the Peenemünde Army Research Center, to disrupt the German V-weapons programme. August 21 – 1943 Australian federal election: John Curtin's Labor Government defeats the Country/UAP Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Arthur Fadden. Labor achieves its greatest ever electoral result, including winning every seat (except one) outside of the eastern states. Notably, this election marked the first time that a woman has been elected to both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Fadden will step down from the Opposition leadership, handing it over to Robert Menzies, who will go on to dissolve the UAP and form the Liberal Party shortly after. August 23 – WWII: The Battle of Kursk ends, with a strategic defeat for the German forces. August 24 – Heinrich Himmler is named Reichsminister of the Interior in Germany. August 26 – WWII: Louis Mountbatten is named Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia. August 28 – WWII: King Boris III of Bulgaria dies under suspicious circumstances; his 6-year-old son, Simeon II, ascends to the throne. August 29 – WWII: Occupation of Denmark – Germany dissolves the Danish government, after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities. September September 3 – WWII: Allied invasion of Italy Armistice of Cassibile: The Kingdom of Italy surrenders to the Allies in a document signed on Sicily but not made public at this time. Operation Baytown: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces under General Bernard Montgomery, for the first time in the war. September 5 – WWII: The 503rd Parachute Regiment (under American General Douglas MacArthur) lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae, in northeastern Papua New Guinea. September 7 – Gulf Hotel fire: A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas kills 55. September 8 WWII: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies. WWII: Frascati air raid: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone. The first classes commence at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska. September 9 – Bertolt Brecht's play Life of Galileo () receives its first theatrical production, at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. September 12 – WWII: Gran Sasso raid – German paratroopers rescue Mussolini from imprisonment, in Unternehmen Eiche ("Operation Oak"). September 16 – WWII: Salerno Mutiny – Soldiers of the British Army's X Corps refuse postings to new units.