1943
| 
| 
1 January 1943 Soviet troops take Velikiye Luki, 400 km south of Leningrad, after vicious street fighting. The Soviets also capture Elista, near the Caspian Sea.
2 January 1943 Allied troops recapture Buna (Gangara), Papua from the Japanese.
William Walton’s (40) Spitfire Prelude and Fugue for orchestra is performed for the first time, in Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, under the baton of the composer.
An orchestral suite from Virgil Thomson’s (46) music to the film The Plow That Broke the Plains is performed for the first time, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music conducted by the composer. See 25 May 1936.
3 January 1943 Soviet troops capture Malgobek in the Caucasus.
4 January 1943 The Red Army captures Mozdok in the Caucasus.
5 January 1943 Soviet troops take Nalchik and Prokhladny in the Caucasus, as well as Morozovsk and Tsimlyansk, southwest of Stalingrad.
Four “portraits” for cello and piano by Virgil Thomson (46) are performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York: In a Bird Cage: A Portrait of Lise Deharme, Fanfare for France: A Portrait of Max Kahn, Tango Lullaby: A Portrait of Mlle (Flavie) Alvarez de Toledo and Bugles and Birds: A Portrait of Pablo Picasso.
6 January 1943 The US Office of Price Administration bans pleasure driving and requires a cut in heating oil for non-dwellings by 25%.
Kotovsky, a film with music by Sergey Prokofiev (51), is released in the USSR.
The Seventy-eighth Congress of the United States convenes in Washington. The Democratic Party of President Franklin Roosevelt maintains a majority in both houses.
Sammy’s Fighting Sons for chorus and orchestra by Roy Harris (44) is performed for the first time, in New York.
8 January 1943 German commander General von Paulus rejects a Soviet ultimatum to surrender his troops at Stalingrad.
Soviet troops capture Zimovniki, 200 km east of Rostov-on-Don.
9 January 1943 The government of Japanese-occupied China formally declares war on Great Britain and the United States.
The Red Army renews its assault on Stalingrad.
Psalm 64 and Isaiah Chapter 35 for voice and piano by Stefan Wolpe (40) is performed for the first time, at the home of Josef Wagner, New York.
11 January 1943 Soviet troops capture Pyatigorsk, Georgiyevsk and Mineralnye Vody, north of the Caucasus.
New Spalicek, a cycle for voice and piano by Bohuslav Martinu (52), is performed for the first time, in New York.
12 January 1943 A Soviet offensive blows through Hungarian troops in the Voronezh front and moves headlong for Kharkov (Kharkiv). The Second Hungarian Army is virtually annihilated. 40,000 are killed and 70,000 are taken prisoner.
An orchestral suite from Virgil Thomson’s (46) music to the film The River is performed for the first time, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
13 January 1943 A 15-km-wide corridor into Leningrad, south of Lake Ladoga, is opened.
Two works by William Schuman (32) are performed for the first time, at an all-Schuman concert in Town Hall, New York: Concerto for piano and small orchestra and Holiday Song for chorus to words of Taggard.
14 January 1943 Soviet troops capture Pitomnik Airfield, leaving the Germans only one airfield in Stalingrad.
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill confer at Casablanca, Morocco in a meeting which lasts until 25 January.
15 January 1943 441 partisans are killed by the Germans near Kletnya, Russia, west of Bryansk.
Germans, Italians and Croatians begin an offensive against Yugoslav partisans, driving them from Bihac 320 km south to Montenegro.
The ninth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for France by Virgil Thomson (46), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati. See 5 January 1943.
16 January 1943 The British carry out their first heavy air raid on Berlin in 14 months.
Brian Ferneyhough is born in Coventry.
Iraq declares war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Four Dances (What So Proudly We Hail) for tenor, prepared piano, and percussion by John Cage (30) is performed for the first time, at the Central High School of Needle Trades in New York.
17 January 1943 Soviet troops capture Millerovo, 320 km southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Concerto for two pianos by David Diamond (27) is performed for the first time, in New York.
18 January 1943 Soviet forces capture Cherkessk, south of Stavropol and Divnoye, southwest of Elista.
Soviet forces take Valuyki, 140 km east of Kharkov (Kharkiv) and Ostrogozhsk, 225 km northeast of Kharkov.
German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to resume daily deportations to death camps, halted four months ago. 600 Jews are killed in the street during this roundup. 6,000 are deported to Treblinka.
Piano Sonata no.7 op.83 by Sergey Prokofiev (51) is performed for the first time, in the Hall of the Home of Unions, Moscow. It is one of his greatest successes.
19 January 1943 Some Jews in the Warsaw ghetto fire on Germans with small arms. The Germans return fire.
Allied troops capture Tarhunah, southeast of Tripoli (Tarabulus).
20 January 1943 Soviet troops take Proletarskiy, 90 km north of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Operation Weiss begins, a sweep by Germans, Italians, Cetniks, and Ustase against Yugoslav partisans. The Partisans are forced into southern Bosnia.
Chile breaks relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan. This leaves Argentina as the only country in the Western Hemisphere to retain relations with the Axis.
21 January 1943 Hundreds of Jews are killed in the Warsaw Ghetto as Germans throw hand grenades into buildings wherein Jews resist deportations. The Germans then retire from the ghetto. Twelve Germans are killed.
Several hundred patients from the Jewish mental hospital in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, along with 50 staff (20 of whom are volunteers), are transported east by the Germans. Upon their arrival at Auschwitz, all are gassed.
1941 op.90 for orchestra by Sergey Prokofiev (51) is performed for the first time, in Sverdlovsk.
Béla Bartók (61) gives his last public performance, in the United States premiere of his Concerto for two pianos, percussion, and orchestra with his wife and the New York Philharmonic under Fritz Reiner.
22 January 1943 Australian and American troops overrun Japanese resistance west and south of Sanananda, New Guinea. 10,000 people were killed in the nine-day battle. Almost no Japanese are taken prisoner.
Soviet forces capture Salsk, 150 km north of Stavropol.
30 Jewish orphans are taken from an orphanage in Marseille and, with their guardian, transported to their deaths in Sobibor.
General de Gaulle arrives in Casablanca to take part in the conference with Roosevelt and Churchill.
The tenth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, A Fanfare for Freedom by Morton Gould, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
23 January 1943 Allied (Britain-New Zealand) forces capture Tripoli (Tarabulus), Libya.
Germans attempt to round up Jews in Italian-occupied France but Italian authorities refuse to cooperate.
At a glittering charity event for Russian war relief at Carnegie Hall, which is attended by Eleanor Roosevelt and Leopold Stokowski, Black, Brown, and Beige by Duke Ellington (43) is performed for the first time. The composer calls it “a tone parallel to the history of the American Negro.” The audience is disappointed, the critics savage the work. This is the first appearance of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
24 January 1943 The Red Army captures Voronezh. They also take Armavir, just west of Stavropol. Red Army troops take Gumrak Airport, cutting off the Germans in Stalingrad from resupply by air.
Axis troops retreating from Libya cross into Tunisia to form a defensive line west of Médenine.
At Wierzbica, near Radom, three Polish families are shot to death for hiding Jews.
869 Jews from Westerbork, Netherlands and 1,000 Jews from Berlin are sent to Auschwitz.
Sonatina for violin and piano by Ulysses Kay (26) is performed for the first time, in New York, Leonard Bernstein (24) at the piano.
26 January 1943 All members of the Hitler Youth age 15 and above are conscripted to work anti-aircraft guns.
Igor Stravinsky (60) Darius Milhaud (50) and their wives attend a performance of a ballet to Arnold Schoenberg’s (68) Verklärte Nacht called Pillar of Fire conducted by the composer in San Francisco. The two are impressed but do not make any attempt to see Schoenberg afterwards.
27 Janauary 1943 Germany begins the civil conscription of women.
In the first attack on Germany by US air forces, Wilhelmshaven and Emden are bombed.
28 January 1943 Soviet troops take Kastornoye, east of Kursk.
The US government announces that Americans of Japanese descent will be allowed to enlist in the armed forces.
29 January 1943 The eleventh of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for Airmen by Leo Sowerby, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
30 January 1943 Soviet troops take Tikhoretsk, 150 km south of Rostov-on-Don, and clear the Maykop oil fields of Germans.
RAF bombers attack Berlin by day and Hamburg by night.
31 January 1943 General von Paulus, commander of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad, is created a Field Marshal by Adolf Hitler. At the same moment, von Paulus and his staff are in Red Army custody, signing the surrender of his troops.
Divertimento for chamber orchestra by Richard Strauss (78) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
1 February 1943 The Japanese begin a secret evacuation of Guadalcanal.
Soviet troops take Svatovo, 150 km southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Sergey Rakhmaninov (69) and his wife receive the final papers creating them American citizens.
2 February 1943 The last German fighters in Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army. Of the 284,000 Axis troops in the Stalingrad trap, 160,000 were killed, 34,000 evacuated by air and 90,000 taken prisoner. The POWs are marched to Siberia where most of them will die.
Fantasy and Toccata for piano by Bohuslav Martinu (52) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
3 February 1943 Soviet troops take Kupyansk, 100 km southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
The loss of Stalingrad is announced to the German people. 4-6 February are to be days of mourning.
Allied troops in Libya cross into Tunisia.
Saxophone Quartet op.102 by Florent Schmitt (72) is performed for the first time, in Salle Gaveau, Paris.
Pole Star for this Year for alto, tenor, chorus, and orchestra by Ross Lee Finney (36) to words of MacLeish is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the Mutual Broadcasting System originating in New York.
4 February 1943 Soviets land amphibious troops behind the German lines at Novorossisk and hold the beachhead until friendly troops advance along the Black Sea shore to link up.
5 February 1943 Soviet forces take Izyum, 120 km southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
The twelfth of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for Poland by Harl McDonald, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
6 February 1943 Red Army troops capture Yeysk on the Sea of Azov and Lisichansk on the Donets.
A Los Angeles court acquits actor Errol Flynn of three counts of statutory rape.
7 February 1943 Japanese forces complete their secret withdrawal from Guadalcanal thus ending the battle for the island. In the exactly six months since American troops landed there over 25,000 people have died for control of Guadalcanal.
Soviet troops capture Azov and Kramatorsk, 185 km east of Dnepropetrovsk.
Shoe rationing begins in the United States.
John Cage (30) and his music gain national attention when he directs a program of percussion music at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in a League of Composers concert. Included is the premiere of Amores for two prepared pianos and two percussion trios. Also premiered is Ostinato pianissimo by Henry Cowell (45) conducted by Cage.
8 February 1943 Soviet troops occupy Kursk.
10 February 1943 Soviet forces take Belgorod, 70 km north of Kharkov (Kharkiv) and Chuguyev, 30 km southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Algerian leader Ferat Abbas announces the Algerian Manifesto, demanding an independent Algerian state.
Hasards op.96 for piano quartet by Florent Schmitt (72) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
12 February 1943 Soviet troops take Lozovaya, 110 km east of Dnepropetrovsk.
Actions begin by Germans against the Jews of Thessaloniki. Yellow badges are required and two ghettos are begun.
