1943 Detroit race riot
The rioting in Detroit began among youths at Belle Isle Park on June 20, 1943; the unrest moved into the city proper and was exacerbated by false rumors of racial attacks in both the black and white communities. It continued until June 22. It was suppressed after 6,000 federal troops were ordered into the city to restore peace.


1943 Detroit race riot
A total of 34 people were killed, 25 of them black and most at the hands of the white police force, while 433 were wounded (75 percent of them black), and property valued at $2 million ($30.4 million in 2020 US dollars) was destroyed. Most of the riot took place in the black area of Paradise Valley, the poorest neighborhood of the city.


1943 Detroit race riot
At the time, white commissions attributed the cause of the riot to black people and youths. But the NAACP claimed deeper causes: a shortage of affordable housing, discrimination in employment, lack of minority representation in the police, and white police brutality. A late 20th-century analysis of the rioters showed that the white rioters were younger and often unemployed (characteristics that the riot commissions had falsely attributed to blacks, despite evidence in front of them). If working, the whites often held semi-skilled or skilled positions.


1943 Detroit race riot
Whites traveled long distances across the city to join the first stage of the riot near the bridge to Belle Isle Park, and later some traveled in armed groups explicitly to attack the black neighborhood in Paradise Valley. The black participants were often older, established city residents, who in many cases had lived in the city for more than a decade. Many were married working men and were defending their homes and neighborhood against police and white rioters. They also looted and destroyed white-owned property in their neighborhood.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot
By 1920, Detroit had become the fourth-largest city in the United States, with an industrial and population boom driven by the rapid expansion of the automobile industry. In this era of continuing high immigration from southern and eastern Europe, the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s established a substantial presence in Detroit during its early 20th-century revival. The KKK became concentrated in midwestern cities rather than exclusively in the South. It was primarily anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish in this period, but it also supported white supremacy.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot
The KKK contributed to Detroit's reputation for racial antagonism, and there were violent incidents dating from 1915. Its lesser-known offshoot, Black Legion, was also active in the Detroit area. In 1936 and 1937, some 48 members were convicted of numerous murders and attempted murder, thus ending Black Legion's run. Both organizations stood for white supremacy. Detroit was unique among northern cities by the 1940s for its exceptionally high percentage of Southern-born residents, both black and white.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot
Soon after the U.S. entry into World War II, the automotive industry was converted to military production; high wages were offered, attracting large numbers of workers and their families from outside of Michigan. The new workers found little available housing, and competition among ethnic groups was fierce for both jobs and housing. With Executive Order 8802, President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, had prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry. Roosevelt called upon all groups to support the war effort. The Executive Order was applied irregularly, and blacks were often excluded from numerous industrial jobs, especially more skilled and supervisory positions.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, Growing population
In 1941 at the beginning of the war, blacks numbered nearly 150,000 in Detroit, which had a total population of 1,623,452. Many of the blacks had migrated from the South in 1915 to 1930 during the Great Migration, as the auto industry opened up many new jobs. By summer 1943, after the United States had entered World War II, tensions between whites and blacks in Detroit were escalating; blacks resisted discrimination, as well as oppression and violence by the Detroit Police Department. The police force of the city was overwhelmingly white, and the black population resented this.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, Growing population
In the early 1940s, Detroit's population reached more than 2 million, absorbing more than 400,000 whites and some 50,000 black migrants, mostly from the American South, where racial segregation was enforced by law. The more recent African American arrivals were part of the second wave of the black Great Migration, joining 150,000 blacks already in the city. The early residents had been restricted by informal segregation and their limited finances to the poor and overcrowded East Side of the city. A 60-block area east of Woodward Avenue was known as Paradise Valley, and it had aging and substandard housing.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, Growing population
White American migrants came largely from agricultural areas and especially rural Appalachia, carrying with them southern prejudices. Rumors circulated among ethnic white groups to fear African Americans as competitors for housing and jobs. Blacks had continued to seek to escape the limited opportunities in the South, exacerbated by the Great Depression and second-class social status under Jim Crow laws. After arriving in Detroit, the new migrants found racial bigotry there, too. They had to compete for low-level jobs with numerous European immigrants or their descendants, in addition to rural southern whites.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, Growing population
Blacks were excluded from all of the limited public housing except the Brewster Housing Projects. They were exploited by landlords and forced to pay rents that were two to three times higher than families paid in the less densely populated white districts. Like other poor migrants, they were generally limited to the oldest, substandard housing.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, The Great Migration
After the Civil War, slavery became illegal. Former slaves and their descendants still faced severe discrimination. As a result, many former slaves could only find low paying work in agriculture or domestic service. Southern blacks migrated north in the 20th Century in hopes of leaving the oppressive culture in the South. Many considered Detroit to be the place of paradise, calling Detroit the "New Canaan." During the Civil War, Detroit was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, as many settled in the northern city or used it as a means to get to Canada.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, The Great Migration
During World War II, it was sought out as a refuge for blacks seeking to escape the lingering effects of the Jim Crow era. The promise of employment and escape from the violent racial tensions in the South drew in many African American workers to the North. Before the war, black workers in Detroit were scarce: even in 1942, 119 of 197 Detroit manufacturers surveyed did not have any black employees. However, by 1943, Detroit's labor shortage had become so severe that companies finally began employing African Americans.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, The Great Migration
A report in 1944 showed that with the 44% increase of wartime employment, black employment increased by 103%. Ford Motor Company was the leading manufacturer in black employment: half of all blacks in the auto industry in the U.S. were employed by Ford, and 12% of all Ford workers were black. Ford made sure to develop close ties with African Americans, being in contact with leading clergy at major black churches and using ministers as a screening process to obtain recommendations for the best potential workers.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, The Great Migration
This ensured that Ford only employed reliable long-term workers who would be willing to do the most labor-intensive jobs. Around 1910, Ford gave a salary of $5 a day to its workers, which translates to over $120 today. Because of the city's growth in population and employment opportunities, Detroit became a symbol of cultural rebirth. The statement "when I die, bury me in Detroit" became popular among the black community for these reasons.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing
The effect of World War II in Europe and Asia was felt heavily in the U.S. even before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The defense industry was growing rapidly because the country was immersed in a military buildup to provide assistance to their European and Asian allies. On the home front, African-Americans were subjected to low-level jobs with little security or protection against the discrimination and prejudice they faced in the work place.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing
A. Philip Randolph and other civil rights leaders took this opportunity to speak with President Roosevelt about expanding opportunities for African-Americans by outlawing discrimination in the defense industry. At first, the president was hesitant to agree due to his political alignments but changed his mind when Randolph threatened a large march on the nation's capital. After President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which prohibited racial discrimination within the defense industry, he was then preoccupied with providing adequate housing for the new additions to the workforce. Housing in many cities was substandard, especially for people of color.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing
Housing in Detroit was strained as both blacks and whites moved from southern states to Detroit to work in the booming manufacturing industry in the city. African-Americans were unable to buy houses in the suburbs during the majority of the 20th century due to racially biased practices, such as redlining and restrictive covenants. They had no choice but to live in substandard housing in downtown Detroit in an area more commonly known as Black Bottom.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing
Properties in the city had high values for what residents were getting: single-family apartments crowded with multiple families, outstanding maintenance and, in many cases, no indoor plumbing. The influx of African-Americans to Detroit exacerbated racial tensions already present in the city and culminated at the introduction of the Sojourner Truth Housing Project.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
In 1941, in an attempt to lessen the severity of the housing crisis, the federal government and the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC) approved the construction of the Sojourner Truth Housing Project with 200 units for black defense workers. The original location for this housing project was chosen by the DHC to be in the Seven Mile-Fenelon neighborhood in northeast Detroit. They believed that this location would be uncontroversial due to its proximity to an already existing African American neighborhood. However, this decision was met with immense backlash.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
White residents in the surrounding area formed an improvement association, the Seven Mile-Fenelon Improvement Association, and they were soon joined by the residents of the middle-class African American neighborhood, Conant Gardens. These two groups formed an alliance and organized the resistance to the Sojourner Truth Project. These groups protested by meeting with city officials, sending thousands of angry letters to the government, and lobbying with their congressmen against the project, among other things.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
Since the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refused to insure any mortgage loans in the area after the announcement of the project, many of the residents in the area believed that this project would decrease nearby property value and reduce their ability to build on nearby vacant lots. These beliefs were not unjustified due to the history of decreased property values in other integrated parts of the city. On the other side, civil rights groups and pro-public housing groups rallied for the federal government to keep its promise to allow black residents in Sojourner Truth housing and address the housing shortage. There was only one other housing project in the city for African Americans at this time.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
In response to the uproar in the local community, the federal government changed its decision on the racial occupancy of the housing project multiple times. In January 1941, the DHC and federal officials declared that Sojourner Truth would have white occupants, but quickly decided instead that it would be occupied by black war workers just two weeks later. Ultimately, it was decided that the Sojourner Truth project would house black residents as originally promised, much to the frustration of the local white community.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
February 1942 saw the culmination of these intense feelings about racial heterogeneity. As the first African-Americans workers and their families attempted to move into their new homes, large crowds of both black supporters and white opponents surrounded the area. A billboard announcing "We Want White Tenants in our White Community" with American flags attached was put up just before the families were to move in. White residents protested the project in the name of "protecting" their neighborhoods and property value. These efforts continued throughout the day as more people attempted to move in and tensions continued to rise.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
More than a thousand people showed up that day and, eventually, fighting erupted between the supporters and opponents. Over a dozen police came onto the scene, but the situation worsened. The fighting resulted in over 40 injured and 220 arrested. Of those arrested, 109 were held for trial, only three of whom were white.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
Detroit officials postponed the movement of African-Americans defense workers into the housing project in order to keep the peace. This created a problem for the workers who did not have any place to live. The one other public housing that housed black was able to take up some of the residents, but many others had to find housing in other places. After about 2 months, protesting had reduced and Detroit Mayor Edward Jeffries called the Detroit police and Michigan National Guard to escort and protect the African-American workers and their families as they moved into their new homes.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, World War II and Housing, Sojourner Truth Housing Project
The riot led the DHC to establish a new policy mandating racial segregation in all future public housing projects and promised that future housing projects would not "change the racial patterns of a neighborhood." It also established the precedent that white community groups could utilize the threat of violence to their advantage in future housing debates.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, Assembly line tensions
In June 1943, Packard Motor Car Company finally promoted three blacks to work next to whites in the assembly lines, in keeping with the anti-segregation policy required for the defense industry. In response, 25,000 whites walked off the job in a "hate" or wildcat strike at Packard, effectively slowing down the critical war production. Although whites had long worked with blacks in the same plant, many wanted control of certain jobs, and did not want to work right next to blacks.


