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History on the 6th of May

History
Date Text
06 May 1910 WW2 King Edward VII of the United Kingdom suffered several heart attacks earlier in the day, lost consciousness in the evening, and passed away at 2345 hours. 
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06 May 1915 WW1 Begin of Second Battle of Krithia
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06 May 1916 WW2 Morihiro was born in Tokyo, Japan. 
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06 May 1935 WW2 King George V of Great Britain celebrated his Silver Jubilee. 
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06 May 1937 WW2 Lieutenant Colonel W. T. H. Galliford commanded a unit of US Marines for rescue and riot control duties at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States after the crash of German airship Hindenburg. He would remain in this role until 8 May. 
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06 May 1937 WW2 The German airship LZ129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed with heavy loss of life whilst attempting to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States. 
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06 May 1939 WW2 Ascari was commissioned into service. 
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06 May 1939 WW2 Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano met with his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop in Milan, Italy, where Ciano informed Ribbentrop that Italy would not be ready for war for another three years. Ribbentrop noted the comment, and informed Ciano that Adolf Hitler did not yet have any plans for war. 
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06 May 1939 WW2 Upon learning from Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, who had met German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop earlier on that day, that Adolf Hitler did not wish to launch a war in the foreseeable future, Benito Mussolini eagerly ordered Ciano to engage in talks for a military alliance between the two countries. 
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06 May 1940 WW2 Fall Gelb, the German invasion of France, was once again postponed by Hitler. Meanwhile, Pope Pius XII shared the intelligence gathered by Vatican agents that Germany was planning on invading the Low Countries with the Princess of Piedmont Marie José, who was the sister of King Leopold III of Belgium and wife of Italian Crown Prince Umberto. On the same day, a massive German armoured motorised column many miles long was spotted driving west through the Ardennes forest but the Belgian Army did not respond. 
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06 May 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Sealion attacked German transports Moltkefels and Neidenfels in the Skagerrak at 1400 hours. All 6 torpedoes missed. 
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06 May 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Snapper attacked German armed merchant cruiser Widder 30 miles east of Denmark at 1525 hours. Both torpedoes missed. 
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06 May 1940 WW2 Littorio was commissioned into service. 
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06 May 1940 WW2 John Steinbeck won the Politzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath. 
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06 May 1940 WW2 German mountain troops of the 2nd Gebirgsjäger Division continued their slow march north from Trondheim, Norway to Narvik, where South Wales Borderers of the British 24th Brigade, French Chasseurs Alpins mountain infantry, and French colonial artillery troops continued to assert pressure on the German troops. Off Narvik, British cruiser HMS Enterprise was slightly damaged by a near miss by an aerial bomb, killing one Royal Marine. Meanwhile, the Norwegian gold reserves arrived in London, England, United Kingdom. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 Overnight, Iraqi troops withdrew from the plateau overlooking RAF Habbaniya after suffering 1,000 casualties, largely by RAF aircraft, abandoning large amounts of weapons and supplies. They were pursued by the British King's Own Royal Regiment, which caught up with the Iraqi troops at Sinn El Dhibban, taking 433 prisoners at the cost of 7 British troops killed and 14 wounded. To the south, the 21st Infantry Brigade of the Indian 10th Division arrived by sea at Basra. Meanwhile, Vichy France and Germany signed the Paris Protocol, which gave permission for German troops to march through Syria for Iraq to reinforce the Iraqis; in return, Germany lowered the tribute that France had to pay Germany from 20 million to 15 million Reichsmarks daily. German Luftwaffe Colonel Werner Junck was ordered to establish Fliegerführer Irak with 12 Bf 110 fighters and 12 He 111 bombers. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 German submarines U-103 and U-105 sank 3 more British freighters off Sierra Leone, British West Africa, killing 12; the crew of U-103 stopped to help the survivors righting a listing lifeboat. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 British submarines HMS Taku and HMS Truant sank Italian ship Bengasi off Italy. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 The German 8th Panzer Regiment arrived in North Africa. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft took its maiden flight. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 General Bernard Freyberg received intelligence that the Germans were likely to launch a large airborne assault on Crete, Greece on 17 May; he would continue to expect the invasion to come from the beaches rather than the sky, however. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 Polish doctor Zygmunt Klukowski noted in his diary that, on this date, he observed Germans conscripting Polish civilians to build military airfields and air raid bunkers even though there was no active war in Eastern Europe. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-97 sank British ocean boarding vessel HMS Camito and recently captured Italian tanker Sangro 500 miles west of Ireland, killing 28. 