14 February 1943 Soviet forces capture Rostov-on-Don and Voroshilovgrad, 150 km to the north.
German forces attack the Allies (United States-Great Britain-Free France) through the Faid Pass, Tunisia.
Three works for prepared piano by John Cage (30) are performed for the first time, at the Arts Club of Chicago by the composer to dances of Merce Cunningham: In the Name of the Holocaust, Ad Lib, and Shimmera.
15 February 1943 German and Italian troops take Gafsa, Tunisia while the British capture Ben Gardan.
16 February 1943 Soviet forces capture Kharkov (Kharkiv), 400 km east of Kiev and Krasnodar.
Allied troops take Medenine, Tunisia.
Residents of Munich awake to find “Down With Hitler” painted on a wall on a main street.
American (married to a German) Mildred Harnack-Fish is executed by guillotine at Plötzensee on personal orders of Adolf Hitler. She was accused of being part of a resistance organization and passing information to the United States and the USSR.
17 February 1943 German forces capture Qasserine, Feriana, and Sbeitla, Tunisia.
Sergey Rakhmaninov (69) gives his last performance, in Knoxville. He is so ill afterward that he is forced to return home to Los Angeles.
Aaron Copland’s (42) Music for Movies, an arrangement for chamber orchestra of music from three of his film scores, is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
18 February 1943 Soviet troops take Pavlograd, 60 km east of Dnepropetrovsk.
Anti-Nazi leaflets are scattered around the entrance to Munich University. Three young people responsible, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst, are arrested.
20 February 1943 German forces attack through the Qasserine Pass, Tunisia causing a retreat of 30 km by US troops towards the Hamra Pass.
Die Kluge by Carl Orff (47) to his own words after the Brothers Grimm is performed for the first time, in the Städtische Bühnen, Frankfurt-am-Main.
The 13th of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for Commandos by Bernard Rogers (50), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
21 February 1943 American troops occupy Mbanika and Pavuvu in the Russell Islands, northwest of Guadalcanal.
German forces begin an offensive towards Kharkov (Kharkiv).
On the 25th anniversary of the Red Army, King George VI (a distant relative of Tsar Nikolay II) presents a sword of honor to the City of Stalingrad. Prime Minister Churchill will present the sword to General Secretary Stalin when they meet at Teheran in November.
Fanfares for the Red Army for brass by William Walton (40) is performed for the first time, in the Royal Albert Hall, London. On the same program is the premiere of A Solemn Fanfare for brass by Arnold Bax (59).
Music for MacNeice’s play Pericles by Benjamin Britten (29) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC.
22 February 1943 The Red Army takes Sumy, 300 km east of Kiev.
Saudi Arabia breaks relations with Italy.
The German offensive in Tunisia is halted by British and American forces north of Qasserine.
Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst, all in their early twenties, are found guilty in a Munich court of treason for distributing anti-war leaflets. They are sentenced to death. A few hours later, the sentence is carried out by guillotine.
Vidkun Quisling orders the mobilization of the entire civil population of Norway for public works projects in support of the military.
Bulgaria agrees to deport 11,000 Jews from Bulgaria, occupied Greece, and Yugoslavia to Treblinka.
Immortality for chorus by John Ireland (63) to words of Crompton is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Bedford.
23 February 1943 39 Jewish boys are murdered by Germans in Zamosc, Poland by means of Phenol injections.
British Prime Minister Churchill rejects a petition for the release of Mohandas K. Gandhi.
25 February 1943 A raid by American bombers on Nuremberg begins the Allied policy of round-the -clock air raids. Americans bomb by day, British by night.
Six Norwegians parachuted into Norway nine days ago, together with four from an earlier mission, destroy the German heavy water plant at Vermark. None of the saboteurs will ever be caught.
26 February 1943 George Bernard Shaw writes that King George should release Mohandas K. Gandhi and “apologize to him for the mental defectiveness of his cabinet.”
Symphony no.5 by Roy Harris (45) is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
Prayer, 1943 for orchestra by William Schuman (32) is performed for the first time, in Pittsburgh. The name will be changed to Prayer in Time of War.
The 14th of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for the Medical Corps by Anis Fuleihan, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
Vladimir Ussachevsky (32), currently a member of the US Army, marries Elizabeth Denison Kray, a poet, in Seattle.
Sergey Rakhmaninov (69) arrives home in Los Angeles after a train ride of 60 hours from New Orleans.
27 February 1943 Authorities round up the last 8,000 Jews in Berlin, mostly factory workers. All of them are deported to the death camps within 24 hours.
Allied forces retake Qasserine and Feriana from the Germans.
The US Treasury begins minting zinc-coated steel pennies to save on copper.
28 February 1943 Allied forces recapture Sbeitla, Tunisia from the Germans.
Fish in the unruffled lakes for voice and piano by Benjamin Britten (29) to words of Auden is performed for the first time, in London by Peter Pears and the composer.
1 March 1943 Soviet troops take Demyansk, 280 km south of Leningrad.
2 March 1943 Bulgaria begins to round up Jews in Thrace and Macedonia for transport north.
American troops reenter Sbeitla, Tunisia.
1,000 Jews are sent from Paris to Auschwitz and killed on arrival.
3 March 1943 Soviet troops take Rzhev, 210 km west of Moscow in fierce fighting, as well as Lgov, west of Kursk.
Dmitri Shostakovich (36) arrives in Moscow to take up permanent residence. He and his family have finally been granted a Moscow apartment. They will arrive later this month.
Variations for orchestra op.30 by Anton Webern (59) is performed for the first time, in Winterthur, Switzerland. The composer is able to obtain a visa to attend the premiere. He will never again hear his music in public.
4 March 1943 A Japanese attempt to reinforce Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea is beaten back by Australians and Americans in the Bismarck Sea. Twelve ships are sunk, 3,500 people killed.
A new German offensive begins near Poltava and Izyum, south of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Three Choruses from Alice in Wonderland by Irving Fine (28) is performed for the first time, in Sanders Theatre, Harvard University.
5 March 1943 The German offensive in Ukraine inflicts heavy casualties west of Izyum but they are unable to cross the Donets due to floating ice.
The Royal Air Force launches a massive bombing strike on the city of Essen flattening 65 hectares of the city.
Edwin Johannes Indegard Linkomies replaces Johann Wilhelm Rangell as Prime Minister of Finland.
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs for voice and piano by John Cage (30) to words of Joyce is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York.
The 15th of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for the American Soldier by Felix Borowski, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
6 March 1943 German forces attack the Allies (Great Britain-New Zealand) around Medenine, Tunisia suffering heavy losses and gaining no strategic result.
In Zagreb, Catholic Archbishop Alois Stepinac complains to Croat dictator Ante Pavelic about the deportations of Jews married to Christians. The practice is ended. Nothing is said about deportation of Jews not married to Christians.
7 March 1943 The unfinished Mass in E flat for chorus and organ by Leos Janácek (†14) is performed for the first time, in the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Brno-Zidenice.
An orchestral suite from the ballet Les Animaux modèles by Francis Poulenc (44) is performed for the first time, in the Salle du Conservatoire, Paris.
9 March 1943 We Will Never Die, a pageant by Hecht with music by Kurt Weill (43), is performed for the first time, in Madison Square Garden, New York. The work is a collaboration by several prominent Jewish members of the entertainment industry designed to highlight the accomplishments of Jews through history and express solidarity with the Jews of occupied Europe.
10 March 1943 German troops begin a major assault on Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Sechs Studien für Pianoforte op.51 by Hans Pfitzner (73) are performed for the first time, in Vienna.
11 March 1943 German forces penetrate into Kharkov (Kharkiv) amid fierce fighting.
Bulgarian troops surround three cities in Macedonia with large Jewish populations and begin rounding up Jews for transport to death camps.
Cabin in the Sky, a film with music partly by Duke Ellington (43), is given its premiere in Dallas. The film was released last month.
12 March 1943 Soviet troops take Vyazma, 220 km west of Moscow, without a fight.
100,000 workers in Turin and Genoa go on strike, halting war production.
Stephen Vincent Benét dies in New York at the age of 44.
The 16th of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland (42), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
14 March 1943 String Quartet no.1 by Vincent Persichetti (27) is performed for the first time, in New York.
15 March 1943 German forces recapture Kharkov (Kharkiv) from the Soviets.
Germans begin deporting the Jews of Thessaloniki.
16 March 1943 The administration of French Guiana rejects Vichy rule and institutes a government loyal to Free France.
La rosa del sogno, a ballet by Alfredo Casella (59), is performed for the first time, at the Rome Opera.
17 March 1943 Japanese troops push Indians back north of Rathedaung, 40 km north of Akyab, Burma (Sittwe, Myanmar).
The Bulgarian Parliament votes to prohibit the deportation of Jews from within Bulgaria’s pre-war boundaries.
The People’s Land, a film with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (70) is shown for the first time, privately, at the British Ministry of Information.
Secrets, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (51), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
Septuor à vent op.165 for flute, oboe, english horn, clarinet, alto saxophone, horn, and bassoon by Charles Koechlin (75) is performed for the first time, in Brussels.
The last three movements of String Quartet no.1: From the Salvation Army by Charles Ives (68) are performed for the first time, in a broadcast performance originating in New York. See 24 April 1957.
18 March 1943 American forces retake Gafsa, Tunisia.
19 March 1943 German forces take Belgorod, 70 km north of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
20 March 1943 British forces attack the German and Italian defenders of Mareth, Tunisia.
Rationing of meat, canned fish, cheeses, butter, margarine, and other fats and oils goes into effect in the United States.
22 March 1943 Joseph Schwantner is born in Chicago.
23 March 1943 Archbishop Damaskinos protests the deportation of Jews to the puppet Greek government, to no avail.
The British attack on Mareth ends, without strategic result.
Elections to the Danish Folketing take place during German occupation. Gains are made by the Conservative Peoples Party and the Social Democrats.
25 March 1943 2,000 Jews are taken from Zolkiewka, Poland to a nearby forest and killed.
26 March 1943 Allied (Great Britain-New Zealand) forces break through the German defenses south of El Hamma, Tunisia.
William Schuman’s (32) cantata A Free Song (Secular Cantata no.2) to words of Whitman for chorus and orchestra is performed for the first time, in Boston. See 3 May 1943.
Sergey Rakhmaninov (69) passes into a coma, in Los Angeles.
American naval forces attack a convoy attempting to support Japanese forces on the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska. The Japanese disengage and withdraw.
27 March 1943 395 British planes drop 1,050 tons of bombs on Berlin in 50 minutes.
The US Army Chief of Ordnance reports in Washington that the army is using a new anti-tank weapon called a “bazooka” based on the “rocket gun” principle.
Michael Tippett’s (38) String Quartet no.2 is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
A cable arrives at Sergey Rakhmaninov’s (69) Beverly Hills home congratulating him on his 70th birthday. It is signed by several notable Soviet composers.
28 March 1943 01:30 Sergey Vasilyevich Rakhmaninov dies of cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, California, four days before his 70th birthday.
29 March 1943 New Zealanders take Gabes and El Hamma, Tunisia in fierce fighting.
30 March 1943 A funeral mass in honor of Sergey Rakhmaninov takes place in the Los Angeles Russian Orthodox Church. His earthly remains will be buried in Kensico Cemetery near Valhalla, New York.
