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History on the 18th of February

History
Date Text
18 Feb 1571 RELIGIOUS A group of Spanish Jesuits in the Chesapeake Bay area, led by Fray Batista Segura, were murdered by the Indians they had come six months earlier to convert. The massacre led ultimately to the withdrawal of all Jesuits living in Florida as well.
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18 Feb 1678 RELIGIOUS John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" was first published, in England. Bunyan was frequently imprisoned for preaching without a license. During these sequestered times, between 1660-72, Bunyan collected the ideas enabling him to pen this masterpiece of Christian literature.
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18 Feb 1688 RELIGIOUS At a monthly meeting in Germantown, PA, a group of Quakers and Mennonites became the first white body in English America to register a formal protest against slavery. The historic "Germantown Protest" denounced both slavery and the slave trade.
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18 Feb 1781 RELIGIOUS Birth of Henry Martyn, Anglican missionary to Persia. Martyn first sailed for the East in 1805. His great linguistic gifts led him to translate the New Testament both into Hindustani and Arabic, before his premature death at 31.
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18 Feb 1867 RELIGIOUS The Augusta Institute was founded in Georgia. Established as an institution of higher learning for black students, it moved to Atlanta in 1879, and in 1913 changed its name to Morehouse College.
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18 Feb 1913 WW2 Erich Mußfeldt was born. 
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18 Feb 1913 WW2 Artur Axmann was born in Hagen, Germany. 
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18 Feb 1914 WW2 Settsu arrived at Chinhae, Korea. 
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18 Feb 1915 WW2 Richard O'Connor was awarded the Military Cross. 
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18 Feb 1918 WW2 Lockhart, the British unofficial emissary to the Bolsheviks, held his first meeting with Trotsky. His encouraging report back to London, England, United Kingdom indicated that the latter appeared to hold great bitterness towards the Germans. 
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18 Feb 1918 WW2 The Central Powers, unable to break the deadlock in the peace talks at Brest-Litovsk, Russia, ordered their forces to move forward and occupy the territories that they were demanding under the peace terms. The German offensive took the Bolsheviks completely by surprise and an Anglo-French offer of military aid was readily accepted in Petrograd, Russia, even by a reluctant Lenin who realised that the renewed conflict with Germany was a major setback to the Bolshevik revolution. 
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18 Feb 1918 WW2 Robert Greim achieved his 8th kill over France. 
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18 Feb 1932 WW2 Japan established the puppet nation of Manchukuo in northeastern China. 
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18 Feb 1935 WW2 The British Air Ministry issued Contract No. 357483/34 to Hawker Aviation for one example of what was later to be called Hurricane fighter for evaluation. 
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18 Feb 1937 WW2 Jisaburo Ozawa was named the chief of staff of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet. 
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18 Feb 1938 WW2 Japanese Army and Navy aircraft began a 6-month-long aerial bombardment campaign against the Chinese temporary capital city of Chongqing. 
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18 Feb 1938 WW2 The Nanjing Safety Zone International Committee was renamed the Nanjing International Rescue Committee. 
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18 Feb 1940 WW2 British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Daring (Commander Sydney Alan Cooper), whilst escorting Allied convoy HN12 from Norway, was sunk by German submarine U-23 (Kapitänleutnantm Otto Kretschmer) 40 miles east of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, killing 157. 
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18 Feb 1940 WW2 German submarines sank six merchant vessels that each flew French, Spanish, Greek, Panamanian, Dutch, and Norwegian flags. A total of 40 men were killed on the six vessels. 
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18 Feb 1940 WW2 Finnish troops destroyed a pocket of Soviet troops north of Lake Ladoga, capturing 32 field guns, 30 anti-tank guns, 1 mortar, 20 tanks, 15 machine guns, 25 trucks, and 32 field kitchen; the Soviets suffered 1,000 deaths and 250 men taken prisoner; Finnish losses were only 166 deaths. At the defensive V-line, however, the Finnish units were overwhelmed and began to be overrun at two locations. 
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18 Feb 1940 WW2 German Army General Franz Halder, reluctantly, as ordered by Adolf Hitler, incorporated General Erich von Manstein's planned thrust through the Ardennes Forest into the invasion plans for France. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 The German 5th Light Division (later renamed the 21st Panzer Division) was formed for operations in North Africa. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 Free French forces besieged El Tag fort at Kufra, Libya, bombarding the fort with 75-millimeter field guns (whose range was longer than their Italian counterparts) and 81-millimeter mortars. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 German aircraft mined the Suez Canal in Egypt, forcing the transit of carrier HMS Formidable into the Mediterranean Sea to be delayed. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 German submarine U-96 sank British ship Black Osprey 140 miles south of Iceland at 0227 hours; 25 were killed, 11 survived. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 German submarine U-103 sank British ship Seaforth 330 miles south of Iceland at 2133 hours. 59 survivors took to lifeboats, but they were never seen again. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 South African 1st Division captured Mega, Abyssinia. 
