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History on the 4th of April

History
Date Text
04 Apr 1916 WW2 Rear Admiral Tsuneha Sano was named the chief of staff of Chinkai Guard District in southern Korea. 
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04 Apr 1917 WW2 USS Arizona arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, United States and joined US Navy Battleship Division 8. 
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04 Apr 1918 WW2 Three armed men wearing Russian uniforms entered the Japanese shipping office in Vladivostok, Russia and demanded money. When the staff refused the raiders opened fire wounding three clerks, one of them fatally. 
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04 Apr 1927 WW2 Bai Chongxi purged communists from the Nationalist Chinese garrison in Shanghai, China and a number of labor leaders in the city; many of them were executed. 
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04 Apr 1929 WW2 German engineer Karl Benz, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile, died at home in Ladenburg, Germany. 
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04 Apr 1933 WW2 Germany began to exclude Jewish lawyers. 
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04 Apr 1933 WW2 In Germany, Works' Councils (Betriebsträte) were outlawed. They were replaced by "Trust Councils" (Vertrauensträte) elected by politically reliable (e.g. Nazi) candidates drawn up by works managers. 
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04 Apr 1933 WW2 Konrad Adenauer, the future post war Chancellor of West Germany, was removed by the Nazi Party from his post as Mayor of Köln (Cologne), Germany. Penniless, he sought sanctuary in the Benedictine monastery at the Maria Laach Abbey near Andernach, Germany. 
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04 Apr 1938 WW2 At 2100 hours, Chinese troops mounted attacks against Japanese positions in Tai'erzhuang, Jiangsu Province, China, with support from field guns. Japanese attempts to reinforce the positions were tied down by carefully planned Chinese maneuvers. 
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04 Apr 1938 WW2 While off Guangdong Province, China, Kaga's aircraft which had detached from the carrier in late 1937 were reassigned back to her. 
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04 Apr 1939 WW2 Tatsuta Maru arrived at Honolulu, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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04 Apr 1939 WW2 USS Astoria arrived at Honolulu, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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04 Apr 1939 WW2 Spanish Nationalist air ace Garcia Morato (with 40 kills during the Civil War) was killed when his Fiat CR32 Chirri aircraft crashed, due to engine failure, whilst performing for a newsreel take. 
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04 Apr 1939 WW2 Japanese troops occupied the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. They were to be declared a Japanese protectorate. 
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04 Apr 1939 WW2 Curtiss-Wright test pilot Bob Fausel, flying the CW-21 prototype fighter, claimed one Japanese bomber shot down over China. 
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04 Apr 1939 WW2 Slovakia and Hungary signed a peace treaty, ending the Slovak-Hungarian War (Little War). 
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04 Apr 1940 WW2 Aktion 14 F 13 began; it was the first documented proof that the Nazi German regime conducted mass extermination of the handicapped in concentration camps. 
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04 Apr 1940 WW2 British newspapers reported concentrations of troops in German ports. 
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04 Apr 1940 WW2 British Vice Admiral Max Horton ordered British submarine HMS Snapper to depart Harwich naval base for the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway and French submarines Amazone and Antiope (under British command) to depart Harwich for the Frisian Islands and Heligoland. 
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04 Apr 1940 WW2 Winston Churchill traveled to Paris, France to persuade the French on a plan to mine Norwegian waters. Unable to convince French leadership to mine the Rhine River at the same time, Churchill decided that the British would mine Norwegian waters without French cooperation. 
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04 Apr 1940 WW2 The Netherlands declared itself in a state of siege. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 German submarines continued their attack on Allied convoy SC-26 250 miles southwest of Iceland, which was initially intercepted two days prior. Between 0000 and 0344 hours, U-94 and U-98 sank three ships; 36 were killed and 70 survived. At 1956 hours, U-76 sank Athenic; the entire crew of 40 were rescued. Destroyer HMS Wolverine and sloop HMS Scarborough were able to locate U-76 and launched depth charges, damaging the submarine. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 Hitler promised ambassador Matsuoka that in case of war between US and Japan, Germany would lend assistance. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 The anti-British propaganda film Ohm Kruger was released. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 Axis troops captured Benghazi, Libya, which was evacuated by British forces on the previous day. They pushed further east to the Green Mountain, where they were held by 3 companies of the Australian 9th Division. In the desert to the south, while German 5th Light Division was held in place waiting for a resupply of fuel, the British did not realize the German offensive through the desert had paused and continued to fall back. From the air, German Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed a convoy of 21 trucks, destroying 1,600 gallons of gasoline. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 George Patton was promoted to the temporary rank of major general. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 German raider Thor and British armed merchant cruiser Voltaire engaged in a 55-minute gun duel 900 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands at the distance of 9 kilometers. Voltaire was sunk, killing 74; Thor picked up 195 survivors. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 German submarine U-97 sank British ship Conus 500 miles southwest of Iceland at 2006 hours, killing 59. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 German submarine U-124 sank British ship Marlene 75 miles west of Freetown, Sierra Leone, British West Africa; 13 were killed, 47 survived. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 British mooring vessel HMS Buffalo wondered into a minefield laid by friendly vessels, struck a mine, and sank off Singapore, killing 32. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 Italian bombers sank Greek torpedo boat Proussa and Greek freighter Sussanna off Corfu, Greece. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 German bombers sank Free French sloops Suippe and Conquerant at Falmouth, England, United Kingdom. 