31 March 1943 The Rogers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! opens at the St. James Theatre, New York.
Magnificat for chamber orchestra by Norman Dello Joio (30) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York. It wins the Town Hall Composition Award of $250.
2 April 1943 Air Minister Hermann Göring orders that air raid patrol duty is compulsory for all able-bodied German men and women.
The 17th of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for the Signal Corps by Howard Hanson (46), is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
3 April 1943 British planes drop 900 tons of bombs on Essen.
Concierto heroico for piano and orchestra by Joaquín Rodrigo (41) is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Carlos, Lisbon. It is a popular and critical success.
Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? for voice and piano by Kurt Weill (43) to words of Brecht is performed for the first time, at Hunter College, New York sung by Lotte Lenya.
4 April 1943 Excerpts from Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae for chorus by Ernst Krenek (42) are performed for the first time, in Bridgman Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota. See 5 October 1958.
5 April 1943 American bombers intending to hit an aircraft factory in Antwerp go off target and hit a residential area killing 936 civilians, including 209 children in a school.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, protestant theologian, is arrested by German authorities and charged with “subverting the armed forces.” He is imprisoned.
British planes drop 1,400 tons of bombs on Kiel.
6 April 1943 Allied (Great Britain-India) forces overcome the Italian defenders of Wadi Akarit, north of Gabes, Tunisia.
The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery is published in New York by Reynal and Hitchcock.
William Walton’s (41) ballet The Quest, to a scenario by Moore, is performed for the first time, in the New Theatre, London. See 3 June 1961.
7 April 1943 180 Japanese planes attack Tulagi and Guadalcanal, sinking four ships.
Elements of American (from the west) and Indian (from the east) forces meet in Tunisia, thus encircling the German and Italian defenders.
Ioannis Dimitriou Rallis replaces Konstantinos Ioannou Logothetopoulos as Prime Minister of Greece under German occupation.
Bolivia declares war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Suite Concertante for violin and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (52) is performed for the first time, in New York.
Serenade no.3 op.17 for piano trio by Vincent Persichetti (27) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
8 April 1943 The Morning Cometh for chorus by Henry Cowell (46) to words of Furness is performed for the first time, at St. Peter, Minnesota.
9 April 1943 Japanese planes again attack the Solomon Islands, sinking two ships.
Festmusik für den Trumpetercorps der Stadt Wien by Richard Strauss (78) is performed for the first time, from the tower of the Vienna Rathaus under the direction of the composer.
Allied (United States-Great Britain) forces take Kairovan (Qairouan), Tunisia.
10 April 1943 Allied forces capture Sfax, Tunisia.
12 April 1943 A massive Japanese air attack on Port Moresby has little strategic effect.
The bodies of 4,100 Polish officers are found in the Katyn Forest, Poland.
The Axis retreat halts at Enfida, 75 km south of Tunis. British troops take Sousse, 120 km south of Tunis.
13 April 1943 British troops take Enfida, Tunisia.
In a ceremony before 5,000 people in Washington, President Roosevelt inaugurates the Jefferson Memorial on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth.
Lark for baritone and chorus by Aaron Copland (42) to words of Taggard is performed for the first time, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
15 April 1943 Dirge. In Memory of Thomas Wolfe for orchestra by Morton Feldman (17) is performed for the first time, at the High School of Music and Art, New York.
16 April 1943 The zoom lens for television cameras is first demonstrated by NBC in New York.
The last of 18 patriotic fanfares for brass and percussion commissioned by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare for the Merchant Marine by Eugene Goosens, is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.
18 April 1943 American aircraft shoot down a plane carrying Japanese commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands. Yamamoto dies in the crash.
Trois Chants op.98 for voice and orchestra by Florent Schmitt (72) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
19 April 1943 Salute to Sydney, a fanfare for brass by Arnold Bax (59), is performed for the first time, in a BBC Overseas broadcast.
2,000 SS infantry with tanks enter the Warsaw Ghetto with the intention of liquidating it and the 70,000 Jews left inside. To their amazement they meet armed resistance from 1,500 residents with 17 rifles and some Molotov cocktails. The battle will go on for weeks.
Jews and Belgian resistance fighters attack a train of deportees from Malines Camp near Brussels. 220 are killed but 150 manage to escape. This is the only time a train deporting Jews to a death camp is attacked.
20 April 1943 1,166 Jews are deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz.
La Capitaine Fracasse, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (51), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
22 April 1943 A federal court in New Delhi rules that the rule under which 8,000 Congress Party members (including Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru) have been imprisoned is invalid.
Allied (Great Britain-United States) forces begin the final assault on the German and Italian defenders in Tunisia.
23 April 1943 Paul Hindemith (47) directs the first of several concerts of early music he will give over the next ten years at Yale University.
24 April 1943 The SS begins all-out operations against the Warsaw ghetto.
The inaugural concert of Edgard Varèse’s (59) Greater New York Chorus takes place in Washington Irving High School, New York.
Drei Lieder von Bertolt Brecht for voice and piano by Stefan Wolpe (40) is performed for the first time, in Heckscher Theatre, New York.
25 April 1943 The USSR breaks diplomatic relations with the Polish government in London over allegations of massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest.
28 April 1943 Two songs by Irving Fine (28) for a Harvard Dramatic Club production of García Lorca’s play Doña Rosita are performed for the first time, at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two songs are Because I Caught a Glimpse of You, and What the Flowers Say.
30 April 1943 The Germans deport 2,000 Jews from Wlodawa, Poland to Sobibor. Upon arrival, they attack their SS guards. All of the Jews are killed.
1 May 1943 On May Day a massive anti-German rally takes place in Sofiya, Bulgaria. 700 people are arrested.
US President Roosevelt orders a government takeover of all coal mines facing a strike by about 530,000 miners.
Variations on a Theme of Rossini for cello and piano by Bohuslav Martinu (52) is performed for the first time, in New York.
2 May 1943 The United Mine Workers announce a two-week truce in their threatened strike during which an agreement will be attempted.
3 May 1943 In Croatia, a final attempt to collect all Jews missed in earlier roundups takes place. All those captured are sent to Auschwitz.
American troops take Mateur, Tunisia, 50 km northwest of Tunis.
William Schuman (32) turns on his radio at home to hear news about the fighting in Tunisia. Instead, he learns that he has won the first Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Secular Cantata no.2, A Free Song. See 26 March 1943.
The first and fourth movements of American Melting Pot for chamber orchestra by Henry Cowell (46) are performed for the first time, in Carnegie Chamber Hall, New York. See 2 October 1941.
Harpalus, a song by Charles Ives (68) to anonymous words, is performed for the first time, at the YMCA Assembly Hall in Houston.
4 May 1943 Admiral Horthy suspends the Hungarian Parliament indefinitely to end fascist attacks on the government.
5 May 1943 Soviet troops capture Krymsk, northeast of Novorossisk.
Martial law is declared in Bulgaria. Sofiya is blockaded and a house-to-house search finds 50 Communists in hiding.
6 May 1943 Dawn. British forces begin the final assault on Tunis, capturing Massicault. Meanwhile, American troops attack on three fronts toward Bizerte, Ferryville (Manzel Bourguiba) and Protville, northwest of Tunis.
7 May 1943 British forces enter Tunis while American troops capture Bizerte.
Two of the Trois sonatines pour flûte seule op.184/2-3 by Charles Koechlin (75) are performed for the first time, in the École Normale de Musique, Paris.
8 May 1943 British troops drive into the retreating Germans and Italians as they try to make a defensive stand on Cape Bon, Tunisia. All elements of the Luftwaffe in North Africa are removed to Sicily.
German troops surround Jewish headquarters in the Warsaw ghetto. As they seal the building and send in gas, 100 Jews inside kill each other and themselves.
In a talk to the Congress of Physics in Puebla, Mexico, Dr. Nabor Carrillo predicts that Mexico City will sink into the earth before the end of the century.
9 May 1943 Axis troops in Tunisia surrender unconditionally.
10 May 1943 About 75 Warsaw ghetto fighters escape through the sewers.
The National Library of Peru in Lima is destroyed by fire. Over 100,000 books and 40,000 manuscripts and historical documents are lost.
Visions de l’Amen for two pianos by Olivier Messiaen (34) is performed for the first time, by Yvonne Loriod and the composer, in the Gallerie Charpentier, Paris. It is Ms. Loriod’s first move up from page-turner to musical collaborator with Messiaen. The invited audience contains the most important luminaries of occupied Paris, including Francis Poulenc (44), Paul Valéry, Jean Cocteau, Roland-Manuel, Pierre Boulez (18) and Christian Dior.
11 May 1943 American forces land on Attu Island in the Aleutians.
12 May 1943 The last pocket of Axis troops in North Africa ignoring the general surrender gives up. 238,243 Germans and Italians have been taken prisoner in Tunisia.
A suite from Alberto Ginastera’s (27) unperformed ballet Estancia is performed for the first time, in Buenos Aires. See 19 August 1952.
13 May 1943 The last Axis troops, 250,000 in all, leave North Africa.
British planes drop 1,000 tons of bombs on Bochum.
14 May 1943 Japanese troops capture Maungdaw, Burma, on the border with India.
Zoltán Kodály (60) is elected corresponding member of the Department of Philology and Aesthetics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
15 May 1943 To celebrate the end of the Battle for the Warsaw Ghetto, SS General Jürgen Stroop destroys the Tlomacki Synagogue. The Jews, with only small arms, held off the SS infantry and tanks for five weeks, the only armed, organized resistance by Jews to Nazi atrocities. In the battle, 300 Germans were killed along with 7,000 Jews. A further 7,000 Jews were transported to Treblinka while 42,000 are sent to labor camps in the Lublin district. 10,000 Jews find refuge in Christian Warsaw, although a third of these will be discovered. General Stroop receives the Iron Cross.
16 May 1943 British bombers using “bouncing bombs” attack the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams which control the water level in the industrial Ruhr area. Two dams are breached causing considerable damage and the deaths of 1,268 people, including 700 Soviets in a slave labor camp.
18 May 1943 Chile breaks diplomatic relations with Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Vichy France.
22 May 1943 The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Third Communist International decides to dismantle itself.
23 May 1943 The original band setting of Commando March by Samuel Barber (33) is performed for the first time, in Convention Hall, Atlantic City. See 29 October 1943.
24 May 1943 Dr. Joseph Mengele arrives in Auschwitz to carry out experiments on the inmates. He will kill several thousand.
26 May 1943 After an outbreak of typhoid in their barracks, all 1,042 Romani currently residing in Auschwitz are sent to the gas chambers.
The National Committee of the Resistance meets for the first time, in Paris. 14 Resistance leaders representing eight groups form a unified front under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle.
Meat rationing is introduced in Canada.
28 May 1943 An orchestral arrangement of four dance episodes from Aaron Copland’s (42) ballet Rodeo is performed for the first time, in Boston. Only three of the episodes are performed. See 16 October 1942 and 22 June 1943.
29 May 1943 Japanese forces on Kiska Island initiate a suicide attack against the Americans. All but 29 attackers are killed. Over 3,000 people have died in the Aleutian campaign.
