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1943: Year We Were Born



-- MOST  (...but not all...) of us were born this year (1943)

       -- We were all known as "The War Babies"

            -- Our flag had 48 stars
        
THE NEWS IN BRIEF:

World War II is raging:  British and Americans are carrying out massive air strikes in Germany;  the German Sixth Army surrenders at Stalingrad;  Benito Mussolini is deposed in Italy;  Axis Forces in North Africa Surrender to Allied Forces;  Chiang Kai-shek takes oath of office as President of China;  President Roosevelt appoints General Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe.  War still raging in the Pacific;  JFK's  PT-109 is rammed and sunk;  entertainer Bob Hope begins his first war-zone tour.

On the "home front",  Americans are planting "Victory Gardens", so U.S. troops can have more food for the war effort;

although the "Great Depression" was ending, Americans are limited to three pairs of shoes each year, due to a leather shortage;  FDR announces the end of coffee rationing in the U.S.;  the new Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. is dedicated;  and Glen Miller's Orchestra had many people dancing again.

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In 1943:

• The U.S. population was approx 137 million;  world population was approx 2.4 billion
   Average cost of new home:  $3,600
      Average American wages:  $2,000 / yr    
        • Average Price for a new car: $900        
          •
Cost of a gallon of gasoline: 15 cents

          
Cost of a loaf of fresh-baked bread: 10-cents
              • Cost of a First-Class postage stamp:  3-cents
               
Cost of a movie theater ticket:  35-cents
                  Cost of a glass-bottle of CocaCola:  5-cents
 

      » The Federal Budget:  $78.56 billion
          » The National Debt level:   $142.7 billion

              »  Unemployment:  1.9 %

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WORLD LEADERS at start of the year 1943
   ♦
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is President of the United States;
              
Henry A. Wallace is Vice President, and Sam Rayburn is Speaker of the House;
     Adolph Hitler is Chancellor of Nazi Germany            
       Winston Churchill is Prime Minister of Great Britain (under King George VI)
         Benito Mussolini ("Il Duce") is Italy's Premier (but is deposed in July)
           Joseph Stalin is General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union
             Hideki Tojo is Prime Minister of Japan;  the Emperor of Japan is Hirohito


IN POPULAR CULTURE
The SLINKY toy is invented in the U.S.
   In Hollywood, the first "Golden Globe Awards" start

       • Roy Rogers becomes the most popular movie cowboy
           The "Withholding Tax" on wages was introduced

  
TIME Magazine's "Man of the Year":  U.S. General George Marshall
       • Oscar for Best Picture of 1943 goes to: "Casablanca" (Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart)
          •  Due to shortages in Copper, U.S. pennies are struck in steel

              •  Baseball:  New York Yankees win the World Series

                 •  Notre Dame wins the National Championship of college football
                     • U.S. Open Golf Championship not played, due to World War II
                        •  The Wimbleton tennis championships are not held, due to the war



SCIENCE
  Selman Waksman discovers  streptomycin  and coins the term "antibiotic"
     Doctors first begin to use the  Pap Test  to detect cervical cancer.

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What Happened in 1943??

Here's a brief  "1943 Calendar"  of the more significant world events:


JANUARY 1943
 1 - 29th Rose Bowl: #2 Georgia beats #13 UCLA, 9-0
 4 - Earl Warren becomes the 30th Governor of California
12 - Frankfurters (due to its German name) replaced by "Victory Sausages" (mix of meat & soy meal)
14-24 - Casablanca Conference: War meeting of U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill at Casablanca, French Morocco.
15 – The PENTAGON in Arlington, VA, is opened, and dedicated as the world's largest office building
18 - US rations bread & metal - banning pre-sliced bread in order to reduce bakery demand for metal parts
23 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time
27 - First US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen)
 
FEBRUARY
 6 - Singer Frank Sinatra debuts on radio's "Your Hit Parade"
 7 - 
Shoe rationing begins in US (may purchase up to 3 more pairs in 1942)
 8 –  United States forces defeat Japanese troops in the Battle of Guadalcanal
 9 - 
President Roosevelt orders minimal 48-hour work week in war industry
11 –  General Dwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the Allied armies in Europe.
13 - Women's Marine Corps created
17 - NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio enlists into the US army
20 - Phil Wrigley & Branch Rickey charter an All-American Girls Softball League
28 -
"Porgy & Bess" opens on Broadway with Anne Brown & Todd Duncan

MARCH
25 - Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore premiere on radio
27 - Groucho Marx begins his radio career on the CBS program "Blue Ribbon Town"

29 -
Meat, butter and cheese are rationed in US
31 - The Rodger and Hammerstein's musical "Oklahoma" premiers on Broadway in NYC


APRIL
 8 -  President Roosevelt freezes wages and prices in the US, in an attempt to check inflation
13 - The Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. is dedicated by President Roosevelt on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birthday
16 - The psychedelic effects of LSD are discovered by
Dr. Albert Hofmann
29 -
Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested by the Nazis for having participated in attempted assassination of Hitler


MAY

 1 -  Food rationing begins in US
 5 - 
Postmaster General Frank C Walker invents the "Postal Zone" System for U.S. mail delivery
13 - All German & Italian forces in Africa surrender to the Allies
17 - The U.S. Army contracts with the Univ Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the first computer:  ENIAC

