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History on the 7th of May

History
Date Text
07 May 1917 WW2 British Major Edward "Mick" Mannock RFC (who had been posted to No. 40 Squadron in France on 1 Apr), later the top scoring British Empire ace of the war with 73 kills, claimed his first aerial victory with the destruction of a balloon. 
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07 May 1917 WW2 British Captain Albert Ball VC, DFC & 2 Bars & MC, RFC (43 kills and one balloon) was killed when, in his SE.5a aircraft, he dived into cloud in pursuit of a German aircraft over Lens, France. He was buried by the Germans with full Military honours. 
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07 May 1917 WW2 The keel of Tenryu was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan. 
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07 May 1920 WW2 Pilsudski's Polish troops occupied Kiev, Ukraine. 
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07 May 1920 WW2 Quintin Brand received the title of Qualified Flight Instructor with the RAF Flying Training School. 
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07 May 1923 WW2 USS S-35 was recommissioned into service at New London, Connecticut, United States. 
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07 May 1936 WW2 Italy officially announced the establishment of Italian East Africa, merging Italian-held territories of Italian Somaliland, Abyssinia, and Eritrea. 
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07 May 1937 WW2 The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with He 51 biplanes, arrived in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War. 
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07 May 1938 WW2 The United Kingdom and France urged Czechoslovakia to make concessions to Germany over the issue of Sudetenland. 
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07 May 1939 WW2 German Generals Rundstedt, Manstein, and other General Staff members presented to Hitler an invasion plan for Danzig and Poland. 
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07 May 1939 WW2 Japanese troops captured Suizhou and Zaoyang in Hubei Province, China. 
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07 May 1939 WW2 The French ambassador in Berlin, Germany dispatched a warning to French leadership of deteriorating German-Polish relations. 
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07 May 1940 WW2 Adolf Hitler pushed the decision date for the invasion of France to the following day. 
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07 May 1940 WW2 Dutch Army suspended all leaves. 
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07 May 1940 WW2 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain faced criticism during the Norway Debate. 
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07 May 1940 WW2 German Luftwaffe aircraft attacked British cruiser HMS Aurora off Narvik, Norway at 1641 hours, putting A and B turrets out of action and killing 7 Royal Marines. 
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07 May 1940 WW2 US President Roosevelt ordered the US Navy Pacific Fleet to remain in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii indefinitely as a deterrent to Japanese expansionism. 
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07 May 1940 WW2 Kliment Voroshilov stepped down as the People's Commissar for Defense of the Soviet Union. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 German aircraft conducted the first of the two consecutive nightly raids on Hull, England, United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Liverpool, England was bombed for the seventh (and final) consecutive night, damaging destroyer HMS Hurricane; by this time, 75% of Liverpool's port capacity had been destroyed. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 HMS Somali captured the German weather ship München off Iceland along with an Enigma cypher machine and code book. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 The first of the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in Britain arrived at RAF Watton. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin stopped small British tanker British Emperor 400 miles off British Somaliland with gunfire, whose crew was able to send distress signals before being taken prisoner. The tanker was scuttled with torpedoes from Pinguin. Meanwhile, British cruiser HMS Cornwall sailed toward the location of the distress signal. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-94 sank British ship Ixion and Norwegian ship Eastern Star 150 miles south of Iceland at 2300 hours. Destroyer HMS Bulldog and sloop HMS Rochester dropped 98 depth charges over 4 hours, but U-94 was able to escape with only minor damage. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 Italian submarine Tazzoli sank Norwegian ship Ferlane off West Africa. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 During the day, German bombers sank British minesweeper HMS Stoke at Tobruk, Libya, killing 21. After nightfall, British cruiser HMS Ajax and destroyers HMS Havock, HMS Hotspur, and HMS Imperial bombarded Benghazi, Libya, sinking Italian ships Tenace and Capitano Cecchi. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 Indian 20th and 21st Brigades marched out of Basra, Iraq to attack nearby port of Ashar. 
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07 May 1941 WW2 Douglas Bader shot down a German Bf 109 aircraft and claimed another probable. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 The floatplane of Japanese submarine I-30 conducted a reconnaissance mission over Aden, Aden Protectorate. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-162 sank Norwegian ship Frank Seamans 30 miles northwest of Paramaribo, Suriname at 0800 hours; all 27 aboard survived. To the north, destroyer USS Dallas attacked and damaged German submarine U-333 off Florida, United States, forcing the submarine to set a course for France for repairs, ending her war patrol early. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-507 sank Honduran ship Ontario with the deck gun 100 miles south of Mobile, Alabama, United States at 0335 hours; all 45 aboard survived. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 Kasuga Maru arrived at Rabaul, New Britain. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 German SS Major General Oberg was placed in charge of police in occupied France. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 Allied convoy QP-11 arrived at Reykjavík, Iceland at 0700 hours. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish aircraft of HMS Illustrious spotted French submarine Le Héros off Courrier Bay, Madagascar at 0500 hours and attacked with depth charges; Le Héros attempted to evade by diving, but ultimately would be forced to surface and would be scuttled by her own crew to prevent capture. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 With British Royal Commandos gaining a foothold at Antsirane and British troops slowly advancing toward Diego-Suárez, Madagascar, French morale became shaken and would soon surrender. The French coastal guns at the Orangia Peninsular continued to fire, however, until British battleship HMS Ramillies fired warning shots at the batteries before noon. British warships entered Diego-Suárez Bay at about 1200 hours. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 General Lord Gort was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta in succession to Lieutenant-General Sir William Dobbie. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 HMS Eagle, with 17 Spitfire fighters aboard for delivery to Malta, joined the convoy containing USS Wasp off Gibraltar. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 At Coral Sea, Japanese carriers attacked US oiler Neosho and destroyer Sims thinking they were a carrier and cruiser, while US carriers attacked escort carrier Shoho and nearby cruisers and destroyer thinking it was part of the main carrier force. At 1747 hours, 12 Japanese dive bombers and 15 torpedo bombers in search of the US carrier fleet was intercepted by 11 US fighters; 9 Japanese and 3 US aircraft were destroyed during the subsequent engagement. At the end of the day, both sides decided against a night battle and prepared for new attacks at dawn. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 USS Astoria covered USS Yorktown during the Battle of the Coral Sea. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 Shoho sank in the Coral Sea at 1135 hours after an hour-long carrier aircraft attack that saw 13 bomb and 5 torpedo hits; 631 were killed, 203 survived. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 USS SKipjack attacked a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all three torpedoes missed. 