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04 Apr 1941 WW2 After securing Asmara, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, Indian 5th Division moved east toward Massawa while Indian 4th Division was withdrawn from the region to reinforce Libya where a renewed Axis offensive was underway. 6 German and 7 Italian freighters were scuttled at Massawa to prevent Allied capture, while British RAF aircraft sank Italian torpedo boat Acerbi in the harbor. In Abyssinia, Italian troops were evacuated out of Addis Ababa as British 11th African Division advanced. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Japanese aircraft bombed areas of Mandalay, Burma, killing more than 2,000, most of whom were civilians. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-505 sank Dutch ship Alphacca 200 miles off Ivory Coast, French West Africa at 2329 hours; 15 were killed, 57 survived. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, at 2335 hours, U-154 sank Comol Rico; 3 were killed, 39 survived. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 USS Grampus completed her first war patrol. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 In the morning, Australian pilot John Jackson alone flew over Lae on the northern coast of New Guinea and made a strafing run. In the afternoon, he led a group in attacking the same location, destroying several Japanese aircraft on the ground. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Gneisenau arrived at Gotenhafen, Germany (now Gdynia, Poland). 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 As Japanese carriers sailed toward Ceylon, the fleet was discovered by a Canadian PBY Catalina aircraft 400 miles south of the island. A Zero fighter from carrier Hiryu shot down the Catalina aircraft (3 killed, several captured) but not until they radioed in the fleet's location. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Prince Hiroyasu was awarded the Order of the Golden Kite 1st Class. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Prince Kotohito was awarded Order of the Golden Kite. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Greek submarine Glavkos was sunk by Axis aircraft at Malta. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Douglas MacArthur, now relocated to Australia per Franklin Roosevelt's orders, radioed Jonathan Wainwright, saying that "under no conditions should Bataan be surrendered; any action is preferable to capitulation". Meanwhile, at Bataan in the Philippine Islands, Japanese troops moved toward Mount Samat, threatening to take this dominant position. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 Soviet destroyer Sovershenny was destroyed by German shelling at Sevastopol, Russia. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 62 Luftwaffe Stuka dive bombers and 70 other bombers escorted by 59 Bf 109 fighters attacked Soviet fleet at Kronstadt near Leningrad, Russia in the afternoon, damaging battleships October Revolution and Petropavlovsk, cruisers Maxim Gorky and Kirov, and destroyers Silny and Grozyashchi. After dark, He 111 bombers, some of which had participated in the Kronstadt attack in the afternoon, bombed Leningrad. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-552 sank US tanker Byron D. Benson 16 kilometers east of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States at 2257 hours local time (recorded in U-552 logs as at 0447 hours on 5 Apr 1942, German time), killing 10 of 38. 
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04 Apr 1942 WW2 President Franklin Roosevelt's special envoy Harry Hopkins and General George Marshall departed Baltimore, Maryland, United States by plane to lay the US strategic war plans, that had already been approved by the President, before the British War Cabinet and Chiefs-of Staff Committee. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 I-168 transferred men from Kiska to Attu in the Aleutian Islands. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 RAF bombers conducted a raid on Kiel, Germany during the night. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 Soviet troops launched the Taman Offensive Operation in an attempt to push the Germans out of the Taman Peninsula in the Caucasus region of southern Russia. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 USS Tunny set sail for McLaughlin Bank, Caroline Islands. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 No. 254 Squadron of Coastal Command achieved its first success against enemy shipping using torpedo carrying Beaufighter aircraft. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 The final elements of US Marine Aircraft Group 21 arrived at Banika Island, Russell Islands. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 USS Pollack damaged a Japanese freighter in the Marshall Islands and Gilbert Islands area with two of two torpedoes fired. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 Unable to do it himself, George Patton ordered Omar Bradley to fire Orlando Ward for Ward's failures at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 USS Grayback arrived at Brisbane, Australia, ending her sixth war patrol. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 Isoroku Yamamoto and Ryunosuke Kusaka met at Rabaul, New Britain to discuss the details of the I-Go offensive. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 Satoru Anabuki, flying Ki-43 fighter "Fubuki", shot down two Hurricane fighters over Dohazari, India (now Bangladesh), increasing his score to 31. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 The German SS Central Construction Office reported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp that Crematorium V had been completed in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and its administration was now turned over to the camp administration. According to the firm that built the crematorium, J. A. Topf und Söhne, it had the capacity to cremate 768 bodies each day. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 Submarine Cero was launched at Groton, Connecticut, United States, sponsored by Mrs. D. E. Barbey. 
