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History on the 20th of March

History
Date Text
20 Mar 1739 RELIGIOUS English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'I look upon all the world as my parish.'
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20 Mar 1747 RELIGIOUS American missionary David Brainerd, 28, ended two_and
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20 Mar 1840 RELIGIOUS Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'The more God opens your eyes, the more you will feel that you are lost in yourself.'
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20 Mar 1852 RELIGIOUS American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, 41, published her classic antislavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The controversy it kindled helped lead to the American Civil War, nine years later.
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20 Mar 1911 WW2 Georg von Bismarck was promoted to the rank of Fähnrich. 
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20 Mar 1911 WW2 Werner von Blomberg was promoted to the rank of Hauptmann. 
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20 Mar 1914 WW2 The Curragh mutiny took place when the commanding officer and 56 officers of the British 3rd Cavalry Brigade, stationed at the Curragh near Dublin, Ireland, opted for dismissal from the British Army rather than being forced to coerce the Ulster Protestants into accepting Irish Home Rule. The incident might partially explain why the government was not prepared to force Ulster to accept home rule. The secretary for war, J. E. B. Seely (later 1st Baron Mottistone, 1868-1947), and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir John French, indicated that the officers should not be required to serve against the north; the Cabinet disagreed and Seely and French resigned their offices. 
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20 Mar 1917 WW2 Dame Vera Lynn, the popular World War II singer and actress, was born at East Ham, London, England, United Kingdom. 
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20 Mar 1922 WW2 The US Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier, USS Langley. 
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20 Mar 1926 WW2 Having discovered a Communist plot to kidnap him in Guangzhou in southern China, Chiang Kaishek issued the order to arrest top Communist and left-wing leaders. As Wang Jingwei fled to Paris, France and Zhou Enlai fled to Shanghai, China, Chiang would effectively emerge from this failed plot as the sole leader of the Nationalist Party and its military forces. 
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20 Mar 1928 RELIGIOUS Birth of Fred Rogers, American Presbyterian clergyman and __ since its premiere in 1965 __ host of public television's longest running children's program: "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."
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20 Mar 1932 WW2 P-26 Peashooter fighter took its first flight. 
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20 Mar 1933 WW2 Dachau Concentration Camp was established in Germany by the order of Heinrich Himmler; it was to be guarded by men of the SS. 
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20 Mar 1934 WW2 Emperor Bao Dai married Marie-Thérèse Nguyen Huu Thi Lan, a commonor from a wealthy Vietnamese family, in the Imperial City in Hue, Annam, French Indochina. She was renamed Nam Phuong upon the marriage. 
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20 Mar 1938 WW2 Elements of the Japanese 10th Division captured Hanzhuang, Jiangsu Province, China, but Chinese troops halted the offensive just beyond the town. To the east, troops of the same division captured Yixian. The divisional headquarters was established at Yixian for further operations. 
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20 Mar 1939 WW2 German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded Memel from Lithuania. 
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20 Mar 1939 WW2 The German expedition team consisting of Ernst Schäfer, Bruno Beger, Karl Wienert, Ernst Krause, and others departed Lhasa, Tibet. They studied Tibetan culture, measured the physical traits of 376 people, and took over 40,000 photographs. 
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20 Mar 1939 WW2 Chinese troops repulsed a Japanese attack across the Xiushui River near Wucheng, Jiangxi Province, China; Chinese defenders reported that the Japanese were mixing chemical weapons among traditional artillery shells. To the west of Nanchang, the primary objective, Japanese troops reached the Ganjiang Bridge. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 British bombers sank converted minesweeper Sperrbrecher 12 (former steamer Altenfels) off the Dutch coast. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 German submarine U-22 departed Wilhelmshaven. Communications with the submarine was lost shortly after, its crew of 27 was never seen again. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 German submarine U-19 sank Danish steamer Viking in the Moray Firth, Scotland at 0500 hours, killing 15; 2 survived. At 0515 hours, she sank Danish steamer Bothal, killing 15; 5 survived. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 HMS Fortune sank German submarine U-44 off Narvik, Norway. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 Chinese troops attacked Japanese-occupied Wuyuan, Suiyuan Province, China. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 Lavrentiy Beria dispatched 11 NKVD killing squads to Ukraine and Byelorussia to arrest, execute, and deport resistance elements. 
