July 1943

July 1, 1943 (Thursday)

• The death sentence, for treason, of German-born American Max Stephan was commuted by U.S. President Roosevelt to life imprisonment, seven hours before Stephan was to be hanged. Stephan had been convicted of harboring a German prisoner of war who had escaped from a POW camp in Ontario.
• The United States Women's Army Corps was converted to full status, changing its name from the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, and U.S. Army Major Oveta Culp Hobby was the first Director.
• The Nurse Training Act was passed by the United States Congress, creating the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps.
• Adolf Eichmann was granted full authority by Martin Bormann to use the Gestapo in enforcement of "the permanent elimination of Jews from the territories of Greater Germany".
• U.S. forces defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Viru Harbor on the island of New Georgia.
• Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai Antonescu met with the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome and pleaded with him to lead a bid by the countries aligned with Germany to leave the Axis. Mussolini refused to commit to the plan.
• An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus, a six-volume secret report compiled by the Population and Race Section of the Research Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare, was completed and submitted to the Prime Minister, setting the blueprint for imposing Japanese names, the Japanese language and the Shinto religion on all minorities within the Empire.
• Tokyo City was administratively merged with its prefecture to form the special wards of Tokyo.

  July 2, 1943 (Friday)

• New Georgia, the largest of the Solomon Islands controlled by Japan, was invaded by the U.S. 37th and 43rd Infantry divisions, striking from Rendova Island. After fierce resistance from the Japanese occupiers for more than a month, the New Georgia airfield at Munda would be captured on August 5, and the entire island would be secured by August 25.
• Allied forces on New Georgia began the Drive on Munda Point.

  July 3, 1943 (Saturday)

• The new town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, constructed for workers on the secret atomic bomb project, had its first residents arrive, as a family moved into a trailer on the 92 square mile area. Within two years, it would have 75,000 people, but its existence would be kept hidden until after World War II.
• The Battle of Wickham Anchorage ended in American victory.
• The German submarines U-126 and U-628 were both depth charged and sunk northwest of Cape Ortegal, Spain by British aircraft.
• "Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer" by The Song Spinners topped the Billboard singles chart.
• Born:
• *Kurtwood Smith, American film and TV actor known for Robocop and That '70s Show;, in New Lisbon, Wisconsin
• *Judith Durham, Australian singer ; in Essendon, Victoria

  July 4, 1943 (Sunday)

• Subhas Chandra Bose became the new President of the Indian Independence League, which was meeting in the Cathay Theater in Japanese-occupied Singapore.
• The American Forces Radio Network was created to broadcast from 55 low-power transmitters near areas in the United Kingdom where American servicemen were stationed.
• The British troopship City of Venice was torpedoed and sunk north of Ténès, Algeria by German submarine U-375.
• Born: Geraldo Rivera, American reporter and talk show host; in Brooklyn, New York City
• Died: General Władysław Sikorski, 62, Prime Minister of Poland 1922–1923, leader of the Polish government-in-exile after the German conquest of 1939; in the 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash that killed 14 others, including Brigadier General J. P. Whitehead, a British MP, leading to Władysław Sikorski's death controversy

  July 5, 1943 (Monday)

• The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, began when Germany launched an attack on the Soviet city of Kursk with 20 infantry divisions and 3,000 tanks. Two days later, the Soviet Union launched a counteroffensive against the Germans. By the time the battle ended on August 5, the Germans had lost 70,000 men and 2,900 of the 3,000 tanks.
• American and Japanese troops fought the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands.
• The American destroyer USS Strong was sunk in Kula Gulf by the Japanese destroyer Niizuki and shore batteries.
• The German submarine U-535 was depth charged and sunk northeast of Cape Finisterre, Spain by a B-24 Liberator of No. 53 Squadron RAF.
• Film actress Betty Grable was married to bandleader Harry James at a ceremony in Las Vegas.
• Born: Robbie Robertson, Canadian musician and songwriter ; in Toronto, Ontario

  July 6, 1943 (Tuesday)

• The town of Boise City, Oklahoma was mistakenly bombed by a U.S. Army Air Forces plane that had taken off from the nearby Dalhart Army Air Base in Texas. The pilot, sent on a training mission to drop explosives on a practice range near Conlen, Texas, got off course, mistook Boise City for the range, and dropped five bombs on the town. Although there was slight damage to buildings, nobody was injured, and the air raid was stopped after the town was blacked out by an alert power plant worker.
• The Battle of Kula Gulf was fought between U.S. and Japanese warships off the island of Kolombangara with an inconclusive result. The American cruiser Helena and the Japanese destroyers Nagatsuki and Niizuki were sunk.
• Yeshwantrao Holkar II, the 33-year-old Maharaja of Indore, described as "one of the wealthiest men in the world", was granted a divorce from his American wife, the Maharanee Margaret Lawlor, in proceedings in Reno, Nevada.