1943 Detroit race riot, Events leading up to the riot, Assembly line tensions
Harold Zeck remembers seeing a group of white women workers coming into the assembly line to convince the white men workers to walk out of work to protest black women using the white women's bathroom. Harold remembers one of the women saying "They think their fannies are as good as ours." The protest ended when the men refused to leave work. There was a physical confrontation at Edgewood Park. In this period, racial riots also broke out in Los Angeles, Mobile, Alabama and Beaumont, Texas, mostly over similar job issues at defense shipyard facilities.


1943 Detroit race riot, Riot
Altercations between youths started on June 20, 1943, on a warm Sunday evening on Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River off Detroit's mainland. In what is considered a communal disorder, youths fought intermittently through the afternoon. The brawl eventually grew into a confrontation between groups of whites and blacks on the long Belle Isle Bridge, crowded with more than 100,000 day trippers returning to the city from the park. From there the riot spread into the city. Sailors joined fights against blacks.


1943 Detroit race riot, Riot
The riot escalated in the city after a false rumor spread that a mob of whites had thrown a black mother and her baby into the Detroit River. Blacks looted and destroyed white property as retaliation. Whites overran Woodward to Veron where they proceeded to tip over 20 cars that belonged to black families. The whites also started to loot stores while rioting.


1943 Detroit race riot, Riot
Historian Marilyn S. Johnson argues that this rumor reflected black male fears about historical white violence against black women and children. An equally false rumor that blacks had raped and murdered a white woman on the Belle Isle Bridge swept through white neighborhoods. Angry mobs of whites spilled onto Woodward Avenue near the Roxy Theater around 4 a.m., beating blacks as they were getting off street cars on their way to work. They also went to the black neighborhood of Paradise Valley, one of the oldest and poorest neighborhoods in Detroit, attacking blacks who were trying to defend their homes. Blacks attacked white-owned businesses.


1943 Detroit race riot, Riot
The clashes soon escalated to the point where mobs of whites and blacks were "assaulting one another, beating innocent motorists, pedestrians and streetcar passengers, burning cars, destroying storefronts and looting businesses." Both sides were said to have encouraged others to join in the riots with false claims that one of "their own" had been attacked unjustly. Blacks were outnumbered by a large margin, and suffered many more deaths, personal injuries and property damage. Out of the 34 people killed, 24 of them were black.


1943 Detroit race riot, Riot
The riots lasted three days and ended only after Mayor Jeffries and Governor Harry Kelly asked President Franklin Roosevelt to intervene. He invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and ordered in federal troops. A total of 6,000 troops imposed a curfew, restored peace and occupied the streets of Detroit. Over the course of three days of rioting, 34 people had been killed; 25 were African Americans, of which 17 were killed by the police (their forces were predominantly white and dominated by ethnic whites). 13 deaths remain unsolved. Nine deaths reported were white, and out of the 1,800 arrests made, 85% of them were black, and 15% were white. Of the approximately 600 persons injured, more than 75 percent were black people.


1943 Detroit race riot, Riot
The first casualty was a white civilian who was struck by a taxi. Later, four young white males shot and killed a 58-year-old black civilian, Moses Kiska, who was sitting at the bus stop. Later, a white doctor ignored police warnings to avoid black neighborhoods. The doctor then went to a house call in a black neighborhood. He then was hit in the back of the head with a rock and beaten to death by black rioters. A couple years after the riot, a monument was dedicated to this doctor at the streets of East Grand and Gratiot.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
After the riot, leaders on both sides had explanations for the violence, effectively blaming the other side. White city leaders, including the mayor, blamed young black hoodlums and persisted in framing the events as being caused by outsiders, people who were unemployed and marginal. Mayor Jeffries said, "Negro hoodlums started it, but the conduct of the police department, by and large, was magnificent." The Wayne County prosecutor believed that leaders of the NAACP were to blame as instigators of the riots. Governor Kelly called together a Fact Finding Commission to investigate and report on the causes of the riot. Its mostly white members blamed black youths, "unattached, uprooted, and unskilled misfits within an otherwise law-abiding black community," and regarded the events as an unfortunate incident. They made these judgments without interviewing any of the rioters, basing their conclusions on police reports, which were limited.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
Other officials drew similar conclusions, despite discovering and citing facts that disproved their thesis. Dr. Lowell S. Selling of the Recorder's Court Psychiatric Clinic conducted interviews with 100 black offenders. He found them to be "employed, well-paid, longstanding (of at least 10 years) residents of the city", with some education and a history of being law abiding. He attributed their violence to their Southern heritage. This view was repeated in a separate study by Elmer R. Akers and Vernon Fox, sociologist and psychologist, respectively, at the State Prison of Southern Michigan.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
Although most of the black men they studied had jobs and had been in Detroit an average of more than 10 years, Akers and Fox characterized them as unskilled and unsettled; they stressed the men's Southern heritage as predisposing them to violence. Additionally, a commission was established to determine the cause of the riot, despite the unequal amount of violence toward blacks, the commission blamed the riot on blacks and their community leaders.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
Detroit's black leaders identified numerous other substantive causes, including persistent racial discrimination in jobs and housing, frequent police brutality against blacks and the lack of black representation on the force, and the daily animosity directed at their people by much of Detroit's white population.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
Following the violence, Japanese propaganda officials incorporated the event into its materials that encouraged black soldiers not to fight for the United States. They distributed a flyer titled "Fight Between Two Races". The Axis Powers publicized the riot as a sign of Western decline. Racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces was ongoing, and the response to the riots hurt morale in African-American units – most significantly the 1511th Quartermaster Truck regiment, which mutinied against white officers and military police on June 24 in the Battle of Bamber Bridge.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
Walter White, head of the NAACP, noted that there was no rioting at the Packard and Hudson plants, where leaders of the UAW and CIO had been incorporating blacks as part of the rank and file. These changes in the defense industry were directed by Executive Order by President Roosevelt and had begun to open opportunities for blacks.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath
Future Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, then with the NAACP, assailed the city's handling of the riot. He charged that police unfairly targeted blacks while turning their backs on white atrocities. He said 85 percent of those arrested were black while whites overturned and burned cars in front of the Roxy Theater with impunity as police watched. "This weak-kneed policy of the police commissioner coupled with the anti-Negro attitude of many members of the force helped to make a riot inevitable."


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath, Reinterpretation in 1990
A late 20th-century analysis of the facts collected on the arrested rioters has drawn markedly different conclusions. It notes that the whites who were arrested were younger, generally unemployed, and had traveled long distances from their homes to the black neighborhood to attack people there. Even in the early stage of the riots near Belle Isle Bridge, white youths traveled in groups to the riot area and carried weapons.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath, Reinterpretation in 1990
Later in the second stage, whites continued to act in groups and were prepared for action, carrying weapons and traveling miles to attack the black ghetto along its western side at Woodward Avenue. Blacks who were arrested were older, often married and working men, who had lived in the city for 10 years or more. They fought closer to home, mainly acting independently to defend their homes, persons or neighborhood, and sometimes looting or destroying mostly white-owned property there in frustration.


1943 Detroit race riot, Aftermath, Reinterpretation in 1990
Where felonies occurred, whites were more often arrested for use of weapons, and blacks for looting or failing to observe the curfew imposed. Whites were more often arrested for misdemeanors. In broad terms, both sides acted to improve their positions; the whites fought out of fear, the blacks fought out of hope for better conditions.


1943 Detroit race riot, Representation in other media
Ross Macdonald, then writing under his real name, Kenneth Millar, used Detroit in the wake of this riot as one of the locales in his 1946 novel Trouble Follows Me.


1943 Detroit race riot, Representation in other media
Dominic J. Capeci, Jr. and Martha Wilkerson wrote a book about the Detroit Race Riot, called Layered Violence: The Detroit Rioters of 1943. This book talks about the entire riot. It also talks about how blacks were considered hoodlums and the whites were known as hillbillies. This book also covers the blacks struggle for racial inequality in World War II. This also explains the rioters to be the transforming figures of racial violence in the twentieth century.


