March 2, 1943

1943George Layton, English actor, director, and screenwriter^[†]

George Layton is a British actor, director, screenwriter and author best known for three television roles – junior doctor Paul Collier in the comedy series Doctor in the House and its sequels Doctor at Large, Doctor in Charge and Doctor at the Top, Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons in the first two series of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and Des the mechanic in early episodes of Minder. He also appeared in two episodes of The Sweeney and played Norman Simmonds in EastEnders as well as a few early appearances as himself on the light entertainment BBC1 consumer show That's Life!.

1943Peter Straub, American author and poet (died 2022)^[†]

Peter Francis Straub was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.

1943Robert Williams, American painter and cartoonist^[†]

Robert L. Williams, often styled Robt. Williams, is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. Williams was one of the group of artists who produced Zap Comix, along with other underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, and Gilbert Shelton. His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery.

1943Gisela Januszewska, Austrian physician (born1867)^[†]

Gisela Januszewska was an Austrian physician. Having earned her degree in Switzerland, she briefly worked in Germany before becoming the first female physician in the ethnically Serbian town of Banja Luka in Bosnia Herzegovina within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She received the highest decorations for her service during the First World War and social activism in Austria afterwards, but was deported to a Nazi concentration camp, where she died, during the Second World War.

1943World War II: During the Battle of the Bismarck Sea Allied aircraft defeated a Japanese attempt to ship troops to New Guinea.^[†]

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II when aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae, New Guinea. Most of the Japanese task force was destroyed, and Japanese troop losses were heavy.