The following events occurred inAugust 1943:

• Operation Tidal Wave began as a group of 177 AmericanB-24 Liberator bombers, with 1,726 total crew, departed fromLibya to make the first bombing of the oil refineries atPloieşti,Romania, the major supplier of fuel to Germany. The mission temporarily halted oil production, but 532 airmen and 54 of the planes were lost. After a 40% loss of production, the refineries would be repaired more quickly than projected.^[1] Germany's Radio Reconnaissance Service had intercepted and decrypted the Allied messages about the raid and the departure from Libya, and anti-aircraft defenses were in place despite the low-level approach of the bombers.^[2]

• Japan granted "independence" toBurma, which had been a British colony at the time of its invasion and occupation by the Japanese Army.Ba Maw was installed as the head of state, (designated theAdipadi), although the commander of the Japanese Army forces in Burma, Lieutenant-General Kawabe Masakazu, would continue to oversee Burma's politics, economy, and foreign relations.^[3]
• Rioting broke out inHarlem, the mostly African-American section of New York City, after a white NYPD officer, James Collins, shot a black soldier, Private Robert Bandy, in the shoulder during a scuffle.^[4] When an ambulance took Bandy to a hospital, a false rumor spread that the soldier had been killed, and a mob began smashing the windows of pawn shops, liquor stores and other white-owned Harlem businesses. The riot was finally suppressed by black and white NYPD officers, state national guardsmen, and military policemen, along with an appeal from MayorFiorello LaGuardia for peace and a delivery of food supplies to Harlem residents. When the riot ended, six African-Americans had died, and more than 500 arrested, while 40 officers had been injured.^[5]
• William D. Becker, theMayor of St. Louis, Missouri, was killed along with nine other people while riding as an honored guest in a new cargo-carrying glider airplane at an airshow at the city's Lambert Field airport. A crowd of 10,000 watched in horror as the wings of the glider buckled as it descended to 2,000 feet, then plummeted to the ground. Killed also were MajorWilliam B. Robertson, President of theRobertson Aircraft Corporation, which had built the glider; St. Louis County Judge Executive Henry Mueller; and Thomas Dysart, President of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.^[6]
• The German submarinesU-383 andU-454 were both depth charged and sunk in theBay of Biscay by Allied aircraft.
• Died:
  • TheBlessed Martyrs of Nowogródek, eleven Roman Catholic nuns led by Mother Superior Maria Stella Mardosewicz, were executed by a Nazi firing squad in German-occupied Poland, after volunteering to take the place of local men who had been scheduled for execution. The eleven would bebeatified by the Church in 2000.^[7]
  • Lydia Litvyak, 21, Sovietfighter ace who shot down at least 11 German airplanes. She is one of two women who were "aces", the other beingYekaterina Budanova, who died onJuly 19. Litvyak's remains would be found in 1979, and she would be posthumously awarded the medal ofHero of the Soviet Union in 1990.^[8]

• Jewish inmates at theTreblinka extermination camp in Poland seized weapons from the camp's armory and made plans to take over the concentration camp from their captors. The theft was discovered before the inmates had enough to completely overpower the guards, but hundreds charged through the main gate, and 300 managed to escape.^[9] A few guards were killed, and the rebels set several buildings ablaze, though most of the escapees were hunted down and killed, with no more than 40 surviving.^[10][11]

• At 2:00 am local time, the U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boatPT-109, with a crew of 13 commanded by Lieutenant (j.g.)John F. Kennedy, was traveling through theBlackett Strait in theSolomon Islands, when it was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyerAmagiri. Thoughtwo of the crew were killed, Kennedy andthe other ten men swam three miles toa small island and then toOlasana Island, both of which were uninhabited.^[12] Kennedy and Ensign George H. R. Ross would make their way toNaru Island where they were found by nativesBiuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who delivered a message that Kennedy had carved on a coconut to thePT base atRendova Island. ThePT-109 survivors were rescued on August 8, and Kennedy received theNavy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroism.^[13]
• Soviet partisan fighters began using a new weapon,land mines made of plastic, to fight the German occupiers. Reportedly, the partisans placed 8,422 of the mines along railway tracks in the Belarusian SSR.^[14]
• The German submarineU-106 was depth charged and sunk northwest ofCape Ortegal, Spain byShort Sunderland aircraft ofNo. 228 Squadron RAF.
• Born:Max Wright, American TV actor who portrayed Willie Tanner onALF; inDetroit (d. 2019)^[15]

