento – March 14, 2008, Rocca di Papa), was an Italian teacher and author who founded the Focolare Movement, which aims to bring unity among people and promote universal family. She was a c ...

starts the humanitarian

Focolare Movement The Focolare Movement is an international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood. Founded in Trent, northern Italy, in 1943 by Chiara Lubich as a Catholic movement, it remains largely Roman Catholic but has st ...

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

, Italy. * December 13 – WWII: Massacre of Kalavryta – The occupying

117th Jäger Division (Wehrmacht) 117th Jäger Division was a German infantry division of World War II. The division was formed in April 1943 by the reorganization and redesignation of the 717th Infantry Division. The 717th Division had been formed in April 1941. It was transfer ...

machine-guns all adult males from Kalavryta, Greece, subsequently burning the town. *

December 15 Events Pre-1600 * 533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum. * 687 – Pope Sergius I is elected as a compromise between antipopes Paschal and Theod ...

– WWII: American and Australian forces begin the

Battle of Arawe The Battle of Arawe (also known as Operation Director) was fought between Allied and Japanese forces during the New Britain campaign of World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied Operation Cartwheel, and had the objective of serving as a ...

as a diversion before a larger landing at Cape Gloucester on

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

, in Papua New Guinea. * December 20 – A military coup is staged in

. * December 20– 28 – WWII: Italian Campaign –

Battle of Ortona The Battle of Ortona (20–28 December 1943) was a battle fought between two battalions of elite German ''Fallschirmjäger'' (paratroops) from the German 1st Parachute Division under ''Generalleutnant'' Richard Heidrich, and assaulting Canadian ...

: Canadian infantry defeat elite German paratroops. *

December 24 Events Pre-1600 * 502 – Chinese emperor Xiao Yan names Xiao Tong his heir designate. * 640 – Pope John IV is elected, several months after his predecessor's death. * 759 – Tang dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, whe ...

– WWII: U.S. General

becomes

Supreme Allied Commander Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...

. He establishes the

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...

in London. * December 26 – WWII: Battle of the North Cape – German battleship ''Scharnhorst'' is torpedoed and sunk in a night action north of the Arctic Circle by British battleship HMS ''Duke of York'' and her escorts with the loss of all but 36 of the German crew of 1,943 (including Admiral

Erich Bey Konteradmiral Erich Bey (23 March 1898 – 26 December 1943) was a German admiral during World War II. He served as commander of the Kriegsmarine's destroyer forces and commanded the battleship ''Scharnhorst'' in the Battle of the North Cape ...

); this is the war's last action between big-gun

capital ship The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet. Strategic im ...

s of Britain and Germany. *

December 30 Events Pre-1600 *534 – The second and final edition of the Code of Justinian comes into effect in the Byzantine Empire. *999 – Battle of Glenmama: The combined forces of Munster and Meath under king Brian Boru inflict a crushi ...

–

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...

sets up a pro-Japanese Indian government at

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South And ...

, India. *

December 31 It is known by a collection of names including: Saint Sylvester's Day, New Year's Eve or Old Years Day/Night, as the following day is New Year's Day. It is the last day of the year; the following day is January 1, the first day of the followin ...

- The

Times Square Ball The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

, New York City isn't dropped a second time. Instead, there was a moment of silence at midnight, followed by the sound of bells playing from sound trucks at the base of One Times Square.

Date unknown

* Bengal Famine. * History of the cooperative movement: Father

José María Arizmendiarrieta Father José María Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga ( Marquina-Xemein, Bizkaia, Spain, April 22, 1915 - Mondragon, Gipuzkoa, Spain, November 29, 1976) was a Basque Catholic priest and promoter of the cooperative companies of the Mondragon Corporat ...

sets up a polytechnic school at Mondragón in the

Spanish Basque Country The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an autonomous community of Spain. It ...

(predecessor of the

University of Mondragón Mondragon University ( eu, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, MU) is a non-profit cooperative private university in the Basque Country, officially established and recognised in 1997. It is part of Mondragon Corporation. Its main campus is in Mondragó ...

), which inspires creation of the

Mondragon Corporation The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragon in 1956 by José María Arizmendiarrieta and a group of his students at a technical ...

. * Arana Hall, a residential college of the University of Otago in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand, is founded. * Jacques-Yves Cousteau co-invents, with

Émile Gagnan Émile Gagnan (1900 – 1984) was a French engineer and, in 1943, co-inventor with French Navy diver Jacques-Yves Cousteau of the Aqua-Lung, the diving regulator (a.k.a. demand-valve) used for the first Scuba equipment. The demand-valve, or re ...

, the first commercially successful open circuit type of scuba diving equipment, the

Aqua-lung Aqua-Lung was the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (or "scuba") to achieve worldwide popularity and commercial success. This class of equipment is now commonly referred to as a twin-hose diving regulator, or dema ...

. * Martin Noth's groundbreaking work of

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

scholarship, , is published.

Births

January

–

Jimmy Hart James Ray Hart (born January 1, 1944) is an American professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician currently signed with WWE in a Legends deal. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World ...

, American wrestling manager *

January 2 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – The Roman legions in Germania Superior refuse to swear loyalty to Galba. They rebel and proclaim Vitellius as emperor. * 366 – The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading the Roman Empi ...

–

Barış Manço Mehmet Barış Manço (born Tosun Yusuf Mehmet Barış Manço; 2 January 1943 – 1 February 1999), better known by his stage name Barış Manço, was a Turkish rock musician, singer, composer, actor, television producer and show host. Beg ...

, Turkish singer, television personality (d.

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

) *

–

Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of several U.S. presidents, including ''Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream ...

, American writer *

January 5 Events Pre-1600 *1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; Duchy of Burgundy, Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France. 1601–1900 *1675 – Battle of Turckh ...

–

James Goldstein James F. Goldstein (born January 5, 1940) is an American businessman who attends a large number of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, typically in courtside seats, including many home games for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles ...

, LA businessman,

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

basketball aficionado *

January 6 Events Pre-1600 *1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eve ...

– Terry Venables, English footballer and manager *

January 7 Events Pre-1600 *49 BC – The Senate of Rome says that Caesar will be declared a public enemy unless he disbands his army. This prompts the tribunes who support him to flee to Ravenna, where Caesar is waiting. * 1325 – Alfonso IV ...

–

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one ...

, Japanese atomic bomb sickness victim (d.

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

) *

January 9 Events Pre-1600 * 681 – Twelfth Council of Toledo: King Erwig of the Visigoths initiates a council in which he implements diverse measures against the Jews in Spain. *1127 – Jin–Song Wars: Invading Jurchen soldiers from the J ...

– Scott Walker, American-born singer, composer and record producer (d.

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

) *

January 10 Events Pre-1600 *49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war. * 9 – The Western Han dynasty ends when Wang Mang claims that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the dynasty and the be ...