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20 Mar 1940 WW2 RMS Queen Mary departed New York, New York, United States. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Indian troops captured Hargeisa in Italian-occupied British Somaliland. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Joseph Stalin was assured by this staff that Germany would not attack the Soviet Union until United Kingdom was defeated. Meanwhile, the United States shared the intelligence of a possible German invasion of the Soviet Union with Soviet Ambassador Konstantin Umansky. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Adolf Hitler appointed Alfred Rosenberg the Delegate for Central Planning for Questions of the Eastern European Area. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Erwin Rommel received Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were detected by aircraft of the British Coastal Command; they were met by German aircraft at 1900 hours, escorting them as they headed for Brest, France. Meanwhile, two ships that they had captured 5 days prior, tankers Bianca and San Casimiro, were spotted by British aircraft from carrier HMS Ark Royal; battleship HMS Renown would advance in an attempt to recapture. The German crew scuttled both tankers before surrendering themselves along with the 46 prisoners of war aboard the two ships. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 King George and Queen Elizabeth visited Plymouth, England, United Kingdom where they took tea with Lady Nancy Astor, the first woman to take a seat in the commons. The local people took the Royal visit as a "gala day" with bands and dancing on the Hoe, but no sooner had the Royal party departed 125 German bombers appeared overhead causing great damage to the docks (sinking British tug HMS Sir Bevois (9 killed), tug HMS Elan, and transport Mari II) and city centre. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 German submarine U-106 damaged Dutch ship Meerkerk of Allied convoy SL-68 and escorting battleship HMS Malaya 550 miles west of Nouakchott, Mauritania, French West Africa at 2323 hours. HMS Malaya received temporary repairs at Trinidad and then was sent to New York Naval Yard in the US for permanent repairs which would last for four months. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Heß, Fritz Todt, Reinhard Heydrich, and other top Nazi German official met in Berlin, Germany to discuss plans for resettling Eastern Europe with Germans. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 A flight of three Manchester bombers from RAF Waddington in England, United Kingdom set out to bomb German submarines at Lorient, France. Less than thirty minutes into the mission one aircraft developed an engine fire which forced its captain to order the crew to abandon the stricken aircraft. Four crewmen jumped but only two survived and two others were killed. The pilot (with one other crewman still aboard) then attempted to bring the aircraft home but in attempting to land struck a tree and crashed, killing both airmen. Aircraftsman Charles Leonard Wheatley, seeing that the fire threatened to explode the high-explosive bombs still aboard, bravely fought the fire, from only two yards away, and successfully prevented any further damage to the base. For this gallant action Wheatley would be awarded the George Medal from the King on 4 Nov 1941. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Tatsuta Maru arrived at San Francisco, California, United States; among the disembarked passengers was Colonel Hideo Iwakuru, who was dispatched by Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to Washington DC to help the Japanese Embassy in reconciling relations with the United States. 
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20 Mar 1941 WW2 Rather than accepting dictated German terms, four Yugoslavian ministers resigned their posts. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 USS Yorktown patrolled the Coral Sea. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 USS Lexington set sail for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii after raiding New Guinea. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 German submarine U-71 sank US tanker Oakmar over 200 kilometers east of Hampton Roads, Virginia, United States at 2054 hours, killing 6 of 36 aboard. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 South Dakota was commissioned into service. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 The United States and New Zealand completed a discussion which concluded that the US would be responsible for defending the Samoan islands. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 The United States Air Forces in the Philippines was established, replacing the Far East Air Force. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 The keel of US submarine Scorpion was laid down. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 J2M Raiden aircraft took its first flight. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Japanese 143rd Regiment and a cavalry formation of the Japanese 55th Division attacked troops the Cavalry Regiment of the Chinese 5th Army north of the Kan River in Burma. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 German submarine U-652 damaged destroyer HMS Heythrop 40 miles northeast of Bardia, Libya at 1054 hours, killing 15; Heythrop was sailing with 6 other destroyers on an anti-submarine sweep for Allied convoy MW10. At about 1600 hours, after 151 survivors had been taken off by destroyer HMS Eridge, Heythrop sank while under tow. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Major General Brian Horrocks assumed command of the British 9th Armoured Division in place of Major General Brocas Burrows who had been moved to command 11th Armoured Division. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Douglas MacArthur made the "I came through and I shall return" speech at Terowie, South Australia, Australia while transferring trains. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 The US Navy set up a new radio intelligence station at Melbourne, Australia; many of the staff members of this new station were recently evacuated from station CAST at Corregidor, Philippine Islands. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Japanese bombers attacked Port Moresby in Australian Papua while four fighters strafed the nearby Seven Mile airfield. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Michel departed La Pallice, France for the South Atlantic. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Allies in Libya attacked Benghazi and Derna, diverting attention from an important convoy for Malta. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Jonathan Wainwright received the official US War Department order promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general and placing him charge of US troops in the Philippine Islands, replacing Douglas MacArthur, who had been ordered to go to Australia by Franklin Roosevelt. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Gas chambers of Block I of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) Concentration Camp began extermination operations. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 Soviet Army's Kerch offensive in Russia was defeated with heavy losses. To the west, German counter attack at Sevastopol failed, resulting in the loss of the 22nd Division. 