• Operation Rumyantsev began as the Soviet Army started an offensive against the German XI Corps to recaptureKharkov.^[16]
• TheMirgorod direction offensive began.
• The U.S. state ofGeorgia lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18, becoming the first state in the union to grant 18-year-olds the right to vote. The amendment to the state constitution was one of 28 that was approved in a referendum.^[17]

• GeneralGeorge S. Patton was visiting the 15th Evacuation Hospital in Nicosia, Cyprus, when he encountered Private Charles H. Kuhl, who was in the hospital for malaria and dysentery as well as forshell shock. Patton asked Private Kuhl what he was in for, and Kuhl replied, "I guess I just can't take it." Patton lost his temper andstruck Kuhl with his gloves. On August 10, Patton would strike another soldier, and the incidents became public knowledge.^[18]
• The German submarinesU-335,U-572 andU-706 were all lost to enemy action.
• Born:
  • Clarence Wijewardena, Sri Lankan pop musician (d. 1996); inHaputale^[19]
  • Steven Millhauser, American novelist known forMartin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer; inNew York City^[20]

• British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and his cabinet ministers made what one commentator would call "one of his most important but least known decisions", electing not to ship British wheat to the colony in India, "thereby condemning hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions, of people to death by starvation". At the time, there was a famine in the Bengal province (nowBangladesh).^[21]
• At the GermanV-2 rocket plant atPeenemünde, the decision was made to employ concentration camp inmates as slave labor to build the missiles. For every non-Jewish German employee, there would be at least ten camp inmates supplied by the SS.^[22]
• TheBattle of Munda Point, fought atNew Georgia in theSolomon Islands, ended after five weeks with a U.S. victory over Japan.^[23]
• The German submarineU-489 was depth charged and sunk in the North Atlantic by aConsolidated PBY Catalina ofNo. 423 Squadron RCAF.
• TheProgressive Conservatives underGeorge Drew defeated theLiberal government of PremierHarry Nixon in ageneral election, forming aminority government. The result was 42 years of uninterrupted government by the Tories in the Canadian province ofOntario. The election was also notable for a breakthrough by the social democraticCo-operative Commonwealth Federation, led byTed Jolliffe.
• In the port ofAlgiers, the cargo shipFort La Montee caught fire and exploded after being towed out to sea. The British destroyerHMSArrow took heavy damage from the explosion and was later declared a constructive total loss.^[24]
• Born:
  • Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper, and winner of two World Championships in 1966; inAlta Municipality^[25]
  • Margaret Lee (stage name for Margaret Gwendolyn Box), British-born actress who became a star in Italian action films such asSe tutte le donne del mondo (released in the U.S. asKiss the Girls and Make Them Die); inWolverhampton,Staffordshire (d. 2024)^[26]

• The United StatesWomen Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) was formed, consolidating theWomen's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) andWomen Airforce Service Pilots (WFTD).^[27]
• John F. Kennedy and his crewmates fromPT-109 were found by twoSolomon Islandscoastwatchers,Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who arrived atNauru in adugout canoe, and then paddled back to Olasana Island to bring rescuers.^[28] Nearly fifty years later,National Geographic News would note that "Without the heroic efforts of two local South Pacific scouts, Lt. John F. Kennedy likely would never have made it to the end of World War II, much less the U.S. Presidency."^[29]
• Soviet troops recaptured the city ofOrel from German forces after a 23-day battle.^[30]
• The German submarineU-34 collided atMemel with the submarine tenderLech and sank with the loss of four of 43 crew.
• Jean Monnet of France, best known for creating theMonnet Plan for post-war reconstruction of Europe and for his role inthe founding of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), a forerunner of theEuropean Union, told the French Committee for National Liberation in Algiers, the government-in-exile, that "there will be no peace in Europe if the States are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty" and that "the countries of Europe are too small to guarantee their peoples the prosperity that modern conditions make possible and consequently necessary".^[31]
• Died:Eva-Maria Buch, 22, andRose Schlösinger, 36, German members ofDie Rote Kapelle ("The Red Orchestra"), a resistance group, were executed byguillotine at thePlötzensee Prison in Berlin.^[32][33]