– Jim Croce, American surburbia musician (d. 1973) *

** Mariss Jansons, Latvian conductor (d.

) ** José Luis Rodríguez (singer), José Luis Rodríguez, Venezuelan singer ** Ralph M. Steinman, Canadian immunologist, cell biologist and Nobel laureate (d. 2011) ** Holland Taylor, American actress *

** Kirin Kiki, Japanese actress (d. 2018) ** Dame Margaret Beckett, British politician * January 17 ** Daniel Brandenstein, American astronaut ** René Préval, 2nd Prime Minister of Haiti, 38th and 40th President of Haiti (d. 2017) *

** Paul Freeman (actor), Paul Freeman, English actor ** Kay Granger, American politician * January 19 ** Janis Joplin, American rock singer (d. 1970) ** Princess Margriet of the Netherlands *

** Tamás Cseh, Hungarian composer, singer and actor (d. 2009) ** Marília Pêra, Brazilian actress (d. 2015) * January 24 ** Janice Raymond, American second-wave feminist activist ** Sharon Tate, American actress and model (d. 1969) * January 25 ** Roy Black (singer), Roy Black, German singer (d. 1991) ** Tobe Hooper, American film director (d. 2017) * January 26 – Soad Hosny, Egyptian actress (d. 2001)

February

– Erkan Geniş, Turkish artist *

** Blythe Danner, American actress ** Dennis Edwards, American soul, R&B singer (d. 2018) ** Eric Haydock, British musician (d.

) * February 4 – Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese politician *

** Nolan Bushnell, American video game pioneer ** Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann, American film director, writer and producer ** Craig Morton, American football player *

– Gareth Hunt, English actor (d. 2007) * February 8 – Creed Bratton, American actor, musician *

** Joe Pesci, American actor (''Goodfellas'') ** Joseph E. Stiglitz, American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Nobel Prize laureate *

– Walter B. Jones Jr., American politician (d.

) * February 11 – Mohammad Rafiquzzaman, Bangladeshi lyricist * February 12 – Wacław Kisielewski, Polish pianist (d. 1986) *

– Maceo Parker, American musician (James Brown, P-Funk) * February 15 – Elke Heidenreich, German author, TV presenter and journalist *

– Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, comedian and actor *

** Homer Hickam, American aerospace engineer and writer ** Tim Hunt, British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine *

** Moshe Cotel, American composer, pianist (d. 2008) ** Antonio Inoki, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2022) ** Mike Leigh, British film director *

** David Geffen, American record executive, film producer ** Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Russian novelist *

** Horst Köhler, President of Germany, President of the Federal Republic of Germany ** Eduard Limonov, Russian writer, poet, publicist, and political dissident (d. 2020) *

– Fred Biletnikoff, American football player, coach * February 24 – Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer * February 25 ** Boediono, Indonesian economist, 11th Vice President of Indonesia ** George Harrison, English singer, guitarist (''The Beatles'') (d. 2001) * February 26 ** Bill Duke, American actor, director ** Bob Hite, American singer, musician (Canned Heat) (d. 1981) ** Darcus Howe, Trinidadian-born British civil rights activist (d. 2017) * February 27 – Morten Lauridsen, American composer *

– Donnie Iris, American rock singer, guitarist (The Jaggerz, Wild Cherry (band), Wild Cherry, Donnie Iris, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers)

March

** Gil Amelio, American entrepreneur ** Richard H. Price, American physicist *

** Zygfryd Blaut, Polish footballer (d. 2005) ** Tony Meehan, British drummer (The Shadows) (d. 2005) ** Peter Straub, American author (d. 2022) *

– Trond Mohn, Norwegian billionaire *

** Lucio Dalla, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 2012) ** Zoltán Jeney, Hungarian composer (d.

) *

** Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian Army major general (d. 1997) ** Lucio Battisti, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 1998) * March 8 ** Lynn Redgrave, English-American actress (d. 2010) ** Susan Clark, Canadian actress (''Webster (TV series), Webster'') *

** Bobby Fischer, American chess player (d. 2008) ** Charles Gibson, American television journalist * March 11 - Ma'ruf Amin, Indonesian Islamic cleric and 13th Vice President of Indonesia *

– Ratko Mladic, Serbia military leader *

– André Téchiné, French film director *

** Anita Morris, American actress, singer and dancer (d. 1994) ** Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, American guitarist (Ohio Players) (d. 2013) *

** David Cronenberg, Canadian film director ** Kohji Moritsugu, Japanese actor (Ultraseven) ** Sly Stone, African-American singer (Sly and the Family Stone) * March 16 ** Helen Armstrong (violinist), Helen Armstrong, American violinist (d. 2006) ** Kim Mu-saeng, South Korean actor (d. 2005) * March 18 ** Kevin Dobson, American actor (d. 2020) ** Lowrell Simon, American singer (d. 2018) * March 19 ** Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020) ** Mario Monti, 54th

* March 20 ** Gerard Malanga, American poet, photographer ** Douglas Tompkins, American conservationist, businessman (d. 2015) * March 21 ** Luigi Agnolin, Italian football referee (d. 2018) ** István Gyulai, Hungarian sports official (d. 2006) ** Vivian Stanshall, British comedy writer, artist, broadcaster and musician (d. 1995) ** Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha *

** George Benson, African American guitarist and singer-songwriter ** Keith Relf, British rock musician (d. 1976) * March 23 – Lee May, American baseball player (d. 2017) * March 24 – Kate Webb, New Zealand-born Australian war correspondent (d. 2007) * March 25 – Paul Michael Glaser, American actor * March 26 – Bob Woodward, American journalist *

– Conchata Ferrell, American actress (d. 2020) * March 29 ** Eric Idle, English comedian, actor, author and musician (''Monty Python's Flying Circus'') ** John Major, British politician, 70th

** Vangelis, Greek musician, composer (''Chariots of Fire'', ''Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Cosmos'') (d. 2022) * March 30 ** Dennis Etchison, American author and editor (d.

)± ** Jay Traynor, American singer (Jay and the Americans) (d. 2014) * March 31 ** Motiur Rahman Nizami, Bangladeshi politician, convicted war criminal (d. 2016) ** Christopher Walken, American actor

April

John Eliot Gardiner at rehearsal in Wroclaw cropped portrait

* April 2 – Caterina Bueno, Italian singer (d. 2007) * April 4 – Isabel-Clara Simó, Spanish journalist and writer (d. 2020) * April 5 ** Jean-Louis Tauran, French cardinal (d. 2018) ** Max Gail, American actor (''Barney Miller'') * April 6 − Susan Tolsky, American actress and voice actress * April 8 ** Miller Farr, American football player ** Jack O'Halloran, American boxer and actor * April 10 ** Andrzej Badeński, Polish athlete (d. 2008) ** Margaret Pemberton, English writer * April 11 – Harley Race, American professional wrestler, promoter and trainer (d.