1943 Detroit race riot, Representation in other media
Elaine Latzman Moon also gives a brief overview about the riot in her book Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes : An Oral History of Detroit's African American Community, 1918-1967.


1943 Detroit race riot, Representation in other media
Loren D. Estleman alludes to the riots in his novel, A Smile on the Face of the Tiger. His detective Amos Walker is trying to find an old pulp writer who wrote a novel, Paradise Valley, about the riot.


1943 Duke Blue Devils football team
The 1943 Duke Blue Devils football team was an American football team that represented Duke University as a member of the Southern Conference during the 1943 college football season. In its second season under head coach Eddie Cameron, the team compiled an 8–1 record (4–0 against conference opponents), won the conference championship, was ranked No. 7 in the final AP Poll, and outscored opponents by a total of 335 to 34.


1943 Duke Blue Devils football team
The team ranked first among the nation's 76 major college teams in both scoring offense (37.2 points per game) and scoring defense (3.8 points per game).


1943 Duke Blue Devils football team
The team played its home games at Duke Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.


1943 Eddisbury by-election
The Eddisbury by-election, 1943 was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Eddisbury on 7 April 1943.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Vacancy
The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Liberal National MP, Richard John Russell on 5 February 1943. He had been MP here since gaining the seat from the Conservatives in 1929.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Election history
From 1885 when the seat was created to 1931, Eddisbury had been a battleground constituency between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Since the formation of the National Government in 1931, that situation changed when the Liberal MP, Richard Russell broke from the official party to join the Liberal National group. Since then, the local Conservatives were happy to support Russell as if he were one of their own and he was returned unopposed in both the 1931 and 1935 general elections. The Labour party was traditionally very weak in the constituency, and had never fielded a candidate.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Election history
After 1935, there was increasing disenchantment within Eddisbury Liberal Association over its support for Russell and his support for an increasingly Conservative dominated National Government. Matters came to a head in 1939 as the parties prepared for a General Election. Those Eddisbury Liberals who opposed the National Government, broke away and formed a new Liberal Association, that was recognised by and affiliated to the official Liberal party, led by Sir Archibald Sinclair. They also selected a candidate, William Gretton Ward, to oppose Russell at the General Election. However, due to the outbreak of war, the election did not take place.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Election history
Lieutenant Percy Carter, son of T. B. Carter, was for some years "hon. Secretary of the Eddisbury Liberal Association", till his death in 1918. He was also commander of the Frodsham detachment of Cheshire Volunteer Regiment, director of the firm Carter and Sons Ltd., and active member of the Gilbert Greenall Lodge No 1250.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Candidates
The local Liberal Nationals who had the right to choose the government candidate selected local farmer, Thomas Peacock, a known Conservative. He had been Chairman of Chester Farmers Ltd since 1924. He had been a Member of Council of the National Farmers’ Union since 1934 and was President from 1939-1941. He had been a member of Cheshire County Council since 1931. He was a member of Cheshire County War Agricultural Committee and he became a member of the Red Cross Agricultural Fund Committee in 1940. In 1942 he had been appointed a CBE.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Candidates
Outraged by the Liberal Nationals fielding a known Conservative, a number of the Eddisbury Liberals got together and selected 47-year-old Chester man, Harold Heathcote-Williams as their candidate. He was a Barrister, having been Called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1923. He had stood as Liberal candidate at South Poplar in 1924 and 1929 coming second both times. At the last General Election, he had fought the neighbouring Cheshire seat of Knutsford, finishing second. However, in accordance with the terms of the wartime electoral truce, he was not endorsed by party headquarters.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Candidates
Former Liberal MP, Richard Acland had formed the Common Wealth Party in 1942 expressly to fight by-elections in opposition to the all-party electoral truce. He saw Eddisbury as a good opportunity to defeat the government candidate and enlisted John Eric Loverseed to be his own party's candidate. Loverseed was a 33-year-old fighter pilot with the RAF who had fought in the Battle of Britain and before that, on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. He was the son of a former Liberal MP, John Frederick Loverseed. However, he had no connection with the constituency, unlike the other two candidates.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Campaign
Polling day was set for 7 April 1943. When nominations closed, it was to reveal a three horse race, between a Conservative who called himself a 'Liberal National', a Liberal who wanted to call himself 'the Liberal' but couldn't and the son of a Liberal.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Campaign
Peacock received a joint letter of endorsement from all the leaders of the parties in the coalition, including Sir Archibald Sinclair, much to the irritation of Heathcote Williams. The Peacock campaign used the slogan "Hitler is watching Eddisbury" in the hope that it would stir feelings of Patriotic duty among the electorate.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Campaign
Common Wealth party leader Richard Acland put much of his own money into funding Loverseed's campaign, which also had the financial backing of Alan Good, head of Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd.. Ronald William Gordon Mackay was appointed as Loverseed's agent. Loverseed's campaign downplayed his party's commitment to common ownership, and emphasised its liberal policies. Loverseed proved to be a strong campaigner who 'captured the imagination of the working classes and the young people and made a real stir.'


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Campaign
Farm wages were a major issue of the campaign, reflecting the agricultural nature of the constituency. Though this did not seem to work in the favour of Peacock, despite his farming background.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Result
Loverseed won, being the first Common Wealth Party candidate to win an election.


1943 Eddisbury by-election, Aftermath
Loverseed left the Common Wealth Party in November 1944, becoming an independent, and then joining the Labour Party in May 1945. Standing now as a Labour candidate, he found himself opposed by a genuine Liberal National and was defeated. The result at the following General election;


1943 Edmonton municipal election
The 1943 municipal election was held November 10, 1943 to elect a mayor and five aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and four trustees to sit on the public school board, while four trustees were acclaimed to the separate school board.


1943 Edmonton municipal election
There were ten aldermen on city council, but five of the positions were already filled: Athelstan Bissett (SS), Sidney Bowcott, Frederick John Mitchell, James Ogilvie, and Sidney Parsons were all elected to two-year terms in 1942 and were still in office.


1943 Edmonton municipal election
There were seven trustees on the public school board, but three of the positions were already filled: Izena Ross, William McConachie, and Alex Gemeroy had been elected to two-year terms in 1942 and were still in office. The same was true of the separate board, where Adrien Crowe (SS), Francis Killeen, and James O'Hara were continuing.


1943 Edmonton municipal election, Voter turnout
There were 10,442 ballots cast out of 58,406 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 17.8%.


1943 Edmonton municipal election, Results, Separate (Catholic) school trustees
William Wilde (SS), Joseph Gallant, Thomas Malone, and J O Pilon were acclaimed.


1943 Egypt Cup Final
The 1943 Egypt Cup Final was the planned final match of the 1942–43 King Farouk Cup, scheduled to take place between King Farouk Club (later changed to Zamalek SC) and Al Ahly SC. The match was canceled due to the suspension of players from both clubs after they toured in Palestine against the Egyptian Football Association decision.


1943 Egypt Cup Final
The suspension was lifted on 19 April 1944, allowing the start of the 1943–44 Egypt Cup competition. This resulted in the 1943 title being shared between the two clubs, for the first and only time in the competition's history.


1943 Estonian Football Championship
The Estonian Top Division 1943 was the 22nd football league season in Estonia. First round started on 1 May and ended on 27 June. Second round started on 8 August and ended on 24 October. JS Estonia Tallinn won the title.


1943 Faroese general election
General elections were held in the Faroe Islands on 24 August 1943. The People's Party emerged as the largest party in the Løgting, winning 12 of the 25 seats.


1943 Filipstad explosion
The 1943 Filipstad explosion was a fire in an ammunition store at Filipstad in Oslo on Sunday, 19 December 1943, during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. The fire started during the unloading of ammunition from the transport ship Selma. The estimated amount of exploded ammunition varies from 800 to 1,200 tons. A large number of shells and grenades were tossed into the air and spread over the city. There were around 40 Norwegian casualties and around 75 Germans were killed, and 400 wounded. About 400 buildings were severely damaged.


1943 Filipstad explosion, Course of events
The first explosion occurred at around 14:30 local time, and killed 20 dock workers, two crane operators, several German guards and crew from Selma. Workers that were not killed immediately managed to escape from the area or find shelter among large cement blocks on the wharf. The main explosion occurred two hours later, at around 16:30, when an estimated 400 tons of ammunition exploded within a few seconds, five firefighters were killed and sixteen severely injured. The explosive fire lasted several hours. The dangerous situation was declared over at 21:45 the same night. A nearby coal store of 20,000 tons had been set on fire and burned for three weeks. The ship Selma did not explode during the Filipstad fire. The ship was towed away from Filipstad. It exploded and sank in another explosion on 11 January 1944.


1943 Filipstad explosion, Damage
The fire resulted in a large number of shells and grenades being thrown over Oslo, but most of them did not explode. The Filipstad area was severely damaged by the explosion and resulting fires. An area of about 60 decares was completely destroyed. A disastrous fire developed in the neighbouring districts, which was the largest fire in Oslo since the establishment of a permanent fire brigade in 1861. Around 350 firefighters from Oslo and 60 from Aker participated in the firefighting operations. Pressure waves resulted in glass being damaged in large areas of Oslo and Aker.