19 - Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress
22 -
1st jet fighter is tested
29 - Meat & cheese rationed in US
31 -  "Archie" comic strip comedy show first broadcast on radio

JUNE
1 - Actor Leslie Howard (who played Ashley Wilkes in the film "Gone With the Wind) is killed when a German fighter plane shot down the BOAC airliner in which he and 11 other passengers were flying from Spain to England.
4 -
Argentina is taken over in a coup by Juan Peron and General Rawson

JULY
 1 -  The U.S. government started the "Payroll Witholding Tax" to help pay for the war effort
13 -  Greatest tank battle in history ends with Russia's defeat of Germany at Kursk, almost 6,000 tanks take part; 2,900 were lost by Germany
17 -  Britain's Royal Air Force (R
AF) bombs Germany's rocket base at Peenemunde, where German scientists (like Werner von Braun) had developed the V-1 and V-2 rockets being launched against England
25 -  Italy's Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini
("Il Duce"), is dismissed as Italian Premier and arrested on authority of Italy's King Victor Emmanuel II
30 -  The last
Judy Garland-Mickey
Rooney movie is released ("Girl Crazy")

AUGUST
 2-  John F. Kennedy's PT-109 boat is rammed and sunk by a destroyer;  JFK and friends are found 2 days later
16 - The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Intrepid is commissioned.

SEPTEMBER
 8 –  General Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies

OCTOBER
  1 - Averell Harriman named US ambassador to Moscow
11 - NY Yankees beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 1, in the 40th annual World Series, to become 1st team to win 10 World Series
16 - Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly opens the city's new subway system
19 - Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.

NOVEMBER

11 - Stan Musial (St. Louis Cardinals baseball team) wins the National League's "Most Valuable Player" Award
14 - Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic for first time, filling in for principal conductor, Bruno Walter, who is ill.
22 - Lebanon becomes an independent nation
28 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt,  British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed "Operation Overlord."


DECEMBER 1943
4 –  The Great Depression officially ends in the United States.
4 -  President Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
4 -  Baseball Commissioner Landis announces that any professional baseball club may now sign Negroes

24 -  U.S. General Eisenhower appointed Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

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GUESS WHO WAS BORN IN 1943
.....(besides MOST of us, of course)

IN LATE 1942:  A few of our MPHS1961 classmates, including Joan Duby, and Ken Miller, are born.............

JANUARY 1943
4 -  Doris Kearns Goodwin  --  historian, biographer author
10 - Jim Croce  --  pop singer
16 - Ronnie Milsap  -- pop singer
19 - Janis Joplin  --  rock singer

FEBRUARY

6 - Fabian  --  rock singer, and 1950s teen idol             
9 - Joe Pesci  --  movie actor
25 - George Harrison  --  singer, songwriter, and guitarist with "The Beatles"      
                                                                                                                           
MARCH

8 - Lynn Redgrave -- movie actress
9 - Bobby Fischer  --  world-champion chess player from the U.S.
9 - Charles Gibson  --  TV personality, news anchor journalist

26 - Bob Woodward  --  author, journalist

29 - John Major --  British politician, Prime Minister
31 - Christopher Walken --  movie actor                                     
                                                                                                  
APRIL

 30 - Bobby Vee  --  pop singer

MAY
24 - Gary Burghoff  --  TV actor, who played "Radar" on M*A*S*H
30 - Gale Sayers  --  professional football player
31 - Joe Namath  --  pro football quarterback (New York Jets)       
31 - Joe Pesci  --  TV and movie actor

31 - Sharon Gless  --  TV actress ("Lacey" in the TV police series "Cagny & Lacey")

JUNE
17 - Barry Manilow  --  pop singer, songwriter, pianist
17 - Newt Gingrich  --  politician, historian                                                 
23 - James Levine  --  composer, orchestra conductor           


JULY
4 - Geraldo Rivera  --  TV personality, talk-show host
10 - Arthur Ashe  --  tennis star, world champion
26 - Mick Jagger  --  Rock music star



AUGUST
17 - Robert De Niro  --  movie actor                                         
     
23 - Nelson DeMille  --  novelist
27 - Tuesday Weld  --  movie actress


SEPTEMBER
23 - Julio Iglesias  --  singer
29 - Lech Walesa  --  Poland political leader


OCTOBER

  7 - Oliver North  --  soldier & political commentator
  8 - Chevy Chase  --  movie actor                                                                           
15 - Penny Marshall  --  movie actress & Director                      
22- Catherine Deneuve  --  movie actress


NOVEMBER
 
5 - Sam Shephard  --  movie actor, director
22 - Billie Jean King --  world-champion tennis player                                            
28 - Randy Newman  -- rock singer                                


DECEMBER 1943

8 - Jim Morrison  --  rock singer
11 - John Kerry  --  politician
31 - John Denver  --  folk singer/song writer                                    
    
31 - Ben Kingsley  --  movie actor                                        
                                                                    


Then, in 1944 .......
 
-- Some of our other classmates (including Denis Nadas) enter the world.........  



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