) *

– Doreen Tracey, British-born American actress (d. 2018) * April 15 ** Robert Lefkowitz, American physician and biochemist ** Mighty Sam McClain, American singer, songwriter (d. 2015) * April 16 – Petro Tyschtschenko, German businessman * April 17 – Bobby Curtola, Canadian singer (d. 2016) *

– Claus Theo Gärtner, German actor * April 20 – John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor *

– Napsiah Omar, Malaysian educator, politician (d. 2018) * April 22 ** Louise Glück, American poet, 12th US Poet Laureate, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature ** Gabriel López Zapiain, Mexican footballer (d. 2018) * April 23 ** Dominik Duka, Czech Roman Catholic bishop, theologian ** Gail Goodrich, American basketball player ** Fighting Harada, Japanese boxer ** Frans Koppelaar, Dutch painter ** Hervé Villechaize, French-born actor (''Fantasy Island'') (d. 1993) * April 24 – Richard Sterban, American singer (''The Oak Ridge Boys'') * April 25 ** Alan Feduccia, American paleornithologist ** James G. Mitchell, Canadian computer scientist * April 26 – Gary Wright, American singer, songwriter, musician and composer * April 28 – John Oliver Creighton, John O. Creighton, American astronaut * April 29 – Sir Ian Kershaw, English historian * April 30 ** Frederick Chiluba, Zambian politician, 2nd President of Zambia (d. 2011) ** Bobby Vee, American singer (d. 2016)

May

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, September 2011 (cropped)

Betty Williams, Women's World Awards 2009 c

* May 1 **Ian Dunn (activist), Ian Dunn, Scottish gay and paedophile rights activist (d. 1998) **Vassal Gadoengin, Nauruan politician (d. 2004) * May 2 – Mustafa Nadarević, Yugoslav and Bosnian actor and comedian (d. 2020) * May 3 – Jim Risch, American politician * May 5 – Michael Palin, English comedian, actor, and television presenter (''Monty Python's Flying Circus'') * May 6 – Grange Calveley, British writer, artist (d. 2021) * May 7 – Orlando Ramírez (footballer), Orlando Ramírez, Chilean footballer (d. 2018) * May 8 – Danny Whitten, American musician (d. 1972) * May 10 – Richard Darman, American federal government official, businessman (d. 2008) *

– Kurt Trampedach, Danish artist (d. 2013) *

** Jack Bruce, British musician, songwriter (d. 2014) ** Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, 5th President of Iceland *

– Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat * May 17 ** Mark W. Olson, American economist, politician (d. 2018) ** Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, King of Malaysia * May 20 – Imata Kabua, Marshallese politician, 2nd List of Presidents of the Marshall Islands, President of the Marshall Islands (d.

) * May 22 – Betty Williams (Nobel laureate), Betty Williams, Northern Irish political activist, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2020) * May 24 – Gary Burghoff, American actor (''M*A*S*H'') * May 25 – Jessi Colter, American singer, composer * May 26 – Erica Terpstra, Dutch swimmer, politician and president of the Dutch Olympic Committee *

** Bruce Weitz, American actor ** Cilla Black, English singer, entertainer (d. 2015) * May 29 – Ion Ciubuc, Moldovan politician (d. 2018) *

– James Chaney, African-American civil rights worker (d. 1964) * May 31 ** Sharon Gless, American actress ** Joe Namath, American football player

June

** Kuki Gallmann, Kenyan writer, poet ** Richard Goode, American pianist ** Lorrie Wilmot, South African cricketer (d. 2004) * June 2 – Ilayaraaja, Indian composer *

** John Burgess (host), John Burgess, Australian game show host, actor ** Billy Cunningham, American basketball player and coach * June 4 – Joyce Meyer, Christian author, speaker * June 6 – Richard Smalley, American chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005) * June 7 ** Chan Hung-lit, Hong Kong actor (d. 2009) ** Nikki Giovanni, American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator ** Ken Osmond, American actor (d. 2020) *

** Colin Baker, British actor ** Şahan Arzruni, Armenian pianist * June 11 – Henry Hill, American gangster (d. 2012) * June 13 – Malcolm McDowell, English actor * June 14 – Jim Sensenbrenner, American politician * June 15 ** Johnny Hallyday, French pop singer, actor (d. 2017) ** Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, 23rd Prime Minister of Denmark * June 16 ** Raymond Ramazani Baya, Congolese politician (d.

) ** Joan Van Ark, American actress * June 17 ** Newt Gingrich, American politician, author and historian ** Barry Manilow, American pop musician * June 18 ** Raffaella Carrà, Italian singer, dancer and actress (d. 2021) ** Barry Evans (actor), Barry Evans, English actor (d. 1997) *

– Marika Green, French-Swedish actress * June 22 ** Klaus Maria Brandauer, Austrian actor ** J. Michael Kosterlitz, Scottish-born condensed matter physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize laureate * June 23 ** Patrick Bokanowski, French filmmaker ** James Levine, American conductor (d. 2021) ** Vint Cerf, American internet pioneer * June 25 ** Carly Simon, American singer-songwriter * June 26 ** John Beasley (actor), John Beasley, American actor ** Warren Farrell, American educator, activist and author on gender issues * June 27 – Rico Petrocelli, American baseball player * June 28 ** Jens Birkemose, Danish painter ** Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize laureate * June 29 ** Maureen O'Brien, British actress ** Leopold Grausam, Austrian footballer ** Frank Zweerts, Dutch field hockey player *

** Cees Kurpershoek, Dutch sailor ** Daniel Kablan Duncan, Ivorian politician ** Florence Ballard, African-American singer, founder of The Supremes (d. 1976) ** Dieter Kottysch, West German Olympic boxer (d. 2017) ** Dani Litani, Israeli musician and actor

July

Geraldo Rivera at White House (5682334468) (cropped)

* July 3 ** Judith Durham, Australian singer (d. 2022) ** Kurtwood Smith, American actor (''That '70s Show'') ** Norman Thagard, American astronaut *

** Conny Bauer, Konrad "Conny" Bauer, German trombonist ** Geraldo Rivera, American reporter, talk show host **Alan Wilson (musician), Alan Wilson, American musician (Canned Heat) (d. 1970) * July 5 ** István Gáli, Hungarian boxer ** Curt Blefary, American baseball player (d. 2001) ** Robbie Robertson, Canadian musician (''The Band'') * July 6 ** Kim Kye-gwan, North Korean diplomat ** Tamara Sinyavskaya, Russian mezzo-soprano ** Rosemary Forsyth, Canadian-American actress, model ** Muhammad Iqbal Gujjar, Pakistani politician * July 7 ** Jürgen Geschke, German track cyclist ** M. Karathu, Malaysian football player, manager ** Robert East (actor), Robert East, Welsh theatre, TV actor ** Joel Siegel, American film critic (d. 2007) ** Miguel Vila Luna, Dominican architect, painter (d. 2005) * July 8 ** Guido Marzulli, Italian painter ** Carmine Preziosi, Italian road bicycle racer * July 9 ** Suzanne Rogers, American actress ** Soledad Miranda, Spanish actress (d. 1970) *

** Arthur Ashe, African-American tennis player (d. 1993) ** Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, Zambian politician *

** Edna Madzongwe, Zimbabwean politician ** Tom Holland (filmmaker), Tom Holland, American screenwriter, actor and filmmaker ** Luciano Onder, Italian journalist *

** Christine McVie, British musician (''Fleetwood Mac'') (d. 2022) ** Walter Murch, American film editor, sound designer * July 14 ** George Thomas Coker, United States Navy commander ** Harold Wheeler (musician), Harold Wheeler, American orchestrator, composer, conductor, arranger, record producer and music director ** David Burden, British Army officer * July 15 – Jocelyn Bell Burnell, British astrophysicist * July 16 – Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban writer (d. 1990) * July 17 ** Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israeli diplomat, politician and historian ** Alfredo Mantica, Italian politician * July 18 – Jerry Chambers, American basketball player *

** Carla Mazzuca Poggiolini, Italian journalist and politician ** David Griffin (actor), David Griffin, British actor * July 20 ** Christopher Murney, American actor, vocal artist ** Wendy Richard, British actress (d. 2009) * July 21 ** Michael Caton, Australian actor, comedian and television presenter ** Edward Herrmann, American actor (d. 2014) ** Henry McCullough, Northern Irish musician (''Paul McCartney & Wings'') (d. 2016) ** Bob Shrum, American political consultant * July 22 – Kay Bailey Hutchison, American attorney, television correspondent, politician and diplomat * July 23 ** Tony Joe White, American singer, songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018) ** Zvonimir Vujin, Serbian amateur boxer (d.