• The two dayBattle of Vella Gulf began. The result was a U.S. victory as the Japanese destroyersArashi,Hagikaze andKawakaze were all sunk.
• The Munda Airfield was captured by American forces, giving the United States control of the island ofNew Georgia.^[34]
• TheBattle of Troina inSicily ended after six days of fighting led by General George S. Patton as American forces triumphed over the Axis defenders and breaking through the second Axis line of defense, theEtna Line.^[35]
• The liquidation of theVilna Ghetto, where the Jewish residents of the city ofVilnius (inLithuania) had been confined, began. The Nazi occupiers of theSoviet Union removed the first 1,000 of the 50,000 Jewish residents, with 20,000 of the adults transported to Estonia to work as slave labor at the concentration camps inKlooga andLagedi. The Germans encountered resistance during the first deportation, and after killing those who had taken up arms, sent Estonian JewHerman Kruk to convince residents that the deportation "meant not extermination but work"^[36] Kruk himself would die in the Lagedi camp on September 18, 1944.
• TheBattle of Belgorod ended in Soviet victory over the German invaders, while the Germans fell back toBogodukhov for further fighting.^[37]
• U.S. Army Private Walter J. Bohn, convicted of the January 8 rape of a housewife inAlexandria, Louisiana, was hanged at nearby Camp Claiborne after being found guilty ofrape by a military court.^[38]

• TheSecond Battle of Smolensk began on the Eastern Front.
• On the first anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. battle in the south Pacific Ocean against Japanese forces, and almost two years to the day before the bombing of Hiroshima, U.S. Navy AdmiralWilliam F. Halsey Jr. told a press conference that "We will destroy the enemy. We shall push forward until the Battle of the South Pacific becomes the Battle of Japan."^[39]
• The German submarinesU-84,U-117 andU-615 were all sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean by Allied action.

• The United States Army barred the taking of photos at all beach resorts on the Atlantic Ocean, and even painting or sketching beach scenes, as part of defense of the eastern United States. Civilian violators could be barred from the going to the coast, or even subjected to trial in a military court, "for violating or conspiring to violate regulations".^[40]
• U.S. troops landed at St. Agata on the Italian island of Sicily.^[41]
• The GermanKriegsmarine battleshipsTirpitz andScharnhorst with nine destroyers bombarded the settlements ofLongyearbyen,Barentsburg andGrumant on the Norwegian island ofSpitsbergen.^[42]

• The United States signed a military assistance treaty withEthiopia, which had been liberated from control ofItaly in 1941.^[43]
• The German submarineU-664 was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by two AmericanGrumman TBM Avenger aircraft from the escort carrierCard. Seven hours after the sinking, 44 of the 51 German crew were rescued by the destroyerUSSBorie and taken prisoner.^[44]
• Died:
  • Franz Jägerstätter, 36, Austrian farmer andconscientious objector to conscription into the German Army, was executed. He would later bebeatified by theRoman Catholic Church in 2007.;^[45]
  • Chaïm Soutine, 50, Belarusian-born French expressionist painter, died from a perforated ulcer

• For the second time in a week, General George S. Patton Jr.,struck a U.S. Army soldier after losing his temper. This time, his encounter was with Private Paul G. Bennet at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in San Stefano, inSicily. Patton asked Bennet what he was ill with, and Bennet, suffering fromshell shock, replied, "It's my nerves... I can't stand the shelling anymore." According to a medical officer who witnessed the attack, General Patton replied, "Your nerves, hell. You're just a God-damned coward, you yellow son of a bitch!" and then slapped him.^[18] The second incident was witnessed by a nurse, who told her boyfriend, a U.S. Army Captain in the public affairs detachment for the U.S. Seventh Army, and would make news worldwide when it became public three months later. Although demands would be made by members of Congress for General Patton to be relieved of duty, Patton would instead be reprimanded and would be made to apologize to both soldiers.
• Born:
  • Louis E. Brus, American chemist, recipient of the 2023Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his co-discovery ofquantum dots; inCleveland.^[46]
  • Ronnie Spector (stage name for Veronica Yvette Bennett), American vocalist and leader ofThe Ronettes; inNew York City (d. 2022).^[47]

• Operation Lehrgang, the evacuation of German and Italian troops fromSicily, began with 100,000 Axis troops departing the Italian island over the next seven days, completing by August 17.^[48][49]
• Pulling back from the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler ordered the creation of thePanther–Wotan line, a line of defense on the eastern side of theReichskommissariat Ostland, the German-occupied territory in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.^[36]
• The German submarineU-525 was lost with all 54 crew after being sunk by USSCard and by Allied aircraft,^[50] while the submarinesU-468 andU-604 were lost to Allied action in the Atlantic Ocean with a rescue of most of their crews.
• The Technicolor comedy filmHeaven Can Wait (not related tothe 1978 film of the same name), starringGene Tierney andDon Ameche was released.^[51]
• Born:
  • Pervez Musharraf,President of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008; inDelhi,British India (d. 2023)^[52]
  • Kenneth Gamble, American songwriter of theGamble and Huff team that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008; inPhiladelphia^[53]
  • Abigail Folger, American heiress who would become one of the seven victims of the 1969Tate–LaBianca murders; inSan Francisco (d. 1969)