1943 Filipstad explosion, Damage
According to the city architect, the amount of shattered glass was 53,000 square metres in residential houses, 28,000 square metres in offices and shops, and 9,000 square metres in public buildings such as hospitals and schools. The total amount of shattered glass was 90,000 square metres spread over 1,600 premises. The effect of the explosion was felt as far the southern part of Nordmarka, where the windows of Skjennungstua were shattered.


1943 Filipstad explosion, Cause
After investigations by the German occupation authorities, the incident was declared to be an accident. It has been speculated whether the cause could have been sabotage, but no organization or person has claimed responsibility.


1943 Finnish presidential election
Indirect presidential elections were held in Finland in 1943. The 1937 electoral college was recalled and re-elected Risto Ryti, who received 269 of the 300 votes. President Ryti was ready to remain in office and to try to lead Finland successfully through World War II. Nevertheless, some Finnish politicians believed that Marshal Mannerheim, the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish army, would lead Finland more effectively. In a test vote, 147 presidential electors out of 300 supported Mannerheim. This plurality was not, however, enough for Mannerheim who required an assured majority of electors to back him for his presidential candidacy. Having failed to receive this majority's support, Mannerheim withdrew his candidacy and Ryti was overwhelmingly re-elected president.


1943 Fort Riley Centaurs football team
The 1943 Fort Riley Centaurs football team represented the Cavalry Replacement Training Center at Fort Riley, a United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas, as an independent during the 1943 college football season. The team compiled a 6–2–1 record and outscored opponents by a total of 226 to 92.


1943 Fort Riley Centaurs football team
Fran Welch was the team's head coach. Players included Reino Nori (quarterback, Chicago Bears), Bernie Ruman (halfback, Arizona), Bob Ruman (quarterback/halfback), Keith Caywood, Bennie Sheridan, Corwin Clatt (fullback), Leonard Klusman, Daniel Carmichael, Bobby Ford (halfback, Mississippi State), Paul Duhart, Clifton Patton (guard), Sam Goldman, Bob Balaban (end), and George Wendall.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck
The Frankford Junction train wreck occurred on September 6, 1943, when Pennsylvania Railroad's premier train, the Congressional Limited, crashed at Frankford Junction in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States, killing 79 people and injuring 117 others.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Train
The Congressional Limited traveled between Washington D.C. and New York City, normally making one stop in Newark, New Jersey, covering the 236 miles (380 km) in 3½ hours at speeds up to 80 mph (130 km/h), remarkable at the time. As it was the Labor Day Weekend in 1943, the company laid on 16-car trains to accommodate the expected high demand. At Washington's Union Station on Monday, September 6, 541 passengers boarded the 4 p.m. train, its 16 cars hauled by PRR GG1 electric locomotive number 4930, scheduled to travel nonstop to Pennsylvania Station, New York.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Incident
Everything appeared in order as the train passed through North Philadelphia station ahead of schedule and slowed its speed, but shortly afterward, as it passed a rail yard, workers noticed flames coming from a journal box (a hot box) on one of the cars  and rang the next signal tower at Frankford Junction, but the call came too late. Before the tower man could react, disaster struck as the train passed his signal tower at 6:06 pm traveling at a speed of 56 mph.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Incident
The journal box on the front of car #7 seized and an axle snapped, catching the underside of the truck and catapulting the car upwards. It struck a signal gantry, which peeled off its roof along the line of windows "like a can of sardines". Car #8 wrapped itself around the gantry upright in a figure U. The next six cars were scattered at odd angles over the tracks, and the last two cars remained undamaged, with bodies of the 79 dead lying scattered over the tracks.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Incident
As it was wartime, many servicemen home on leave were aboard who helped the injured, workers from the nearby Cramp's shipyard arrived with acetylene torches to cut open cars to rescue the injured, a process that took until the following morning. The rescue work was directed by Mayor Bernard Samuel. The work of removing the dead was not complete until 24 hours after the accident.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Inquiry
In total, 79 passengers died, all from cars #7 and #8, and 117 were injured, some seriously. The inquiry quickly established the overheated journal box as the cause of the accident, but railroad mechanics who had inspected and lubricated the box earlier that day swore it had been in good order. Normal practice was for signal towermen to watch passing train wheels for signs of problems and for train crew to look back as trains rounded curves. How this hot box escaped attention until too late has never been explained.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Similar incidents
This was not the first railroad accident in which an overheated journal box caused an axle to break and derail a train. The first-ever train wreck involving passenger fatalities, the Hightstown rail accident of 1833, had an identical cause.


1943 Frankford Junction train wreck, Similar incidents
71 years and 8 months later, along the same location, an Amtrak train, speeding over 100 mph, derailed along the curve. The 2015 Philadelphia train derailment claimed eight lives as well as injuring many others.


1943 Georgia Bulldogs football team
The 1943 Georgia Bulldogs football team represented the Georgia Bulldogs of the University of Georgia during the 1943 college football season.


1943 Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers football team
The 1943 Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers football team represented the United States Navy pre-flight aviation training school at the University of Georgia during the 1943 college football season. The team compiled a 7–1–1 record and outscored opponents by a total of 183 to 105.


1943 Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers football team
In July 1943, Lieutenant Rex Enright was assigned as the team's head coach. His assistant coaches included Andy Pilney, Bud Kerr, and George T. Barclay.


1943 Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers football team
Players included Pat Harder (Wisconsin), Steve Filipowicz (Fordham), Fuller Brooks, Warren Tiller, Carl Nolte, Zealand Thigpen, Tom Averitt, Wally Moesmer, Jim Randall, Carl Dreisbach, H. C. Byars, Jim Shepard, and Oscar Hoequist. Harder was named as a second-team player on the 1943 All-Service football team.


1943 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team
The 1943 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represented the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the Georgia Institute of Technology during the 1943 college football season.


1943 German Ice Hockey Championship
The 1943 German Ice Hockey Championship was the 27th season of the German Ice Hockey Championship, the national championship of Germany. The championship was abandoned after the first semifinal.


1943 German football championship
The  1943 German football championship, the 36th edition of the competition, was won by Dresdner SC, the club's first-ever championship, won by defeating FV Saarbrücken in the final.


1943 German football championship
The twenty-nine 1942–43 Gauliga champions, four more than in the previous season, competed in a single-leg knock out competition to determine the national champion. In the following season, the last completed one during the war, the German championship was played with thirty one clubs, expanded through a combination of territorial expansion of Nazi Germany and the sub-dividing of the Gauligas in later years.


1943 German football championship
The 1943 championship marked the end of the golden era of Schalke 04 which had reached the semi-finals of each edition of the national championship from 1932 to 1942 and won the competition in 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940 and 1942 while losing the final in 1933, 1938 and 1941. In 1943 defending champions Schalke was knocked out in the quarter finals by Holstein Kiel, thereby ending the clubs quest for a twelfth consecutive semi-finals appearance.


1943 German football championship
Ernst Kalwitzki of FC Schalke 04 and Herbert Binkert of 1. FC Saarbrücken were the joint top scorers for the 1943 championship with five goals each, the lowest for any top scorer since 1925. For Kalwitzki it was the third and last time, after 1937 and 1939, to finish as top scorer.


1943 German football championship
Dresdner SC became the last club to be awarded the Viktoria, the annual trophy for the German champions from 1903 to 1944. The trophy disappeared during the final stages of the war, did not resurface until after the German reunification and was put on display at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt until 2015, when it was moved to the new Deutsches Fußballmuseum in Dortmund.


1943 German football championship
Dresdner SC completed the 1942–43 season unbeaten, finishing the Gauliga Sachsen with 18 wins out of 18 games, and winning all five games in the championship to claim the title.


1943 German football championship, Competition, First round
Holstein Kiel, SpVgg Wilhelmshaven, Kickers Offenbach and Westende Hamborn received a bye for the first round.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash
The 1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash was an aircraft crash that resulted in the death of General Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile. Sikorski's Liberator II crashed off Gibraltar almost immediately after takeoff on 4 July 1943. An estimated sixteen people died, including many other senior Polish military leaders. The plane's pilot was the only survivor.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash
The crash was ruled to have been an accident, but Sikorski's death remains an unsolved mystery. The crash marked a turning point for Polish influence on their Anglo-American allies in World War II.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Background
The relationship between the Soviet Union and Poland was tenuous at best during World War II for a variety of reasons, and became more so, after the 1940 Katyn massacre of over 20,000 Polish servicemen by the Soviets came to light. However, pragmatic general Władysław Sikorski was still open to some form of normalisation of Polish-Soviet relations, while general Władysław Anders was vehemently opposed. To boost morale, Sikorski began a tour of inspection of the Polish forces stationed in the Middle East in May 1943, tending to political affairs where necessary.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Accident
On 4 July 1943, while Sikorski was returning to London from an inspection of Polish forces deployed in the Middle East, his aircraft, a Royal Air Force (RAF) Consolidated Liberator, serial number AL523, crashed into the sea 16 seconds after taking off from Gibraltar Airport at 23:07 hours.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Accident
This Liberator C II was purchased and converted by the RAF for use as a transport and operated by No. 511 Squadron of RAF Transport Command on long range flights between the UK and Gibraltar.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Accident
In 1972, the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Eduard Prchal, described the events: "I received the green light from the tower and we began our take-off run. I pulled the stick back and the aircraft started to climb. When I was at 150ft I pushed the controls of the aircraft forward to gain speed. Suddenly I discovered I was not able to pull the stick back. The steering mechanism was jammed or locked." The aircraft then lost height rapidly. Prchal closed the four throttles and warned the others through the intercom "Attention, crash". The aircraft crashed into the sea.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Accident
Sikorski, his daughter, Zofia Leśniowska (his Chief of Staff), and eight other passengers were killed. While the official death toll included 11 fatalities, the exact number of passengers was not known. Of the six crew members on board, only Prchal survived.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Passengers and crew
The only survivor of the accident was the pilot Flight Lieutenant Eduard Prchal, one of six crew on the aircraft. Among the 11 passengers killed were:


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Aftermath
Sikorski's body was collected by the Polish Navy destroyer ORP Orkan and transported to Britain. He was subsequently buried in a brick-lined grave at the Polish War Cemetery in Newark-on-Trent, England, on 16 July that year. Winston Churchill delivered a eulogy at his funeral. The bodies of Sikorski's daughter and four other passengers and crew were not found.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Aftermath
Sikorski's death marked a turning point for Polish influence amongst the Anglo-American allies. He had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles and it was a severe setback for the Polish cause, for no Pole after him would have much sway with the Allied politicians.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
A British Court of Inquiry convened on 7 July 1943 to investigate the crash, following the order by Air Marshal Sir John Slessor of 5 July 1943. On 25 July 1943 the Court concluded that the accident was caused by the "jamming of elevator controls" which led to the aircraft being uncontrollable after take-off. The report noted that "it has not been possible to determine how the jamming occurred" although it ruled out sabotage.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
Slessor was not satisfied with the report and on 28 July ordered the Court to continue its investigation to find out whether the controls were indeed jammed or not, and if they were, then for what reason. Despite further investigation the Court was unable to resolve Slessor's doubts. The Polish government refused to endorse this report because of the contradictions cited therein, and the lack of conclusive findings.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
a) Liberator AL 523, total all up weight 54,608 lbs, took off from Gibraltar at 23.07 hours on 4 July 1943 bound for UK. The weather was fine, wind light, no cloud, visibility 10 miles. The aircraft was airborne after a run of approximately 1100 yards, climbed to about 150 feet in a perfectly normal manner and then gradually lost height, striking the sea on an even keel approximately 1200 yards after leaving the ground. The evidence suggests that the pilot had throttled back a moment before impact and that his engines had been running normally up to that time. The pilot was recovered by the Station rescue dinghy within six minutes of the crashand was the sole survivor.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
b) The cause of the accident was, in the opinion of the Court, due to the aircraft becoming uncontrollable for reasons which cannot be established. The pilot, having eased the control column forward to build up speed after take-off, found that he was unable to move it back at all, the elevator controls being virtually jammed somewhere in the system. It is impossible, from the evidence available and examination of the wreckage, to offer any concrete reason as to why the elevator system should have become jammed."


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
"... The findings of the Court and the observations of the officers whose duty it is to review and comment on those findings have been considered and it is apparent that the accident was due to the jamming of the elevator controls shortly after take-off with the result that the aircraft became uncontrollable.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
After most careful examination of all the available evidence, including that of the pilot, it has not been possible to determine how the jamming occurred but it has been established that there was no sabotage.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
It is also clear that the captain of the aircraft who is a pilot of great experience and exceptional ability was in no way to blame.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, British 1943 investigation
An officer of the Polish Air Force attended throughout the proceedings."


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Conspiracy theories
The political context of the event, coupled with a variety of curious circumstances, immediately gave rise to speculation that Sikorski's death had not been an accident, and might have been the direct result of a Soviet, British, or even Polish conspiracy. Some modern sources still note that the accident was not fully explained; for example Jerzy Jan Lerski in his Historical Dictionary of Poland (1996), entry on the "Gibraltar, Catastrophe of", noted that "there are several theories explaining the event, but the mystery was never fully solved." However, as Roman Wapiński noted in his biographical entry on Sikorski in the Polish Biographical Dictionary in 1997, no conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing had been found, and Sikorski's official cause of death was listed as an accident.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Polish 2008 investigation
In 2008, there was investigation opened in Poland by Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation of the Institute of National Remembrance. Sikorski was exhumed and his remains were examined by Polish court experts, who concluded in 2009 that he died of multiple injuries consistent with an air crash, and possibly of drowning as an additional cause. The injuries occurred, while Sikorski was alive. There was categorically excluded a possibility, that Sikorski was shot, strangled or stabbed. Tadeusz Klimecki, Andrzej Marecki and Józef Ponikiewski were exhumed as well, and their injuries were of similar nature.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Polish 2008 investigation
Thus, theories that Polish delegation was murdered before the incident were ruled out. However, they did not rule out the possibility of sabotage, which was still being investigated. On 30 December 2013 the Institute of National Remembrance closed the investigation on a basis, that the evidence is not enough to confirm, nor to exclude a sabotage.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
In 2012, Jerzy Zięborak revisited the evidence gathered by the Court of Inquiry in 1943 as well as other material that has been made available to date. His conclusion was that the accident resulted from the combination of factors. Firstly, the aircraft was overloaded and its centre of gravity was displaced beyond the permissible limit. Secondly, the aircraft speed at take-off was too low due to the excessive weight.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
Finally, the autopilot was switched on just after the take-off – contrary to the flight manual – and that caused an effect similar to the controls' jamming as seen by the second pilot. Evidence has been found that the surviving pilot Eduard Prchal did perform the second pilot's duties during the take-off, which he did not reveal at the time of the investigation. Zięborak rejects General Nöel Mason-MacFarlane's opinion that Prchal's mental state during the take-off was the reason for the accident. He then compares Prchal's article written ten years after the accident with the relevant documents from the accident.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
Not only did Prchal write an untrue description of the accident, but he omitted some details he had earlier mentioned during his meetings with pilots. The differences included details of his injuries mentioned in the article and those reported in the medical examination after the accident. The author considered whether it was possible that Prchal had completely forgotten such details of the accident as for example the number of victims. The reason for these differences, i.e. whether Prchal lied deliberately in his article or suffered from a type of partial amnesia as a result of his injury is not discussed.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
However, Zięborak thinks that Prchal lied on purpose about the Mae West lifejacket. Despite the deficiencies of the report, the results of the Court's investigations were finally accepted. The author concluded that this was a convenient solution for both the British and Polish government, as the details of VIPs' flight procedure could not be published in the Court's report during the war.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
In 2016, the pilot Mieczysław Jan Różycki also undertook the analysis of the Gibraltar crash and accompanying circumstances. He agreed that the aircraft was overloaded and its take-off weight significantly exceeded the limit set by the manufacturer and RAF Transport Command. Violation of weight regulations was, however, tolerated due to wartime transportation difficulties, and pilots were encouraged to take responsibility for flights with overloaded aircraft. Moreover, minor smuggling of scarce goods by flying personnel was widespread and the baggage of important passengers was not checked nor weighted at all. Therefore, pilots had to estimate the weight of the aircraft.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
The investigation assumed, based on an RAF form, that the weight of the load, including passengers, was 5324 lbs, which led to their conclusion about the take-off weight. According to M. Różycki, however, there are strong indications that the form containing that weight was fabricated by the commission to show that the aircraft was not excessively overloaded.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
According to this author, based on estimates and comparative data, the actual take-off weight of the aircraft was about 63,000 pounds, and it would have needed over 1600 yards to take-off, while the airstrip in Gibraltar at the time was only 1530 yards long. Only in August 1943 was the new 1800-yard airstrip completed. Moroever, the main problem at this airport was bad weather conditions due to the mountainous environment, sea influences and winds, and accidents often occurred, including two involving other Liberators in 1942 and 1943.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
Eduard Prchal himself was an average pilot, and in particular he was not an experienced pilot of heavy transport machines. He was a fighter pilot first and began training on the Liberator only on 22 December 1942. At the time of the accident, he had 292 hours and 10 minutes of flight time with this aircraft type. Co -pilot Stanley Herring, although an experienced bomber pilot, had no experience in solo piloting the Liberator. Liberator aircraft were difficult to fly and did not tolerate errors, which resulted in a high accident rate during training.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
In addition, aircraft of the first two Liberator production series AL and AM had individual quirks in flight. Prchal and Herring did not know their aircraft AL523 well, and had previously made only one daytime take-off and flight on it. Prchal himself was not Sikorski's personal pilot. Sikorski had flown with him for the first time from England to Cairo, and expressed a wish that Prchal would pilot his aircraft on the way back as well. As a result, Prchal was assigned to Liberator AL523, scheduled for the return trip.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
Sikorski planned to use his trust in the Czechoslovak pilot for propaganda, to improve harsh relations between the Polish and Czechoslovakian governments in exile. After taking off too early, the aircraft started to lose height, and Prchal may have had an impression of jammed elevators due to a gust of wind. The aircraft then came to a stall and crashed within twelve seconds of take-off.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
In conclusion, the accident, according to M. Różycki, was a simple disaster caused by taking off in unfavorable weather, from a too-short airstrip, and with an overloaded aircraft - with the Liberator's flight characteristics, the increased difficulty of night take-off, limited pilot experience and lack of knowledge of this particular aircraft's characteristics as contributing factors.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
According to M. Różycki, a primary goal of the British Court of Inquiry was to investigate the possibility of sabotage in Gibraltar, which was of vital importance to other allied commanders and politicians. This issue was investigated most thoroughly and the sabotage was ruled out. Afterwards, determination of the accident's real cause was regarded as less important.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
In the opinion of M. Różycki, the final conclusion (that the accident was caused by the jamming of elevator controls of unknown cause) was deliberate understatement, chosen to avoid straining Polish relations with Czechoslovakia by blaming the pilot - and to avoid revealing negligence in transport pilot training and procedures, for which the RAF was responsible.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
Biuletyn Informacyjny from 15 July 1943 News of the death of General Władysław Sikorski and the order for a national day of mourning.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
A memorial stone for the 50th anniversary of the 1943 Gibraltar air crash at the Powązki Military Cemetery.


