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History on the 31st of March

History
Date Text
31 Mar 1787 RELIGIOUS English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'When the witness and the fruit of the Spirit meet together, there can be no stronger proof that we are of God.... Were you to substitute...reason for the witness of the Spirit, you would never be established.'
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31 Mar 1816 RELIGIOUS Death of Francis Asbury, 70, pioneer Methodist bishop. Sent to America in 1771 by John Wesley, he saw the new denomination grow from under 500 members to over 200,000 by the time of his death.
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31 Mar 1917 WW2 Yamashiro was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1917 WW2 Destroyer Kashi was completed and entered Japanese naval service. 
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31 Mar 1925 WW2 S-45 was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1926 WW2 Furutaka was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1931 WW2 A serious air crash occurred at Bazaar, Kansas, United States. Among those killed as a result of structural failure in the Atlantic-built Fokker F.10A was Knute Rockne, coach of the Notre Dame football team. The resuting publicity led to TWA withdrawing their entire Fokker fleet and the F.10A was to become the first aircraft type to be officially grounded by the US Department of Commerce. 
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31 Mar 1933 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps. 
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31 Mar 1934 WW2 Submarine tender Taigei was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1936 WW2 Light carrier Hosho completed her repairs. 
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31 Mar 1937 WW2 Bombers of the German Condor Legion in Spain, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Freiherr von Richthofen, bombed the mountain strongholds of the Republicans, not easily reached by artillery, and battered the key village of Ochandiano before it was quickly taken by the Army of Navarre. In the same region, the Spanish Nationalist forces, commanded by General Emilio Mola y Vidal, began an offensive against Basque forces in Vizcaya with the intention of capturing the Basque stronghold of Bilbao. 
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31 Mar 1937 WW2 Georg von Küchler stepped down as the deputy president of the military court system. 
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31 Mar 1938 WW2 Asagumo was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1938 WW2 HMS Edinburgh was launched. 
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31 Mar 1938 WW2 The keel of cruiser HMS Mauritius was laid down by Swan Hunter at Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom. 
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31 Mar 1939 WW2 The fighting between Slovakia and Hungary largely ceased. 
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31 Mar 1939 WW2 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain noted that the United Kingdom and France would guarantee Polish borders, with military force if necessary. 
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31 Mar 1940 WW2 British Prime Minister Chamberlain called off the mining of the Norwegian coast in protest of the French resistance to the mining of the Rhine River. 
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31 Mar 1940 WW2 German WWI-era battleship Hessen (serving as ice breaker) and armed merchant cruisers Atlantis, Orion, and Widder departed from Kiel, Germany for their various anti-Allied shipping missions. 
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31 Mar 1940 WW2 Mussolini informed King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy that Italy would soon enter the European War. 
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31 Mar 1940 WW2 Japanese troops completed the evacuation of Wuyuan, Suiyuan Province, China. 
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31 Mar 1940 WW2 The armed merchant raider Atlantis set sail from Germany. 
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31 Mar 1940 WW2 The British Ministry of Informations introduced paper rationing to publishing and printing industries. The ration, based on consumption over the year 1938-1939, would continue until 1948. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 British Army Dental Corps Private Coe arrived in Switzerland after escaping from a German prisoner of war camp. He was the first to successfully do so. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 Before dawn, 109 RAF bombers attacked German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Brest, France, scoring no hits. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 German 5th Light Division attacked British 2nd Armoured Division at Mersa Brega, Libya starting at 0745 hours, supported by dive bombers. After holding off the offensive for most of the day, German tanks broke through at 1730 hours, capturing the town by 1900 hours. As the sun slowly set, British commanders decided not to counterattack with their tanks, but instead withdraw 30 miles northeast toward Agedabia. The day's engagement cost the British 60 men killed, 8 armored carriers destroyed, and 1 anti-aircraft gun destroyed. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 Italian submarine Ambra sank British cruiser HMS Bonaventure 125 miles south of Crete, Greece at 0244 hours. Bonaventure was escorting Allied convoy GA8 from Greece to Alexandria, Egypt at the time. 138 were killed, 310 survived. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 German submarine U-46 sank Swedish tanker Castor 300 miles east of the southern tip of Greenland at 1033 hours, killing the entire crew of 15. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 British submarine HMS Rorqual sank Italian submarine Pier Capponi by torpedo 28 miles northwest of Messina, Sicily, Italy, killing the entire crew of 49. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 Prince of Wales was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 Husband Kimmel and Walter Short received a report noting the weakness of the base at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii to surprise air attacks. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 British and Indian troops broke through the roadblocks on the road between Keren and Asmara in Eritrea, Italian East Africa, capturing 560 Italian troops; continuing the push south, Indian 5th Infantry Division engaged Italian troops near Adi Tekelezan, which was less than 50 kilometers from Asmara and was the last town before Asmara. To the east, Italian destroyers Leone, Pantera, and Tigre departed Massawa, Eritrea to attack British port facilities at Port Sudan, British Sudan; Leone struck underwater rocks en route, and Pantera and Tigre were forced to sink Leone by gunfire, and the attack was called off with two surviving ships heading back to Massawa. 