• In a recorded radio address that was broadcast to the Philippines on the anniversary of the August 12, 1898 occupation by the United States, U.S. President Roosevelt said that "I give the Filipino people my word that the Republic of the Philippines will be established the moment the power of our Japanese enemies is destroyed." Joaquin Elizalde, the Philippines' Resident Commissioner in Washington, told reporters that he concluded that Roosevelt meant that independence would come sooner than the scheduled independence date ofJuly 4, 1946, although that would require an amendment to the Tydings-McDuffie Act.^[54] By the time liberation was declared on July 5, 1945, the transition time would be only a year away.
• Albanian Resistance fighters of theBalli Kombëtar carried out theKurtez ambush, inflicting heavy losses on German troops.^[55]
• ThePolish resistance movementArmia Krajowa (the "Home Army") carried outOperation Góral. In a midday raid, the resistance men ambushed a truck and recovered around 106 millionzłotys being transported inWarsaw by the occupying Nazi German authorities.^[56] The amount taken was the equivalent in 1943 of US$33,000,000 .^[57]
• The musical horror filmPhantom of the Opera starringNelson Eddy,Susanna Foster andClaude Rains premiered in Los Angeles.

• After two weeks of warnings to Italy from the Allies, that "The respite is over. The bombing of military objectives will resume"^[58] air raids resumed. Britain'sRoyal Air Force dropped tons of incendiary bombs onMilan andTurin in the early morning, as well as making the first bombing run onBerlin sinceMay 21. Shortly after 11:00 am local time, American bombers began an even heavier attack onRome than the one delivered onJuly 19, and continued for two hours of precision bombing on the railway yards at San Lorenzo and Vittorio.^[59] American Liberator bombers struck German Austria for the first time, targeting the Messerschmitt arms plant atWiener Neustadt south ofVienna, "demonstrating to a bomb-jittery Germany that virtually no corner of its domain is now beyond the range of Allied aircraft".^[60]
• TheUSS John Penn was torpedoed off ofHoniara in theSolomon Islands and sunk by Japanese aircraft, with the loss of 98 of her 133 crew.^[61]
• Died:Jakob Gapp, 46, Austrian Roman Catholic martyr, was executed at thePlötzensee Prison after being convicted of treason against the Nazi regime. He would receivebeatification on November 24, 1996 fromPope John Paul II.^[62]

• American Liberator bombers flew a record distance, traveling 2,500 miles from Australia to carry out the first bombing raid on the island ofBorneo, striking the Japanese oil reserves atBalikpapan.^[63]
• A day after the second bombing of the Italian capital,Rome was declared anopen city by the Italian government, which made the announcement in a radio broadcast by Stetani, the official news agency. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the ItalianPrime Minister confirmed the decision later in the day, offering to remove the city's defenses, under the supervision of the Allies, in exchange for no further bombing.^[64]
• TheBattle of Roosevelt Ridge ended in New Guinea after 24 days, with Australian and American victory over the Japanese. In all 2,722 Japanese troops, 343 Australians and 81 Americans were killed in the battle.^[65][66]
• Construction was completed on the 1,811 mile longBig Inch pipeline, which supplied petroleum directly from the oil fields of East Texas, to the shipping ports of New York City and Philadelphia. The project had started on August 3, 1942.^[67]
• The British submarineSaracen was damaged by depth charges from Italian corvettes offBastia,Corsica and scuttled to prevent capture. Italian ships rescued 46 of the 48Royal Navy crew.^[68]
• The musical comedy filmThis Is the Army starringGeorge Murphy,Joan Leslie andRonald Reagan was released.
• Born:Néstor Cerpa Cartolini, Peruvian terrorist who led theTúpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement from 1985 until he was killed in a shootout with police; inLima (d. 1997)^[69]