1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, Incident investigation and controversy, Attempts of air crash explanations
Memorial plaque dedicated to Sikorski located at the end of the Great Siege Tunnels in Gibraltar


1943 Governor General's Awards
The 1943 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were the eighth rendition of the Governor General's Awards, Canada's annual national awards program which then comprised literary awards alone. The awards recognized Canadian writers for new English-language works published in Canada during 1943 and were presented in 1944. There were no cash prizes.


1943 Governor General's Awards
As every year from 1942 to 1948, there two awards for non-fiction, and four awards in the three established categories, which recognized English-language works only.


1943 Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football team
The 1943 Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football team represented the United States Navy's Great Lakes Naval Training Station (Great Lakes NTS) during the 1943 college football season. The team compiled a 10–2 record, outscored opponents by a total of 257 to 108, and was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll. Tony Hinkle, who coached at Butler University before the war, was in his second season as head coach.


1943 Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football team
The Bluejackets played multiple games against teams that were ranked in the final AP Poll, including an upset of national champion Notre Dame in the final game of the season. The team's two losses were to Purdue and Northwestern, which finished the season ranked No. 5 and No 9, respectively, in the final AP Poll.


1943 Green Bay Packers season
The 1943 Green Bay Packers season was their 25th overall and their 23rd season in the National Football League. The team finished with a 7–2–1 record under coach Curly Lambeau, earning a second-place finish in the Western Conference.


1943 Green Bay Packers season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1943 Greensboro Tech-Hawks football team
The 1943 Greensboro Tech-Hawks football team represented the Greensboro Army Air Forces Basic Training Center No. 10 during the 1943 college football season. Charley Trippi, who was later inducted into both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, starred for the team. The team compiled a perfect 4–0 record and was unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon. Captain Ralph Erickson was the team's head coach.


1943 Hamilton by-election
The Hamilton by-election of 1943 was held on 29 January 1943. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Labour MP, Duncan Graham. It was won by the Labour candidate Thomas Fraser.


1943 Harvard Crimson football team
The 1943 Harvard Crimson football team was an American football team that represented Harvard University during the 1943 college football season. In its first season under head coach Henry N. Lamar, the team compiled a 2–2–1 record and was outscored 39-34 by opponents. Lloyd M. Anderson was the team captain.


1943 Harvard Crimson football team
For 1943, and again in 1944, rather than scheduling its usual mix of Ivy League opponents and national college football powerhouses, Harvard played a shorter schedule of smaller New England colleges and military teams. Its football record book describes these two World War II-era seasons as "informal".


1943 Harvard Crimson football team
Harvard played its home games at Harvard Stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.


1943 Hawthorn Football Club season
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Frietjes (talk | contribs) at 17:48, 15 December 2019 (→Ladder). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


1943 Hawthorn Football Club season
The 1943 season was the Hawthorn Football Club's 19th season in the Victorian Football League and 42nd overall.


1943 Hawthorn Football Club season, Fixture, Lightning Premiership
The lightning premiership was played between rounds 11 and 12.


1943 Holy Cross Crusaders football team
The 1943 Holy Cross Crusaders football team was an American football team that represented the College of the Holy Cross as an independent during the 1943 college football season. In its second year under head coach Ank Scanlan, the team compiled a 6–2 record. The team played its home games at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts.


1943 Illinois Fighting Illini football team
The 1943 Illinois Fighting Illini football team was an American football team that represented the University of Illinois during the 1943 Big Ten Conference football season. In their second season under head coach Ray Eliot, the Illini compiled a 3–7 record and finished in sixth place in the Big Ten Conference. Halfback Eddie Bray was selected as the team's most valuable player.


1943 Indiana Hoosiers football team
The 1943 Indiana Hoosiers football team represented the Indiana Hoosiers in the 1943 Big Ten Conference football season. The participated as members of the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. The team was coached by Bo McMillin, in his 10th year as head coach of the Hoosiers.


1943 Iowa Hawkeyes football team
The 1943 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa in the 1943 Big Ten Conference football season. This was Slip Madigan's first season as head coach for the Hawkeyes.


1943 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team
The 1943 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team represented the United States Navy pre-flight school at the University of Iowa as an independent during the 1943 college football season. In the second season of intercollegiate football at the pre-flight school, the team compiled a 9–1 record, outscored opponents by a total of 277 to 98, and was ranked No. 2 in the final AP Poll.


1943 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team
In July 1943, Don Faurot—previously the head football coach at Missouri and recently enlisted in the Navy with a rank of lieutenant—was assigned to take over from Bernie Bierman as the team's head coach. Upon arriving in Iowa City in August, 100 candidates tried out at Faurot's first football practice session. Faurot said he would use a T formation and promised at the time that "we will have a fighting squad and a fighting team."


1943 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team
Four Iowa Pre-Flight players were named to the Associated Press' 1943 AP Service All-America team. Center Vince Banonis and back Dick Todd were named to the first team. End Perry Schwartz and guard Nick Kerasiotis were named to the second team.


1943 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks football team, Roster
Players who started at least half of the games are shown in bold.


1943 Iowa State Cyclones football team
The 1943 Iowa State Cyclones football team represented Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts (later renamed Iowa State University) in the Big Six Conference during the 1943 college football season. In their second year under head coach Mike Michalske, the Cyclones compiled a 4–4 record (3–2 against conference opponents), finished in third place in the conference, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 147 to 104. They played their home games at Clyde Williams Field in Ames, Iowa. The Cyclones moved their kickoff times from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. for the 1943 season.


1943 Iowa State Cyclones football team
The team's statistical leaders included Meredith Warner with 401 rushing yards and 31 points scored (three touchdowns and 13 extra points), Howard Tippee with 637 passing yards, and Hal Crisler with 139 receiving yards. Tippee was the only Iowa State player to be selected as a first-team all-conference player. There was no team captain selected for the 1943 season.


1943 Iraqi parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq between 20 August and 5 October 1943. The election of the secondary voters was held between 20 and 31 August 1943, whilst the election of the members of Chamber of Deputies was held on 5 October 1943.


1943 Iraqi parliamentary election, Background
The parliament elected in 1939 was dissolved on 9 June 1943 after completing its four-year term. The Nuri al-Said government and the Ministry of Interior immediately started preparing for fresh elections.


1943 Iraqi parliamentary election, Results
Most incumbent MPs were re-elected, and only 26 new members were voted into parliament. The newly elected parliament convened on 4 November 1943, with a vote held for a new Speaker on 1 December 1943. Mohammed Ridha al-Shabibi, supported by the opposition, competed with Salman al-Barrak, a pro-government candidate; al-Shibibi won by a vote of 73–64.


1943 Iraqi parliamentary election, Aftermath
As a consequence of the 1941 pro-Axis coup and subsequent British invasion, the new government sought to curtail all hostile political activities. On 17 November 1943, parliament approved an amendment to the constitution, allowing the king (or regent) to dismiss the government and to declare (with the Council of Ministers), a state of emergency in cases of a rebellion or disturbance of peace. Another amendment prevented parliament from pardoning those convicted of offenses aimed at changing the form of government. Political parties were banned. However, labour unions were permitted. Between 1944 and 1946, 16 unions were formed, most of which came under the control of the Iraqi Communist Party. In 1946, the ban on political parties was lifted.


1943 Irish Greyhound Derby
The 1943 Irish Greyhound Derby took place during July and August with the final being held at Harold's Cross Stadium in Dublin on 6 August.


1943 Irish Greyhound Derby
The winner Famous Knight was owned by Miss R Monaghan and trained by Bertie Tierney.


1943 Irish Greyhound Derby, Competition Report
Famous Knight a red fawn dog started as ante-post favourite and in the first round won in 30.29, the time was bettered by Blackrock Border who recorded a 30.12 win. The fastest second round wins were Kusta Bok (30.25) and Race Day (30.40) but Famous Knight won again in 30.49.


1943 Irish Greyhound Derby, Competition Report
In the semi-finals on 30 July Famous Knight defeated Double Rum by one length in 30.30, followed by a 30.45 win for Discretion from Kusta Bok in a heat that saw Blackrock Border eliminated. The third semi was taken by Down the Dee from Brilliant Smile in a slow 30.98.


1943 Irish Greyhound Derby, Competition Report
In the final Kusta Bok broke well and led until the third bend before the expected move from Famous Knight took place. The latter went on to win by two lengths from a strong finishing Discretion.


