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History on the 17th of April

History
Date Text
17 Apr 1640 RELIGIOUS Reorus Torkillus, 41, from Sweden, landed at Fort Christie in Delaware, making him the first Lutheran pastor to arrive in North America.
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17 Apr 1776 RELIGIOUS English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'You have now such faith as is necessary for your living unto God. As yet you are not called to die. When you are, you shall have faith for this also.'
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17 Apr 1833 RELIGIOUS English historian and statesman Thomas B. Macaulay declared: 'The whole history of Christianity proves that she has little indeed to fear from persecution as a foe, but much to fear from persecution as an ally.'
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17 Apr 1911 WW2 France sent troops into Morocco, ostensibly to police Fez, where riots had been directed against the Sultan, but actually to stop German colonial interest in North Africa. 
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17 Apr 1914 WW2 Lieutenant General Gencho Furumi was named the chief of staff of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea. 
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17 Apr 1917 WW1 Begin of Second Battle of Gaza
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17 Apr 1920 RELIGIOUS Birth of Robert G. Bratcher, principal translator of the American Bible Society's 1966-1976 "Good News Bible" (also known as "Today's English Version").
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17 Apr 1929 WW2 Königsberg was commissioned into service. 
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17 Apr 1934 WW2 The Fairey Swordfish Torpedo bomber took flight for the first time. 
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17 Apr 1934 WW2 Ilmarinen was commissioned into service. 
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17 Apr 1939 WW2 Germany sent out messages to 30 of the 31 countries named by US President Roosevelt on 14 Apr 1939 (the exception being Poland), asking them whether they felt threatened by Germany. Many countries responded in the negative, while the others were coaxed into responding in the negative. 
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17 Apr 1939 WW2 USS Astoria arrived at Yokohama, Japan and disembarked the ashes of Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Saito. 
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17 Apr 1939 WW2 Chiang Kaishek cabled Bai Chongxi his plans for a counter offensive toward Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China, which was to be launched on 21 or 22 Apr 1939. 
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17 Apr 1940 WW2 RMS Queen Mary arrived at Sydney, Australia. 
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17 Apr 1940 WW2 Before dawn, British cruiser HMS Suffolk shelled the German-controlled airfield of Sola at Stavanger, Norway. Suffolk's Walrus seaplane, used to drop flares over the airfield, was shot down early in the bombardment, thus the shelling was largely inaccurate and destroyed only 4 aircraft. After sunrise, Suffolk was repeated attacked by German aircraft. She was hit twice and heavily damaged, and was placed out of action until Feb 1941. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the British War Cabinet approved direct troop landings at Trondheim, Norway (rather than the landing done at Narvik in which troops were dropped off at undefended beaches far away). The landing was to be supported by simultaneous landings at Namsos in the north and Åndalsnes in the south. 
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17 Apr 1940 WW2 German submarine U-13 torpedoed and sank British steamer Swainby 25 miles north of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom at 1733 hours. 38 survivors reached Norwick Bay in the Shetland Islands on lifeboats. 
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17 Apr 1940 WW2 Italian "Grado" naval infantry battalion landed at Sibenik, Croatia, Yugoslavia. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 German motor torpedo boats S.41 S.42 S.43 S.55, S.104 attacked Allied convoy FS464 off Great Yarmouth, England, United Kingdom, sinking 2 small freighters and damaging a large steamer. The German S-boats were engaged by British motor gun boats MGB.60, MGB.59, and MGB.64, without success. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 German submarine U-123 sank Swedish MV Venezuela 600 miles west of Ireland at 1730 hours; the crew of 49 abandoned ship in lifeboats, but they were never seen again. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 Egyptian steamship Zamzam, with American passengers aboard, was shelled and sunk by German auxiliary cruiser Atlantic in the South Atlantic; 138 Americans were rescued. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's 16-day old Iraqi government submitted a request to Germany for military assistance in its attempt to remove British forces from Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces surrounded the RAF airbase at Habbaniya while British 1st Battalion King's Own Royal Regiment, originally based in Karachi, India, arrived at RAF Shaibah near Basra. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 Italian infantry and tanks attacked Tobruk, Libya in the early afternoon, but it was repulsed. After dark, 12 Axis tanks engaged Allied counterparts along the line; 3 Axis tanks were destroyed. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 Masafumi Arima became the deputy commanding officer of Yokosuka Naval Air Corps and the chief training officer of the same unit. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 British submarine HMS Truant sank Italian barque Vanna off the Libyan coast; Vanna was carrying ammunition and fuel to Derna, Libya. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 SS-Untersturmfuehrer Maximilian Grabner at Auschwitz Concentration Camp announced that urns containing the ashes of Polish political prisoners who died at Auschwitz no longer needed to be sent to their families. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 King Petar II of Yugoslavia arrived at London, England, United Kingdom via Athens, Greece. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 The bombing of London, England, United Kingdom which began on the previous date ended before dawn. 1,179 were killed. 