• United States and Canadian troops, prepared for heavy resistance, invaded theAlaskan island ofKiska and were surprised to find the island deserted. Japan had taken control of Kiska, part of theAlaska Territory, shortly after the 1941attack on Pearl Harbor.^[70][71] Although there was no resistance, four American soldiers were killed by mines left behind by the Japanese, and 24 were killed byfriendly fire, "shot by mistake by their own comrades in the heavy Kiska fog".^[72]
• Thebattle of Vella Lavella began in theSolomon Islands as U.S. troops landed at Barakuma on the Japanese-occupied island of Vella Lavela,^[73] and New Zealand troops took over in September. Japanese troops would withdraw on October 6, after which thenaval battle would take place.
• A Polish unit of theUderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe conducted theRaid on Mittenheide as an invasion of eastern Germany for reprisal to avenge Nazi German atrocities inPoland'sBialystok District.
• Born:Barbara Bouchet (stage name for Bärbel Gutscher), German-born American and Italian actress and model; inReichenberg, Sudetenland, Germany (nowLiberec in theCzech Republic)^[74]

• TheBiałystok Ghetto Uprising began soon after 10:00 in the morning, the German SS surrounded the Jewish ghetto in the city ofBiałystok in German-occupied Poland, to begin deportation of the thousands of residents to concentration camps. As the roundup began, the Jewish underground force took up arms and began fighting back. The battle went on for five days before the Germans were able to suppress the insurrection. Most of the leaders of the revolt committed suicide rather than being captured.^[75]
• Born:Arlene Render, American diplomat who served as the Director of the Office of Central African Affairs within the U.S. State Department, known for attempting to stop theRwandan genocide; inCleveland^[76]

• The seven-dayQuebec Conference opened inQuebec City in Canada with U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, UK Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and Canadian Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King in attendance to discuss the Allied invasion of German-occupied France, initially planned for May 1, 1944.^[77]
• The U.S. Army Air Force carried out theSchweinfurt–Regensburg mission, its first strategic air raid on German war production, attacking the ball-bearing factory atSchweinfurt, and the Messerschmitt airplane manufacturing atRegensburg. General Ira C. Eaker, who commanded the Eighth U.S. Army Bomber force, made what Nazi officialAlbert Speer would later call "a crucial mistake", dividing the 376 American B-17 bombers into two groups, rather than concentrating on destroying the Schweinfurt factory, where production was cut by one-third, but continued.^[78] Sixty of the bombers were shot down, and 550 flyers were killed or captured.^[79]
• TheU.S. 7th Army, commanded by GeneralGeorge S. Patton, met theBritish 8th Army led by GeneralBernard Montgomery inMessina, completing theAllied invasion of Sicily.^[80]
• Allied artillery in Messina began shelling the Italian mainland.^[41]
• TheUSAAFFifth Air Force began the five-dayBombing of Wewak on the mainland of New Guinea.^[81]
• The navalbattle off Horaniu began off of the Solomon Islands began the night and concluded the next day. The Japanese lost four auxiliary ships in the naval battle but successfully evacuated 9,000 troops fromKolombangara.^[82]
• Born:
  • Robert De Niro, American film actor and winner of two Academy Awards (forThe Godfather Part II andRaging Bull); inNew York City^[83]
  • Yukio Kasaya, Japanese ski jumper and 1972 Olympic gold medalist; inYoichi, Hokkaido (d. 2024)^[84]

• InOperation Hydra, three waves of Royal Air Force bombers struck the Nazi German V-2 rocket base and research facility atPeenemünde. Eight RAF bombers were sent toward Berlin to divert German air defenses.^[85] General Jeschonnek shot himself the next day after learning about the damage.^[85]
• U.S. President Roosevelt issued anExecutive Order directing the cancellation of draft deferments for any striking defense plant employees who failed to comply with War Labor Board orders to return to work.^[86]
• TheBattle of Mount Tambu inNew Guinea ended more than a month after its start on July 16, with Australian and U.S. troops succeeding against Japan.^[87]
• The last of 46,000 Greek people, mostly Jewish, who had been deported fromSalonika, arrived at theAuschwitz extermination camp. Deportation had started onMarch 20, with 18 transports emptying the Italian-controlled city over five months.^[88]
• The German submarineU-403, with 49 crew, was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by aVickers Wellington ofNo. 344 Squadron RAF.^[89]
• Born:Gianni Rivera, Italian footballer and 1969 European Footballer of the Year; inAlessandria^[90]
• Died: German Army Colonel-GeneralHans Jeschonnek, 44, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, committed suicide after the attack on Peenemünde.^[91]