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31 Mar 1941 WW2 HMS Howe was completed. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 USS Colorado completed the overhaul that began in Jun 1941. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 The Indian Congress Party demanded immediate independence from the United Kingdom. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Unhappy with the progress of the interior ministry, Hitler reassigned the task of providing housing to those displaced by Allied bombing to propaganda chief Goebbels. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 German submarine U-754 sank US tug Menominee, barge Allegheny, and barge Barnegat 10 kilometers northeast of Hog Island Lighthouse, Virginia, United States at 0800 hours; 16 were killed, 9 survived. At 2222 hours, 480 miles east of Virginia, U-71 sank British tanker San Gerardo; 51 were killed, 6 survived. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Laffey (Benson-class) was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Italian submarine Tazzoli arrived at Bordeaux, France. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Eight A-24 Banshee aircraft under US Army Captain Floyd Rogers arrived at Port Moresby, Australian Papua; it was the first US squadron to be based at Port Moresby. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Japanese troops occupied Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Tenryu provided cover for the landings at Kieta, Bougainville, Solomon Islands. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 850 Japanese troops landed on Christmas Island unopposed. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Naka supported the landing on Christmas Island as the invasion force's flagship; submarine USS Seawolf attempted a torpedo attack on Naka at 0949 hours but failed to score hits. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Japanese troops occupied Ceram Island, Dutch East Indies. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 USS S-31 completed her first war patrol off the Panama Canal Zone. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Surviving ships of Allied convoy PQ-13 began to arrive at Murmansk, Russia after several attacks by German destroyers, submarines, and aircraft. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Ten Norwegian freighters and tankers, interned by the Swedish at Gothenburg, attempted to break out for Britain. Two of them, transport Lind and tanker B. P. Newton, would make the escape. Six of the remaining eight ships were sunk by mines, German aircraft, and German warships, while the final two were forced to return to Gothenburg. 
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31 Mar 1942 WW2 Light cruiser Fargo, previously ordered but not yet laid down, was reordered by the US Navy as a carrier to be named Crown Point. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 British troops occupied Cap Serrat on the Tunisian coast. Operation Supercharge II was concluded with success in Tunisia, forcing the Axis defenses to move north to Wadi Akarit. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 USAAF bombers attacked the Italian airfield at Cagliari, Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 German Luftwaffe Major General Peltz was placed in charge of bombing raids against Britain. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 American troops under Colonel Archibald MacKechnie landed at the mouth of Waria River in New Guinea. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 US leadership gave the order to invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands on 7 May 1943. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 US 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions again attacked Italian positions at Hill 369 near El Guettar, Tunisia to little success. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Gusztáv Jány was awarded the German Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Belleau Wood was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 The US 2nd Marine Brigade was disbanded in Pago Pago, American Samoa. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 British corvette HMS Milfoil was recommissioned into the United States Navy as USS Intensity. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Vice Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka launched a 2-wave fighter sweep (32 fighters and 25 fighters, respectively) down the Slot in the Solomon Islands to draw out Allied fighters. About 30 Guadalcanal-based US F4F fighters, 8 P-38 fighters, and a few F4U fighters engaged them over the Russell Islands. 9 Japanese Zero fighters, 5 US F4F Wildcat fighters, and 1 US F4U Corsair fighter were shot down in the action. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 USS Tunny reached the Caroline Islands region. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Adolf Hitler met Bulgarian King Boris III at his headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia, Germany. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Satoru Anabuki, flying Ki-43 fighter "Fubuki", shot down three Hurricane fighters over Patenga, India (now Bangladesh), increasing his score to 29. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Nachi departed Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 USS Whale set sail toward Midway Atoll. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Crematorium 2 began operation at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Soviet troops defeated the German 17th Army in the Kuban Peninsula and captured Anastasyevsk north of Novorossiysk, near the coast of the Black Sea in southern Russia. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 The Soviet GKO meeting at 2330 hours on this date, also joined by Vsevolod Merkulov and Viktor Abakumov, discussed the establishment of a counterintelligence branch. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 Replying to a question from Member of Parliament Richard Stokes, the Air Minister, Sir Archibald Sinclair, told the British House of Commons that Bomber Command's targets were always of a military nature, but that bombing of military targets would necessarily involve bombing areas in which they were situated. 