1943 Irish general election
The 1943 Irish general election was held on 23 June 1943, having been called on 31 May by proclamation of President Douglas Hyde on the instruction of Taoiseach Éamon de Valera. It took place in 34 parliamentary constituencies for 138 seats in Dáil Éireann the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament). Fianna Fáil lost its overall majority of seats. The newly elected members of the 11th Dáil assembled on 1 July when the Éamon de Valera was re-elected Taoiseach at the head of a minority Fianna Fáil government.


1943 Irish general election
Exceptionally, because of the state of emergency arising from the Second World War, the outgoing Dáil was not dissolved until after the election, although it did not meet after 26 May. In April the government had proposed to postpone the election by introducing a bill to extend the maximum term of the Dáil from five to six years; however, in the absence of support from the Fine Gael opposition, the bill was withdrawn.


1943 Irish general election
The Emergency Powers Act 1939 was in force at the time of the election campaign, and concomitant press censorship affected coverage.


1943 Istanbul Football Cup
The 1943 Istanbul Football Cup season was the second season of the cup. Galatasaray won the cup for the second time. The tournament was single-elimination.


1943 Istanbul Football Cup, Season, Final
Goals for Galatasaray: Gündüz Kılıç(2), Cemil Gürgen ErlertürkGoals for Beşiktaş: Kemal Gülçelik


1943 Kansas Jayhawks football team
The 1943 Kansas Jayhawks football team represented the University of Kansas in the Big Six Conference during the 1943 college football season. In their first season under head coach Henry Shenk, the Jayhawks compiled a 4–5–1 record (2–3 against conference opponents), tied for fourth place in the conference, and were outscored by opponents by a combined total of 107 to 96. They played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.


1943 Kansas Jayhawks football team
The team's statistical leaders included Bob George with 180 rushing yards and 288 passing yards, Charlie Moffatt with 230 receiving yards, and Bob Carson with 25 points scored (four touchdowns and one extra point). George Dick was the team captain.


1943 Kansas State Wildcats football team
The 1943 Kansas State Wildcats football team represented Kansas State University in the 1943 college football season. The team's head football coach was Ward Haylett, in his second year at the helm of the Wildcats. The Wildcats played their home games in Memorial Stadium. The Wildcats finished the season with a 1–7 record with a 0–5 record in conference play. They finished in last place in the Big Six Conference. The Wildcats scored 48 points and gave up 209 points.


1943 Kentucky Derby
The 1943 Kentucky Derby, also known as the Street-car Derby, was the 69th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on May 1, 1943 and was won by the heavy favorite, Count Fleet.


1943 Kentucky Derby, Background
Colonel Matt Winn lobbied for the Kentucky Derby to be held in 1943 despite many restrictions related to the war effort. Instead, he promised to organize a "street-car Derby", where out-of-state patrons were not allowed to travel to Louisville, and locals had to use the street-car rather than drive to the track.


1943 Kentucky Derby, Background
Count Fleet was the winter-book favorite for the Derby after being named the champion two-year-old colt of 1942. In April 1943, he easily won the Wood Memorial Stakes but injured himself during the race. That injury was considered the major obstacle to his winning the Derby. His major contenders were considered to be Ocean Wave, winner of the Blue Grass Stakes, and Blue Swords, second in the Wood Memorial.


1943 Kentucky Derby, Race Description
Despite the travel restrictions, a crowd of about 60,000 turned out for the Derby. A few hours before the race, Ocean Wave was scratched due to an injured leg, leaving Count Fleet as the 2-5 favorite – the shortest odds in Derby history. Count Fleet battled for the early lead with Gold Shower, then opened a two-length lead around the first turn and into the backstretch. On the far turn, Blue Swords closed to within a length before jockey Johnny Longden clucked to Count Fleet, who responded to win handily by three lengths.


1943 Kentucky gubernatorial election
The 1943 Kentucky gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1943. Republican nominee Simeon Willis defeated Democratic nominee J. Lyter Donaldson with 50.49% of the vote.


1943 Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship
The 1943 Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship was the 49th staging of the Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Kilkenny County Board.


1943 Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship
On 8 August 1943, Carrickshock won the championship after a 3-06 to 1-03 defeat of Mullinavat in the final. It was their sixth championship title overall and their fourth title in succession. They were the first team to win four titles in-a-row.


1943 King's Lynn by-election
The King's Lynn by-election, 1943 was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of King's Lynn in Norfolk on 12 February 1943. The seat had become vacant when the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Somerset Maxwell had died in December 1942 from wounds received at the Battle of El Alamein.


1943 King's Lynn by-election, Candidates
The Conservative candidate was Maurice Roche, who had been the MP for King's Lynn from 1924 until he stepped down in favour of Maxwell at the 1935 general election. Although a hereditary peer, his succession in 1920 to the title of Baron Fermoy had not disqualified him from the House of Commons, because his title was in the Peerage of Ireland, and did not grant a seat in the House of Lords.


1943 King's Lynn by-election, Candidates
During World War II, the parties in the Coalition Government had agreed not to contest by-elections in seats held by other coalition parties, and many wartime by-elections were therefore unopposed. However, local party members who disagreed with the truce could not be prevented from standing as independent candidates. In King's Lynn, Frederick Wise, who had been the official Labour Party candidate at the 1935 general election, stood as an "Independent Labour" candidate.


1943 King's Lynn by-election, Result
On a heavily reduced turnout, Lord Fermoy held the seat for the Conservatives, albeit with a much reduced majority. Fermoy retired (for a second time) at the 1945 general election, when Wise won the seat as an official Labour Party candidate.


1943 LSU Tigers football team
The 1943 LSU Tigers football team represented Louisiana State University (LSU) in the 1943 college football season. LSU did not celebrate a homecoming game in 1943 due to World War II. Halfback Steve Van Buren led the nation in scoring.


1943 La Flèche Wallonne
The 1943 La Flèche Wallonne was the seventh edition of La Flèche Wallonne cycle race and was held on 23 May 1943. The race started in Mons and finished in Charleroi. The race was won by Marcel Kint.


1943 Lachlan state by-election
A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Lachlan on 6 June 1943. It was triggered by the death of Griffith Evans (Country).


1943 Lafayette Leopards football team
The 1943 Lafayette Leopards football team was an American football team that represented Lafayette College in the Middle Three Conference during the 1943 college football season. In its first  season under head coach Ben Wolfson, the team compiled a 4–1 record and won the Middle Three championship. Walter Sergy was the team captain. The team played its home games at Fisher Field in Easton, Pennsylvania.


1943 Latvian Higher League, Overview
It was contested by 7 teams, and ASK won the championship.


1943 Lebanese general election
General elections were held in Lebanon on 29 August 1943, with a second round in some constituencies on 4 September. Independent candidates won the majority of seats. Voter turnout was 50.9%.


1943 Lebanese presidential election
The 1943 Lebanese presidential election was the second presidential election, which was held as a parliamentary session on 21 September 1943. The Constitutional Bechara El Khoury was elected as the only candidate and took office as the sixth president of Greater Lebanon.


1943 Lebanese presidential election
The President is elected by the Members of Parliament. He needs a two-thirds majority to win in the first round, while an absolute majority is enough in the second round.


1943 Lebanese presidential election
Only 47 deputies out 55 attended the session. El Khoury won the election in the first round, since he got 44 votes, more than the two-thirds needed majority.


1943 Lehigh Engineers football team
The 1943 Lehigh Engineers football team was an American football team that represented Lehigh University during the 1943 college football season. In its first season under head coach Leo Prendergast, the team compiled a 0–5–1 record, and lost all four games against its Middle Three Conference rivals.


1943 Lehigh Engineers football team
The team played its home games at Taylor Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.


1943 Liberator crash at Whenuapai
The 1943 Liberator crash at Whenuapai was an aircraft accident in New Zealand during World War II. TVNZ covered the crash during the program Secret New Zealand in 2003, and posited the accident was covered up, due to concerns of reprisals against POWs.


1943 Liberator crash at Whenuapai, History
The Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express aircraft, owned by the USAAF and operated using a United Airlines crew, was transferring Japanese men, women, and children of the Consular Corps, to exchange for Allied POWs. On 2 August 1943, it took off from Whenuapai Aerodrome runway 04 at 2:20 am, with rain and fog conditions at minimums for departure, and quickly passed through low stratus. Captain Herschel Laughlin's gyro horizon had inadvertently been left caged – while the instrument displayed level flight, the aircraft entered a steepening bank to the left.


1943 Liberator crash at Whenuapai, History
The crew detected the problem in a few seconds, but as the aircraft was straightening up and levelling out, it hit the ground at about 322 km/h (200 mph), bounced a few times and exploded. The third bounce threw its first officer, R. John Wisda, out through the canopy; he rolled end over end about 100 metres (330 ft) through mud and reeds. A medic later found him trying to keep warm near a burning tyre. R. John Wisda survived the crash. The major factors of the accident were the lack of a pre-flight checklist, and crew fatigue (126 flying hours in the last 26 days).


1943 Liberator crash at Whenuapai, History
The crash killed three of the five crew (United States nationals), and eleven of the twenty-five passengers (eight Japanese and three Thai nationals). Two additional passengers died later from injuries. TSS Wahine took the surviving internees from Wellington to Sydney three months later.