• TheQuadrant Conference between the Chiefs of Staff of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, continued inQuebec City with the signing of theQuebec Agreement by U.S. President Roosevelt, U.K. Prime Minister Churchill, and Canadian Prime Minister King.^[92] The terms of the pact, officially titledArticles of Agreement Governing Collaboration between the Authorities of the USA and the UK in the Matter of Tube Alloys, would remain secret until 1954. "Tube alloys" was a codename for atomic weapons.^[93] The nations agreed to combine their atomic physicists and researchers to develop the atomic bomb, and not use the weapon against any other nation without joint consent.^[94]
• Secret negotiations began inLisbon between GeneralGiuseppe Castellano and the Allies to discuss an Italian surrender.^[95]
• TheBattle of Bobdubi in New Guinea ended almost four months after its April 22 start, as troops from the 15th and 17th Brigades of the Australian Army's3rd Division Infantry defeated the 51st Division of the Imperial Japanese Army.^[96]
• The Japanese submarineI-17, with 91 crew, was sunk offNoumea by the New Zealand minesweeperTui and AmericanVought OS2U Kingfisher aircraft.^[97]I-17 had beenthe first Axis ship to attack the continental United States when it fired artillery shells at an oil refinery nearSanta Barbara, California, on February 23, 1942.^[98]
• A three-story Congoleum Nairn factory, inKearny, New Jersey, was leveled by a chemical explosion, killing 12 people inside who were buried under tons of rubble.^[99][100]

• Japan andThailand signed a peace treaty, in which four provinces of Japanese-occupiedBritish Malaya (Kedah,Perlis,Kelantan andTrengganu) were to be made part of Thailand. Thai administration would begin onOctober 18.^[101]
• Soviet Major General P. V. Bogdanov, who had collaborated with the enemy after being captured by the German Army, was recaptured and turned over to the Soviet counter-intelligence service,SMERSH. Bogdanov would be executed, along with five other former Red Army generals, onApril 19, 1950.^[102]
• The German submarineU-197 was sunk with all 67 crew in theIndian Ocean by a PBY Catalina ofNo. 265 Squadron RAF.^[103] On the same day, the German submarineU-670 sank in theBay of Danzig after a collision with the target shipBulkoburg. The German u-boat lost 21 of its 43 crew.^[104]
• Born:Sylvester McCoy (stage name for Percy Kent-Smith ), Scottish TV actor and seventh to play the role ofDoctor Who (1987-1989); inDunoon,Argyll and Bute^[105]

• Voters in Australia kept the incumbent government and Prime MinisterJohn Curtin retained his office, as hisAustralian Labor Party won 49 of the 74 seats in theHouse of Representatives^[106] and 19 of the 36 seats in theSenate^[107]
• U.S. President Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister King announced jointly from a meeting in Quebec City that their nations' troops had recapturedKiska, "the last vestige of North American territory of Japanese forces. island of American territory in Alaska. "For security reasons, this announcement has been withheld pending the unloading of transports," the statement said.^[70] The recapture of Kiska removed the last base from which Japan could attack the 48 United States, and gave the U.S. a large base from which Japan's home islands could be bombed.^[108]
• TheBombing of Wewak ended in U.S. victory.^[81]
• Died:
  • Henrik Pontoppidan, 86, Danish novelist and co-winner of the 1917Nobel Prize for Literature^[109]
  • William Lyon Phelps, 78, American author and literary critic nicknamed "Billy Phelps" by his colleagues at Yale University.^[110]

• Andrei Gromyko was named as the new Soviet ambassador to the United States, as part of a surprise announcement that longtime ambassadorMaxim Litvinov was being removed from the post. Litvinov had departed Washington in May after Joseph Stalin summoned him back to Moscow.^[111]
• The identity of "Gertie from Berlin", who broadcast Nazi propaganda to English-speaking radio listeners, was revealed by the FBI to be Gertrude Hahn, an American citizen and native ofPittsburgh. Miss Hahn, who had moved toBerlin in 1938 when her father decided to return the family to Germany, had grown up inMount Oliver, Pennsylvania.^[112]
• The Uniting Islamic Society of America was formed after a four-day meeting inNewark, New Jersey, organized bySunni Muslims led by Wali Akram.^[113]