  July 7, 1943 (Wednesday)

• Southern Airways was incorporated by Frank Hulse and Ike Jones, in order to seek approval from the Civil Aeronautics Board to operate a civilian airline after the end of World War II. In later years, the company would merge with another carrier to become Republic Airlines, which would then be acquired by Northwest Airlines, which in turn would be acquired by Delta Air Lines.
• Reverend Jóhannes Gunnarsson became the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Iceland since the Reformation, in services held in Washington, D.C.
• Died: Rudolph Forster, 70, Chief Clerk of the White House Executive Offices since 1897. His obituary described him as "virtually unknown to the public, but for 46 years highly esteemed and frequently honored by the nation's presidents", and he served for eight U.S. Presidents, from William McKinley to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  July 8, 1943 (Thursday)

• The Jamaica Labour Party, which rivals the People's National Party and is in opposition in Jamaica as of February 2015, was founded by Alexander Bustamante.
• The German submarines U-232 and U-514 were lost to enemy action.
• Born:
• *Joel Siegel, American film critic for Good Morning America; in Los Angeles ;
• *Guido Marzulli, Italian painter, in Bari
• Died:
• *Sir Harry Oakes, 68, American-born British entrepreneur, who was found beaten to death in his mansion in Nassau in the Bahamas. The search for Oakes, described once as one of the two wealthiest men in America, was made after he failed to appear for a scheduled golf game with the Duke of Windsor, the former King who had become the British Governor of the Bahamas. The case was never solved, and the murderer of Oakes was never discovered.
• *Jean Moulin, 44, a leader of the French Resistance against the Nazi German occupation of France, after being tortured by the Nazi Gestapo.
• *Edward Haight, 17, became the youngest person to ever die in the electric chair in New York, as he was executed for the September murder of two young girls ten months earlier.
• *Levi Mosley, a seasonal farm laborer, died in a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. When Mosley failed to report to his local draft board in December, the FBI would be called in and begin a nine-year search for Mosley, which would not end until 1953 when his death was discovered.

  July 9, 1943 (Friday)

• A German air raid killed 108 people, many of them children, in a movie theater, in the British town of East Grinstead. Schoolchildren were inside the Whitehall Cinema, watching a Hopalong Cassidy film, when air raid sirens sounded. At 5:17 pm, a wave of German bombers struck the town, leveling the theater with one bomb, followed by a second. Another 235 people were seriously injured.
• The United States Congress recessed for the first time in four years, after the nation's legislators had passed on vacations since 1939.
• The German submarines U-435 and U-590 were lost to enemy action in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Born: Soledad Miranda, Spanish-born Portuguese actress; in Seville

  July 10, 1943 (Saturday)

• The Allied invasion of Sicily began as U.S., British and Canadian forces landed on the large Italian island at 0245 GMT, with the U.S. Third Infantry Division, codenamed the "Dime Force", coming ashore at the beaches of the port city of Licata. The Seventh United States Army and the British Eighth Army arrived with 180,000 men on 2,590 ships in "the largest sea-borne assault" of World War II. Defending Sicily were 230,000 Italian and 40,000 German troops. Earlier, the Allies released 147 military gliders from towing aircraft, to glide in silently. Of those, 69 were released too early and landed in the ocean, drowning 252 men. Only 12 of the 147 gliders landed in the target area.
• The American destroyer USS Maddox was bombed and sunk off Gela, Sicily by an Italian Junkers Ju 87.
• The Battle of Enogai began between U.S. and Japanese forces in New Georgia.
• Born: Arthur Ashe, African-American tennis player, winner of titles at U.S. Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon ; in Richmond, Virginia