) ** Bob Hilton, American game show host * July 24 - John Bryson, American businessman and Former 37th US Secretary of Commerce (2011–12) *

– Erika Steinbach, German politician * July 26 – Mick Jagger, English rock singer (''The Rolling Stones'') * July 28 ** Mike Bloomfield, American guitarist and composer (d. 1981) ** Bill Bradley, American basketball player and politician ** Richard Wright (musician), Richard Wright, British musician (d. 2008) * July 29 – Bob Brunning, British musician (d. 2011) * July 30 – Giovanni Goria, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1994)

August

– Max Wright, American actor (d.

) * August 3 ** Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson, Princess Christina of Sweden ** Clarence Wijewardena, Sri Lankan musician (d. 1996) * August 4 ** Vicente Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician (d.

) ** Barbara Saß-Viehweger, German politician, lawyer and civil law notary ** Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper *

– Nelson Briles, American baseball player (d. 2005) *

– Jim Hardin, American baseball pitcher (Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves) (d. 1991) * August 8 – Luc Rosenzweig, French journalist (d. 2018) * August 9 – Ken Norton, African-American boxer, actor (d. 2013) * August 10 ** Frédéric Kyburz, Swiss judoka (d. 2018) ** Ronnie Spector, American singer (d. 2022) * August 11 ** Abigail Folger, American heiress, murder victim (d. 1969) ** Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani general, leader and 10th President of Pakistan (d. 2022) * August 13 – Roberto Micheletti, President of Honduras * August 15 – Glória Maria, Brazilian journalist, reporter and television host * August 17 ** Robert De Niro, American actor ** Yukio Kasaya, Japanese ski jumper * August 18 ** Martin Mull, American actor and comedian ** Gianni Rivera, Italian footballer * August 19 – Edwin Hawkins, African-American gospel musician, pianist (d. 2018) * August 20 – Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor * August 22 – Nahas Angula, Prime Minister of Namibia * August 23 – Pino Presti, Italian bassist, arranger, composer, conductor, record producer * August 27 – Tuesday Weld, American actress *

** Surayud Chulanont, Thai politician, 24th Prime Minister of Thailand ** Lou Piniella, American baseball player, manager ** Jihad Al-Atrash, Lebanese actor, voice actor * August 29 – Arthur B. McDonald, Canadian astrophysicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize laureate * August 30 ** Tal Brody, American-born Israeli basketball player ** Robert Crumb, R. Crumb, American artist, illustrator ** Altovise Davis, American entertainer (d. 2009) ** Jean-Claude Killy, French skier ** John Kani, South African actor * August 31 – Leonid Ivashov, Russian general

September

Roger Waters 18 May 2008 London O2 Arena

Lech Wałęsa (2019), FORUM 2000, Prague (2)

* September 5 – Dulce Saguisag, Filipino politician, former DSWD Secretary (d. 2007) * September 6 ** Harris Hines, American judge (d. 2018) ** Richard J. Roberts, English biochemist, molecular biologist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ** Roger Waters, English musician (''Pink Floyd'') *

– Lena Valaitis, Lithuanian-German Schlager singer * September 9 – Art LaFleur, American actor (d. 2021) * September 10 ** Daniel Truhitte, American actor ** Neale Donald Walsch, American author (''Conversations with God'') * September 11 ** Mickey Hart, American percussionist and musicologist (''Grateful Dead'') ** Jaime Thorne León, Peruvian politician (d. 2018) ** Gilbert Proesch, Italian-born artist (''Gilbert and George'') ** Raymond Villeneuve, Canadian terrorist * September 13 – Mildred D. Taylor, American writer * September 14 ** Irwin Goodman, Finnish singer (d. 1991) ** Tunde Idiagbon, Nigerian Army major general (d.

) *

** Tadamasa Goto, Japanese yakuza boss ** Oskar Lafontaine, German politician * September 18 – Nina Wayne, American actress * September 19 – Joe Morgan, American baseball player (d. 2020) * September 20 – Sani Abacha, Nigerian Army officer and dictator (d. 1998) *

**Jerry Bruckheimer, American film and television producer **David Hood, American session bassist and trombone player **Mathew Prichard, British philanthropist, the only child of literary guardian Rosalind Hicks and the only grandchild of author Agatha Christie *

– Toni Basil, American musician, video artist ("Mickey (Toni Basil song), Mickey") *

** Ernie Ackerley, British footballer (d. 2017) ** Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer, songwriter ** Tanuja, Indian actress * September 28 – J. T. Walsh, American actor (d. 1998) * September 29 ** Wolfgang Overath, German footballer ** Lech Wałęsa, President of Poland, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize * September 30 ** Johann Deisenhofer, German biochemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize laureate ** Ian Ogilvy, British-American actor

October

* October 1 ** Jerry Martini, American musician ** Naushad Ali (cricketer), Naushad Ali, Pakistani cricketer ** Jean-Jacques Annaud, French film director *

** Franklin Rosemont, American poet (d. 2009) ** Henri Szeps, Australian actor * October 3 – Jeff Bingaman, American politician * October 4 – Buddy Roemer, American politician, investor and banker (d. 2021) * October 5 ** Bonnie Bryant (golfer), Bonnie Bryant, American golfer ** Ben Cardin, American politician * October 6 – Michael Durrell, American actor * October 7 – Oliver North, American military officer, military historian, political commentator, author and television host * October 8 ** Chevy Chase, American comedian, actor (''Saturday Night Live'') ** R. L. Stine, American novelist (''Goosebumps'') * October 11 ** John Nettles, English actor, writer ** Gene Watson, American country singer * October 12 **Jeffrey R. MacDonald, American physician and United States Army Officer **Köbi Kuhn, Swiss footballer and manager (d.

) *

** Lois Hamilton, American model, actress and artist (d.

) ** Mohammad Khatami, 5th President of Iran ** Lance Rentzel, American football player * October 15 – Penny Marshall, American actress, director and producer (d. 2018) *

** Birthe Rønn Hornbech, Danish politician ** Christine Charbonneau, Canadian francophone singer, songwriter (d. 2014) * October 22 – Catherine Deneuve, French actress * October 24 ** Theodor Stolojan, 54th Prime Minister of Romania ** José E. Serrano, American politician * October 25 – Roy Lynes, English keyboardist * October 27 – Carmen Argenziano, American actor (d.