1943 Liberator crash at Whenuapai, Crash Site
The aircraft crashed to the ground 1¼ miles NNE of Whenuapai airfield.


1943 Liberian constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum was held in Liberia on 4 May 1943, alongside general elections. The changes to the constitution required the president to be a Liberian citizen by birth or to have lived in Liberia for at least 25 years, as well as allowing constitutional referendums to be held separately from general elections. The changes were approved by voters.


1943 Liberian constitutional referendum, Constitutional change
The proposed changes would be to Chapters III and V.


1943 Liberian constitutional referendum, Constitutional change
A two-thirds majority in the vote was necessary for the changes to be approved.


1943 Liberian general election
General elections were held in Liberia on 4 May 1943 alongside a constitutional referendum. William Tubman of the True Whig Party was elected unopposed. He took office on 3 January 1944.


1943 Limerick Senior Hurling Championship
The 1943 Limerick Senior Hurling Championship was the 49th staging of the Limerick Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Limerick County Board.


1943 Limerick Senior Hurling Championship
On 12 September 1943, Ahane won the championship after a 7-02 to 1-02 defeat of Croom in the final. It was their 10th championship title overall and their second title in succession.


1943 Liège–Bastogne–Liège
The 1943 Liège–Bastogne–Liège was the 30th edition of the Liège–Bastogne–Liège cycle race and was held on 27 June 1943. The race started and finished in Liège. The race was won by Richard Depoorter.


1943 Madras floods
The 1943 Chennai floods occurred during the annual northeast monsoon in Madras (now Chennai) in India.


1943 Madras floods, Causes
Lying on the Bay of Bengal coast, Chennai is prone to violent storms and thundershowers during the northeast monsoon (September–November). In October 1943, there were continuous rains lasting over six days.


1943 Madras floods, Events
The Coovum and the Adyar rivers overflowed inundating the surrounding residential areas. The brunt of the damage was borne by the slums that lay on the banks of the Coovum. Slums in Lock Cheri, Choolaimedu, Perambur, Kosapet, Kondithope and Chintadripet were washed out and people sought refuge in the Ripon Building. There were casualties in Medavakkam, Perambur and Purasawalkam. The police used boats and catamarans to row people to safety.


1943 Maine Black Bears football team
The 1943 Maine Black Bears football team was an American football team that represented the University of Maine during the 1943 college football season. In its only season under head coach Samuel Sezak, the team played one game, losing 6–20 against Phillips Andover. Richard Morrill was team captain.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 11th playing of the midsummer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 13, 1943, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, the home of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 5–3.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
This was the first major league All-Star Game scheduled as a night game.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Athletics in the game
The lone representative of the host team was Dick Siebert, starting first baseman for the AL, who was hitless in one at bat.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Starting lineups
Players in italics have since been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Starting lineups, Umpires
The umpires changed assignments in the middle of the fifth inning – Rommel and Dunn swapped positions, also Conlan and Rue swapped positions.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Synopsis
The NL started the game with two singles, then scored one run on a sacrifice fly by Stan Musial. The AL jumped ahead 3–1 in the bottom of the 2nd, on a pair of walks followed by a home run from Bobby Doerr. The AL added a run in the 3rd, on back-to-back doubles by Ken Keltner and Dick Wakefield, and another run in the bottom of the 5th, on an error by NL second baseman Billy Herman with runners on first and third with two outs; the AL was up 5–1.


1943 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Synopsis
The NL later got two runs back from Vince DiMaggio; in the 7th he hit a triple and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Dixie Walker, and in the 9th he led off the inning with a home run. But the NL was unable to rally further, resulting in an AL 5–3 victory.


1943 Major League Baseball season
The 1943 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 20 to October 11, 1943. The St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. In a rematch of the prior year's postseason, the Yankees then defeated the Cardinals in the World Series, four games to one.


1943 Major League Baseball season
In order to conserve rail transport during World War II, the 1943 spring training was limited to an area east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River. Spring training sites included the Chicago White Sox in French Lick, Indiana; the Washington Senators in College Park, Maryland; and the Yankees in Asbury Park, New Jersey.


1943 March Field Flyers football team
The 1943 March Field Flyers football team represented the United States Army Air Forces' Fourth Air Force stationed at March Field during the 1943 college football season. The base was located in Riverside, California. The team compiled a 9–1 record, outscored all opponents by a total of 292 to 65, and was ranked No. 10 in the final AP Poll. It defeated both UCLA and USC (then ranked No. 9), and it sole loss was on the road against Washington.


1943 March Field Flyers football team
The team was coached by Major Paul J. Schissler, a former NFL coach. The team was led on the field by Jack Jacobs, who was later inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.


1943 Marquette Hilltoppers football team
The 1943 Marquette Hilltoppers football team was an American football team that represented Marquette University as an independent during the 1943 college football season. In its third season under head coach Thomas E. Stidham, the team compiled a 3–4–1 record and was outscored by a total of 153 to 143. The team played its home games at Marquette Stadium in Milwaukee.


1943 Maryland Terrapins football team
The 1943 Maryland Terrapins football team represented the University of Maryland in the 1943 college football season. In their first season under head coach Clarence Spears, the Terrapins compiled a 4–5 record (2–0 in conference), finished in second place in the Southern Conference, and were outscored by their opponents 194 to 105.


1943 Massachusetts State Aggies football team
The 1943 Massachusetts State Aggies football team was to represent Massachusetts State College in the 1943 college football season. Mass State did not field an official varsity football team during this season as most able-bodied men of college age were serving in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane
The 1943 Mazatlán hurricane was a powerful tropical cyclone (at least Category 4) that lashed the southern coast of Sinaloa on the morning of 9 October 1943. The hurricane went essentially undetected before it made landfall just south of Mazatlán on 9 October with a pressure below 958.6 millibars (28.31 inHg) and maximum sustained winds of at least 136 miles per hour (219 km/h). The hurricane destroyed two small towns and half of Mazatlán, killing at least 106 persons, injuring 102, and leaving over 1,000 homeless. Total damage was estimated at $4.5 million (1943 USD, $56 million 2008 USD). The hurricane was the strongest on record to strike Mazatlán.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Meteorological history
Sources do not reveal the exact origin of this tropical cyclone. On 8 October, a developing tropical cyclone passed between the Revillagigedo Islands and Islas Marías. It moved rapidly northeastward and arrived on the coast of Sinaloa as an intense hurricane.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Meteorological history
Mazatlán Observatory reported that the atmospheric pressure began dropping at 1:30 am on 9 October and fell 0.827 inches of mercury (28.0 hPa) in 8 hours, and reached a minimum of 958.6 millibars (28.31 inHg). At 1530 UTC 9 October, the hurricane made landfall just south of Mazatlán. At 9:30 am, the observatory reported winds of 134 miles per hour (216 km/h) for a period of 15 minutes, which period ended when the wind blew the anemometer loose. The hurricane ranks as the strongest on record to strike the city.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Meteorological history
The storm dropped little precipitation as it passed Mazatlán, but 2 inches (51 mm) fell on the afternoon of 9 October.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Meteorological history
As the storm continued inland, it rapidly weakened and apparently dissipated over the Sierra Madre Occidental. The storm apparently passed into Chihuahua and was predicted to continue into the southern United States, though the remainder of its path is unknown.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Meteorological history
The cyclone dissipated over the state of Durango within a day after landfall. Heavy rain developed across parts of Texas on 12/13 October 1943.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Effects and aftermath
Moving ashore as a powerful hurricane, the storm destroyed the small towns of El Roble, now in Mazatlán Municipality, and Palmillas. The storm partially destroyed Villa Unión (a town now in Mazatlán Municipality) and severely damaged the port at Mazatlán. In these towns, approximately 100 persons lost their lives. Though the storm was reported to have struck "without warning", most residents in the destroyed cities ably reached safety in higher ground. The hurricane destroyed about half of the buildings in Mazatlán, and near the ocean, the combination of strong waves, high winds, and rainfall heavily damaged many hotels and houses.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Effects and aftermath
The storm damaged water systems, leaving people without potable water or sewage systems. In a 50 miles (80 km) portion of the coastline, the storm severely impacted the communication and transportation infrastructure. The airport at Mazatlán sustained damage to its radio tower, and for at least 18 hours, the only communication between the city and the rest of Mexico was through the radio of a plane in the airport. Total damage was estimated at $4.5 million (1943 USD, $56 million 2008 USD).


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Effects and aftermath
Of several fishing boats and a small Mexican Navy vessel caught in the storm, no trace reportedly was found; all persons aboard these vessels apparently died. A small coastal boat arrived in the port of Mazatlán after the storm and reported six crew members missing.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Effects and aftermath
Within two days after the storm, the death toll rose to 18; the next day, the Associated Press reported 52 deaths and 102 injuries. Ten days after the storm, military officials reported the death toll rose to 57, and the number of people left homeless by the storm reached over 1,000.


1943 Mazatlán hurricane, Effects and aftermath
By 24 hours after the storm,  President Manuel Ávila Camacho ordered nurses and doctors on standby, and for military workers in the area to prepare to assist in the aftermath. By five days after the storm, officials had restored power and communications in the area. Around the same time, the president issued an appeal for public donations for storm victims. Within a week, citizens sent large quantities of food, clothing, and medicine to the worst affected areas. The President of Mexico personally visited Mazatlán with other officials, bringing aid in the form of medicine and clothing.