Timeline August 1943

Events in August 1943 12

• 1868 – 1943 Lin Sen (1868-1943) Died 1 August 1943, aged 75 Lin Sen was chairman of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China from 1931. The post was largely ceremonial. Chiang Kai-shek succeeded him as chairman after his death.
• 1893 – 1943 Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) Died 9 August 1943, aged 50 Chaïm Soutine was a Belarusian-born French painter of the School of Paris, known for his distorted, intensely coloured Expressionist works. As a Jew he spent the German occupation in hiding. He died in Paris after surgery for a perforated ulcer.
• 1894 – 1943 Boris III of Bulgaria (1894-1943) Died 28 August 1943, aged 49 Boris III was tsar of Bulgaria from 1918, and he aligned his country with the Axis. He refused to deport Bulgaria's Jews to German death camps. He died suddenly soon after a stormy meeting with Hitler.
• 1909 – 1943 Simone Weil (1909-1943) Died 24 August 1943, aged 34 Simone Weil was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist whose writings include Gravity and Grace and The Need for Roots. She limited what she ate in solidarity with people in occupied France. She died of tuberculosis and heart failure in Ashford, Kent.
• 1943 Battle of Kursk The largest tank battle in history ends Germany's offensive in the East Germany launched Operation Citadel against the Soviet salient at Kursk, and the Soviet defence stopped it. Red Army counteroffensives then recaptured Orel and Belgorod and ended at Kharkov. After Kursk, Germany never again mounted a major strategic offensive on the Eastern Front.
• 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily Operation Husky opens the Italian campaign American, British and Canadian forces landed in southern Sicily in one of the largest amphibious operations of the war. They took the island in 38 days, although many German troops escaped across the Strait of Messina. The invasion hastened the fall of Mussolini.
• 1943 Operation Gomorrah Allied bombing creates a firestorm in Hamburg RAF and US bombers carried out a series of raids on Hamburg. On the night of 27–28 July the bombing caused a firestorm that destroyed much of the city. About 37,000 people were killed.
• 1943 US Championships 1943 Men: Joseph Hunt · Women: Pauline Betz
• 1943 Operation Tidal Wave US bombers raid the Ploiești oil refineries US B-24 bombers flew at low level from Libya to attack oil refineries around Ploiești in Romania. Fifty-three aircraft and 660 airmen were lost. The raid did only temporary damage to production.
• 1943 Treblinka uprising Prisoners revolt at the Treblinka extermination camp Prisoners at the Treblinka extermination camp seized weapons, set fire to the camp and tried to break out. About 200 escaped, but most were hunted down and killed. Around 70 survived the war.
• 1943 – 2026 Louis E. Brus (1943-2026) Died 11 January 2026, aged 82 American physical chemist who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and production of quantum dots.
• 1943 – 2023 Pervez Musharraf (1943-2023) Died 5 February 2023, aged 79 Pakistani general who seized power in a 1999 coup and ruled as president until 2008.