British planes attack Wuppertal, engulfing the center of the city in a firestorm. 2,450 people are killed, 118,000 left homeless.
30 May 1943 Chiang Kai-shek replaces Lin Sen as President of China.
2 June 1943 German forces launch several attacks on Kursk.
3 June 1943 150 Jews are found hiding in a bunker under the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. The bunker is destroyed.
Two Polish farmers, Stefan Kaczmarski and Stanislaw Stojka are shot by the Germans for hiding three Jews.
A French Committee of National Liberation is formed in Algiers to administer Free French affairs.
The Resistance destroys more than 300 tons of tires at the Michelin factory in Clement-Ferrand.
Beginning today and continuing through 7 June, servicemen and civilians riot in Los Angeles, randomly attacking hispanics and blacks on the streets.
US President Roosevelt orders striking coal miners in 18 states back to work by 7 June.
4 June 1943 The military of Argentina takes control, replacing President Ramón S. Castillo Barrionuevo with Arturo Rawson Corvalán as President. US Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox hails the coup.
The United Mine Workers calls off its strike in 18 states.
5 June 1943 The slave labor camp at Minsk Mazowiecki, near Warsaw, is closed down. All 150 Jewish workers are shot to death.
Michael Tippett’s (38) cantata Boyhood’s End for tenor and piano to words of Hudson is performed for the first time, at Morley College, London by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten (29).
6 June 1943 The Germans liquidate the ghetto in Rohatyn, Poland. 2,000 residents are removed while a few escape.
Two works by Dmitri Shostakovich (36) are performed for the first time, in the Moscow Conservatory Malyi Hall: Piano Sonata no.2 op.61 and Six Romances on Verses by British Poets op.62 for voice and piano to words of Raleigh, Burns, and Shakespeare (tr. Pasternak and Marshak). The composer is at the keyboard in both works. Of the six romances, three were already performed last November. See 4 Novembern1942.
New President Arturo Rawson of Argentina dissolves the Congress.
7 June 1943 1,000 rioters in Los Angeles invade theatres, streetcars, and homes stripping and beating hispanics. Police do little to quell the violence, except for the arrests of 600 hispanics.
Pedro Pablo Ramírez Machuca replaces Arturo Rawson Corvalán as President of the military government of Argentina.
8 June 1943 800 Jews are deported from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz.
10 June 1943 Germans almost capture Yugoslav resistance leader Josip Broz Tito. They manage to wound him but he escapes.
The Primavera Quintet for flute, violin, viola, cello, and harp op.156 by Charles Koechlin (75) is performed for the first time, privately in Paris. See 14 March 1944.
Hungarian native Laszlo Biro patents the ball point pen in Argentina. Biro went to Argentina fleeing the Nazis.
11 June 1943 British forces invade and capture the Italian island of Pantelleria with no casualties and take 11,000 prisoners.
12 June 1943 After an intense bombardment, the Italian garrison on Lampedusa surrenders to the Allies.
13 June 1943 The Italian garrison on Linosa Island surrenders.
14 June 1943 The Italian garrison on Lampione Island surrenders.
15 June 1943 German authorities begin attempts to cover up their atrocities. Near Lvov (Lviv), Jewish slave laborers are taken to the sight of mass killings and told to dig up the bodies and burn them.
16 June 1943 Berlin is declared free of Jews.
Martial law is declared in Beaumont, Texas after race riots kill two people and injure eleven.
Passacaglia and Fugue op.34 for band by Wallingford Riegger (58) is performed for the first time, in New York. See 19 March 1944.
19 June 1943 Le capitaine fracasse, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (51), is performed for the first time, in Paris.
20 June 1943 British planes bomb Friedrichshafen and, unknown to them, destroy the V2 assembly factory.
5,550 Jews are rounded up in Amsterdam for transport east.
An earthquake centered around the town of Adapazari, 120 km southeast of Istanbul, kills over 1,000 people.
21 June 1943 American troops land unopposed at Seghe point on the southern tip of New Georgia (Solomon Islands).
Michael Tippett (38), after having been found guilty of failing to comply with the conditions of registration (conscription), is taken to Wormwood Scrubs handcuffed to an army deserter. His neighbors in prison are a rapist and a murderer. Years later, Tippett’s mother will describe the day as “her proudest moment” and the composer himself will state that he felt he had “come home.” See 21 August 1943.
Violin Sonata by Francis Poulenc (44) is performed for the first time, in the Salle Gaveau, Paris the composer at the keyboard.
A fight between a black man and a white man on Belle Isle Bridge, Detroit escalates when white mobs invade black districts intent on revenge. Blacks respond by hurling missiles at the whites from windows. The National Guard is called out and a curfew imposed. In all, 34 people are killed, 700 injured, and 600 arrested.
22 June 1943 American troops land on Woodlark Island in the Trobriand group off Papua.
1,300 people (85% of them black) remain under arrest in Detroit from last night’s race riot. 34 detainees (all of them black) are sentenced to 90-day terms.
An orchestral arrangement of four dance episodes from Aaron Copland’s (42) ballet Rodeo is performed completely for the first time, in New York. See 16 October 1942 and 28 May 1943.
23 June 1943 American troops land on Kiriwina Island in the Trobriand group off Papua.
Elections in Ireland result in gains by smaller parties at the expense of the ruling Fianna Fail and official opposition Fine Gael. Fianna Fail will constitute a minority government.
Incidental music to Kron’s play Detailed Reconaissance by Aram Khachaturian (40) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
Prelude and Fugue for strings op.29 by Benjamin Britten (29) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
24 June 1943 Symphony no.5 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (70) is performed for the first time, at the Royal Albert Hall, London under the baton of the composer.
25 June 1943 2,000 Jews are deported from Czestachowa to Auschwitz. Some armed resistance is offered but quickly overwhelmed.
The Resistance blows up a German locomotive works near Lille.
26 June 1943 Milos Trifunovic replaces Slobodan Jovanovic as Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government-in-exile.
28 June 1943 Chansons villageoises for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (44) to words of Frombeure, is performed for the first time, in the Salle Gaveau, Paris the composer at the keyboard.
30 June 1943 American forces land on several islands in the New Georgia group including Rendova. They encounter heavy resistance on Vangunu, southeast of New Georgia.
American and Australian troops land at Nassau Bay near Salamaua, Northeast New Guinea amid heavy Japanese resistance.
La vita è sogno, an opera by Gian Francesco Malipiero (61) to his own words after Calderón, is performed for the first time, in the Opernhaus, Breslau (Wroclaw).
Gene Krupa is found guilty of using a minor to transport marijuana in San Francisco. He will be sentenced to one to six years in prison.
1 July 1943 All Jews in Greater Germany are ordered to immediately surrender to the Gestapo.
3 July 1943 American troops land at Zanana, 13 km east of Munda, New Georgia.
Allied forces begin air attacks on Sicily and Sardinia.
4 July 1943 General Wladyslaw Sikorski, President of the Polish government-in-exile, is killed in a plane crash near Gibraltar.
5 July 1943 01:10 The Red Army opens up an artillery barrage on a German offensive about to begin at Kursk.
03:30 The German offensive against the Kursk salient begins. Combined forces equal 2,000,000 men, 6,000 tanks and 5,000 planes. The engagement develops into the largest tank battle in history.
6 July 1943 At Kursk, the Germans gain ten km in the north, 16 km in the south.
7 July 1943 In a speech at Gambir, Batavia (Jakarta), Prime Minister Hideki Tojo of Japan promises limited self-government for the Indonesians.
The German advance at Kursk is slowed to a crawl in the north. They almost achieve a breakthrough in the south but the Soviets hold the line.
9 July 1943 A major American attack begins toward Munda, New Georgia against strong Japanese resistance.
10 July 1943 The German offensive at Kursk grinds to a halt in the north while the southern front continues to make slow progress.
Dawn. 160,000 Allied troops with 600 tanks invade Sicily, Americans on a front from Licata to Cape Scaramia, British and Canadians from Pozallo to Siracusa.
Americans capture Gela, Licata, and Vittoria while British troops take Siracusa.
The first nuclear experiment begins at Los Alamos, New Mexico beginning its function as a research laboratory.
11 July 1943 British troops take Palazzolo, Sicily while a German counterattack on Gela is repulsed by the Americans.
12 July 1943 In the battle for Kursk, 900 tanks on each side face each other at Prokhovka, south of the city. The Germans lose 300 tanks, the Soviets more, but the offensive is halted.
Soviet forces launch a counterattack on the German salient around Orel, north of Kursk.
British forces capture Lentini and Augusta, Sicily.
Germans kill all 200 citizens of Michniow, Poland.
13 July 1943 Germans execute 48 residents of Sikory Tomkowieta near Bialystok for non-delivery of agricultural produce required of each village.
Stanislaw Mikolajczyk replaces Wladyslaw Sikorski as President of the Polish government-in-exile.
In an interview broadcast over KFAC Los Angeles, Leopold Stokowski calls Duke Ellington (44) “one of America’s outstanding artists.”
14 July 1943 Americans capture Biscani airfield and Niscemi, Sicily while the British capture Vizzini. 36 Italians who surrender after the battle for Biscani airfield are lined up along the edge of a nearby ravine and shot to death on the order of American Capt. John T. Compton. Meanwhile, 45 Italian and three German POWs being sent to the rear are machine-gunned to death by American Sgt. Horace T. West. Both men will be court-martialed. West will be found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Compton will be found not guilty. Because of the outcry over unfair treatment between officers and enlisted men, West will be released after a year.
The first Soviet war crimes trial opens in Krasnodar with Allied reporters in attendance. As the facts of the German occupation of the USSR become known, the western public begins to learn the scale of Nazi atrocities.
Free-French administrations takes over in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, and Saint Barthelemy.
16 July 1943 The Germans begin to withdraw from Kursk.
Canadian forces capture Caltagirone, Sicily.
Alegrias, a ballet by Roberto Gerhard (46) to his own story, is performed for the first time, in Theatre Royal, Birmingham.
17 July 1943 Americans capture Agrigento and Porto Empedocle, Sicily, 100 km south of Palermo.
Two Madrigals for chorus by Michael Tippett (38) to words of Thomas and Hopkins, are performed for the first time, at Morley College, London while the composer is resident at Wormwood Scrubs prison.
18 July 1943 200 Jewish slave laborers are killed in Miedzyrec Podlaski, Poland.
American troops capture Caltanisetta, Sicily while the Canadians take Valguarnerna.
19 July 1943 American planes bomb Rome for the first time. Pope Pius XII protests to President Roosevelt but receives no reply.
20 July 1943 Soviet troops capture Mtsensk, northeast of Orel.
500 Jewish slave laborers are killed in Czestochowa, Poland.
American troops capture Menfi, Sicily while the Canadians take Enna.
21 July 1943 The Red Army captures Bolkhov, north of Orel.
Americans take Aorleone and Castelvetrano, Sicily.
22 July 1943 American forces capture Palermo, Sicily cutting off 50,000 Italians.
23 July 1943 By this date, Soviet forces have restored their line to that previous to the 5 July German offensive.
American troops capture Trapani and Marsala on the western end of Sicily.
