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History on the 20th of January

History
Date Text
20 Jan 1669 RELIGIOUS Birth of Susannah Annesley, "Mother of Methodism." Born the 25th child in her family, she married Samuel Wesley in 1689 and bore him 19 children, the last two being John (1703) and Charles (1707) Wesley.
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20 Jan 1758 RELIGIOUS English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'I cannot think of you, without thinking of God. Others often lead me to Him, as it were, going round about. You bring me straight into His presence.'
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20 Jan 1879 RELIGIOUS Birth of Albert S. Reitz, American Baptist evangelist and clergyman. He published over 100 hymns during his lifetime. Of these, the one best remembered today is "Teach Me to Pray, Lord."
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20 Jan 1918 WW2 General Tabouis, commander of the French military mission at Kiev, Ukraine, ordered the Czech Corps (under General Lafont to take up battle stations at Vinnitsa, Ukraine with the Polish Corps on its right and the Romanian army on its left) to counter a possible German thrust across the Vinnitsa-Mogilev line. The Czechs however refused to carry out the order which effectively destroyed any hope of Allied unity in the Ukraine. 
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20 Jan 1918 WW2 Off Trukey, after firing on the Cape Kephalo lookout at Imbros Island and sinking the Royal Navy monitors Lord Raglan and M28 in Kusi Bay, German Admiral von Rebeur Paschwitz positioned his ships to bombard Mudros Bay. At 0830 hours however, the Breslau struck a mine, and almost at the same time a British aircraft, from Imbris, hit her with a bomb. The battlecruiser Goeben turned to try and take the stricken cruiser in tow, but also exploded a mine and began to list to port. The helpless Breslau drifted over four more mines which also detonated and blew off her stern. Within minutes the Cruiser sank with the loss of two thirds of her 370-man crew. Admiral Paschwitz abandoned his mission and, under constant air attack, made haste back towards the Dardanelles which he reached (after running over another mine) but then ran aground at Nagara Point. It would take a week before the battlecruiser could be pulled free during which time she would suffer more heavy damage from air attack. 
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20 Jan 1918 RELIGIOUS In Russia, following the Bolshevik Revolution, all church property was confiscated and all religious instruction in the schools was abolished.
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20 Jan 1921 WW2 USS Arizona passed through the Panama Canal and reached the Pacific Ocean. 
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20 Jan 1923 WW2 Captain Kanichi Taketomi was promoted from the executive officer to the commanding officer of Settsu. 
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20 Jan 1930 WW2 Hamilton was commissioned into service. 
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20 Jan 1932 WW2 Japan demanded China to dissolve anti-Japanese organizations and pay compensation for losses incurred due to Chinese boycotts of Japanese goods. 
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20 Jan 1934 WW2 In Germany, the "Law for the ordering of National Labour" (drafted by the mayor of Leipzig, and future resistance leader, Carl Goerdeler) was established. This gave German managers absolute power to impose wage levels, monitor and discipline the workforce and in some industries restrict the right of employees to change their employment. 
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20 Jan 1936 WW2 British King George V passed away at Sandringham House, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom. 
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20 Jan 1937 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated for second term as US President; in the inauguration speech, he spoke about taking care of the third of the American population who were "ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished". 
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20 Jan 1938 WW2 Werner von Blomberg took a break from his honeymoon in Capri, Italy and returned to his office in Berlin, Germany. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 German submarine U-44 torpedoed and sank Greek steamer Ekatontarchos Dracoulis off Portugal at 0415 hours, killing 6. U-44 had been hunting for Ekatontarchos Dracoulis for the past 6 hours. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 German submarine U-57 torpedoed and sank Norwegian steamer Miranda 30 miles off of Scotland at 0826 hours, killing 14. 3 survivors were rescued on the next day by exploration ship Discovery II and taken to Kirkwall. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 British tanker MV Caroni River hit a mine laid the day before by German submarine U-34 in Falmouth Bay, England, United Kingdom and sank; she was on her sea trials. during sea trials in Falmouth Bay, England. All 43 aboard survived. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, speaking to the Parliament, voiced support for Finland while criticizing brutal Soviet attacks. The Finnish government presumed that this meant British support would soon arrive, but it never did. The German government interpreted the speech as a hint on British involvement in Scandinavia, thus plans for the invasion of Norway were re-prioritized. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 Chinese troops captured Licheng, Shanxi Province, China. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 Yukikaze was commissioned into service with Commander Kenjiro Tobita in command. 
