Decades: 1890s - 1900s - 1910s - 1920s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s - 1990s
Years: 1938 - 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946 - 1947 - 1948
Events
- January 11 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
- January 14 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel by airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).
- January 15 - World War II: Japanese driven off Guadalcanal
- January 15 - The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated (Arlington, Virginia).
- January 18 - World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Nazi siege of Leningrad.
- January 18 - The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto
- January 23 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
- January 24 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
- January 27 - World War II: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven was the target).
- February 1 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers
- February 2 - End of the Battle of Stalingrad in Russia.
- February 7 - World War II: In the United States it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days.
- February 8 - World War II: Battle of Kursk - the Russian army captures the city
- February 8 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - United States forces defeat Japanese troops.
- February 11 - General Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
- February 14 - World War II:Rostov, Russia is liberated.
- February 14 - World War II: The Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war
- February 16 - World War II: Russia reconquers Kharkov
- February 18 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement
- February 20 - American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies
- February 22 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
- March 2 - World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships
- March 3 - 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station in London.
- March 8 - World War II: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
- March 13 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
- March 26 - World War II: Battle of Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
- April 22 - Albert Hofmann writes his first report about the hallucinogenic properties of LSD, which he first synthesized in 1938 [1].
- April 25 - Easter occurs on the latest possible date. Last time 1886 next time 2038.
- April 25 - World War II: The Allies land in Sicily
- July 25 - In Italy the Gran Consiglio del Fascismo retires its consent to Mussolini; Mussolini is arrested and the power is given to Maresciallo d'Italia Gen. Pietro Badoglio.
- September 3 - Italy is invaded by the Allied forces during World War II
- September 8 - Maresciallo d'Italia Gen. Pietro Badoglio subscribes the armistice with Allied troops.
- November 2 - British troops, in Italy, reach the Garigliano River
- December 24 - US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander.
- December 30 - Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
- Development of the Colossus computer by British to break German encryption (see History of computing).
- 1943 in film
- 1943 in literature
- The Nature and Destiny of Man by Reinhold Niebuhr
- Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
- 1943 in music
- January 23 - Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
- Oklahoma! the musical premieres
- 1943 in television
- December 23 - The first complete opera, Hansel and Gretel, is telecast, by WRGB in Schenectady.
- The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is formed
- January 2 - Baris Manco, Turkish celebrity
- January 4 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, writer
- January 10 - Jim Croce, singer (+ 1973)
- January 11 - Jim Hightower, radio host, author
- January 12 - Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors
- January 19 - Janis Joplin, blues singer
- January 19 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
- January 24 - Sharon Tate, actress (+ 1969)
- January 25 - Tobe Hooper, director
- January 30 - Marty Balin, musician
- February 3 - Blythe Danner, actress
- February 5 - Nolan Bushnell, video game pioneer
- February 5 - Craig Morton, American football star
- February 6 - Fabian Forte, singer
- February 7 - Gareth Hunt. actor
- February 9 - Joe Pesci, actor
- February 10 - Frank-Patrick Steckel, theater director
- February 11 - Ian Cameron, British brigadier
- February 14 - Maceo Parker, musician (P-Funk)
- February 15 - Elke Heidenreich, journalist and writer
- February 18 - Graeme Garden, writer, comedian, actor
- February 19 - Mama Cass Elliot, singer
- February 20 - Mike Leigh, director
- February 21 - David Geffen, producer
- February 23 - Fred Biletnikoff, American football star, coach
- February 24 - George Harrison, musician, member of The Beatles
- March 8 - Lynn Redgrave, actress
- March 9 - Bobby Fischer, chess player
- March 15 - David Cronenberg, director
- March 22 - Bruno Ganz, actor
- March 26 - Bob Woodward, journalist
- March 29 - Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, aka Vangelis, new age musician
- March 29 - Eric Idle, actor, writer, composer
- March 29 - John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- March 31 - Christopher Walken, actor
- May 31 - Joe Namath (Pro American Football Hall of Famer: quarterback)
- May 31 - Sharon Gless (actress)
- June 17 - Newt Gingrich, United States politician
- August 17 - Robert De Niro, United States actor
- August 30 - Jean-Claude Killy, skier
- September 11 - Gilbert Proesch, artist, half of Gilbert and George
- October 2 - Franklin Rosemont, co-founder of the Surrealist Movement in the United States
- November 7 - Joni Mitchell, musician
- January 5 - George Washington Carver, educator, activist, botanist
- January 23 - Alexander Woolcott, bon vivant
- February 14 - David Hilbert, mathematician
- March 28 - Sergei Rachmaninov, composer and pianist
- August 28 - King Boris III of Bulgaria
- Physics - Otto Stern
- Chemistry - George de Hevesy
- Medicine - Henrik Carl Peter Dam, Edward Adelbert Doisy 1939 - Gerhard Domagk
- Literature - not awarded
- Peace - not awarded