24 July 1943 American troops capture Cefalu, Sicily.
The Italian Fascist Grand Council asks King Vittorio Emanuele to assume “effective command” of the armed forces.
The Royal Air Force launches Operation Gomorrah by dropping 2,300 tons of high explosives and incendiaries in a few hours on Hamburg. 1,500 people are killed.
25 July 1943 Prime Minister Benito Mussolini of Italy resigns after monarchists and fascist dissidents persuade King Vittorio Emanuele III to dismiss him. The King takes command of the armed forces and names Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister. Badoglio immediately orders the imprisonment of Mussolini and the dissolution of the Fascist party.
After a broadcast concert by the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York, the announcement of Mussolini’s fall is announced in the hall and over the radio. The conductor, Arturo Toscanini, comes back on stage, folds his hands and looks up, apparently giving thanks to God. The audience responds with loud demonstrations of support and glee. Posters appear on the sign boards of La Scala in Milan: Evviva Toscanini, Ritorni Toscanini.
26 July 1943 A federal grand jury in Washington indicts eight American expatriates, including Ezra Pound, for treason for pro-fascist broadcasts from Axis countries.
28 July 1943 American troops capture Nicosia, Sicily while Canadians take Agira.
As part of Operation Gomorrah, the RAF drops 2,326 tons of bombs on Hamburg creating a firestorm featuring hurricane force winds strong enough to uproot trees. In eight hours of burning, 2,100 hectares of the city are destroyed. 42,000 people are killed tonight, more deaths in one night than all British civilian losses during the entire Blitz. Over 35,000 residential buildings are destroyed.
29 July 1943 British planes bomb the suburbs of Hamburg, killing 800 people.
An Overture in F for orchestra by Hugo Weisgall (30) is performed for the first time, in Albert Hall, London directed by the composer.
30 July 1943 Italian troops on the Egadi Islands, west of Sicily, surrender to Americans.
Thousands of people attack the Cellari jail in Milan and liberate about 200 political prisoners. Police refuse orders to fire on them.
The explosion-powered ejector seat is first tested in Sweden in a Saab automobile.
31 July 1943 American forces capture Santo Stefano, Sicily.
1 August 1943 Burma (Myanmar) is declared independent as the Japanese military administration is withdrawn. The new government immediately declares war on Great Britain and the United States.
177 American bombers fly from Benghazi to Ploesti, Romania, destroying 40% of the oil refineries there. 54 bombers are lost.
President Lin Sen of China dies in Chungking (Chongqing). He is replaced ad interim by Chiang Kai-shek.
Italy repeals all anti-Jewish laws of the previous government. 12,000 Jews already arrested are ordered released.
African-Americans in Harlem riot after a black soldier is shot by a white policeman. It will last for three days and cause the deaths of five people, 500 injuries, 500 arrests, and $5,000,000 damage.
2 August 1943 700 Jewish slave laborers in Treblinka revolt. Over 500 of them are killed immediately by SS and Ukrainian guards but about 150 escape. Of these, many are hunted down but others manage to get away, often through the courage of Polish civilians.
Canadian troops capture Regalbuto, Sicily.
3 August 1943 Soviet forces attack the German salient around Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Today ends the series of air raids on Hamburg known as Operation Gomorrah. During the attacks, firestorms were created causing temperatures to reach 800° and winds as high as 240 km per hour. Approximately 70,000 people are dead and 2,400 hectares are flattened.
Thousands of people in most northern Italian cities demonstrate for peace. Arrests and injuries result.
4 August 1943 The Red Army enters Orel.
5 August 1943 Americans complete the conquest of Munda, New Georgia.
Soviet troops retake Belgorod, 70 km north of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
British forces capture Catania and Paterno, Sicily.
Pierre Schaeffer (32) joins the Comité de Libération de la Radio in Paris. He will set up five transmitters in and around Paris.
6 August 1943 American ships sink three Japanese destroyers off Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands. 1,500 people are killed.
Soviet troops take Zolochev, northwest of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
American forces capture Troina, Sicily.
7 August 1943 British troops take Adrano, Sicily.
8 August 1943 British forces capture Bronte and Acireale.
Prelude and Allegro for organ and strings by Walter Piston (49) is performed for the first time over the airwaves of CBS Radio.
9 August 1943 Hundreds are arrested in a march on the Aga Khan’s villa in Poona where Mohandas K. Gandhi is imprisoned. They are protesting on the anniversary of his arrest.
Danish Prime Minister Scavenius refuses the German demand that saboteurs be tried in German courts.
American forces capture Cesaro, Sicily.
10 August 1943 American forces reach Cape Orlando on the north coast of Sicily.
Bozidar Puric replaces Milos Trifunovic as Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government-in-exile.
11 August 1943 Red Army troops cut the Poltava-Kharkov railroad 50 km west of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Concerto for horn and orchestra no.2 by Richard Strauss (79) is performed for the first time, in Salzburg.
12 August 1943 Soviet troops take Chuguyev, southeast of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Germans find arms hidden in Kuklesi, Greece. Ten civilians are shot and the village burned to the ground.
Flemish Farm, a film with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (70), is shown for the first time, in the Leicester Square Theatre, London. See 31 July 1945.
13 August 1943 Soviet troops take Spas-Demensk, 125 km southeast of Smolensk.
American and British forces capture Randazzo, Sicily.
In the first air raid over Austria, American planes bomb Wiener Neustadt.
Argentina claims Antarctica between 25° W and 74° W.
Piano Sonata no.3 op.22 by Vincent Persichetti (28) is performed for the first time, in Colorado Springs, by the composer.
14 August 1943 In Paramythia-Parga region of Greece, 80 partisans are killed for the death of one German soldier.
Over the last two weeks, approximately 1,000 labor leaders have been arrested in Argentina as part of the military government’s crackdown on “communists.”
15 August 1943 American troops occupy Vella Lavella Island in the Solomon Islands.
Soviet troops take Karachev, southeast of Bryansk.
British forces capture Taormina, Sicily.
34,000 American and Canadian troops land on Kiska to find the island deserted by the Japanese.
16 August 1943 02:00 The Gestapo surrounds the Bialystok ghetto.
03:00 SS troops enter the Bialystok ghetto, occupying important buildings. 31,000 Bialystok Jews are sent to Treblinka and Majdanek despite exhortations by some to attempt escape. These young resistors burn enclosing walls and return fire on the Germans. They will hold out until 20 August, some escaping. The city is emptied of Jews.
Soviet troops capture Zhidra, northeast of Bryansk.
17 August 1943 During an Allied air raid on Milan, the auditorium of Teatro alla Scala is destroyed by a bomb, but the stage is left intact.
American planes bomb Schweinfurt and Regensburg. 65 bombers are shot down. 1,167 people die.
American forces enter Messina, thus completing the Allied (United States-Great Britain-Canada) conquest of Sicily. In the Sicily campaign, 198,158 people lost their lives.
British planes bomb Peenemünde, deliberately targeting the estate housing the scientists and engineers. 130 people are killed. Bombs also destroy the living quarters of the slave laborers killing 600 of them.
18 August 1943 The last deportation of Jews from Thessaloniki arrives in Auschwitz. Since 5 March, 48,533 Jews have been deported.
On his 50th birthday, the BBC broadcasts a 30-minute special program on Ernest MacMillan, whom they call “one of the ten outstanding musicians of the Empire.”
19 August 1943 Luftwaffe Chief of Staff General Hans Jeschonnek kills himself after criticism for the raids on Peenemünde and Schweinfurt.
Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt meet at Quebec.
21 August 1943 Parliamentary elections in Australia result in an increased majority for the ruling Labour Party.
After serving two months of a three-month sentence for refusing to perform national service in lieu of military duty, Michael Tippett (38) is released from Wormwood Scrubs. See 21 June 1943.
22 August 1943 Over the next week American troops occupy several of the Ellice Islands (Tuvalu) including Nukufetau and Namumen without opposition.
After a protracted and bitter struggle, the Germans begin to pull out of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
A V2 test at Peenemünde lands a rocket on the Danish island of Bornholm. A Danish naval officer, Lt. Cmdr. Hasager Christiansen has the presence of mind to photograph the craft and send the picture to Britain with sketches he makes. He will be arrested and severely tortured but then will be rescued from hospital by the Danish resistance and spirited to Sweden.
23 August 1943 Soviet forces capture Kharkov (Kharkiv).
700 British bombers attack Berlin. 1,269 people die as a result of the raid.
24 August 1943 Heinrich Himmler replaces Wilhelm Frick as German Minister of Home Affairs. Otto Frisch is appointed Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
Raymond Deiss, the Paris music publisher who used his establishment to publish the first Resistance newspaper, Pantagruel, is executed by the Germans in Cologne.
Leonard Bernstein’s cycle for voice and piano I Hate Music to his own words, is performed for the first time, at Lenox, Massachusetts, one day before the composer’s 25th birthday.
25 August 1943 American troops wipe out the last Japanese resistance on New Georgia at Bairoko.
Soviet troops capture Akhtyrka, northwest of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
The Belgian government-in-exile recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers.
Leonard Bernstein meets the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, Artur Rodzinski, at his summer home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Rodzinski tells Bernstein that last year he saw Bernstein conduct the Tanglewood student orchestra. He was so impressed, he now offers Bernstein the post of assistant conductor in New York. It is Bernstein’s 25th birthday.
26 August 1943 The United States, Great Britain, and Canada give limited recognition to the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers. The USSR gives it limited recognition.
27 August 1943 China and seven Latin American countries recognize the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers.
Soviet troops take Sevsk, 120 km south of Byansk.
185 American bombers strike the rocket launch site at Eperclecques on the Channel coast.
In the presence of Soviet, British, and American officers, Yugoslav partisans hold their first national assembly, in Jajce.
Kurt Weill (43) takes the oath to become a citizen of the United States, in New York.
Henry Cowell’s (46) dance music Chinese Partisan Fighter, to a scenario by Chen, is performed for the first time, in Redlands, California.
28 August 1943 The Germans present an ultimatum to the Danish government. Strikes and meetings must end. Curfews, press censorship, and the death penalty for harboring arms and sabotage must be introduced. King Christian and his government refuse the ultimatum.
King Boris III of Bulgaria dies in Sofiya, officially from a heart attack but conspiracy theories abound. He is succeeded by his six-year-old son Simeon II. Bogdan Dimitrov Filov is named regent.
29 August 1943 Soviet troops take Lyubotin, west of Kharkov (Kharkiv).
The German army reoccupies Copenhagen, disarms the Danish armed forces, confines King Christian to his palace and declares martial law. Almost all of the ships of the Danish navy are scuttled or escape to Sweden. The government of Erik Scavenius refuses to continue in office and resigns. King Christian X does not formally accept their resignation.
Three-Score Set for piano by William Schuman (33) is performed for the first time, in New York.
Concerto for organ, strings, and harp op.22/3 by Howard Hanson (46) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the CBS radio network.
30 August 1943 Soviet forces capture Yelnya, east of Smolensk, and Taganrog, west of Rostov-on-Don.
31 August 1943 The Red Army takes Glukhov and Rylsk, west of Kursk.
613 British planes bomb Berlin. 420 people die as a result of the raid.
1 September 1943 American planes bomb Marcus Island (Minami Tori Shima), 2,200 km southeast of Tokyo.
American troops take Baker Island, 1,100 km east of Tarawa.