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06 May 1941 WW2 Henry Stimson, the United States Secretary for War, made a surprise statement by telling his countrymen that the United States must use its fleet to ensure the triumph of democracy. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-507 sank US freighter Alcoa Puritan 60 kilometers south of Mobile, Alabama, United States. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 HMS Auricula (Lieutenant Commander S. L. B. Maybury), having been damaged by a mine in Courier Bay, Madagascar on the previous day, foundered and sank whilst under tow. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein scored his first kill as a nightfighter pilot. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 British corvette HMS Auricula, damaged on the previous day by a mine at the entrance of the Diego-Suárez Bay, Madagascar, sank. Meanwhile, on land, British troops made little progress in eastern Madagascar, held down by French defenders. To gain the momentum, British destroyer HMS Anthony dashed into Diego-Suárez Bay at 2000 hours at the risk of being hit by coastal guns and successfully landed 50 Royal Marines at Antsirane to disrupt French rear. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 US naval auxiliary USS Semmes accidentally rammed and sank British anti-submarine trawler HMS Senateur Duhamel 50 miles east of Cape Fear, North Carolina, United States. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 USS Triton attacked a Japanese convoy off China, sinking freighters Taiei Maru and Taigen Maru. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 USS Skipjack sank Japanese freighter Kanan Maru in the South China Sea 50 miles northeast of Cam Rahn Bay, French Indochina, hitting her with one of three torpedoes fired; she attacked another target with another spread of three torpedoes, all of which missed the target. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-333 damaged US tanker Java Arrow (2 were killed, 45 survived), sank US tanker Halsey (5 were killed, 23 survived), and sank Dutch freighter Amazone 5 kilometers east of Port St. Lucie, Florida, United States. Further out to sea, U-108 sank Latvian ship Abgara 15 miles southeast of Great Inagua Island, Bahamas. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Starting at 0345 hours, B-17 Flying Fortress bombers took off from Port Moresby, Australian Papua to attack Japanese carrier Shoho which was spotted on the previous day; they attacked at about 0800 hours, causing no damage. Meanwhile, US carriers made rendezvous with Australian cruisers to set up an ambush at the Jomard Passage east of Australian Papua on New Guinea island. Later in the day, carrier aircraft from both sides searched for each other without success; at 2000 hours, the two fleets were merely 80 miles from each other, still not detecting the other party. Elsewhere, the new Japanese seaplane base at Tulagi, Solomon Islands was completed. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 British bombers attacked Stuttgart, Germany for the third consecutive night. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii intercepted a radio message from Kwajalein, Marshall Islands to Yokosuka, Japan noting the need for additional aircraft radio equipment for use with the AK campaign. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Nachi departed Akkeshi, Hokkaido, Japan. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Hans-Joachim Marseille received temporary command of the squadron 3 Staffel I./JG-27. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Irako departed Singapore for Yokosuka, Japan with destroyer Hatakaze in escort. 
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06 May 1942 WW2 Before dawn, US and Filipino defenders in the East Sector of Corregidor, Philippine Islands fought against the Japanese amphibious assault launched just prior to midnight, killing 1,200 men of the 2,000-strong first wave of attack. At 0930 hours, the Japanese began to gain a beachhead and began landing tanks to support the invasion. The US 4th Marine Regiment reserve companies and the US 4th Marine Battalion (reserve) launched an unsuccessful counterattack. Acknowledging the hopelessness of the situation, Major General Jonathan Wainwright ordered his troops to surrender at 1030 hours. To prevent capture, US Marines Colonel S. L. Howard ordered all regimental and national colors of the 4th Marine Regiment burned to prevent capture, while other US and Filipino personnel scuttled gunboats and destroyed ammunition stores. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 Adolf Hitler made an unusual public appearance at Viktor Lutze's funeral. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 In Tunisia, British troops captured Tunis and American troops captured Bizerte. The German 15th Panzer Division was effectively wiped out. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 USS Gar reported sinking a Japanese schooner in daylight with her deck gun. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 British corvette HMS Loosestrife sank German submarine U-638 with depth charges, which was attempting to attack Allied convoy ONS 5 in the North Atlantic; two other submarines were also destroyed on this date. Realizing the convoy was now well escorted, Admiral Karl Dönitz ordered the attacks on this convoy to cease. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 U-977 was commissioned into service. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 The British Admiralty officially announced the loss of submarine HMS Sahib, which was scuttled in the Mediterranean Sea after being damaged by Italian torpedo boat Climene. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 At dawn, Chinese 77th Division and 15th Division launched a counterattack against the Japanese in the border region between Hubei and Hunan Provinces, China. At 2100 hours, Chiang Kaishek ordered that the region must be held against the Japanese offensive at all costs. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Marine Fighting Squadron 222 (VMF-222) departed. Part of British Fighter Squadrons 882, 896, and 898 departed. Officers' Club turned over to station. 