) * October 28 – Cornelia Froboess, German actress * October 29 – Don Simpson, American film producer, screenwriter and actor (d. 1996)

November

– Jacques Attali, French economist *

– Bert Jansch, Scottish folk musician (d. 2011) * November 4 ** Sundar Popo, Indo-Trinidadian Chutney music, chutney musician (d. 2000) ** Chuck Scarborough, American news anchor *

** Friedman Paul Erhardt, German-American pioneering television chef (d. 2007) ** Sam Shepard, American playwright, actor (d. 2017) * November 7 ** Stephen Greenblatt, American literary critic ** Nasirdin Isanov, 1st Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan (d. 1991) ** Joni Mitchell, Canadian musician (''Big Yellow Taxi'') ** Michael Spence, American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Nobel Prize laureate * November 8 – Martin Peters, English footballer (d.

) * November 11 – Doug Frost (swimming coach), Doug Frost, Australian swimming coach * November 12 – Wallace Shawn, American actor * November 13 ** Roberto Boninsegna, Italian footballer ** Jay Sigel, American golfer *

** Peter Norton, American software engineer, businessman ** Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, Rafael Leonardo Callejas, President of Honduras (d. 2020) * November 17 – Lauren Hutton, American actress, model *

– Aurelio Monteagudo, Cuban Major League Baseball player (d. 1990) *

** Mie Hama, Japanese actress ** Marek Tomaszewski, Polish pianist * November 21 – Larry Mahan, American rodeo cowboy *

** Peter Adair, American filmmaker (d. 1996) ** Yvan Cournoyer, Canadian ice hockey player ** Billie Jean King, American tennis player ** William Kotzwinkle, American novelist, screenwriter ** Fouad Siniora, 32nd Prime Minister of Lebanon * November 23 – Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Republic of the Congo * November 24 ** Dave Bing, American mayor, longtime National Basketball Association, NBA player ** Kuniwo Nakamura, 6th President of Palau (d. 2020) *

– Dante Caputo, Argentine diplomat, politician (d. 2018) *

– Marilynne Robinson, American writer * November 28 – Randy Newman, American musician *

– Terrence Malick, American film director

December

John Kerry official Secretary of State portrait

** Wayne Allard, American politician ** William Wegman (photographer), William Wegman, American photographer * December 5 ** Eva Joly, Norwegian-born French magistrate ** Nicolae Văcăroiu, 55th Prime Minister of Romania * December 8 ** José Carbajal (Uruguayan musician), José Carbajal, Uruguayan singer, composer and guitarist (d. 2010) ** Larry Martin, American paleontologist (d. 2013) ** Jim Morrison, American rock musician (''The Doors'') (d. 1971) ** Bodo Tümmler, German Olympic middle-distance runner * December 11 – John Kerry, American politician, 68th U.S. Secretary of State * December 12 ** Dickey Betts, American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer (''The Allman Brothers Band'') ** Gianni Russo, American actor ** Phyllis Somerville, American actress (d. 2020) ** Grover Washington, Jr., African-American saxophonist (d.

) * December 13 ** David W. Huff, American rock singer, guitarist of (''David and the Giants'') ** Ferguson Jenkins, Canadian baseball player * December 14 ** Britt Allcroft, British television producer, creator of ''Thomas & Friends'' ** António Simões, Portuguese footballer *

– Lucien den Arend, Dutch sculptor * December 16 – Steven Bochco, American television producer (d. 2018) * December 17 ** Pak Doo-ik, North Korean footballer ** Ron Geesin, British musician, songwriter (''Pink Floyd'') ** Rick Nolan, American politician * December 18 – Keith Richards, English rock guitarist, songwriter (''The Rolling Stones'') * December 19 ** Sam Kelly, English actor (d. 2014) ** Ross M. Lence, American political scientist (d. 2006) ** Jimmy Mackay, Australian football player (d. 1998) * December 20 – Jacqueline Pearce, English screen actress (d. 2018) * December 21 – Jack Nance, American actor (d. 1996) * December 22 – Paul Wolfowitz, American political scientist * December 23 ** Elizabeth Hartman, American actress (d. 1987) ** Harry Shearer, American actor, comedian and screenwriter ** Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen consort of Sweden *

** Tarja Halonen, 11th President of Finland ** James A. Johnson (politics), James A. Johnson, American business leader, philanthropist * December 25 – Hanna Schygulla, German actress * December 27 – Sam Hinds, 3-Time Prime Minister of Guyana * December 28 ** Keith Floyd, British chef (d. 2009) ** Chas Hodges, English musician and singer (d. 2018) ** Craig MacIntosh, American illustrator ** Billy Chapin, American child actor (d.2016) ** Richard Whiteley, English television presenter (d. 2005) *

** John Denver, American musician (d. 1997) ** Sir Ben Kingsley, British actor (''Gandhi (film), Gandhi'') ** Pete Quaife, English musician, artist and author (''The Kinks'') (d. 2010)

Deaths

January

George Washington Carver c1910 - Restoration

** Qazim Koculi, Albanian politician, acting Prime Minister of Albania (murdered) (b. 1887) ** Wilhelm Lorenz, German general (died of wounds) (b. 1894) * January 3 – Bid McPhee, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1859) *

** Hàm Nghi, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1872) **

, Greek-born Polish athlete, resistance member (executed) (b. 1911) ** Kate Price (actress), Kate Price, Irish-born American actress (b. 1872) *

– George Washington Carver, African-American botanist (b. c. 1864) *

** George Washington Crile, founder of the Cleveland Clinic (b. 1864) ** Nikola Tesla, Croatian-born American electrical engineer, inventor (b. 1856) * January 8 – Richard Hillary, Australian-born British Battle of Britain Supermarine Spitfire, Spitfire pilot, author (killed on active service in aviation accident) (b. 1919) *

– R. G. Collingwood, English philosopher, historian and archaeologist (b. 1889) *

– Lewis Hall (soldier), Lewis Hall, American soldier (killed on active service) (b. 1895) *

– Agustín Pedro Justo, Argentinian military officer, diplomat and politician, 23rd President of Argentina (b. 1876) * January 12 – Jan Campert, Dutch journalist, writer (in Neuengamme concentration camp) (b. 1902) *

** Henner Henkel, German tennis champion (killed in action) (b.

) ** Xavier Martinez, Mexican-born American painter (b. 1869) ** Else Ury, German writer, children's book author (b. 1877) *

– Laura E. Richards, American author (b. 1850) *

– Eric Knight, American author (b. 1897) *

– Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, 1st Baronet, British surgeon (b. 1856) * January 17 ** Jane Avril, French dancer (b. 1868) ** Taj al-Din al-Hasani, Syrian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Syria and 6th President of Syria (b. 1885) *

– Urban Jacob Rasmus Børresen, Norwegian admiral and industry leader (b. 1857) * January 19 – William Pettigrew (missionary), William Pettigrew, British Christian missionary (b. 1869) * January 20 ** Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer (b. 1885) ** Baron Max Wladimir von Beck, former Minister-President of Austria (b. 1854) *

** Aimo Cajander, 7th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1879) ** Konstantinos Davakis, Greek army officer (died of wounds) (b. 1897) ** Robert Henry English, American admiral (killed in aviation accident) (b. 1888) *

