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History on the 12th of April

History
Date Text
12 Apr 1204 RELIGIOUS The armies of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople and established the Latin Empire.
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12 Apr 1572 RELIGIOUS French-born Swiss reformer Theodore Beza (John Calvin's successor) wrote in a letter to Scottish reformer John Knox: 'They whose citizenship is in heaven ought to have their whole dependence on heaven.'
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12 Apr 1799 RELIGIOUS The Church Missionary Society was organized in London under the original name of the Society for Missions in Africa and the East. This Anglican missions agency currently works in fields located in Africa, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, Iran, Palestine and the Far East.
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12 Apr 1882 RELIGIOUS The Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany was created by royal decree when the king of Prussia ordered the 124 "reformed" congregations scattered throughout the area to become incorporated as an independent territorial church.
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12 Apr 1914 RELIGIOUS An 11-day constitutional convention in Hot Springs, Arkansas, ended. During its sessions, the Assemblies of God denomination was founded.
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12 Apr 1918 WW2 Westcott was commissioned into service. 
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12 Apr 1919 WW2 USS Arizona arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, United States, and then departed later in the same day for Brest, France. 
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12 Apr 1919 WW2 Gonsuke Hayashi succeeded Lieutenant General Yujiro Nakamura as the Governor-General of Kwantung Leased Territory in northeastern China. 
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12 Apr 1921 WW2 Canadian Lieutenant Colonel James Sutherland Brown developed Defense Scheme No. 1 to prepare for the situation in which the Americans would invade Canada. The plan called for a rapid offense and occupation of Seattle, Great Falls, Minneapolis, and Albany in the United States to buy time for British reinforcements to arrive. This plan was terminated in 1928. 
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12 Apr 1922 WW2 Mutsu hosted the Prince of Wales and his aide Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten. 
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12 Apr 1923 WW2 Crown Prince Hirohito began a two-week tour of Taiwan. 
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12 Apr 1927 WW2 He Yingqin's troops clashed with communists in Nanjing, China; there were several deaths on both sides. 
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12 Apr 1929 WW2 Ship number 451 of Mitsubishi Shipbuilding's Nagasaki Yard in Japan was launched and named Tatsuta Maru. 
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12 Apr 1932 WW2 Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein joined the Hitler Youth organization in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. 
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12 Apr 1933 WW2 The Deutsche Studentenschaft (Student activists) declared a four-week programme of cultural cleansing, which would culminate on 10 May 1933 with a mass burning of blacklisted books (i.e. Jewish, Marxist and other "un-German" literature). 
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12 Apr 1933 WW2 The keel of submarine tender Taigei was laid down. 
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12 Apr 1934 WW2 German justice department issued orders to prevent "improper usage of protective custody" to prevent those who did not deserve to be sent to concentration camps from being sent there; this ruling remained valid until 1938. 
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12 Apr 1937 WW2 British RAF engineer Frank Whittle successfully bench-tested his first turbojet engine which he had tried to get built since 1930. 
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12 Apr 1940 WW2 Norwegian artillery Major Hans Holtermann and 250 volunteers began reactivating the old fort at Ingstadkleiva near Trondheim, Norway, which would become known as Hegra Fortress for defense against the Germans. 
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12 Apr 1940 WW2 The British Cyprus Regiment was established from volunteers from the Greek and Turkish communities of Cyprus. 
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12 Apr 1940 WW2 Luftflotte 5 was formed in Hamburg, Germany under the command of Generaloberst Erhard Milch for operations in Norway. Milch would soon establish his headquarters in Oslo, Norway. 
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12 Apr 1940 WW2 German submarine U-37 sank British ship Stancliffe with one torpedo 45 miles northeast of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom at 0942 hours, killing 21. 16 survivors in one lifeboat would later make a landing at nearby Unst Island. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 German troops captured Belgrade in the Serbia region of Yugoslavia as Hugarian troops also crossed the border into Yugoslavia, joining the invasion. On the Danube River in Yugoslavia, German Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, sinking river monitor Drava (54 were killed, 13 survived) while forcing three others, Morava, Sava, and Vardar, to be scuttled. To the south in Greece, German SS troops overran British and Australian troops south of Vevi, forcing the Allies to fall back from the Aliakmon Line to the Mount Olympus Line to block the German troops at Vevi from advancing further. On the same day, British anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry, destroyer HMS Decoy, destroyer HMS Encounter, and troopship Glenroy evacuated a battalion of troops, 1,000 tons of supplies, and 40 vehicles from the Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea near Salonika. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 German submarine U-124 sank British ship St. Helena 100 miles southwest of Freetown, Sierra Leone, British West Africa at 0509 hours; all 41 aboard survived and were rescued by destroyer HMS Wishart. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 British bombers conducted a raid on the fish oil factories in Hammerfest, Norway. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 US established air and naval bases in Greenland. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 German troops captured Bardia, Libya. At Tobruk, the German probing attacks with tanks and armored cars were repulsed. Meanwhile, columns of Axis troops were dispatched to move toward the Libyan-Egyptian border to cut off the Allied forces in Libya. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 British submarine HMS Tetrarch sank Italian tanker Persiano 55 miles northeast of Tripoli, Libya. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran sank Greek ship Nicolaos D. L. 920 miles southwest of British West Africa, capturing the entire crew of 38. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 Adolf Hitler arrived at Mönichkirchen, Germany (occupied Austria) via his personal train Amerika. He would remain in his village to oversee the operations in the Balkan Peninsula. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 Alexander Löhr was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. 