• PremierJoseph Stalin of theSoviet Union announced that the recapture ofKharkov from German occupiers had ended theBattle of Kursk with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces. Kharkov, the fourth largest city in the U.S.S.R., was the last major enemy base on the southern frontier.^[114] The Soviet Navy newspaperRed Fleet revealed the discovery of several previously unknown types of German explosive devices that had been left behind by forces fleeing from the Soviets. Some, found inMtsensk, were time bombs that set to go off as late as 45 days after being set, while others were photo-sensitive, using an "electric eye" to trigger a blast as soon as the mine was brought out of a shadow. Others, discovered inBryansk were camouflaged to look like swamp plants, or concealed inside chimneys.^[115]
• Born:Bobby Diamond, American child actor best known as "Joey" on the TV westernFury; inLos Angeles (d. 2019)^[116]

• TheBattle of the Dnieper began on the Eastern Front when Soviet forces began a new offensive to recover the eastern bank of theDnieper.^[117]

Reichsminister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler and Protectorate Governor Wilhelm Frick

• Heinrich Himmler, the commander of the Gestapo, was named Reichsminister of the Interior inGermany, after Adolf Hitler removedWilhelm Frick from the post. Frick was reassigned to become theProtector of Bohemia and Moravia, replacingKonstantin von Neurath as Germany's overseer of the "protectorate".^[118]
• TheQuebec Conference ended.^[77]
• The German submarinesU-134 (with 48 crew) andU-185 were lost in the Atlantic Ocean to Allied action.
• Died:Simone Weil, 34, French philosopher and feminist activist, died of tuberculosis^[119]

• Lord Mountbatten, Royal Navy Vice-Admiral and leader of theBritish Commandos in the Pacific War, was named by the Allies as the Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia. Mountbatten would conduct the Allied war effort against Japan in coordination with the Supreme Allied Commander in the Southwest Pacific operations, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur.^[120]
• TheMirgorod direction offensive ended after 20 days as the Soviets under GeneralNikolai Vatutin forced the retreat of the Nazi German army ofErich von Manstein.^[121]
• Germany usedglide bombs for the first time against Allied vessels, but this new weapon's success would be limited.^[95]
• The German submarineU-523 was depth charged and sunk west ofVigo inSpain in the Bay of Biscay by the British warshipsHMS Wanderer and HMSWallflower, killing 17 of the 54 crew.^[122]

• An unprecedented $800,000,000 worth ofUnited States War Bonds were sold as advertising and tickets for an exhibition baseball game that brought out seven of the then twelve living members of theBaseball Hall of Fame, with (Babe Ruth,Walter Johnson,Tris Speaker,Honus Wagner,Eddie Collins,George Sisler, andConnie Mack as the manager) and four more who would be voted in later (Frankie Frisch,Harry Hooper,Roger Bresnahan and umpireBill Klem). As the "New York All-Stars", also referred to as the "Yanks-Giants-Dodgers" the players beat New Cumberland, a U.S. Army Service team, 5–2.^[123] The event, sponsored by theNew York Herald-American newspaper, also had entertainment fromJames Cagney,Ethel Merman,Cab Calloway,Milton Berle,Joe E. Lewis,Carole Landis andRalph Bellamy.^[124] The 800 million dollars was equivalent to 10.7billion dollars in 2013.^[125]
• The Soviet Union and Egypt first established diplomatic relations.^[126]
• Died:Ted Ray, 66, British professional golfer who won the British Open in 1912 and the U.S. Open in 1920^[127]

• The German rocketHenschel Hs 293 struck, and sank, the British shipHMSEgret, marking the first successful attack by aguided missile.^[128]
• TheUSSEldridge, was commissioned for the U.S. Navy. The destroyer escort would become part of American folklore as the subject of the supposedPhiladelphia Experiment. According to a variation of the legend, theEldridge was made temporarily invisible.^[129]
• Albert Lebrun, who had beenPresident of France at the time of that nation's surrender to Nazi Germany, was arrested by the GermanGestapo, whileAndré François-Poncet, the former French ambassador to Germany, was arrested in a separate action.^[130]
• The drama filmWatch on the Rhine starringBette Davis andPaul Lukas premiered at theStrand Theatre in New York City.^[131]
• Born:Tuesday Weld (stage name for as Susan Ker Weld), American film and TV actress, inNew York City^[132]