– Gyula Peidl, 23rd Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1873) *

–

, American critic (b. 1887) * January 26 ** Harry H. Laughlin, American Eugenics, eugenicist (b. 1880) ** Nikolai Vavilov, Russian, Soviet botanist, geneticist (b. 1887) *

** Henriette Caillaux, French murderer, socialite and wife of former French prime minister (b. 1874) ** Vladimir Kokovtsov, 4th Prime Minister of Russia, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire (b. 1853)

February

* February 1 – Foy Draper, American Olympic athlete (killed in action) (b. 1911) *

** Alfred Cavendish, British general (b. 1859) ** Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner (b. 1880) * February 4 ** Frank Calder, British-born Canadian ice hockey executive, first National Hockey League president (b. 1877) ** Senjūrō Hayashi, Japanese army commander, politician and 22nd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1876) *

** Sim Gokkes, Dutch composer (in Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1897) ** W. S. Van Dyke, American director (b. 1889) *

** Eustace Fiennes, British soldier, politician (b. 1864) ** Dmitry Kardovsky, Soviet painter, illustrator (b. 1866) *

** Sverre Granlund, Norwegian general (b. 1918) ** James T. Powers (actor), James T. Powers, American actor (b. 1862) * February 11 – Bess Houdini, American wife of Harry Houdini (b. 1876) *

– David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862) * February 15 – Charles Bennett (actor), Charles Bennett, American actor (b. 1889) *

– Paul Ranous Greever, American politician (b. 1891) *

– Reginald Pinney, Sir Reginald Pinney, British army general (b. 1863) *

– Jan Piekałkiewicz, Polish economist, statistician and politician (b. 1892) *

** Ernest Guglielminetti, Swiss physician (b. 1862) ** Donald Haines, American actor (b. 1919) *

** Tamara Drasin, Russian-born American singer, actress (b. 1905) ** Christoph Probst, German White Rose resistance member (executed) (b. 1919) ** Ben Robertson (journalist), Ben Robertson, American novelist, journalist and war correspondent (b. 1903) ** Hans Scholl, German White Rose resistance member (executed) (b. 1918) ** Sophie Scholl, German White Rose resistance member (executed) (b. 1921) *

** Edward Heaton-Ellis, Sir Edward Heaton-Ellis, British vice-admiral (b. 1868) ** Grigory Kravchenko, Soviet test pilot and air force general (killed in action) (b. 1912) ** Karl Leopold von Möller, German officer, journalist, author and politician (b. 1876) * February 26 – Theodor Eicke, German Nazi official (killed in action) (b. 1892) * February 27 – Maria Josefa Karolina Brader, Swiss Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (b. 1860)

March

– Alexandre Yersin, Swiss-French physician and bacteriologist (b. 1863) *

– Gisela Januszewska, Austrian physician (in Theresienstadt concentration camp) (b. 1867) *

– Rafael López Nussa, Puerto Rican physician (b. 1885) * March 6 – Jimmy Collins, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1870) * March 8 ** Alma del Banco, German painter (suicide) (b. 1862) ** Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, Indonesian independence leader (b.

) *

– Otto Freundlich, German painter, sculptor (killed in Majdanek concentration camp) (b. 1878) * March 10 ** Laurence Binyon, English poet and scholar (b. 1869) ** Tully Marshall, American character actor (b. 1864) *

** Czesława Kwoka, Polish Roman Catholic religious sister and blessed (killed in Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1928) ** Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor (b. 1869) *

– Jaap Nunes Vaz, Dutch journalist, writer and editor (killed in Sobibór extermination camp) (b. 1906) * March 19 – Frank Nitti, Italian-born American gangster (suicide) (b.

) * March 20 ** Lizika Jančar, Slovene Partisan, national hero (killed by militia) (b. 1919) ** Heinrich Zimmer, German-born Indologist, historian (pneumonia) (b. 1890) *

– Hans Woellke, German Olympic athlete (killed by partisans) (b. 1911) * March 23 – Mervyn Herbert, Viscount Clive, British peer, army officer (killed on active service in aviation accident) (b. 1904) * March 27 – George Monckton-Arundell, 8th Viscount Galway, British politician, 5th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1882) *

** Ben Davies (tenor), Ben Davies, British tenor (b. 1858) ** Lorenzo Gasparri, Italian admiral (killed on active service in accidental explosion) (b. 1894) ** Edward Heron-Allen, British polymath, lawyer, scientist and scholar (b. 1861) ** Robert W. Paul, British film director (b. 1869) ** Sergei Rachmaninoff, Soviet composer (b. 1873) * March 30 – Maria Restituta Kafka, German Roman Catholic religious sister and blessed (executed) (b. 1894) * March 31 – Pavel Milyukov, exiled Russian politician, founder and leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party (b. 1859)

April

* April 1 – Vahida Maglajlić, Yugoslav partisan, national hero (killed in combat) (b. 1907) * April 3 – Conrad Veidt, German actor (b. 1893) * April 5 – W. G. Howard Gritten, British barrister, writer and conservative politician (b. 1870) * April 6 – Alexandre Millerand, French politician, 41st Prime Minister of France and 11th President of France (b. 1859) * April 7 – Auguste Audollent, French historian, archaeologist (b. 1864) * April 8 ** Harry Baur, French actor (b. 1880) ** Itamar Ben-Avi, Israeli activist (b. 1882) ** Tomás Garrido Canabal, Mexican politician, revolutionary (b. 1891) ** Otto and Elise Hampel, German anti-Nazi resistance members (executed) (b. 1897 & 1903) ** Richard Sears (tennis), Richard Sears, American tennis champion (b. 1861) * April 9 – Philip Slier, Dutch Jewish typesetter (in Sobibór extermination camp) (b. 1923) * April 11 – Kim Myeong-sik, Korean independence activist (b. 1890) *

– Oskar Schlemmer, German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer (b. 1888) * April 16 – Carlos Arniches, Spanish playwright (b. 1866) * April 18 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (b. 1884) *

– Rihard Jakopič, Yugoslav painter (b. 1869) * April 24 ** Kenneth Whiting, United States Navy officer, submarine and naval aviation pioneer (b. 1881) ** Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, German general (b. 1878) * April 30 ** Eddy Hamel, American footballer (b. 1902; killed in Auschwitz) ** Otto Jespersen, Danish linguist, creator of Ido (language), Ido and Novial languages (b.1860) ** Beatrice Webb, British sociologist, economist, historian and social reformer (b. 1858)

May

* May 1 – Johan Oscar Smith, Norwegian Christian leader, founder of Brunstad Christian Church (b. 1871) * May 3 – Frank Maxwell Andrews, American general (plane crash) (b. 1884) * May 4 ** Cesira Ferrani, Italian soprano (b. 1863) ** Saverio Marotta, Italian naval officer (killed in action) (b. 1911) * May 5 ** Grzegorz Bolesław Frąckowiak, Polish Roman Catholic priest, martyr and blessed (executed) (b. 1911) ** Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, British politician, judge (b. 1870) * May 7 – Fethi Okyar, Turkish diplomat, politician and 2nd Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1880) * May 8 – Miroslav Šalom Freiberger, Yugoslav rabbi, writer and spiritual leader (killed at Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1903) *