German and Estonian police enter the Vilna (Vilnius) ghetto and round up about 8,000 residents, about two-thirds of the remaining population, and send them to the death camps.
2 September 1943 The Red Army captures Lisichansk and Kommunarsk, 275 km east of Dnepropetrovsk as well as the important railroad junction of Sumy, 300 km east of Kiev.
Wilhelm Frick becomes the fourth Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
3 September 1943 04:30 British and Canadian troops cross the Straits of Messina onto the Italian mainland north of Reggio di Calabria. They go on to take Reggio, San Giovanni, Mélito, and Bagnara. Near Siracusa, Italy secretly signs an armistice with the Allies. Pursuant to the terms, no Italian troops oppose the landings.
300 British bombers drop 965 tons of bombs on Berlin. 476 people die as a result of the raid.
This night, German troops roundup large numbers of Jews in Antwerp and Brussels for transport to Auschwitz.
4 September 1943 Australian forces land on Huon Gulf, east of Lae, Northeast New Guinea.
Interlude for viola and piano by Walter Piston (49) is performed for the first time, in New York.
5 September 1943 American and Australian troops capture Nazdab, northwest of Lae, Northeast New Guinea.
Incidental music to a radio play after Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress by Ralph Vaughan Williams (70) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC.
6 September 1943 The Red Army captures Konotop, 210 km northeast of Kiev and Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, 190 km east of Dnepropetrovsk.
British troops capture Palmi in Calabria.
The Germans begin transporting Jews from Theresienstadt (Terezín) to Auschwitz.
7 September 1943 Concert pianist Karlrobert Kreiten is hanged in Plötzensee penitentiary, Berlin. He was convicted of listening to the BBC and divulging what he heard to his landlady.
Dança da terra for chorus and percussion by Heitor Villa-Lobos (56) is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer.
8 September 1943 The Red Army occupies Stalino (Donetsk), 210 km southeast of Dnepropetrovsk.
General Dwight Eisenhower announces the surrender of Italy.
As Albanian partisans disarm two Italian divisions, gaining many arms and supplies, Germany rushes troops into the country.
The Italian fleet leaves Genoa and La Spézia making for Malta to surrender.
British troops take Locri, Calabria and land at Pizzo.
9 September 1943 Soviet troops take Bakhmach, 170 km northeast of Kiev.
The Italian royal family and senior members of the government, including Prime Minister Badoglio, escape by sea from Rome. Without leadership, the Italian army surrenders to the Germans.
Petar Dimitrov Gabrovski replaces Bogdan Dimitrov Filov as Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
German airplanes attack the Italian fleet, sinking the battleship Roma and killing commander-in-chief Admiral Carlo Bergamini.
British and American forces land in five places near Salerno, 25 km southeast of Naples, quickly establishing beachheads against strong German resistance.
British forces land and seize the Italian naval base at Taranto, 250 km east of Naples.
All Italian troops in Athens are seized, disarmed and sent to Germany.
Some Italian troops in Yugoslavia are disarmed by local partisans.
10 September 1943 The Red Army lands at Novorossisk to furious German resistance.
Soviet troops capture Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Volnovakha to the north as well as Barvenkovo, 160 km east of Dnepropetrovsk.
Iran declares war on Germany.
The Italian royal family and senior members of the government reach Brindisi, 300 km east of Naples on the Adriatic coast, to set up an anti-fascist Italian administration.
The Italian fleet reaches Malta to surrender.
British troops occupy Castelrosso in the Dodecanese.
German troops enter Rome and disarm all Italian forces in Italy and Greece.
11 September 1943 Australian forces enter Salamaua, Northeast New Guinea.
The Italian defenders of Rome sign a truce giving the Germans free reign in the city.
Italians on Rhodes surrender to the Germans.
German troops occupy Florence. Luigi Dallapiccola (39), whose wife is Jewish, takes refuge at the villa of a friend north of Fiesole. There he will complete Sex Carmina Alcaei.
French forces occupy Ajaccio, Corsica.
British troops arrive at Brindisi on the Adriatic and Catanzaro in Calabria.
12 September 1943 Australian troops complete their conquest of Salamaua, Northeast New Guinea.
A band of 100 German commandos, directed by SS Captain Otto Skorzeny, forces its way into a hotel near the summit of Gran Sasso in the Appenines where Mussolini is held by the Italians. He is flown out and brought to Vienna.
British troops take Crotone, Calabria while Germans counterattack at Salerno.
Germans on Capri surrender without resistance.
13 September 1943 German forces drive Americans out of Persano and pierce the Salerno perimeter but are stopped a kilometer from the beach. British troops take Cosenza, 200 km to the southeast.
The Brazilian Federal Territory of Amapá is created from part of Pará. The Federal Territory of Guaporé is created from parts of Amazonas and Mato Grosso. The Federal Territory of Rio Branco is created from part of Amazonas.
14 September 1943 Soviet forces capture Dyatkovo, north of Bryansk.
British troops occupy Cos Island in the Dodecanese.
A council of regents is set up in Bulgaria to rule for six-year-old King Simeon II, including Prince Kiril (uncle of the king), Bogdan Filov, and Nikolay Michov. Dobri Bozhilov Khadzhiyanakev replaces Petar Dimitrov Gabrovski as Prime Minister at the head of a conservative, pro-war, loyalist government.
British troops take Bari on the Adriatic and Belvedere on the Tyrrhenian coast.
Allied forces take Procida Island off Naples.
15 September 1943 The Red Army takes Nezhin, 115 km northeast of Kiev.
After stiff resistance, German forces begin to withdraw from the fighting at Salerno.
Fascist radio announces that Benito Mussolini has taken control of Italian fascism and will reconstitute a government in Salò on Lake Garda, 100 km east of Milan, to resist the Allied invasion.
16 September 1943 Australian and American forces capture Lae, New Guinea.
Soviet troops complete their capture of Novorossisk. The Germans begin to retreat into Crimea. The Red Army also takes Novgorod as well as Romny, 145 km east of Kiev.
British forces occupy Leros and Samos in the Aegean.
The first 24 Italian Jews are deported, taken from Merano to Auschwitz.
17 September 1943 Soviet forces capture Bryansk as well as Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.
One Touch of Venus, a musical comedy by Kurt Weill (43) to words of Perelman and Nash, is performed for the first time, at the Shubert Theatre, Boston. See 7 October 1943.
18 September 1943 The Red Army advances on all fronts, taking Priluki, 130 km east of Kiev, Lubny, 140 km southeast of Kiev, Pavlograd, 60 km east of Dnepropetrovsk, Krasnograd, 100 km north of Dnepropetrovsk, and Pologi 145 km southeast of Dnepropetrovsk.
19 September 1943 Soviet troops take Yartsevo, northeast of Smolensk.
British troops capture Auletta, 60 km east of Salerno.
Allied forces driving north from Calabria link up with the Salerno beachhead.
Italian forces drive the last Germans from Sardinia.
20 September 1943 Soviet forces take Velizh, northwest of Smolensk and Kholm, north of Velikiye Luki.
Yugoslav partisans take the port of Split. It will take the Germans seven days to dislodge them.
Canadian troops capture Potenza, 90 km east of Salerno.
21 September 1943 The Red Army captures Chernigov.
Rejoice in the Lamb op.30 for solo voices, chorus, and organ by Benjamin Britten (29) to words of Smart, is performed for the first time, in St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton conducted by the composer. The work was composed for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the church. Also premiered is Fanfare no.1 for brass by Michael Tippett (38).
22 September 1943 Soviet troops take Anapa, northwest of Novorossisk.
23 September 1943 The Red Army occupies Poltava and Unecha, southwest of Bryansk.
French troops occupy Bonifacio, Corsica.
Benito Mussolini proclaims the Italian Social Republic in northern Italy.
24 September 1943 Australian forces pierce the Japanese line on the River Bumi and capture Finschafen Airport, 90 km east of Lae, Northeast New Guinea.
Soviet troops take Borispol, 30 km east of Kiev.
The Red Army crosses the River Dnieper between Kremenchug and Dnepropetrovsk.
American forces complete their capture of Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati).
25 September 1943 Parliamentary elections in New Zealand result in a continued majority for the Labour Party of Prime Minister Peter Fraser, but with eight fewer seats.
Soviet forces capture Smolensk after heavy fighting. They also take Roslavl, halfway between Smolensk and Bryansk.
A museum dedicated to the memory of Hugo Wolf (†40) opens in his birthplace, Windischgräz (Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia). This area will be in dispute between German and Slovene speakers during the collapse of the German resistance in 1945 and everything written in German will be destroyed. Many important items of Wolf memorabilia will be lost.
German forces evacuate the Foggia airfields.
26 September 1943 Chorale for Organ and Brass by Roy Harris (45) is performed for the first time, in Germanic (now Busch-Reisinger) Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. See 22 July 1944.
27 September 1943 Soviet troops enter the suburbs of Denepropetrovsk.
German troops take control of Corfu, annihilating the Italian garrison.
Canadian forces capture Melfi, 120 km east of Naples.
After German soldiers loot a shop in Naples, citizens rise in revolt.
The Resistance shoot and kill Dr. Julius Ritter, the German official responsible for rounding up Frenchmen for forced labor in Germany. 50 Parisians will be shot in reprisal.
28 September 1943 Allied troops capture Foggia in Apulia.
American forces capture Teora, 80 km east of Naples.
The last great roundup of Jews in Amsterdam sends 2,000 to Bergen-Belsen or Theresienstadt (Terezín).
Freedom Morning for chorus and orchestra by Marc Blitzstein (38) to African-American spirituals is performed for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London conducted by Hugo Weisgall (30). This marks the first time that an all-black chorus performs in the hall.
29 September 1943 Soviet troops capture Kremenchug on the Dnieper.
Having heard the Nazis plan to arrest him, atomic scientist Niels Bohr escapes with his wife from Denmark to Sweden by boat.
30 September 1943 The Red Army enters Byelorussia and captures Krichev, south of Bryansk.
American troops capture Avellino, 40 km east of Naples.
1 October 1943 Archibald Percival Wavell, Viscount Wavell replaces Victor Alexander John Hope, Marquis of Linlithgow as Viceroy of India.
Over the next week, the Red Army crosses the Dnieper at several places.
British and American forces enter Naples.
Anti-Semitic measures begin in Denmark as Jews are removed to concentration camps.
2 October 1943 Australian forces capture Finschhafen, Northeast New Guinea. A Japanese counterattack is beaten off with the loss of 1,000 lives.
American troops take Benevento, 50 km northeast of Naples.
Night. Allied commandos capture Termoli on the Adriatic, 600 km east of Rome.
3 October 1943 German paratroopers land on Kos and within 24 hours overwhelm the British garrison capturing 4,500 British and Italians.
The Gestapo orders all Athenian Jews to register under penalty of death. 3,000 Jews flee their homes and are given shelter by Greeks.
The National Theatre of Munich containing the Staatsoper is destroyed by incendiary bombs dropped during an Allied air raid. Richard Strauss (79) writes that “this was the greatest catastrophe which has ever been brought into my life, for which there can be no consolation and in my old age no hope...”