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04 Apr 1943 WW2 US Navy 50th Construction Battalion arrived at Midway Atoll to relieve the 5th Construction Battalion. It was to continue the work to lengthen the airstrips and to build oil storage tanks on Sand Island. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Shokaku returned to Singapore naval arsenal. The Third Fleet's flag was transferred ashore. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 German Armeegruppe Mitte counterattacked to reach those units surrounded for two weeks near Kovel, in the Pripet marsh area of Ukraine. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 The German Armeegruppe Süd was renamed Armeegruppe Nordukraine. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 De Gaulle was appointed head of Free French military forces. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Going against precedent, British Foreign Office banned foreign embassies from sending coded messages, and stated that diplomatic pouches were subject to censorship, with the exception of British allies. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Hoe departed Fremantle, Australia for her fourth war patrol in the South China Sea. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Kyne was commissioned into service. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Steamer Bay was commissioned into service. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Puffer arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her third war patrol. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt's doctor noted the US President's high blood pressure and prescribed rest; Roosevelt would soon depart for Bernard Baruch's home in South Carolina, United States for a vacation. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Columbia departed Port Purvis, Nggela Islands (Florida Islands), Solomon Islands for a scheduled overhaul in San Francisco, California, United States. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Rock departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her second war patrol. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Air Group 14 arrived on board. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Wasp arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 On the Imphal front in India the Japanese 51st Regiment of 15th Division commenced attacks on 123rd Indian Brigade's positions, while the Japanese 31st Division attacked the village of Kohima. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 The Allies conducted the first reconnaissance mission over Auschwitz Concentration Camp. On the same day, a transport from two hospitals and one psychiatric institution in Trieste, Italy arrived at Auschwitz; 62 of the about 300 patients died en route, while another 103 were gassed upon arrival. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 Allied convoy JW-58 arrived at the Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia. 
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04 Apr 1944 WW2 The US Twentieth Air Force was established in Washington DC, United States for deployment to India with forward bases in China. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 German troops counterattacked Soviet forces near Moravska-Ostrava and Nitra in Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, Soviet troops entered Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. At Kosice in the Slovak Republic, the Soviet Union set up a provisional Czechoslovakian government. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 British Second Army captured Osnabrück, Germany. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 Naval mines in the Inland Sea, Japan sank three Japanese ships. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 On the fourth day of the Soviet artillery bombardment, Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany lost electric power. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 Eduard Schallmoser, flying a Me 262 jet fighter, scored the first kill of German Jagdverband 44. The kill was accidental, however, as he unintentionally rammed an American P-38 fighter in the tail. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 General Dwight Eisenhower transferred the US 9th Army from Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group to General Omar Bradley's 12th Army Group, thus making Bradley the first American general to command four field armies simultaneously. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Gabilan and her wolfpack mates detected Japanese cruiser Isuzu in the South China Sea and gave chase. She sank one of the escorting gunboats with her deck gun. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 German pilot Unteroffzier Eduard Schallmoser destroyed a P-38 fighter by ramming its tail. He was only able to fly his damaged fighter partly home before he had to bail out. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 In Germany, US Third Army eliminated resistance in Kassel, and captured Suhl and Gotha. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 Troops of US 89th Infantry Division captured Ohrdruf Concentration Camp in Germany, which was a satellite of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 The US 9th Army crossed the Weser River to commence a rapid advance to reach the Elbe River in Germany. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Task Force 19.9.9, comprised of Scouting Squadron 46 (VS-46), Scouting Squadron 53 (VS-53), and Scouting Squadron 69 (VS-69) arrived on board. All major construction on the Inshore Patrol Squadron area completed, including parking mat, nose hangar, enlisted barracks, mess hall, BOQ's, and shop space. Carrier Air Group 31 (CVG-31) on board. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts completed the capture of Hungary. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Sterlet arrived at Midway, ending her third war patrol. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 USAAF A-20 aircraft based in the Philippine Islands attacked factories and rail marshalling yards at Shinchiku (now Hsinchu), Taiwan. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Alabama departed California, United States. 
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04 Apr 1945 WW2 US Marine Corps Commandant, Lieutenant General Alexander A. Vandegrift, was promoted to the rank of general, and thus became the first Marine officer on active service to attain four-star rank. 
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04 Apr 1946 WW2 SMERSH agents arrested former Soviet Aviation Industry Commissar Aleksei Shakhurin. 
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04 Apr 1946 WW2 USS S-35 was sunk as a target off the Hawaiian Islands. 
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04 Apr 1949 WW2 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed. 
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