** George, Crown Prince of Saxony, Catholic priest (b. 1893) ** Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer, author and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854) *

– Horst Hannig, German Luftwaffe fighter ace (b. 1921) * May 17 ** Johanna Elberskirchen, German feminist (b. 1864) ** Montagu Love, British actor (b. 1877) * May 19 – Kristjan Raud, Soviet painter, drawer (b. 1865) * May 20 – John Stone Stone, American physicist, inventor (b. 1869) * May 22 – Helen Taft, First Lady of the United States (b. 1861) * May 24 – Johannes Orasmaa, Estonian army general (in labour camp) (b. 1890) * May 25 – Ali Rikabi, 1st Prime Minister of Syria, 2-time Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1864) * May 26 – Edsel Ford, American businessman, president of Ford Motor Company (b. 1893) *

– Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1878) * May 29 – Yasuyo Yamasaki, Imperial Japanese Army officer (killed in action) (b. 1891) * May 31 ** Prince Georg of Bavaria, Catholic priest (b. 1880) ** Helmut Kapp, German Gestapo official (killed by partisans)

June

** István Bárczy, Hungarian politician (b. 1866) ** Leslie Howard, British actor (aircraft shot down) (b. 1893) * June 2 – Nile Kinnick, American athlete, Heisman Trophy winner (died on active service in aviation accident) (b. 1918) *

– Osgood Hanbury, British pilot (killed on active service) (b. 1917) * June 4 ** Francesco Pianzola, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1881) ** Kermit Roosevelt, American explorer, author (suicide) (b. 1889) * June 10 – Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco (b. 1878) * June 11 – Heisuke Abe, Japanese general (b.

) * June 12 – Hans Junkermann (actor), Hans Junkermann, German actor (b. 1872) * June 26 – Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist, physician (b. 1868) * June 28 – Pietro Porcelli, Italian sculptor (b. 1872) *

– Kristian Kristiansen (explorer), Kristian Kristiansen, Norwegian explorer (b. 1865)

July

Kazimierz Junosza Stepowski Polish actor

* July 2 – Alice Mary Dowd, American educator and poet (b. 1855) *

** Cevat Abbas Gürer, Turkish army officer (b. 1887) ** Gordon Sidney Harrington, Canadian politician (b. 1883) ** Zofia Leśniowska, Polish army officer (aviation accident) (b. 1912) ** Władysław Sikorski, Polish prime minister in exile (aviation accident) (b. 1881) ** Charles Stevenson (actor), Charles Stevenson, American silent film actor (b. 1887) * July 5 ** Leonardo Ferrulli, Italian pilot (killed in action) (b. 1918) ** Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski, Polish actor (b. 1880) * July 6 ** Teruo Akiyama, Japanese admiral (killed in action) (b. 1891) ** Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, Spanish-born Roman Catholic religious sister, canonized (b. 1889) * July 8 ** Jean Moulin, French resistance fighter (injuries from suicide attempt in custody) (b. 1899) ** Sir Harry Oakes, American-born British gold mine owner (murdered) (b. 1874) *

– Eugen Lovinescu, Romanian critic, academic and novelist (b. 1881) *

** Shunji Isaki, Japanese admiral (killed in action) (b. 1892) ** Cecilia Loftus, Scottish-born actress (b. 1876) * July 13 ** Lorenzo Barcelata, Mexican composer (b. 1898) ** Marianna Biernacka, Polish Roman Catholic religious sister, martyr and blessed (killed) (b. 1888) ** Luz Long, German long jump athlete (killed in action) (b. 1913) ** Alexander Schmorell, Russian-born German White Rose resistance member, Orthodox Church passion bearer and saint (executed) (b. 1917) * July 14 – Mariya Borovichenko, Soviet medical officer (killed in action) (b. 1925) * July 16 – Saul Raphael Landau, Polish Jewish lawyer, journalist, publicist and Zionist activist (b. 1870) *

** Martin Faust (actor), Martin Faust, American film actor (b.

) ** Giuseppe Terragni, Italian architect (b. 1904) * July 20 ** Maria Gay, Spanish opera singer (b. 1879) ** Charles Hazelius Sternberg, American fossil collector and paleontologist (b. 1850) * July 21 ** José Jurado de la Parra, Spanish journalist, poet and playwright (b. 1856) ** Charley Paddock, American sprinter (aviation accident) (b. 1900) ** Louis Vauxcelles, French art critic (b. 1870) ** Theodor von Guérard, German jurist, politician (b. 1863) * July 23 – Mario Nicolis di Robilant, Italian general (b. 1855) * July 26 – Luis Barros Borgoño, Chilean politician (b. 1858) * July 28 – Charles Granval, French actor (b. 1882) * July 29 – William Ewart Hart, Australian aviator, dentist (b. 1885) * July 30 – Max Eitingon, Belarusian-German medical doctor and psychoanalyst (b. 1881) * July 31 **Zdzisław Lubomirski, Polish aristocrat, landowner, lawyer, politician and activist (b. 1865) **James MacLachlan, British flying ace (b. 1919) **Hedley Verity, British cricketer (b. 1905) **Rodger Young, American soldier, remembered in the song "The Ballad of Rodger Young" (killed in action) (b. 1918)

August

* August 1 – Martyrs of Nowogródek, Polish nuns, martyrs and blessed (executed) (b. 1888–1916) **Lin Sen, Chinese chairman of the National Government of China (b. 1868) *

** Iosif Apanasenko, Soviet commander (killed in action) (b. 1890) ** Eva-Maria Buch, German resistance leader (executed) (b. 1921) * August 9 ** Franz Jägerstätter, Austrian conscientious objector, martyr and blessed (executed) (b. 1907) ** Chaïm Soutine, Russian-born painter (b. 1893) * August 12 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857) *

– Joe Kelley, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1871) * August 18 – Hans Jeschonnek, German general (suicide) (b. 1899) *

– Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857) * August 22 – Virgilio Dávila, Puerto Rican poet, educator, businessman and politician (b. 1869) *

** Ettore Muti, Italian Fascist politician (shot while under arrest) (b. 1902) ** Simone Weil, French philosopher (b. 1909) * August 26 – Ted Ray (golfer), Ted Ray, British golfer (b. 1877) * August 27 ** William de Burgh (philosopher), William de Burgh, British philosopher (b. 1866) ** Constantin Prezan, Romanian general, Marshal of Romania (b. 1861) *

– King

(b. 1894) * August 29 – Baba Nand Singh ji, Punjabi Sikh religious leader, saint (b. 1870) * August 31 – Gustav Bachmann, German naval officer, admiral (b. 1860)

September

* September 1 – Charles Atangana, Cameroonian chief (b. c.1880) * September 2 – Marsden Hartley, American modernism, American Modernist artist (b. 1877) * September 6 – Reginald McKenna, British Chancellor of the Exchequer 1915–1916 (b. 1863) *

