It is hard for me to believe that in a few short months I will be celebrating my 80th birthday. In fact, I never thought I would be old enough to celebrate my 40th, 50th, 60th or 70th birthdays but somehow I did and am now about to turn 80. Each new decade has brought its challenges and rewards, and I am grateful to have experienced all of them. Even though we were born three years before the Baby Boomers in 1946, there were 2,934.860 of us born in 1943 and that is a lot of babies. I personally know 14 people born in 1943, so I wondered what was going on the year we all came into the world.
We were born as World War II reached its fourth year of pitched battle on the European front. The major news events of 1943 focused largely on WWII and included the following:
– Allied forces take back North Africa and invaded mainland Italy.
– Italy surrenders to Allied Forces.
– Due to shortages resulting from the War, America saw its first rationing including gasoline, canned food, meat, cheese, butter and cooking oil.
– The Pentagon, considered to be the world’s largest office building, is completed. It was needed for the growing War Department under FDR and cost about $83 million.
– The Allied victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles of the War, marked an important turning point in favor of the Allies.
– Future President John F. Kennedy’s command, PT-109, was sunk by a Japanese destroyer.
– General Dwight Eisenhower became the Supreme Allied Commander.
– American manufacturers like Ford and GM began to produce war machines as efficiently as they had produced cars.
– Due to the number of men in the war, 18 million women were employed in manufacturing
– Four bombs were dropped on neutral Vatican City; the aircraft was never identified.
Some of the other things happening during our birth year were as follows:
– The Glenn Miller Orchestra provided the most popular music of the time.
– The All-American Girls Baseball League was founded by Chicago Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley in an attempt to fill empty baseball stadiums. It was popular in the decade but disbanded in 1954 as interest waned. A League of Their Own was based on their early years.
– The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated.
– The musical Oklahoma opened on March 31 and ran for a record breaking 15 years.
– Nachos were invented by Iganacio “Nacho” Anaya in Cohahuiila Mexico and called Nacho’s Especiales.
– Big movies were This is the Army, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Story of Bernadette.
– Donald Triplett of Mississippi was the first person ever diagnosed with Autism.
– Time Magazine’s Man of the Year was George Marshall.
– The “Conical Bra” was made famous by Jane Russell.
– Top ten baby names were Mary, Barbara, Patricia, Linda, Carol, James, Robert, John, William, Richard.
– Bea Arthur (Golden Girls) was a US Marine from 1943-45 and honorably discharged as a staff sergeant.
– Pizza Uno developed the first deep dish pizza.
– Phillip Morris ran an ad acknowledging “smoker’s cough” but blamed it on smoking other brands.
– Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter first appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
– The two major disasters were an explosion at Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, killing 74 coal miners and a fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston with 54 fatalities.
– Thomas Watson, IBM Chairman, said there may be a world market for 5 computers.
– Disney made a short Donald Duck film, Der Fuehrer’s Face, to mock Hitler and the Nazis.
– Due to wartime blackouts, there were no lit New Year’s Eve balls in Times Square in 1942/43.
– Top stars: Ingrid Bergman, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Lena Horne, Gene Tierney.
– Births: George Harrison, Bobby Fischer, John Kerry, Mick Jagger, Robert DeNiro, Sharon Tate.
– The first woman joined the Marine Corps.
– Price of 12 quart-sized Mason jars was 98 cents.
Life expectancy at birth changes because deaths at young ages impacts expectancy averages much more than deaths at older ages. Mark Stibich, Ph.D, reports that each year a person lives means they have survived multiple causes of death, so life expectancy can actually increase with age. He says the life expectancy at birth was about 68 for someone born in 1943. If that person has survived to 65 (in 2008), they could expect to live another 18.8 years. If that person lived to 75 (in 2018), their life expectancy increased to 87.3 years. According to the New England Centenarian Study, about one in every 5000 people is a centenarian – someone who is 100 or older. Approximately 85 percent are women.
A number of recent studies indicate that happiness is more easily attained after middle age. Lewis Wolpert, professor emeritus of Biology at University College London, in his book You Are Looking Very Well says people are only averagely happy in the first third of their lives and this declines further during middle age. He proposes that from the mid 40s people tend to become ever more cheerful and optimistic, possibly peaking in their late 70s or 80s. A study by the American National Academy of Sciences has found that the mental state of well-being associated with youth gradually leaves us as we become adults, hitting rock bottom in our mid-40s. But things get better and our mood probaby peaks at the ripe age of 85.
My favorite quote in all the articles I reviewed on 1943 babies and reaching 80 was from George Vaillant, a psychiatrist at Harvard who was the curator of the largest longitudinal study conducted on happiness. He said, “Aging is a lot less scary than people are afraid it is.” I think this is an excellent way to look at our lives after 80 and I am going to try to prove him right.
A few more sources for review:
https://pop-culture.us/Annual/1943.html
https://popculturemadness.com/PCM/1943-pop-culture-history-trivia-fun-facts/
https://takemeback.to/year/1943
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943