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12 Apr 1941 WW2 The 8th airfield in the Panama Canal Zone was declared operational. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 Pandit Nehru, leader of the Congress Party in India, promised resistance to the Axis. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 USS S-35 departed Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska for her first war patrol. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-203 damaged Panamanian tanker Stanvac Melbourne 15 kilometers southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, United States at 0626 hours; 3 were killed, 45 survived. German submarine U-154 sank US freighter Delvalle south of Haiti at 0709 hours after a 9-hour pursuit. At 1921 hours, in U-130 sank US tanker Esso Boston in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean; all 37 aboard survived. Finally, Italian submarine Calvi sank Panamanian tanker Ben Brush off the coast of Brazil; 1 was killed, 34 survived. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 Three B-26 Marauder bombers were launched from Port Moresby, Australian Papua at dawn in search of the reported fleet carrier (most likely the mis-identified Kasuga Maru) at Rabaul, New Britain. At 0930, another group of four B-26 aircraft was launched. The two groups attacked Rabaul, causing little to no damage. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 Japanese attacks on Minhia, Thadodan, and Alebo on the Minhia-Taungdwingyi-Pyinmana defensive line in Burma were stopped by Anglo-Indian troops including the British 2nd Royal Tank Regiment. British tankers reported seeing captured British tanks pressed into Japanese service. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 4,000 Japanese troops landed at Manokwari, Dutch New Guinea; 125 Dutch troops fled into the jungle. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 251 British bombers (171 Wellington, 31 Hampden, 27 Stirling, 13 Halifax, and 9 Manchester) attacked Essen, Germany, damaging the Krupp factory and destroying 28 homes; 36 civilians were killed, 36 were injured. The British lost 10 bombers on this attack. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 Japanese carrier fleet began to depart from the Indian Ocean after a successful raid. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 The Japanese artillery bombardment of Corregidor island in the Philippine Islands began. Meanwhile, many US and Filipino prisoners of war continued to die while being marched northward during the Bataan Death March from starvation, dehydration, disease, and murders. To the south, on the island of Cebu, US and Filipino troops scuttled torpedo boat PT-35 and withdrew deeper into the mountains. 
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12 Apr 1942 WW2 Lieutenant John Brownewell of US 17th Pursuit Squadron, flying a P-40 fighter, scored the 37th and final confirmed victory by a P-40 fighter over the Philippines. The victory was achieved near Del Monte Airfield in northern Mindanao, Philippine Islands. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 British War Office circulated the "German Long-Range Rocket Development" report, which warned of potential danger from these potential new weapons. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Germans announced the discovery of over 4,000 bodies of Polish officers, reportedly deported by the Soviets in 1940, in a mass grave near Smolensk, Russia. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Adolf Hitler named Martin Bormann his secretary. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Joseph Stalin informed Winston Churchill his delight to see German industry in shambles. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 British RAF Desert Air Force assumed leadership roles in Operation Flax in North Africa. On the same day, troops of British 8th Army captured Sousse, Tunisia. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Isherwood was commissioned into service. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Matome Ugaki became sick with dengue fever and was ordered to remain in bed at Rabaul, New Britain. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Isoroku Yamamoto personally observed the launch of a strike at Vunakanau field near Rabaul, New Britain, which ultimately consisted of 17 G4M bombers of 751 Air Group and 26 G4M bombers of 705 Air Group with 130 fighters in escort. At 0945 hours, the attack was detected by the radar station at Dona on the coast of Australian Papua. The attack destroyed 3 B-25 bombers and 1 Beaufighter at Schwimmer Airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua; nearby Berry Airfield suffered destroyed buildings and Ward's Airfield suffered 5,000 drums of gasoline destroyed. The Japanese lost 6 bombers and 2 fighters in combat; 2 additional bombers were lost after making crash landings. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 B-17 bombers took off from Jackson Field (previously known as Seven Mile airdrome) near Port Moresby, Australian Papua. Pilot Kenneth McCullar's B-17 "Blues in the Nite" caught fire on takeoff, veered off, and crashed, killing all aboard. Those that took off successfully attacked the Japanese base at Rabaul, New Britain. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Repair ship Akashi began repairing destroyer Amagiri at Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Portions of Marine Fighting Squadron 215 (VMF-215) departed. Eight tennis courts for enlisted personnel completed. 