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20 Jan 1940 WW2 Corvette Trillium was ordered. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 The Iron Guard rebellion in Romania was put down by Marshal Antonescu. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 Japan expanded annual intelligence budget to $500,000 to gather more intelligence on the United States. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 Compulsory Fire Watch duty was instituted in the United Kingdom. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 In reprisal for partisan attacks, Germans executed 2,324 males in the Yugoslavian town of Kragujevac, including 144 boys who were herded out of school. Furious at the partisan activity, Hitler had decreed that for every German soldier wounded in attacks, 100 civilians would be executed. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 German submarine U-94 sank British ship Florian 200 miles southeast of Iceland at 0042 hours, killing the entire crew of 41. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 German Kriegsmarine ordered the construction of 75 new submarines. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 German cruiser Admiral Scheer sank British ship Stanpark and captured Dutch ship Barneveld 1,000 miles off the coast of Angola. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 In the Atlantic Ocean, Italian submarine Luigi fired a spread of three torpedoes at a group of three Allied destroyers but none hit. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 Italian submarine Marcello, en route to Bordeaux, France for repairs, encountered Belgian ship Portugal and sank her with the deck gun. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 British minesweeping trawler HMT Relonzo hit a mine and sank off Liverpool, England, United Kingdom, killing 19. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 RAF Wellington and Blenheim bombers, monitor HMS Terror, and gunboats HMS Gnat and HMS Ladybird attacked Italian positions at Tobruk, Libya overnight. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 At Adolf Hitler's Berghof residence near Berchtesgaden, Germany, Hitler mentioned to Benito Mussolini and Galeazzo Ciano that Germany viewed the Soviet Union as a threat, but did not reveal the plan to invade. 
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20 Jan 1941 WW2 Lieutenant Commander Clement Bridgman was named the equipping officer of HMS Dianthus. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Transports with US Marines arrived at Pago Pago, American Samoa; they were escorted by carriers Enterprise and Yorktown. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich hosted the Wannsee Conference to discuss the Final Solution. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Erwin Rommel received Swords to his Knight's Cross medal. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Hawker Hurricane fighters, sent as reinforcements to Singapore, shot down eight Japanese bombers from a force of 27 attacking the city. Ground troops had less success, however, as the Indian and Australian retreat from Bakri, Malaya was cut off by the Japanese. Also on this date, more Japanese troops landed at Endau, Malaya. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 The Japanese advance guard crossed the border into Burma heading for Moulmein. Kawkareik was defended by 16th Indian Brigade under Brigadier J. K. "Jonah" Jones, but was widely dispersed covering the tracks leading to the border 38 miles away. The Japanese first encountered the 1st/7th Gurkha Rifles (who had only arrived on the previous day) near Myawadi. The Gurkhas were quickly outflanked and forced to withdraw. Within forty-eight hours the rest of 16th Infantry Brigade were forced to follow. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 President Roosevelt suggested to a Cabinet meeting that an air freight and alternative land route be considered for the supply of China - this task to be added to Stilwell's already considerable responsibilities. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Major General Commandant Thomas Holcomb became the first lieutenant general in the United States Marine Corps. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 In Russia, Soviet 11th Cavalry Corps attacked from Rzhev towards Vyazma while Soviet 4th Shock Army captured the German supply dumps at Toropets, taking 6 tanks, 723 trucks, artillery pieces with 450,000 shells, small arms with millions of rounds of ammunition, 1,000 drums of fuel, and food. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 USS S-36 became stuck on Taka Bakang Reef in the Makassar Strait between British Borneo and Celebes, Dutch East Indies at 0400 hours. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 American destroyer USS Edsall and Australian minesweeper HMAS Deloraine sank Japanese submarine I-124 with depth charges 60 miles northwest of Darwin, Australia, killing 80. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Repair ship Akashi provided repair work for destroyer Inazuma at Davao, Mindanao, Philippine Islands. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Akagi's aircraft carried out strikes against Rabaul, New Britain. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Shokaku launched strikes against Rabaul, New Britain. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Japanese South Seas Force Transport Fleet ships crossed the Equator en route to Rabaul, New Britain at 0500 hours; it was the first Japanese Army force to cross the Equator in history. At 1214 hours, coast watchers at Tabar north of Rabaul spotted 20 Japanese Zero fighters; 109 carrier aircraft reached Rabaul at 1248 hours, destroying 5 of the 8 remaining Wirraway fighters at Rabaul. Shortly after, 27 Type 97 aircraft of carrier Kaga and a number of Type 99 aircraft from carrier Shokaku and Zuikaku attacked, sinking Norwegian freighter Herstein and coal hulk Westralia, losing only one aircraft in combat (a Type 97 piloted by Petty Officer 1st Class Tatsuya Sugihara) and two during recovery. No. 24 Squadron RAAF was effectively wiped out after the attacks on Rabaul on this day. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 Tenryu departed Truk, Caroline Islands for the invasion of Kavieng, New Ireland. 
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20 Jan 1942 WW2 U-576 departed Saint-Nazaire, France, starting her third war patrol. 
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20 Jan 1942 RELIGIOUS At the notorious Wannsee Conference in Berlin, German Nazi officials decided on their "final solution," which called for a mass extermination of all the Jews in Europe.
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 USS S-28 set a course for the Aleutian Islands. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 German Inspector of Concentration Camps advised camp commandants to reduce rate of death for camp prisoners; however, camp doctors were given orders to kill the sick and the debilitated. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 USS Silversides attacked a Japanese convoy 286 miles from Truk, Caroline Islands en route to the Solomon Islands, sinking transport Meiu Maru and damaging Surabaya Maru. The latter would later be scuttled by destroyer Asagumo. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 Remy Van Lierde scored his first kill, a German Bf 109G fighter, over the southern coast of England, United Kingdom while flying a Typhoon Ib fighter. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 The US Army 25th Division began an offensive toward Kokumbona, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 Chile broke off relationships with Germany, Italy and Japan. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 A US B-24 bomber on a routine reconnaissance mission over Wewak on the island of New Guinea surprisingly found a large concentration of Japanese shipping and a newly arrived contingent of Zero fighters. Six of the fighters arose and shot down the bomber, killing 2; 6 of the crew survived. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 US 44th Fighter Squadron arrived at Fighter 2 airfield at Kukum, Guadalcanal; this squadron would later become the most successful P-40 squadron to operate on this island. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 Transports of Jews from Theresienstadt Ghetto in occupied Czechoslovakia departed for Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland; several more transports departed from Theresienstadt in the following 6 days. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 Captured French submarine Requin departed Bizerte, Tunisia with an Italian crew. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 Captured French submarine Espadon departed Bizerte, Tunisia with an Italian crew. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 German fighter-bombers made a surprise daylight attack on London, England, United Kingdom during which bombs were dropped on a school in Lewisham killing 39 children and five teachers. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 The German Luftwaffe was forced to abandon any further hit-and-run fighter-bomber raids on London, England, United Kingdom after five Fw 190 aircraft were lost within half an hour to the RAF Manston based Typhoon fighters of Wing Commander Roland Beamont's No. 609 Squadron. 
