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History on the 16th of April

History
Date Text
16 Apr 1521 RELIGIOUS German reformer Martin Luther, 34, arrived at the Diet of Worms, where he afterward defended his "Ninety-Five Theses," first advanced in 1517. At the Diet, Luther refused to recant his ideas 'unless overcome by Scripture.'
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16 Apr 1772 RELIGIOUS Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'I think there is a scriptural distinction between faith and feeling, grace and comfort.... The degree of the one is not often the just measure of the other.'
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16 Apr 1829 RELIGIOUS Death of Carl G. Glaser, 45, German choral master and composer of the hymn tune AZMON, to which we today sing, "O For a Thousand Tongues."
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16 Apr 1904 RELIGIOUS Birth of Merrill C. Tenney, American N.T. scholar. In addition to his many scholarly writings, Tenney was dean of the Wheaton College Graduate School in Illinois from 1947-71.
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16 Apr 1917 WW1 Begin of Second Battle of the Aisne
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16 Apr 1926 WW2 Pierre Barjot was promoted to the rank of lieutenant while serving aboard the ship Baccarat. 
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16 Apr 1932 WW2 The strike held by the workers at the Teikovo Calico works outside Moscow, Russia, which was begun on 8 Apr 1932 in response to decreased food rations, was called off having achieved nothing. 
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16 Apr 1934 WW2 Chinese 36th Division captured Yangi Hissar, Xinjiang, China, killing all surviving Uyghur defenders of the originally 500-strong garrison. Khotanlik separate leader Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra was captured and executed. 
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16 Apr 1939 WW2 Hermann Göring met with Benito Mussolini in Rome, Italy. 
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16 Apr 1939 WW2 The Soviet ambassador in Britain made the final attempt to form some kind of alliance between the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union to contain German aggression. 
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16 Apr 1940 WW2 The ill-equipped British 24th Brigade landed at Harstat, Norway 37 miles north of Narvik. Meanwhile, at Namsos, the reserve unit 148th Territorial Brigade boarded cruisers HMS Carlisle and HMS Curacoa for Trondheim, without their anti-aircraft weapons due to lack of space. 
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16 Apr 1940 WW2 German submarine U-3 and British submarine HMS Porpoise engaged in combat with torpedoes 10 miles southwest of Egersund, Norway. No hits were scored. 
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16 Apr 1940 WW2 Allied troops landed at the Faroe Islands, a constituent country of Denmark. 
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16 Apr 1940 WW2 Iceland declared independence from Denmark and asked United States for recognition. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 The first US Lend-Lease food shipment arrived in Britain. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 British aircraft carrier Furious, under repair at Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom was damaged by German bombing. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 British destroyers HMS Jervis, HMS Janus, HMS Nubian, and HMS Mohawk, aided by Ultra intercepts of German communications, ambushed an Axis convoy on the Tunisian coast after sundown. 4 German troopships and 1 Italian ammunition ship (carrying German 15th Panzer Division less its tanks) as well as Italian destroyers Luca Tarigo, Baleno, and Lampo; 1,800 were killed, 1,200 survived. Luca Tarigo was able to fire two torpedoes at HMS Mohawk, which hit and killed 43 men; HMS Mohawk would soon be scuttled in a hurry, leaving behind secret documents outlining Alexandria, Egypt defenses for Italian divers to capture shortly after. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 Yugoslavians negotiated with the Germans for armistice terms in Belgrade, but the first emissary dispatched did not have sufficient authority to sign the surrender document. In Zagreb, Croatian leader Ante Pavelic formally came into power as the head of the Independent State of Croatia. In Greece, German troops attacked the Platamon Pass between Mount Olympus and the Aegean Sea, forcing New Zealand troops to withdraw across the river at the bottom of the Tempe Gorge, a move that greatly alarmed Allied leadership. Meanwhile, German 6th Mountain Division attacked across Mount Olympus using goat paths, taking heavy casualties. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 Troops of the Italian 62nd "Trento" Regiment attacked Tobruk, Libya in the late afternoon; the attack was personally observed by Erwin Rommel. The attack was driven back by heavy artillery fire, and the entire 1st Battalion of the Italian 62nd Regiment, 775 men and 25 officers, was captured. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Thor stopped Swedish ship Sir Ernest Cassell with two warning shots 500 miles southwest of Cape Verde Islands. The crew of Sir Ernest Cassell was taken aboard, and the ship was scuttled with demolition charges. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 The German embassy in Moscow, Russia continued to report unexpectedly friendliness from the Soviets toward Germany. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 At 0500 hours, the German air raid on Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom which began at 2300 hours on the previous date ended; the 203 tons of high explosive bombs, 80 parachute mines, and 800 incendiary bombs dropped killed 758, wounded 1,500, and destroyed 56,000 homes; 100,000 residents were made homeless. At the end of the day and into the next day, 681 German aircraft bombed London, England, United Kingdom. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 British destroyer HMS Achates departed Loch Alsh, Scotland, United Kingdom and arrived at Scapa Flow at 2100 hours. 