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17 Apr 1941 WW2 Yugoslavia formally surrendered to Germany as Foreign Minister Cincar-Marcovic signed the armistice with German and Italian representatives in Belgrade. Germans captured Yugoslavian destroyers Beograd and Dubrovnik at Kotor, but destroyer Zagreb was scuttled by her crew (2 killed in the process). In Greece, New Zealand 21st battalion reinforced by Australian 2/2nd Battalion demolished the Pinios River railway bridge and held the Tempe and Pinios Gorges, delaying the German advance down the Aegean coast, allowing other Allied troops to withdraw to new defenses on the Thermopylae line. British Prime Minister Churchill agreed to the proposal for the evacuation of Allied troops from mainland Greece to the island of Crete, should it become necessary; this plan was then communicated to the government of Greece shortly after. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-123 sank US freighter Alcoa Guide with her surface guns 300 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States at 0355 hours; 6 were killed, 27 survived. Elsewhere, U-201 damaged Argentine tanker Victoria 200 kilometers east of Hampton Roads, Virginia, United States. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 German government reduced the amount of provisions given to Soviet prisoners of war. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 American submarine Searaven began evacuating Australian troops from Timor, Dutch East Indies. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escaped from his castle prison in the Königstein Fortress. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 Submarine Snook was laid down at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, United States. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 German submarine U-66 sank Panamanian tanker Heinrich von Riedemann 100 miles west of Grenada at 0523 hours; all 44 aboard survived. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 Soviet destroyers Sokrushitelny and Gremyashchy were transferred from Allied convoy QP-10 to convoy PQ-14 at 0430 hours. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 German aircraft sank Soviet troopship Svanetiya in the Black Sea; 750 were killed, 193 survived. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 William Slim launched a failed counterattack with the Indian 17th Division near Yenangyaung, Burma; he had wanted the counterattack to open up Japanese lines, to meet with troops of the 113th Regiment of Chinese 38th Division fighting to relieve Yenangyaung, and to allow the remnants of the 1st Burma Division to return to the main Allied lines. To the east, Japanese 56th Infantry Division and Chinese troops clashed at Bawlake and Pyinmana, Burma. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 12 Lancaster bombers from No. 44 Squadron RAF and No. 76 Squadron RAF attempted a low level daylight attack on the MAN diesel engine factory in Augsburg, Germany. 7 of the 12 aircraft were shot down by German fighters, while the remaining 5 accurately dropped the bombs on the target, though the damage caused was smaller than desired. This costly raid reinforced British Air Marshal Arthur Harris' feelings that daylight missions should be avoided. Elsewhere, 173 British bombers (134 Wellington, 23 Stirling, 11 Halifax, and 5 Manchester) attacked Hamburg, Germany; 23 civilians were killed, 66 were wounded; 8 bombers were lost during this attack. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 Chester Nimitz accepted Joseph Rochefort's hypothesis that Port Moresby, Australian Papua was likely the target of the suspected Japanese Navy operation against the location code named RZP. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 The task force carrying the Doolittle Raiders refueled at about 1,000 miles away from Tokyo, Japan. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 Two column of Japanese troops converged at Dumarao on Panay, Philippine Islands, completing the conquest of the eastern side of the island. 
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17 Apr 1942 WW2 German bombers attacked Southampton, England, United Kingdom. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 I-168 departed Attu, Aleutian Islands with a cargo of ammunition and mail for Kiska. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 Adolf Hitler met with Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy in an attempt to persuade him to further the attempt to deport Jews, who were "pure parasites" and compared to "tuberculosis bacilli" per Hitler, out of Hungary. Horthy would continue to meet this deportation request as little as possible. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 In response to the German discovery of a mass grave near Smolensk, Russia, the Soviet Union insisted that the massacre was committed by the Germans. The Polish government-in-exile in London, England, United Kingdom requested the International Red Cross to investigate the matter. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 US bombers attacked Palermo, Sicily, Italy. German pilots who scrambled to meet the attackers claimed shooting down 5 bombers and 1 fighter. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 Gilmore was commissioned into service. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 Matome Ugaki chaired a conference at the 8th Base Force Headquarters at Rabaul, New Britain. Among other topics, the admirals discussed the lack of armor on Japanese aircraft and the concern that Isoroku Yamamoto was soon to personally visit the front lines. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 USS Flying Fish sank a Japanese freighter off Japan, hitting her with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 Jürgen Stroop was transferred to Warsaw, Poland by Heinrich Himmler to suppress the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 The demanding training of dropping the new "Upkeep" bombs at low altitudes had proven too much for some British pilots. Pilot Officer Bill Divall replaced Sergeant Ray Lovell followed soon after by Flight Sergeant Lanchester and his crew being withdrawn. This brought 617 Squadron's stenghth down to 21 crews. 