The Suite no.1 from the ballet Gayaneh by Aram Khachaturian (40) is performed for the first time, in the Hall of Columns, Moscow. Natalia Spiller recalls, “Neither before nor [since] have I ever heard such a storm of applause, nor witnessed such unqualified success of a new work...”
4 October 1943 French forces enter Bastia, completing their occupation of Corsica. The island is placed under Free French administration.
1,260 children and 53 doctors and nurses from the Biaystok Ghetto are sent from Theresienstadt (Terezín) to Auschwitz.
5 October 1943 American troops capture Aversa and Maddaloni, north of Naples.
6 October 1943 American forces land unopposed on Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese evacuated the island two days ago.
American troops take Caserta and Capua, north of Naples.
Niels Bohr flees by plane from Sweden to England. The plane is small and Bohr almost dies from lack of oxygen.
The Kreisleiter of Garmisch informs Richard Strauss (79) that his villa will be used to house evacuees.
7 October 1943 Allied forces capture New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
97 Allied POWs on Wake Island are made to sit down in a line with backs to the sea. Blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs, they are shot.
Soviet troops capture Taman, just across the Kerchenskiy Strait from Crimea. They also capture Nevel, southwest of Velekiye Luki.
German forces in Italy pull back behind the River Trigno.
One Touch of Venus, a musical comedy by Kurt Weill (43) to words of Perelman and Nash, is performed for the first time in New York, at the Imperial Theatre. It is a smash and will see 567 performances. See 17 September 1943.
8 October 1943 British forces capture Larino and Guglionesi near Termoli and the Adriatic.
Igor Stravinsky’s (61) orchestral work Ode, elegiac chant in three parts is performed for the first time, in Boston and broadcast across the United States. It is a fiasco, owing to the rush occasioned by the decision by Serge Koussevitsky to program it only two weeks ago. In the rush to prepare the music, several glaring errors are made by both the composer and the copyists.
9 October 1943 On Yom Kippur, 100 Jews are deported from Trieste to Auschwitz.
In Ancona, a Catholic priest, Don Bernardino, warns local Jews of an impending roundup. Most find hiding places with Christian families. Only ten Jews are caught and deported.
Mexico reinstitutes the death penalty, dropped in 1928.
O Salutaris for solo voice and organ by Arthur Honegger (51) is performed for the first time, in Église Saint-Séverin, Paris.
10 October 1943 Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as President of China. He has been serving in that capacity ad interim since the death of Lin Sen on 1 August.
Soviet troops capture Dobrush (Belarus), east of Gomel.
11 October 1943 Soviet forces take Novobelitsa (Belarus), just outside Gomel.
56 villagers in Sokolka and Laznie, Poland are shot for harboring partisans.
Incidental music to Giraudoux’ play Sodome et Gomorrhe by Arthur Honegger (51) is performed for the first time, in Théâtre Herbertot, Paris.
12 October 1943 350 American planes assault Rabaul, damaging many planes and ships.
American forces begin a major offensive in Italy near Capua making some early progress.
Britain and Portugal announce agreement based on a 14th century treaty whereby British forces will be allowed to use the Azores as a military base. The facilities will be used in anti-submarine operations.
Drug store magnate Edward Noble buys the NBC Blue Network and will operate it as an independent company. Next year, he will rename it the American Broadcasting Company.
13 October 1943 The Italian government in Brindisi declares war on Germany.
Robert Lowell, Jr. is sentenced to one year and one day imprisonment for draft evasion.
14 October 1943 Soviet troops capture Zaporozhye south of Dnepropetrovsk.
The government of the Japanese-dominated Philippines declares its independence.
Canadian forces take Campobasso, 550 km east of Rome.
228 American airplanes bomb ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt, 110 km east of Frankfurt, doing little damage. Over 100 airmen are killed.
600 Jewish slave laborers, who have been digging up and burning the bodies of victims of 1942 atrocities at Sobibor, turn on their SS and Ukrainian guards with knives and hatchets killing eleven. 300 Jews manage to get beyond the wire but 200 of these are shot as they run. Those remaining inside are killed. About 100 escape.
Mermoz, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (51), is shown for the first time, in Paris. The composer is conducting on the soundtrack.
15 October 1943 Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings op.31 by Benjamin Britten (29) to words of various poets, is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
A symphonic suite from Lukas Foss’ (21) unperformed cantata The Prairie is performed for the first time, in Boston. See 14 May 1944.
16 October 1943 Germans begin a forceable removal of Jews from Rome. SS troops seize over a thousand Jews but 4,000 find shelter in homes, monasteries, and convents, 477 in the Vatican. 200 Jews are arrested in Milan.
A subway system for Chicago opens on State Street.
17 October 1943 Soviet troops break the German lines around Kremenchug and take Loyev, south of Gomel.
Invasion for orchestra by Bernard Rogers (50) is performed for the first time, in New York.
18 October 1943 The Red Army attacks deep into German lines east of Vitebsk. Soviets also penetrate to the center of Melitopol near the Sea of Azov.
The Roman Jews captured 16 October are deported to Auschwitz.
Hail Mary for tenor chorus, violin, and organ by Leos Janácek (†15) is performed, likely for the first time, in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Brno-Zidenice, 39 years after it was composed.
19 October 1943 At Jesselton, North Borneo (Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia) local Chinese and native Suluks revolt against the Japanese killing 40 of them. In reprisal, the Japanese will destroy many Suluk villages, killing hundreds and arresting and torturing thousands of civilians.
600 Jews are arrested in Milan.
Robin Greville Holloway is born in Leamington Spa, England.
In a Rutgers University laboratory, Albert Schatz finds two strains of actinobacteria which will become the ingredient for streptomycin. Schatz’ supervisor, Selman Waksman, will receive the Nobel Prize for the discovery. Streptomycin will be the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.
20 October 1943 The Allied powers set up a United Nations War Crimes Commission.
21 October 1943 A German fighter shoots down a Swedish airliner off the Skagerrak coast. The German government will claim it is a mistake and express regrets.
22 October 1943 British planes bomb Kassel creating a firestorm which kills 5,300 people.
23 October 1943 The Red Army completes the capture of Melitopol after ten days of bitter fighting.
Women among 1,750 Polish Jews newly arrived at Auschwitz revolt. One guard is shot in the stomach, another is wounded by gunfire. Other women attack guards at the entrance to the gas chamber relieving one of his nose and another of his scalp. All women involved are shot.
25 October 1943 The Japanese celebrate the completion of the Burma-Siam Railroad. 16,000 Allied POWs died while building it, along with 50,000 Burmese slaves.
The Red Army captures Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprozherzhinsk.
27 October 1943 New Zealand troops occupy Stirling Island in the Solomon Islands while New Zealanders and Americans overrun a small Japanese garrison on nearby Mono Island.
Germany closes the border between Norway and Sweden.
28 October 1943 Two works by Bohuslav Martinu (52) are performed for the first time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Symphony no.2 is premiered in Cleveland, while Memorial to Lidice for orchestra, is premiered in New York.
Fire and Ice for male chorus and band by Henry Cowell (46) to words of Frost is performed for the first time, in Constitution Hall, Washington.
29 October 1943 American forces capture Mondragone on the Tyrrhenian Sea 140 km southeast of Rome.
Paul Hindemith’s (47) ballet overture Amor and Psyche is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
The orchestral setting of Commando March by Samuel Barber (33) is performed for the first time, in Boston. See 23 May 1943.
30 October 1943 About 2,200 Slovak troops on the eastern front defect to the USSR
1 November 1943 American troops begin landing on Bougainville at Cape Tarokina, also taking Puruata Island.
Soviet forces capture Armyansk, cutting off Axis troops in Crimea.
British troops take Roccamonfina, 140 km southeast of Rome.
Kurt Weill (43) moves to Hollywood from New York to live while he works on a film with Ira Gershwin.
2 November 1943 In a naval engagement near Bougainville, two ships are sunk, many damaged and the Japanese quit the area.
Soviet troops capture Kakhovka near the mouth of the Dnieper.
Over the next week, 45,000 survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto are shot to death into ditches behind the gas chamber at Majdanek.
3 November 1943 A Consultative Assembly for Free France meets in Algiers.
American forces capture Sess Aurunca, 140 km southeast of Rome.
300 Jews are deported from Genoa to Auschwitz.
In Majdanek, 17,000 Jews are killed by machine guns in one day by SS and Ukrainian guards.
After two years imprisonment for publicly praying for the Jews, Pastor Bernhard Lichtenburg is transferred to Dachau. He will die on the way.
Mermoz, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (51), is released in France.
Dance Suite for orchestra by John Alden Carpenter (67) is performed for the first time, in Washington. It consists of the already existing Danza and new orchestrations of two piano works, Polonaise américaine and Tango américain.
How Old is Song? arranged for violin and piano by the composer Henry Cowell (46) is performed for the first time, in Colorado Springs. See 9 March 1931.
4 November 1943 The Red Army breaks out of their bridgeheads across the Dnieper near Kiev.
Symphony no.8 op.65 by Dmitri Shostakovich (37) is performed for the first time, in the Moscow Conservatory Bolshoy Hall. Critical response is mixed.
The North Star, a film with music by Aaron Copland (42), is shown for the first time, in New York.
5 November 1943 Two air attacks on Japanese forces off Rabaul sink many ships.
Soviet troops overrun the area between the Dnieper and Crimea.
Saboteurs blow up the Peugeot factory at Sochaux.
British troops take Vasto on the Adriatic 190 km east of Rome.
As the Red Army approaches Kiev, the Germans dynamite many ancient churches and public buildings.
Evening. The First Czechoslovak Independent Brigade captures the Kiev central railroad station.
Concerto for two pianos and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (52) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
6 November 1943 The Red Army captures Kiev.
The composer Igor Markevitch arrives by bicycle at the villa north of Fiesole where Luigi Dallapiccola (40) is staying. He tells Dallapiccola, whose wife is Jewish, that the roundup of Jews has begun.
Carl Orff’s (48) scenic cantata Catulli Carmina to words of the composer after Catullus, is performed for the first time, in the Städtische Bühnen, Leipzig.
7 November 1943 Japanese troops land on Bougainville and immediately attack the Americans there.
Soviet troops drive past Kiev, taking Fastov, west of the German defense line.
String Quartet no.6 by Paul Hindemith (47) is performed for the first time, in Washington.
8 November 1943 The Chamber of Deputies of Lebanon votes for an immediate end of the French mandate and complete independence.
9 November 1943 Soviet forces capture Zhitomir, 130 km west of Kiev.
10 November 1943 Legend-Sonata in f# minor for cello and piano by Arnold Bax (60) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
11 November 1943 Americans defeat a Japanese attack on Bougainville and push them back.
Soviet troops capture Radomyshl, west of Kiev.
French authorities arrest the President and Prime Minister of Lebanon and dissolve the government following the vote of 8 November.
12 November 1943 A German landing on Leros Island in the Aegean is strongly resisted by British and Italian troops.
Luigi Dallapiccola (40) and his Jewish wife leave the villa where they are hiding north of Fiesole, and head for Como. They intend to make a quick dash to Switzerland if necessary. Instead, they will return to Fiesole.