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16 Apr 1941 WW2 British Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin, announced a National Registration of Women for war work. The first registrations, for women in the age group 20 and 21, was to commence on 19 April 1941. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 US Navy VF-3 squadron pilot Lieutenant (jg) Edward H. O'Hare was approved for a Medal of Honor for shooting down five Japanese bombers attempting to attack USS Lexington 460 miles northeast of New Britain on 20 Feb 1942. Later analysis showed that he had only shot down three in the engagement, however. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-123 sank US freighter Alcoa Guide 200 kilometers east of North Carolina, United States, killing 6 of 34 aboard. At 1800 hours, U-572 sank Panamanian ship Desert Light 150 miles east of North Carolina; 1 was killed, 30 survived. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 USS R-1 detected German submarine U-582 on the surface and fired three torpedoes; her commanding officer claimed one of them hit, damaging the target. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 Japanese troops decisively defeated the 1st Burma Division near Yenangyaung, Burma. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 The burning hulk of US tanker Gulfamerica, damaged by German submarine U-123 off Jacksonville, Florida, United States, finally sank. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-66 sank Dutch tanker Amsterdam 60 miles west of Grenada at 1745 hours; 2 were killed, 38 survived. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 USS Tambor sank Japanese freighter Kitami Maru 50 miles southeast of Kavieng, New Ireland, Bismarck Archipelago. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-403 fired 5 torpedoes at Allied convoy PQ-14 and made 2 hits on the civilian commodore's ship Empire Howard 200 miles north of Norway at 1245 hours; 29 were killed, 37 survived. Many of victims were killed by depth charges meant to hit U-403. Captain W. H. Lawrence of merchant ship Briarwood took over the civilian commodore role as his predecessor E. Rees was also killed. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-81 sank French anti-submarine trawler Vikings 23 miles west of Beirut, French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon at 2038 hours; 41 were killed, 16 survived. At 2148 hours, U-81 struck again, sinking British ship Caspia; 27 were killed, 11 survived. At 2250 hours, U-81 attacked yet again, sinking three small Egyptian vessels. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 Saburo Sakai and other pilots of the Japanese Navy Tainan Air Group arrived at Rabaul, New Britain via the transport ship Komaki Maru. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 The 11th Battalion of the British Royal Marines landed on Koufonisi, Greece by destroyers, destroyed a German radio station, captured some documents and equipment, and embarked the ships. The destroyers, HMS Kelvin and HMS Kipling, returned to Alexandria, Egypt by 1830 hours. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 British submarine HMS Turbulent sank Italian transport Delia 3 miles off of Brindisi, Italy at 1751 hours. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 The Japanese Navy issued Order No. 18 for the capture of Midway and Aleutian Islands. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 Nachi arrived at Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 Japanese troops landed on Panay and Negros in the Philippine Islands before dawn. On Panay, lloilo City, Capiz, and the copper mines near San Jose were captured without resistance, but they found lloilo City in ruins, sabotaged by the retreating Filipino troops. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 A large group of Polish artists and actors were arrested by the Germans in the Artists' Cafe in Krakow, Poland. 
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16 Apr 1942 WW2 The German bombing on Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom that began before midnight on the previous date ended; it injured 52, damaged some roads and homes, and caused interruptions to public utility services. During the day, the weekly Home Security Situation Report was filed, noting that for the week ending at 0600 hours on 15 Apr 1942, 20 were killed and 33 were seriously injured due to German bombing. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 13 British Spitfire fighters intercepted a large Axis air convoy off Tunisia, shooting down 7 SM.82 and 1 Bf 109 aircraft at the cost of only 2 Spitfire fighters. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 William Halsey met with Douglas MacArthur at the latter's headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 A scheduled fighter sweep from Rabaul, New Britain was cancelled as a reconnaissance aircraft failed to return from northeastern New Guinea island region. Despite of this cancellation, Isoroku Yamamoto announced the successful conclusion of the I-Go air offensive. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 Japanese troops began preparing for a new offensive in the region between Wuhan and Yichang in China. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 Italians raised the wreck of Foch at Toulon, France for repair. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Marine Fighting Squadron 222 (VMF-222) on board. Part of British Squadrons 882, 896, and 898 arrived on board. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 The first night fighter attack on London, England, United Kingdom, carried out by thirty Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft, turned into a farce. Only two bombs hit the city, and four German pilots got lost, thought that they were over France and landed at West Malling RAF fighter base in Kent where three were taken prisoner and one was killed crash-landing. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 The first release of a non-explosive "Upkeep" bouncing bomb took place at Reculver, off the North Kent coast in Britain, but the device broke up on hitting the water. 