** Géza Grünwald, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1910) ** Karlrobert Kreiten, German pianist (executed) (b. 1916) * September 8 – Julius Fučík (journalist), Julius Fučík, Czech resistance fighter (executed) (b. 1903) * September 9 ** Carlo Bergamini (admiral), Carlo Bergamini, Italian admiral (killed in action) (b. 1888) ** Salvatore John Cavallaro, American naval officer (killed in action) (b. 1920) ** Federico Martinengo, Italian pilot (killed in action) (b. 1899) * September 13 ** David Bacon (actor), David Bacon, American film actor (b. 1914) ** Ugo Cavallero, General of the Italian Army (suicide) (b. 1880) *

– (killed in Ponary massacre) ** Kazimierz Pelczar, Polish oncologist, academic (b. 1894) ** Mieczysław Witold Gutkowski, Polish lawyer (b. 1893) * September 19 – Germaine Cernay, French mezzo-soprano (b. 1900) *

** Elinor Glyn, British writer, critic (b. 1864) ** Ernst Trygger, Swedish professor, politician and 19th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1857) * September 26 - Henri Fertet,

fighter (b. 1926) * September 28 ** Sam Ruben, American chemist (b. 1913) ** Filippo Illuminato, Italian partisan, Gold Medal of Military Valour (b. 1930) * September 27 – Willoughby Hamilton, Irish tennis player (b. 1864) * September 29 – Mariano Goybet, French army general (b. 1861) * September 30 ** Johan Ludwig Mowinckel, Norwegian businessman, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1870) ** Adolf Paul, Swedish novelist, playwright (b. 1863)

October

** Carlos Blanco Galindo, 32nd President of Bolivia (b. 1882) ** Muhamed Hadžiefendić, Yugoslav army officer (killed by partisans) (b. 1898) * October 4 – Irena Iłłakowicz, Polish general (murdered) (b. 1906) * October 5 – Leon Roppolo, American jazz clarinetist (b. 1902) * October 6 – Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln, Hungarian adventurer (b. 1879) * October 7 – Prince Christoph of Hesse (aviation accident) (b. 1901) * October 8 **Marianne Golz, Austrian-born opera singer, World War II resistance member (executed) (b. 1895) **Wilhelm Hegeler, German novelist (b. 1870) * October 9 – Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865) * October 12 – Max Wertheimer, Austro-Hungarian psychologist (b. 1880) *

** Rudolf Beckmann, German SS officer (Sobibór uprising) (b. 1910) ** Siegfried Graetschus, German SS officer (Sobibór uprising) (b. 1916) ** Johann Niemann, German SS officer (Sobibór uprising) (b. 1913) * October 15 – William Penhallow Henderson, American painter, architect and furniture designer (b. 1877) *

– Margaret Bartholomew, American Civil Air Patrol officer (aviation accident on mission) (b. 1903) * October 19 – Camille Claudel, French sculptor (b. 1864) * October 21 – Dudley Pound, Sir Dudley Pound, British admiral (b. 1877) * October 22 – William Reginald Hall, Sir Reginald Hall, British admiral (b. 1870) * October 23 ** André Antoine, French actor (b. 1858) ** Ben Bernie, American jazz violinist (b. 1891) ** Antonio Legnani, Italian admiral (automobile accident) (b. 1888) ** Franceska Mann, Polish dancer (killed in Auschwitz concentration camp) (b. 1917) * October 24 – Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, Canadian poet, lawyer (b. 1912) * October 26 – Joseph E. Widener, American art collector and philanthropist (b. 1871) * October 28 – Aurel Stein, Sir Aurel Stein, Hungarian-born British archaeologist (b. 1862) * October 30 – Max Reinhardt, Austrian director (b. 1873)

November

** Samad Abdullayev, Soviet army officer (killed in action) (b. 1920) **Frank Campeau, American actor (b. 1864) ** Idhomene Kosturi, Albanian politician, acting Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1873) * November 7 – Dwight Frye, American character actor (b. 1899) *

– Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia (b. 1877) * November 10 – Blessed

, German Roman Catholic priests (executed): ** Johannes Prassek (b. 1911) ** Eduard Müller (martyr), Eduard Müller (b. 1911) ** Hermann Lange (b. 1912) ** Karl Friedrich Stellbrink (b. 1894) * November 13 – Maurice Denis, French painter (b. 1870) *

– Gurie Grosu, Romanian Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox priest and metropolitan (b. 1877) *

– Baruch Lopes Leão de Laguna, Dutch painter (b. 1864) *

** Lorenz Hart, American lyricist (b. 1895) ** Keiji Shibazaki, Japanese admiral (killed in action) (b. 1894) * November 23 – Charles Ray (actor), Charles Ray, American actor (b. 1891) * November 24 ** France Balantič, Yugoslav poet (killed in action) (b. 1921) ** Doris Miller, African-American sailor, Pearl Harbor survivor (killed in action) (b. 1919) ** Henry M. Mullinnix, American admiral (killed in action) (b. 1892) *

– Renato Cialente, Italian film actor (b. 1897) *

** Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (pilot), Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1909) ** Kiyoto Kagawa, Japanese admiral (killed in action) (b. 1895) ** Edward O'Hare, Edward "Butch" O'Hare, American fighter pilot (killed in action) (b. 1914) * November 28 – Aleksander Hellat, Soviet politician (b. 1881) *

– Zsolt Harsányi, Hungarian author, dramatist, translator and writer (b. 1887)

December

* December 1 ** Antonio de Viti de Marco, Italian economist (b. 1858) ** Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince, historian (b. 1862) *

– Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian poet, novelist, journalist and activist (killed in action as war correspondent) (b. 1902) * December 6 – G. O. Smith, English sportsman (b. 1872) * December 7 – Hamilton Lamb, Australian politician, soldier (in Japanese POW camp) (b. 1900) * December 8 – Donald Mackintosh (bishop), Donald Mackintosh, British clergyman, Roman Catholic bishop and reverend (b. 1876) * December 9 ** George Cooper (actor), George Cooper, American silent film actor (b. 1892) ** Georges Dufrénoy, French post-impressionist painter (b. 1870) * December 10 – Charles Belcher (actor), Charles Belcher, American film actor (b. 1872) * December 13 – Erich Garske, German political activist (executed) (b. 1907) * December 14 – John Harvey Kellogg, American physician, nutritionist (b. 1852) *

– Fats Waller, African-American jazz pianist (pneumonia) (b. 1904) * December 18 – Hector Gray, British Royal Air Force officer (executed in Japanese Prisoner of War camp) (b. 1911) * December 20 – Edward L. Beach Sr., American naval officer, author (b. 1867) * December 22 – Beatrix Potter, British children's author, illustrator (b. 1866) * December 23 – Frederic Fisher, Sir Frederic Fisher, British admiral (b. 1851) * December 25 – William Irving (actor), William Irving, German-born American film actor (b. 1893) * December 26 –

, German admiral (killed in action) (b. 1898) * December 27 ** Rupert Julian, New Zealand actor, director (b. 1879) ** Creelman MacArthur, Canadian businessman, politician (b. 1874) *

– Hobart Bosworth, American film actor, director, writer and producer (b. 1867)

Nobel Prizes

* Nobel Prize in Physics, Physics – Otto Stern * Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemistry – George de Hevesy * Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Physiology or Medicine – Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Edward Adelbert Doisy * Nobel Prize in Literature, Literature – not awarded * Nobel Peace Prize, Peace – not awarded

References

{{Authority control 1943, Articles containing video clips