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12 Apr 1943 WW2 USS Flying Fish sank a Japanese freighter off the coast of Honshu, Japan, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 The last of the convoys carrying Spanish volunteers of the recently disbanded German Army "Blue Legion" arrived in Spain. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 The Soviet demands for peace were rejected by Finland. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 American troops cleared Pak Island off New Guinea. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 Realizing his earlier support of Mussolini's government was viewed with suspicion by the Allies, King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy transferred most of his power to Crown Prince Umberto, though he held on to the throne. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Finback attacked a six-ship Japanese convoy escorted by three patrol vessels east of Philippine Islands, firing 9 torpedoes and reporting 5 hits; she was then counterattacked with depth charges. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 Joseph Stalin signed the Soviet Stavka order to reform Western Front into 2nd and 3rd Byelorussian Fronts due to incapable leadership of the Western Front; the top officers of the Western Front were surprisingly not reprimanded seriously and were placed in other important positions. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Seahorse assumed lifeguard station duty for US aircraft attacking Saipan, Mariana Islands. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 Adolf Hitler authorized the withdrawal of German and Romanian forces from Sevastopol, Russia, but his delay in this decision caused heavier losses than necessary. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 German troops wiped out a small pocket of troops (elements of Soviet 206th Rifle Division and Soviet 3rd Guards Airborne Division) west of Târgu Frumos, Romania. 
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12 Apr 1944 WW2 More than 61,000 German and Romanian troops began evacuation from the Crimea in Russia. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 A Japanese aircraft crashed into the foremast of USS Cassin Young, killing one and wounding one. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Allied troops captured Westerbork, Brummen, and Deventer in the Netherlands. US Third Army captured Erfurt, Germany. Meanwhile, US Ninth Army captured Braunschweig after crossing the Elbe River. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 German forces evacuated Zenica, Yugoslavia. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Operation Kikusui No. 2 was launched off Okinawa, Japan, participated by about 125 Japanese Navy and 60 Japanese Army special attack and escorting aircraft. Destroyer USS Mannert L. Abele was sunk by a Japanese Ohka piloted bomb off Okinawa; she was the first to be struck by an Ohka bomb and was the only to be sunk by one. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 An order was sent by radio to USS Snook to take lifeguard station off the Sakishima Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Japan; she failed to respond. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 En route to Dalian, China, I-401 detonated a magnetic mine at 0850 hours, rupturing the fuel tank and damaging a Kingston valve. She turned around to return to Kure, Japan for repairs. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Heinrich Himmler ordered that commanders who failed to hold key positions in the defense of Germany would be executed. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Chub was attacked by a Japanese aircraft, sustaining temporary loss of power and depth control. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Parche sank a Japanese transport off Japan, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes fired. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 American troops began arriving at Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 In southwestern Germany, French troops captured Baden-Baden and US troops captured Heilbronn. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Oberstleutnant Gerhard Prawitt, the commandant of the Oflag IV-C prisoner of war camp at Colditz Castle in Germany, received an unsigned letter from the office of Heinrich Himmler stating that all important prisoners at Colditz were to be prepared for transfer in the following morning where they would be held as hostages for negotiations with the western Allies. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Indian 8th Division crossed Santerno River in northern Italy. German 15th Panzergrenadier Regiment arrived in the Reno River area as reinforcement. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 The Westerbork Concentration Camp at Hooghalen in the Netherlands was liberated by the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Bergall fired a torpedo at a Japanese patrol vessel in the South China Sea; the torpedo missed. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Avenger aircraft from HMS Victorious attacked Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Taipei) and shipping off Tamsui in northern Taiwan; Sub-Lieutenant Daniel McAleese was shot down, rescued, but would later die of his wounds. 
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12 Apr 1945 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt passed away of cerebral hemorrhage after complaining of acute headache during a portrait painting session with artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff at Warm Springs, Georgia, United States. 
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