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06 May 1943 WW2 USS Runner arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her second war patrol. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 Younger workers in the Lodz ghetto in Poland began a hunger strike in protest of the watery soup that made up the bulk of their daily food intake. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 In India, Mahatma Gandhi was released from imprisonment due to health reasons. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 British Army junior officer John Randle took out a Japanese machine gun position in Burma, then purposefully sacrificed himself to take out a bunker with a grenade. He was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 The A7M1 Reppu fighter took its first flight. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 During the day, 25 Japanese Zero fighters attacked Bishenpur, India. After sundown, Japanese troops attacked Tengnoupal, India. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Balikpapan, Dutch Borneo. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 USS Pompon departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her fifth war patrol. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of ARGUS-17 departed. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 USS Miami arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 Soviet troops bombarded Sevastopol, Russia with Katyusha rocket launchers. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 Allied convoy RA-59 arrived at Loch Ewe, Scotland, United Kingdom. 
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06 May 1944 WW2 USS Pollack departed Midway Atoll for her tenth war patrol. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 USS South Dakota was damaged by a magazine explosion off Okinawa, Japan. Nearby, the British Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Formidable was hit by Kamikaze planes but her steel decking (most US Aircraft Carriers had wooden decking) saved her. Further south, the British Pacific Fleer shelled Japanese positions on the Sakishima Islands of the Ryukyu Islands, 550 miles south of Japan. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 German submarine U-853, having sunk the last American merchant ship to be lost in the war on the previous day, was discovered by American blimps and destroyers. She was destroyed off Block Island, Rhode Island, United States with all 55 aboard lost, becoming the second-to-last German submarine to be sunk in WW2. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 400 American B-17 bombers dropped food and other supplies over the Netherlands. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Grand Admiral Dönitz announced that Himmler was to be relieved of all government duties; he also abolished the Schutzstaffel in all its forms, and banned any further resistance by members of the SS. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 The Dutch Nazi Party, Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, was outlawed. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 USS Cero fired three torpedoes at a Japanese transport east of Japan; all torpedoes missed. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 German General of the Infantry Hermann Niehoff surrendered Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) to the Soviets, ending the 82-day siege. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 US Fifth Army entered southern Austria through the Brenner Pass on the same day that the German forces in Austria surrendered to the Allies. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Liberator VLR bombers of No. 86 Squadron of British RAF Coastal Command sank the German submarines U-1008 and U-2534 in the Kattegat off Denmark. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 In Burma, Anglo-Indian XV Corps linked up with IV Corps, which had been advancing down the Sittang River, and effectively cut off 20,000 sick, hungry and increasingly desperate Japanese from their bases in Indo-China. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Czech resistance leaders made a radio broadcast, appealing to the Americans for military assistance in their war against the Germans, not knowing that the Western Allies had already made a deal with the Soviet Union in terms of operational boundaries in Central Europe. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 SMERSH agents of Soviet 3rd Shock Army sneaked into a section of Berlin, Germany occupied by a different Soviet unit to secretly retrieve two burned bodies near the Chancellery; they believed that one of them might be that of Adolf Hitler's. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Werner Haase was brought by the Soviets to examine and identify the remains of the Goebbels family in Berlin, Germany. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 USS Capitaine departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Carrier Night Air Group 53 (CVGN-53) departed. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Portugal severed diplomatic ties with Germany. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 US B-24 bombers attacked Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Taipei), Taiwan. 
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06 May 1945 WW2 Joseph Rochefort was requested to report on the situation of Japanese war materials by the office of Admiral Ernest King. 
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06 May 1946 WW2 Thorn was decommissioned from service. 
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06 May 1946 WW2 Viktor Abakumov submitted the names of Sergei Ogoltsov, Nikolai Selivanovsky, Afanasii Blinov, Nikolai Kovalchuk, and Mikhail Svinelupov as candidates to be his deputies at the Soviet Ministry for State Security (MGB). 
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06 May 1946 WW2 Allied repatriation ship Hikawa Maru departed Uraga, Japan. 
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06 May 1947 WW2 USS Becuna entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States for a scheduled overhaul. 
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06 May 1949 WW2 HMS Mauritius was recommissioned into service. 
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