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16 Apr 1943 WW2 The Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization, or SACO for short, was officially signed by Captain Milton Miles and General William Donovan for the United States and by Foreign Minister Song Ziwen (also known as T. V. Soong) and Colonel Xiao Bo for China. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 Red Army units cleared Yalta, Ukraine of remaining pockets of German resistance. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 US 83rd Infantry Division arrived in England, United Kingdom in preparation for the Normandy, France invasion. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 Wisconsin was commissioned into service. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Parche reached waters south of Taiwan. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Finback conducted a reconnaissance mission at Oroluk Atoll, Caroline Islands, firing on a damaged ship and a tower on land during the mission. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 Indian 5th Brigade arrived at Jotsoma, India, allowing Indian 161st Brigade to prepare for an advance toward Kohima. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 In Italy, German Armeegruppe von Zangen placed the 800-strong "Lupo" Italian naval infantry battalion under German "Hermann Göring" Division for anti-partisan training. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 A transport of 1,500 Jews from Drancy Concentration Camp outside of Paris arrived at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp; it was the 71st transport from Drancy to Auschwitz. 165 men and 223 women were registered into the camp, while the remaining 1,112 were gassed. 
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16 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Miami departed Boston, Massachusetts, United States. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 From their positions on the Oder-Neisse Line, Soviet 1st Byelorussian and Soviet 1st Ukrainian Fronts began their final push on Berlin, Germany. Hitler's order of the day dated on the previous day was released to all German troops, ordering all who would flee in the face of the Soviet attack to be arrested or shot. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Canadian troops captured Harlingen, Groningen, and Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 US Army troops landed on Ie Shima off Okinawa, Japan. Meanwhile, Japanese special attack aircraft sank a destroyer and damaged a number of other warships. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Soviet submarine L-3 sank German passenger liner Goya with a torpedo, killing 6,220 people being evacuated from East Prussia, Germany, most of whom were civilian refugees. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Charr fired 10 torpedoes at a Japanese freighter, none of which hit. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Kete was presumed lost. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 The Allied Chiefs of Staff formally decreed the ending of the area bombing campaign against Germany. In one of British Bomber Command's last major operations of the war, 900 bombers were despatched to attack the German island fortress of Helgoland. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 The Japanese Navy launched an Ohka combat sortie off Okinawa by six G4M bombers that resulted in failure. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Sennet was attacked by Japanese patrol boats off Miki Saki, Mie Prefecture, Japan. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Oberfeldwebel Karl Schäfer of the German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 The Soviet Union stopped the mass deportation of German males for use as forced laborers in the territories occupied by Soviet troops. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Indian 5th Division captured Shwemyo, Burma during the day, while by nightfall the Anglo-Indian 4th Corps reached within 240 miles of Rangoon. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 US First Army captured Solingen and Wuppertal, Germany. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Eighteen British Lancaster bombers of No. 617 Squadron RAF attacked the German heavy cruiser Lützow at Swinemünde, Germany (now Swinoujscie, Poland). All but two of the aircraft were hit, although only one was lost (becoming No. 617 Squadron's last loss of the war). A near miss by a "Tallboy" 12,000-lb bomb tore a large hole in the bottom of the Lützow, crippling her. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 US troops reached the outskirts of Nürnberg, Germany. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 US 9th Armored Division liberated the prisoners at the Oflag IV-C camp at the "escape-proof" Colditz Castle in Germany. US Private First Class Alan Murphey received the formal surrender from German Hauptmann Eggers at the courtyard of the castle. Throughout the war, 316 POWs attempted escapes from the castle with 32 making "home runs", which was the most of any camp. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 British troops crossed the Fossa Marina canal east of Argenta, Italy. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Submarine I-369 departed Yokosuka, Japan for Caroline Islands. She carried 0.312 tons of food, 6.303 tons of weapons and ammunition, 25 tons of fuel, and 4.4 tons of other cargo for Truk, and 38.9 tons of food and 2.6 tons of other cargo for Woleai. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Italian motor torpedo boats heavily damaged French destroyer Trombe in the Mediterranean Sea. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Sunfish sank Japanese transport Manryu Maru and Coast Defense Vessel No. 73 off Miyako, Japan, hitting them with 4 of 6 torpedoes fired. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 US B-24 and P-51 aircraft attacked Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Taipei), Taiwan. 
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16 Apr 1945 WW2 Allied convoy JW-66 departed Clyde, Scotland, United Kingdom. 
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16 Apr 1946 WW2 Du Yuming arrived at Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. 
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16 Apr 1946 WW2 USS Dragonet was decommissioned from service at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States. 
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16 Apr 1947 WW2 Rudolf Höss was executed by hanging next to the crematorium of Auschwitz I concentration camp. 
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16 Apr 1948 WW2 Starting on this date and lasting through the following month, the United States test detonated three nuclear weapons at Eniwetak, Marshall Islands. 
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16 Apr 1948 RELIGIOUS Christians in Action was incorporated in Compton, CA. Founded by Rev. Lee Shelley, this interdenominational overseas mission helps establish national churches in nearly two dozen overseas countries.
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