King Simeon II (6) and the late King Boris III

• KingBoris III of Bulgaria died at the age of 49, two weeks after his August 14 meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and only four days after suddenly becoming ill.^[133] His 6-year-old son ascended to the throne asSimeon II, with power to be executed by aregency made up of a council of ministers.^[134] Simeon II would be the lastKing of Bulgaria, forced out of office with the abolition of the monarchy onSeptember 8, 1946, but would return to power in 2001 as Simeon Sakskoburggotski,Prime Minister of Bulgaria.^[135]
• The Danish government resigned rather than obey a German demand to prosecute suspected saboteurs in German military courts.^[136]
• The German submarineU-639 was torpedoed and sunk in theKara Sea by Soviet submarineS-101.^[137]
• Born:
  • Surayud Chulanont,Prime Minister of Thailand from 2006 to 2008; inPrachinburi^[138]
  • Lou Piniella, American baseball player who was 1969 AL Rookie of the Year, and manager who was named Manager of the Year three times for the Seattle Mariners and the Chicago Cubs; inTampa^[139]
  • David Soul (stage name for David Solberg), American and British TV, film and stage actor known for the TV seriesStarsky & Hutch and singer known for the #1 hit "Don't Give Up on Us"; inChicago (d. 2024)^[140]

King Christian X of Denmark and Nazi Administrator General Hermann von Hanneken

• As theoccupation of Denmark by Germany continued, occupying military forces dissolved the nation's government, which had refused to respond to a wave of strikes and disturbances.King Christian X and Prime MinisterErik Scavenius were placed under arrest, and GeneralHermann von Hanneken of the German Army declared martial law. Danish crews, mostly at Copenhagen,scuttled thirty-two warships, including the armored defense shipPeder Skram, nine submarines, two new destroyers and two torpedo boats. The other armored cruiser, theNiels Iuel, was sunk by German bombers after Danes took control of it and attempted to take it toward Sweden. Four smaller Danish patrol ships successfully escaped to Sweden and docked atMalmö.^[141][142]
• The SovietVoronezh Front captured the Ukrainian city ofLiubotyn.^[143]
• APV-1 Ventura bomber with a crew of six U.S. Navy members, disappeared after taking off fromWhidbey Island NAS on a training flight in the U.S. state ofWashington.^[144] The Ventura bomber was not discovered until more than 51 years later, when a hiker found the wreckage on the 10,775 feet (3,284 m) highMount Baker at an altitude of about 7,500 feet (2,300 m).^[145]

• Twenty-seven people were killed and 46 seriously injured in the collision of aLackawanna Railroad passenger train and a freight train. Most of the casualties resulted from being scalded by steam and boiling water. The collision took place nearWayland, New York, when the freight engine's crew disregarded signals and pulled into the path of the Buffalo to New York Limited express, which was traveling at 70 miles an hour. Windows on the fifth coach were broken when a steam cylinder on the freight engine burst, sending boiling water onto the passengers inside.^[146]
• Germany's Ministry of Transport issued an order banning non-business use of horse-drawn vehicles, confining drivers, horses and carts to "work of war importance".^[147]
• The German submarineU-634 was depth charged and sunk east of theAzores by the British warshipsHMS Stork andHMS Stonecrop, with the loss of 47 crew.^[148]
• Born:
  • Jean-Claude Killy, French alpine skier, 1968 Olympic gold medalist and 1966 and 1968 world champion; inSaint-Cloud,Seine-et-Oisedépartement^[149]
  • Robert Crumb, American cartoonist who founded the "underground comix" movement under the name "R. Crumb"; inPhiladelphia^[150]
  • Tal Brody, American-born college basketball player who bypassed the NBA to later become a star forMaccabi Tel Aviv inIsrael; inTrenton, New Jersey^[151]
  • Altovise Davis, American entertainer and third wife ofSammy Davis Jr.; inCharlotte, North Carolina (d. 2009)^[152]

• TheGrumman F6F Hellcat fighter was first used in combat, as groups of Hellcats took off from the aircraft carriersYorktown,Independence, andEssex.^[153] One historian would later opine that "The introduction of the Hellcat may have been the most important event of the Pacific war".,^[154] while another would give the statistics supporting the opinion. "Of the 6,477 Japanese aircraft U.S. Navy carrier pilots claimed to have destroyed in the air, the Hellcat was responsible for 4,947 — an incredible feat considering the Hellcat did not enter combat service until August 31, 1943."^[155]
• A great force of R.A.F.bombers carried outa devastating attack on Berlin with 613 bombers, of which 47 were lost. The attack lasted 45 minutes and 1000 tons of bombs were dropped.^[156]
• Died:Gustav Bachmann, 83, German World War I admiral^[157]

• August 1943
• August by year
• Months in the 1940s

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