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31 Mar 1943 WW2 USS Seahorse was commissioned into service with Commander Donald McGregor in command. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Shokaku arrived off Singapore naval yard. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Mineichi Koga passed away when the flying boat that carried him from Palau Islands to Philippine Islands crashed into the sea in bad weather. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Aircraft from ships Beagle and Tracker in Allied convoy JW-58 sank German submarine U-355 in the Arctic Sea. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Destroyer USS De Haven (DD-727) was commissioned with Commander J. B. Dimmick in command. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Smalley was commissioned into service. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 USS Pintado set sail for the Panama Canal. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 US Navy canceled its contracts signed prior to the Pacific War with civilian construction firms for projects across the Pacific Ocean. Those signed after the start of the war would continue. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze was assigned to Destroyer Division 17, Destroyer Squadron 10, 3rd Fleet. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 USS Flying Fish was attacked by a Japanese submarine; she was able to evade the torpedoes fired at her. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 The newly-formed German Jagdverband 44, flying Me 262 jet fighters, flew its first mission out of München (Munich), Germany. 
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31 Mar 1944 WW2 Naka was struck from the Japanese Navy list. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Tirante sank a Japanese sail with gunfire. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 German forces began withdrawing from the Netherlands. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 As the troops of the French First Army crossed the Rhine River near Speyer, Germany, they became the first French troops to attack across the river since Napoleon Bonaparte. Meanwhile, US Third Army reached Siegen, Germany. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 Soviet forces crossed into the Germany border from Sopron, Hungary. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 Allied commander Eisenhower demanded German surrender over radio. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 Otto Skorzeny was ordered to go to the "Alpine Fortress". 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 50 Japanese Army Renraku-tei special attack boats sank American landing ship LSM-12 at Okinawa, Japan. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 Soviet troops captured Ratibor and Katscher, Germany (now Raciborz and Kietrz, Poland). 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 On Heinrich Himmler's orders, men led by SS-Sturmbannführer Heinz Macher attempted to use tank mines to demolish the SS castle of Schloß Wewelsburg in Büren, Germany. The attempt only damaged the southeast tower, while the rest of the castle, was damaged by fires. The 9,000 SS Ehrenring (SS Honor Rings) stored at the castle were taken away by Macher and were buried at a secret location in nearby woods. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Sunfish departed Apra, Guam, Mariana Islands for her eleventh war patrol. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Cero departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her seventh war patrol. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 Light carrier Ryuho's anti-aircraft weapons fired on attacking US aircraft at Kure, Japan. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 USS Spot, misidentified as a hostile submarine, was attacked by American destroyer USS Case; USS Spot did not suffer any damage by the two salvos fired. 
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31 Mar 1945 WW2 Garland completed her refitting at Devonport, England, United Kingdom. 
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31 Mar 1946 WW2 Young was decommissioned from service. 
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31 Mar 1946 WW2 Lord Gort passed away. 
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31 Mar 1946 WW2 Allied repatriation ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Uraga, Japan and disembarked personnel. She entered drydock for repairs. 
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31 Mar 1948 WW2 The United States Congress voted for the funding for the Marshall Plan. 
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31 Mar 1948 WW2 USS Barbero was activated as an experimental cargo submarine. 
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31 Mar 1949 WW2 Newfoundland became a province of Canada. 
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31 Mar 1950 RELIGIOUS American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'How the Savior suffered in the sinner's place! What tormented him in time menaces the sinner for eternity.'
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31 Mar 1958 RELIGIOUS English apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in "Letters to an American Lady": 'What most often interrupts my own prayers is not great distractions but tiny ones things one will have to do or avoid in the course of the next hour.'
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31 Mar 1976 RELIGIOUS American Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'You must not lose confidence in God because you lost confidence in your pastor. If our confidence in God had to depend upon our confidence in any human person, we would be on shifting sand.'
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