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20 Mar 1942 WW2 USS Hornet arrived at San Francisco, California, United States. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 The British Eighth Army broke through German Mareth Line in Tunisia. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 Churchill's post war plans, broadcasted over radio, was criticized as very socialist. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 The Japanese Navy was ordered to execute all Allied personnel captured at sea. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 Major John Sapp of US Marine Torpedo-Bomber Squadron 143 led the first American aerial mine-laying mission in the South Pacific off the Solomon Islands. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 USS Pollack damaged a Japanese freighter between Jaluit and Makin Atolls in the Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands area, hitting her with one of four torpedoes fired. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 Light carrier Ryuho arrived in the Inland Sea in Japanese waters. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 Archibald Wavell ordered the offensive in Arakan Peninsula, Burma abandoned, falling back to the Maungdaw-Buthidaung line. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 B-24 Liberator bombers of US 373rd Bombardment Squadron arrived at Yangkai Airfield in Yunnan Province, China. 
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20 Mar 1943 WW2 USS Whale attacked a Japanese convoy off Saipan, Mariana Islands, damaging Mogamigawa Maru and Arizona Maru, hitting them with 4 of 6 torpedoes fired, but also suffered serious damage by depth charges and aerial bombs. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 USS Franklin set sail for Gulf of Paria, Trinidad for her shakedown cruise. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 Soviet troops captured Vinnitsa, Ukraine, site of one of Hitler's Feldhauptquartiere. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 Romanian troops arrived in Hungary to assist in the German occupation. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 A Japanese aircraft attacked USS Tunny with eight light bombs near Toagel Mlungui Pass in the Palau Islands, causing no damage. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 Mason was commissioned into service. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 USS Pollack sank Japanese freighter Hakuyo Maru in the Nanpo Islands area, Japan with one of two torpedoes fired. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 USS Cabrilla attacked a Japanese transport off British Malaya; all six torpedoes missed. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 Orde Wingate visited the Aberdeen site in Meza valley, Burma. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 Japanese troops captured Ukhrul, India, defeating the Indian Parachute Regiment and a brigade from the British 23rd Division. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 US 4th Marine Regiment secured Emirau, Bismarck Islands. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Officers and men of Air Group 100 arrived on board. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 British 78th Infantry Division joined in the attack of Cassino, Italy. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 The "Valanga" Guastatori naval infantry battalion was made a part of Xa MAS of Italian Navy. 
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20 Mar 1944 WW2 USS Preston was commissioned into service with Commander Goldsborough S. Patrick in command. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Blenny attacked a Japanese convoy and reported sinking three transports with torpedoes. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 US Seventh Army captured Saarbrücken, Germany while the US Third Army reached Mainz, Germany. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 General Gotthard Heinrici replaced Heinrich Himmler as the commanding officer of Army Group Vistula. Meanwhile, Heinz Guderian failed to convince Himmler to ask Hitler to consider peace negotiations. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 German Armeegruppe Weichsel's (Vistula) Oder River bridgehead near Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) was evacuated. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 RAF aircraft attacked a Gestapo building in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing 100 Germans and 6 prisoners. A school nearby was also hit, killing 112 Danish civilians, 86 of whom children. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 Japanese troops launched an offensive aimed at American bases at Laohokow and Ankong in China. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Kete sent a weather report south of Colnett Strait in the northern Ryukyu Islands, Japan, then was never heard again. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 Submarine I-369 was reassigned to Submarine Division 16 as her original unit, Submarine Squadron 7, became deactivated. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Baya claimed sinking a Japanese destroyer in the South China Sea, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes fired. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Hackleback fired an acoustic seeking torpedo and then fired her deck gun at a small Japanese warship south of Japan; all attacks failed to hit the target. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov authorized the transfer of Hungarian Count István Bethlen, already arrested by the Soviets in Hungary, to be transferred to Moscow, Russia for interrogation. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Gabilan departed Fremantle, Australia for her fifth war patrol. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 Indian 19th Infantry Division captured Mandalay, Burma. 
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20 Mar 1945 WW2 The first XP-80A prototype jet aircraft "Gray Ghost" crashed; test pilot LeVier was able to bail out to safety. 
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20 Mar 1946 WW2 USS Hackleback was decommissioned from service at San Francisco, California, United States. 
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