William Schuman’s (33) Symphony no.5 “for strings” is performed for the first time, in Boston.
13 November 1943 British troops capture Atessa, 165 km east of Rome.
14 November 1943 Allied aircraft begin regular bombing of Sofiya, Bulgaria, pulverizing the city.
After guest conductor Bruno Walter becomes ill, assistant conductor and last-minute replacement Leonard Bernstein (25) gives his debut directing the New York Philharmonic in a nationally broadcast concert. It is a triumph of incalculable proportions, and launches Bernstein into the public eye.
15 November 1943 German troops recapture Zhitomir.
Germans begin systematic extermination of Romani. The first 20 reach Auschwitz from Grodno.
Teatro San Carlo, Naples reopens its opera season a month-and-a-half after Allied troops entered the city.
Les corps glorieux for organ by Olivier Messiaen (34) is performed for the first time, at Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, the composer at the keyboard. See 28 December 1941.
16 November 1943 Invading Germans complete their conquest of Leros, capturing 8,850 British and Italians.
American bombers destroy the hydroelectric station at Vermark, Norway, thus making it impossible to produce heavy water at the factory.
17 November 1943 The Anxious Bugler for orchestra by John Alden Carpenter (67) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
18 November 1943 Soviet troops capture Rechitsa, west of Gomel (Belarus). They also take Ovruch, 150 km northwest of Kiev.
440 British planes bomb Berlin. 184 people die as a result of the raid.
19 November 1943 German forces begin a counterattack against the Soviets on the Ukrainian front.
20 November 1943 American forces land at two points in the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), Makin Atoll (Butaritari), and Tarawa. On Tarawa, a confused attack combined with fanatical Japanese resistance leaves many casualties and survivors stranded on the beach. The landing on Makin is more successful.
British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife Lady Diana Mosley are released from prison due to his ill health. Demonstrations have taken place since the announcement on 18 November that this would happen.
21 November 1943 New waves of American troops land on Tarawa and by noon are making good progress.
British troops gain a bridgehead over the River Sangro, Italy.
British planes bomb Berlin. 1,315 people die.
French authorities release the Lebanese government leaders arrested on 11 November.
22 November 1943 American troops complete their conquest of Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands (Butaritari, Kiribati).
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and President Chiang Kai-shek confer at Cairo, in a meeting lasting until 26 November.
Violin Concerto by Arnold Bax (60) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service.
764 British bombers attack Berlin, hitting many government buildings. 1,864 people die as a result of the raid.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra gives an all-Russian concert in Carnegie Hall, New York which includes The Internationale arranged by Aaron Copland (43).
23 November 1943 German troops land on Samos in the Aegean and take 2,500 British troops prisoner.
A ME262 jet is demonstrated before Hitler.
24 November 1943 Americans complete their conquest of Tarawa. Over 6,000 lives have been lost in the battle for Tarawa.
25 November 1943 American bombers based in China strike Taiwan for the first time.
The Red Army begins an offensive between Mogilev and Gomel.
Incidental music to Sackville-West’s (after Homer) radio play The Rescue by Benjamin Britten (30) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service.
Un seul amour, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (51), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
Sonata da camera for cello and chamber orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (52) is performed for the first time, in Geneva.
26 November 1943 American forces complete their conquest of Abemama in the Gilbert Islands(Kiribati).
Soviet forces capture Gomel (Belarus).
British planes bomb Berlin. 666 people are killed.
An earthquake in Turkey kills about 4,000 people.
27 November 1943 Incidental music to Claudel’s play Le Soulier de Satin by Arthur Honegger (51) is performed for the first time, in the Comédie-française, Paris.
28 November 1943 Germans surround a Soviet force at Korosten, northwest of Kiev, inflicting heavy losses.
Allied troops attack in force across the Sangro River, Italy.
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and General Secretary Stalin meet in Teheran, Iran, the first time that all three are together in the same place. In a meeting which lasts until 1 December, a general plan of victory is decided.
29 November 1943 The Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia meets for the second time, in Jajce, and declares itself the government of Yugoslavia, proclaims the government-in-exile as illegitimate and prohibits King Petar from returning. Josip Broz Tito becomes Prime Minister.
Allied troops take Fossacesia on the Adriatic, 190 km east of Rome.
Olivier Messiaen (34) begins giving private harmony classes at the home of Guy Bernard-Delapierre in Paris.
Harry Partch (42) auditions for the concert committee of the League of Composers, successfully. See 22 April 1944.
30 November 1943 German troops force the Soviets out of Korosten, northwest of Kiev.
Fascist Italy orders the deportation of all Jews and the complete expropriation of their property.
Prime Minister Badoglio of Free Italy announces in Naples that King Vittorio Emanuele III is stripped of the titles King of Albania and Emperor of Ethiopia.
String Quartet no.6 “Il quarteto brasileiro” by Heitor Villa-Lobos (56) is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro.
1 December 1943 The United States, Great Britain, and China issue a joint statement as a result of the Cairo Conference which ended on 26 November. They pledge themselves to the defeat of Japan and resolve that Japan will be stripped of all territory gained since 1895.
Piano Sonata no.3 by Ernst Krenek (43) is performed for the first time, in Bridgman Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota by the composer.
2 December 1943 British troops capture Lanciano on the Adriatic, 160 km east of Rome.
The British government announces that it plans to conscript 30,000 men to work in coal mines.
In a night bombing raid on Bari, German bombs hit an ammunition ship in the harbor. The resulting explosion sinks 18 transports and destroys 38,000 tons of supplies.
British planes bomb Berlin. 378 people die as a result of the raid.
3 December 1943 100 tram workers in Warsaw are publicly executed as a reprisal for an act of sabotage.
British planes bomb Leipzig, destroying the center of the city.
Symphony no.4 “Requiem” by Howard Hanson (47) is performed for the first time, in Boston under the baton of the composer. See 1 May 1944.
4 December 1943 In an Allied air raid on Leipzig, the buildings and stockroom of Breitkopf and Härtel are destroyed, incinerating all but a few of the copper plates used to print works of the great masters during their lifetimes. Manuscripts and other precious items have been stored in rural air raid shelters by the employees.
A propaganda film called Philharmoniker is shown for the first time, in Tauentzien-Palast, Berlin. It is a tribute to the Berlin Philharmonic and its conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. When Furtängler found that the film ascribes to Hitler a fundamental influence over the organization, he withdrew from the project. Joseph Goebbels asked Richard Strauss (79) to replace him. Strauss had no problem with allowing himself to be filmed conducting the orchestra.
Bolivia announces that it has declared war on Germany and Japan.
5 December 1943 The Allies begin bombing V-1 launch sites.
Three Songs from Viae inviae op.23 for voice and piano by Anton Webern (60) to words of Jone are performed for the first time, in Basel. It is part of an all-Webern concert to mark the composer’s 60th birthday (3 December). Webern’s music is banned in his homeland.
The Catalogue for three voices, piano, and bassoon by Gian Carlo Menotti (32) to words of the Curtis Institute of Music 1943-1944 catalogue, is performed for the first time, privately at the Institute in Philadelphia.
6 December 1943 The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union issue a joint statement as a result of the Teheran Conference which ended on 1 December. They pledge themselves to the complete defeat of Germany and the setting up of an enduring and just peace.
Opus Americanum for orchestra by Darius Milhaud (51), composed to thank the country which took him in when he was a refugee, is performed for the first time, in San Francisco.
7 December 1943 A Flute Sonata op.94 by Sergey Prokofiev (52) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
8 December 1943 Two song groups for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (44) are performed for the first time, in the Salle Gaveau, Paris the composer at the keyboard: Métamorphoses to words of Vilmorin and the Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon.
9 December 1943 Two Poles, Tadeusz Karcz and Antoni Pajor are executed by partisans for betraying Jews to the Gestapo.
Luigi Dallapiccola’s (40) Jewish wife decides to go into hiding in Florence, so as not to place her husband in jeopardy. He visits her secretly every night at dusk.
Frank Sinatra is classified 4-F (unfit for military service for medical reasons) in Newark.
10 December 1943 Soviet troops capture Znamenka, 170 km west of Dnepropetrovsk.
Choeurs monodiques op.169 for male chorus by Charles Koechlin (76) is performed for the first time, privately in a production of Alceste by Euripedes (tr. Marchand) in Paris. See 23 March 1952.
11 December 1943 Prelúdios for guitar by Heitor Villa-Lobos (56) are performed for the first time, in Montevideo.
New World a-Comin’ for piano and jazz ensemble by Duke Ellington (44) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York the composer at the keyboard.
13 December 1943 US President Roosevelt signs the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
14 December 1943 Soviet forces begin a new offensive south of Nevel. They also capture Cherkassy on the west bank of the Dnieper.
Nine members of the Polish Communist Party are executed at Herby near Czestachowa.
16 December 1943 British planes bomb Berlin. As a result, 1,011 people die.
17 December 1943 President Roosevelt signs the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts which set limits on Chinese immigration.
18 December 1943 WEB Du Bois becomes the first African-American named to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
19 December 1943 Four SS soldiers are publicly executed for war crimes in Kharkov (Kharkiv).
Folk Rhythms of Today for orchestra by Roy Harris (45) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the NBC radio network originating in New York.
20 December 1943 The Spanish government frees all political prisoners except those guilty of murder or who have been held more than five years.
22 December 1943 The Gestapo finds 62 Jews hiding in a Warsaw cellar. All are killed.
Canadian forces enter Ortona on the Adriatic, 160 km east of Rome amid furious street fighting.
24 December 1943 The Red Army begins a massive offensive west of Kiev.
British planes bomb Berlin. 282 people are killed.
25 December 1943 American bombers destroy seven V-1 launch sites.
26 December 1943 American troops land successfully near Cape Gloucester, New Britain (Papua New Guinea).
Ships of the Royal Navy sink the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in Norwegian waters. Of the crew of 1,970, only 36 are saved.
27 December 1943 US President Roosevelt orders the seizure of the country’s railroads in the face of threatened strikes.
An orchestral suite from the music to Sergey Prokofiev’s (52) opera Semyon Kotko op.81a is performed for the first time, in Moscow. See 23 June 1940.
28 December 1943 Canadian forces drive the Germans out of Ortona on the Adriatic coast 160 km northeast of Rome.
29 December 1943 Soviet troops take Korosten, northwest of Kiev and Skvira, southwest of Kiev.
30 December 1943 American forces capture the Japanese airfield on Cape Gloucester, New Britain.
Soviet forces capture Kazatin, 100 km southwest of Kiev.
Symphony no.2 by Aram Khachaturian (40) is performed for the first time, in the Moscow Conservatory Bolshoy Hall.
March in Time of War for orchestra by Roy Harris (45) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall.
31 December 1943 Stalin forms the National Home Council from the Polish Workers Party led by Boleslaw Bierut as a rival to the Polish government-in-exile in London.
In reprisal for anti-German activities in Karpiowka, Poland, 59 villagers are locked in a granary and the building is set alight. All of them are killed.
The Argentine government bans all political parties.
Concerto for violin and orchestra no.2 by Bohuslav Martinu (53) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
20 August 2012
Last Updated (Monday, 20 August 2012 14:43)