Year 543 (DXLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 543 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Count Nikolaus de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt) (born 6 December 1929) is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement. Around 1970, Harnoncourt started to conduct opera and concert performances, soon leading renowned international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals. His repertoire has since widened to include composers of the 19th and 20th century. In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert. Harnoncourt is also the author of several books, mostly on questions of performance history and musical aesthetics.

Harnoncourt was born in Berlin, Germany. He was raised in Graz, Austria and studied music in Vienna. His mother, Ladislaja Gräfin von Meran, Freiin von Brandhoven, was the granddaughter of the Habsburg Archduke Johann, the 13th child of the Emperor Leopold II. He is thus descended from various Holy Roman Emperors and other European royalty. His father, Eberhard de la Fontaine Graf d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt, was an engineer working in Berlin who had two children from a previous marriage. Two years after Nikolaus's birth, his brother Philipp was born. The family eventually moved to Graz, where Eberhard had obtained a post in the state-government (Landesregierung) of Styria.

Carl Cox (born 29 July 1962, Barbados) is a British techno and house music DJ and producer.

Cox grew up in Oldham, Lancashire, before attending Glastonbury High Boys secondary modern school on Glastonbury Road in Morden.^{[citation needed]} Cox began his career as a hardcore and rave DJ in the mid 1980s. One of the first gigs he played was in legendary promoters John Binton and Terry Onion's Squeeze my buttered Onions! club in Hackney, London Unconfirmed reports suggest he was coerced into swallowing an onion on stage, one of Terry's famous requests he gave to his acts. He was named the "Three Deck Wizard" after playing on three turntables simultaneously at the Second Summer of Love in 1988.^{[citation needed]} He has performed at clubs such as The Eclipse, Edge, Shelly's, Sterns Nightclub, Heaven, Sir Henry's in Cork, Ireland and Angels and The Haçienda, as well as raves for Fantazia, Dreamscape, and Amnesia House. He now spearheads two record labels, Intec Records and 23rd Century Records. He also has his own stage every year at Ultra Music Festival called Carl Cox and Friends.