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17 Apr 1943 WW2 USS Cero departed New London, Connecticut, United States. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 British Royal Navy and Royal Air Force Bomber Command commenced minelaying in the approaches of the English Channel in preparation for the forthcoming invasion of Europe. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 Louis Mountbatten's headquarters moved from Delhi, India to Kandy, Ceylon. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Skipjack departed the Pribilof Islands, US Territory of Alaska. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 674th Bomb Squadron (flying A-20 aircraft) of USAAF 417th Bomb Group was transferred from Dobodura Airfield to Saidor Airfield, Australian Papua. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 Roza Shanina was awarded the Order of Glory 3rd Class while fighting in Byelorussia; she was the first woman of 3rd Byelorussian Front to receive this award. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Guitarro arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of ARGUS-17 arrived on board. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 General Renya Mutaguchi ordered Lieutenant General Kotoku Sato to capture Kohima, India by 29 Apr 1944. On the front, Anglo-Indian and Japanese troops clashed at Garrison Hill and FSD Hill near Kohima. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 Yamato arrived at Kure, Japan to load supplies. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Harder sank Matsue Maru and damaged an armed escort, firing four torpedoes and scoring one hit on each ship. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 USS Whale spotted two small Japanese vessels in the East China Sea but failed to achieve attacking position. 
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17 Apr 1944 WW2 A Constellation aircraft piloted by Howard Hughes and Jack Frye flew from Burbank, California, United States to Washington DC, United States in 6 hours and 57 minutes, breaking the record. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 USS Cod sank a Japanese tug and its tow in the East China Sea with the deck gun and went on to rescue three of the survivors. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Even as Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front met unexpectedly fierce resistance along the Seelow Heights, Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front broke through to Berlin, Germany. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Allied troops captured Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 A Japanese Type 97 tank and a Type 95 tank, with explosives strapped in the front of the hulls, ambushed M4 Sherman tanks on Route 9 on Luzon, Philippine Islands near Baguio. They rammed the American tanks, but the explosives failed to detonate. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 German Oberleutnant August Lambert, the newly appointed Staffelkapitän of 8/SG 77, was killed when his fighter-bomber mission was bounced by a horde of with US P-51 Mustang fighters (reportedly 60-80 strong). At the time of his death Lambert had 116 aerial victories against the Soviets and had destroyed hundreds of enemy tanks, trucks and artillery pieces. Six of his pilots suffered the same fate. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Field Marshal Model gave his remaining troops the choice of trying to get home, of trying to fight their way out of the Ruhr region in Germany, or of surrendering. Most chose to surrender. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Oberleutnant August Lambert, the newly appointed Staffelkapitän of German 8/SG 77, was killed when his fighter-bomber mission was bounced by a horde of with US P-51 Mustang fighters (reportedly 60-80 strong). At the time of his death Lambert had 116 aerial victories against the Soviets and had destroyed hundreds of enemy tanks, trucks and artillery pieces. Six of his pilots suffered the same fate. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Thirty three British Lancaster bombers of 5 Group, six carrying Grand Slam bombs and the remainder carrying Tall Boy bombs attacked Helgoland, Germany; they reported that the centre of the island was still ablaze from the previous day's attack. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Robert von Greim was awarded the Combined Pilots-Observation Badge in Gold with Diamonds. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 US troops captured the rail marshaling yard and airport of Nürnberg, Germany. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 In Italy, Brazilian troops captured Montese. The British bridgehead at the Fossa Marina canal near Argenta, Italy was expanded by about 900 meters. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 German resistance in the Netherlands was effectively ended with the surrender of the Apeldoorn garrison. The Germans had intended to make a stand along the canal, but the Canadians sent the 5th Armoured Division up from Arnhem to surround the town. After this the remaining German garrisons along the Grebbe Line followed suit and by 19 Apr fighting was almost finished allowing food supplies to be sent forward for the starving Dutch population. 
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17 Apr 1945 WW2 Lavrentiy Beria reported to Joseph Stalin that a total of 215,540 people (138,200 Germans, 38,660 Polish, and the remainder Soviet citizens) were arrested by the NKVD, NKGB, and SMERSH since Beria gained influence over all three agencies in Jan 1945. 
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17 Apr 1946 WW2 Syria became independent from France. 
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17 Apr 1946 WW2 Escort carrier Wake Island was struck from the US Naval Register. 
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17 Apr 1946 WW2 USS Wasp accidentally ran aground off New Jersey, United States. 
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17 Apr 1948 WW2 Kantaro Suzuki passed away. 
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17 Apr 1960 RELIGIOUS Swedish statesman and Secretary General of the U.N. Dag Hammarskjld noted in his journal "Markings": 'Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love - - takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.'
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