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20 Jan 1943 WW2 USS Brennan was commissioned into service at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Soviet forces captured Novgorod, Russia. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 USS Gar sank Japanese cargo ship Koyu Maru off Palau Islands in daylight with two of three torpedoes fired. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Singapore. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 US aircraft attacked Rabaul, New Britain. The Japanese shot down 2 B-25, 2 P-38, and 3 F4U aircraft. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Irako departed Truk, Caroline Islands. She was attacked by submarine USS Seadragon and suffered one torpedo hit to her bow on the starboard side. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 The heaviest RAF raid on Berlin to date was launched, with 769 aircraft (495 Lancaster, 264 Halifax, 10 Mosquito) dropping over 2,300 tons of explosives on the German capital. 13 Lancaster and 22 Halifax bombers were lost. Damage on Berlin was thought to be extensive, but this could not be confirmed due to bad weather on the next day. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein shot down three British aircraft near Berlin, Germany, increasing his victories to 78. His Ju 88 aircraft was damaged by the propeller of the third aircraft he shot down, a Lancaster bomber, and only barely made it back to the airfield and had to crash land. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Ten quonset huts for officers' quarters, 10 quonset huts for enlisted men's barracks, turned over to station. More of ARGUS-15 on board. Part of GROPAC-2 departed. Part of Task Group 19.19 departed. Part of ACORN-20 departed. Part of CASU-20 departed. Part of ARGUS-18 departed. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 After sundown, US 141st Regiment and 143rd Regiment attacked across the Rapido River in Italy. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Japanese cargo ships Akibasan Maru was sunk at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. 
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20 Jan 1944 WW2 Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas was appointed Commander-in-Chief of RAF Coastal Command. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Martin Bormann ordered Arthur Greiser to flee Reichsgau Wartheland. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 The French First Army under General de Lattre attacked the Colmar Pocket in Alsace, France. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Colonel General Ferdinand Schörner replaced Colonel General Josef Harpe as the head of German Army Group A in eastern Germany. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Nikolaus von Falkenhorst was awarded the German Cross in Silver. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Destroyer Yuzuki was struck from the Japanese navy list. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 USS Finback departed for her twelfth and final war patrol in the East China Sea. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Chinese troops captured Wanting, Yunnan Province, China. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Captain Chojuro Takahashi was named the commanding officer of light carrier Ryuho. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Light carrier Hosho conducted a torpedo attack training with Air Group 453 and submarine HA-106. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Allied aircraft attacked Japanese positions at Monywa, Burma while the Indian 20th Division assaulted the port city on the Chindwin River. Meanwhile, Japanese forces in Burma began a coordinated counteroffensive against the latest Anglo-Indian advances. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 USS Barb pursued a Japanese convoy in the Taiwan Strait, but the convoy was able to enter the southern entrance of the Haitan Strait before the submarine could attack. Commander Eugene Fluckey suspected that the Japanese had dredged the previously shallow northern end of the strait for warships to move through, and asked Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO), which had a wide coastwatcher network in China, for information. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 An armistice between the Hungarian Provisional National Government and the Soviet Union insisted that Hungary should declare war on Germany and pay $300,000,000 in reparations. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Warrant Flying Officer Suzuki and Warrant Flying Officer Sasaki conducted a navigation training flight aboard a E16A Zuiun seaplane at Kure, Japan; the aircraft crashed behind a hangar during landing, killing both, making them the first casualties of Japanese Navy 631 Naval Air Group. Sasaki was supposed to be married that evening. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Nachi was struck from the Japanese Navy list. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 US troops captured Diekirch, Luxembourg. Upon capture, the Americans found 12 to 15 dead civilians, executed by retreating German troops of 208th Volksgrenadier Regiment. After the Americans secured the city, the locals began rounding up collaborators, most of whom were jailed for future trials while a small number were executed by vigilantes. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 USS Ticonderoga and other ships of Task Group 38 exited South China Sea via Balintang Channel. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 USS Spot sank a Japanese cargo ship in the Yellow Sea with her deck gun after missing her with 5 torpedoes. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 USS Miami transited the Balintang Channel between Taiwan and the Philippine Islands. 
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20 Jan 1945 WW2 Three German V-2 rocket hit London, England, United Kingdom. The first hit Potters Bar at 1100 hours, killing 21. The second hit Calton Road in East Barnet at 1315 hours, killing 12. The third hit Tottenham at 2000 hours, killing 23. 
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