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18 Feb 1941 WW2 Adolf Hitler met with tank generals and tank designers at his residence Berghof in southern Germany. He insisted on using larger (either 50-millimeter or 75-millimeter) high velocity guns for Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks. He also demanded some soldiers to be released from the front to man tank factories. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 German submarine U-432 sank Brazilian tanker Olinda 30 kilometers off Virginia, United States. Elsewhere, German bombers sank British minesweeping trawler HMT Botanic in the North Sea. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Russian forces under General Timoshenko launched a fresh offensive against the Germans on the central front; the southern front was marked by strong gains by Soviet troops in the Ukraine. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Burma's Premier U Saw was detained by the British for allegedly being in communication with the Japanese. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Omar Bradley was promoted to the temporary rank of major general. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 After three days of confused fighting along the Bilin in Burma, Major General "Jackie" Smyth learned that he was threatened with being outflanked to the south by the Japanese 143rd Regiment. He committed his last reserves, 4/12th Frontier Force Regiment who fought a stiff action on 16th Indian Brigade's left but ultimately failed to dislodge the Japanese. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Free French submarine Surcouf collided with US merchant ship Thomson Lykes 95 miles north of the Panama Canal in the Gulf of Mexico; Surcouf would sink, killing all 130 aboard. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Repair ship Akashi arrived at Staring Bay, Celebes, Dutch East Indies. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Japanese aircraft sank Dutch coastal defense ship Surabaya and Dutch submarine K7 at Surabaya Harbor, Java, Dutch East Indies. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a military convention in Berlin, Germany, laying down "guidelines for common operations against the common enemies." 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 USS Pollack departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her second war patrol. 
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18 Feb 1942 WW2 US destroyer USS Truxton ran aground and broke apart at Ferryland Point, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland in poor weather; 119 were killed, 33 survived. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 At the Berlin Sport Palace, Goebbels announced the implementation of total war in Germany, bringing women into the industrial war effort. In the same speech, he also called Jews "the root of evil in the world". 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 The Gestapo arrested Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, members of the White Rose, for opposing the Nazi German regime. They were tried for treason by Judge Roland Freisler, found guilty, and executed in Stadelheim Prison in Munich as traitors on 22 Feb 1943. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 1,220 Polish Jews, 860 of whom children, arrived at the British Palestine after traveling through Russia, Iran, and India. They had to travel to Palestine by sea via India due to Iraq's refusal to allow the group to enter its borders. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Song Meiling addressed the House of Representatives of the United States Congress. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Erwin Rommel submitted a plan to Albert Kesselring and the Italian High Command for attacking the Americans guarding the Tunisian-Algerian border. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze departed Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Islands to escort transport Gokoku Maru to Gasmata, New Britain, Bismarck Islands. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 The Northwest African Air Forces (NWAAF) commanded by Major General Carl A. Spaatz came into existence under the Allied Mediterranean Air Command. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Jean de Vienne was raised at Toulon, France and pressed into Italian Navy service under the new name FR.11. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Fighting Squadron 11 (VF-11; Model F4F) departed. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Destroyer Yuzuki departed Yokosuka, Japan for the Central Pacific. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 Down to only 13 flyable P-40 fighters, USAAF 33rd Fighter Group was withdrawn from Telepte Airfield in Tunisia. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 In the British House of Commons 121 Ministers of Parliament (97 Labour members and including former prime minister David Lloyd George in his last ever vote in the House) condemned the Government for its failure to back the Beveridge Report. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 The construction for a large electromagnetic separation plant for enriching uranium, codenamed Y-12, began construction at Manhattan Project's Oak Ridge site in Tennessee, United States. 
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18 Feb 1943 WW2 During a test flight from Renton near Seattle, Washington, United States a serious engine fire developed in the second XB-29 prototype aircraft. Test pilot Eddie Allen tried desperately to get back to the airfield but the huge bomber crashed into a packing plant killing the entire crew and a number of civilian workers in the building. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 Soviet units captured Staraya Russa, Russia. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 German Armeegruppe Nord withdrew to the line Narva-Pleskau-Oposhka in northeastern Europe. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 Mosquito bombers of the RAF's No. 464 and No. 487 Squadrons attacked the German prison at Amiens, France in an attempt to allow the escape of French resistance fighters who were being held there under sentence of death. The leader of the raid, Group Captain P. C. Pickard, was shot down and killed in combat with Focke-Wulf fighters. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 Escort carrier USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80) was commissioned with Captain Joseph L. "Paddy" Kane in command. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 Destroyer Yuzuki departed Rabaul and arrived at Qavuvu in the New Britain, Bismarck Islands. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 The Abwehr, German military intelligence, was officially dissolved. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 George Patton noted in his diary that "I wish was more of a soldier and less of a politician." 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 11 G4M bombers withdrew from Rabaul, New Britain to the Mariana Islands, while a number of B5N torpedo bombers withdrew to Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 USS Columbia departed Nissan, Green Islands. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 US carrier aircraft destroyed 270 Japanese aircraft at Truk in the Caroline Islands after a two-day raid. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 The Germans made progress at Anzio, Italy, but were finally beaten back by artillery and naval gunfire. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 German tanks eliminated the 28th (Maori) Battalion bridgehead on the Rapido River in Italy. 
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18 Feb 1944 WW2 The German Luftwaffe's "Little Blitz" continued as London, England, United Kingdom was bombed again. 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 USS Caiman departed Fremantle, Australia for her second war patrol. 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 Soviet troops encircled Graudenz, East Prussia, Germany (now Grudziadz, Poland). 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 USS Guitarro sank a Japanese transport, hitting her with all of the three torpedoes fired. 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 The German Operation Sonnenwende offensive in Pommern, Germany was halted by Soviet resistance. 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 Folke Bernadotte met Heinrich Himmler at the SS Hohenlychen sanatorium in Lychen, Germany to discuss the release of Scandinavian Jews from concentration camps and Germany's separate peace with the Western Allies. They would not reach any agreement. 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 Ivan Serov, head counterintelligence chief of Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front, ordered every German in Poland to be arrested. 
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18 Feb 1945 WW2 Semyon Timoshenko was awarded the Order of Lenin for the third time. 
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18 Feb 1946 WW2 Du Yuming was secretly flown to Beiping, China for treatment of his kidney ailments. 
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