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07 May 1942 WW2 The Japanese troops completed the occupation of all the forts on Corregidor, Philippine Islands. Meanwhile, from the capital of Manila, Jonathan Wainwright announced the surrender over the radio, under supervision of a Japanese censor. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Hitler announced in a speech to Reichsleiters and Gauleiters that submarine warfare was to be stepped up as the surest way to cut enemy supply lines, even as the German submarine fleet was being pounded in the Atlantic Ocean. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Allied naval forces began the Operation Retribution blockade, sealing off Tunisia, Italian North Africa from the sea. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Japanese troops captured Buthidaung, Burma. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 USS Gar reported sinking a Japanese sampan in daylight with her deck gun. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 USS Snook attacked a Japanese convoy off China and sank Hosei Maru, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 The keel of submarine Pintado was laid down. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Lydia Litvyak shot down a German Bf 109 fighter while flying a Yak-1 fighter. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Japanese troops captured Anxiang, Hunan Province, China. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 German television began broadcasting from studios in Paris, France. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Parts of British Fighter Squadrons 882, 896, and 898 departed. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 USS Wahoo sank freighter Tamon Maru No. 5 off Iwate Prefecture, Japan, hitting her with 1 of 6 torpedoes. Later on the same day, she attacked a military convoy consisted of two escort vessels and a naval auxiliary in the same region, Japan; all 3 torpedoes missed. 
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07 May 1943 WW2 Italians scuttled captured French minelayer Castor at Bizerte, Tunisia. 
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07 May 1944 WW2 1,500 bombers of the US 8th Air Force attacked Berlin, Germany. 
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07 May 1944 WW2 USS Guitarro departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. 
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07 May 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Composite Squadron 28 (VC-28) arrived on board. 
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07 May 1944 WW2 During the day, Anglo-Indian troops attacked Jail Hill near Kohima, India, which was repelled by Japanese troops and suffered heavy losses. To the south, the British offensive from Imphal, India into Burma was called off after lack of success. After sundown, Japanese troops attacked Tengnoupal, India and overran some Allied defensive positions. 
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07 May 1944 WW2 USS Permit began lifeguard duty in the Caroline Islands. 
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07 May 1944 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt arrived in Washington DC, United States. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 German submarine U-2336 sank Canadian transport ship Avondale Port and Norwegian transport ship Sneland off the Firth of Forth, Scotland, United Kingdom; around the same time, an RAF Catalina flying boat sank German submarine U-320 off Bergen, Norway. These battles came shortly after Admiral Dönitz's order for all submarines to cease offensive activities. Many German crews began scuttling their own submarines to prevent capture. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 British Eighth Army entered Austria. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces to the Allies, to take effect on the following day, at Eisenhower's headquarters near Rheims, France; the Soviets witnessed the surrender at Rheims, but did not recognise the surrender until another document was signed in the Soviet-conquered territory. On the same day, German occupation forces in Norway surrendered. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 Anton Mussert was arrested. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 Nürnberg was decommissioned from service. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 German President Karl Dönitz decreed that "ll nominations for the bestowal of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and their higher grades which have been received by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht - staff of the Wehrmacht high command - until the capitulation becomes effective are approved, under the premise that all nominations are formally and correctly approved by the nominating authorities of the Wehrmacht, Heer including the Waffen-SS, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe all the way to the level of the army and Heeres group leadership." 
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07 May 1945 WW2 Oliver Leese told William Slim his intention to transfer Slim to the British 12th Army for the occupation of Burma. Deprived the command to lead the invasion into Malaya, Slim told Leese that he would rather retire. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 USS Ray rescued 10 airmen of a downed B-29 bomber south of Kyushu, Japan. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 Submarine I-369 arrived at Woleai, Caroline Islands. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 German SS troops attacked Czechoslovakian resistance fighters outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia; the resistance fighters were saved by the unexpected assistance from 1st Division of Russian Liberation Army, which has previously fought on the side of the Germans. Meanwhile, in the city, German Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner ordered his troops to begin evacuating the city, while he would soon depart by plane to southern Germany himself; the plane would crash en route, but he would survive the ordeal. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: V-E Day.  
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07 May 1945 WW2 The Selfridges Department Store on Oxford Street, London, England, United Kingdom revealed that over the previous 2-3 weeks there had been a considerable public demand for Welcome Home Flags. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 Henry Arnold was relieved of command at the US Twentieth Air Force. 
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07 May 1945 WW2 USS Sunfish entered Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States for a scheduled overhaul. 
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07 May 1946 WW2 Anton Mussert passed away. 
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07 May 1946 WW2 Vsevolod Merkulov was dismissed as the head of the Soviet Ministry for State Security (MGB) by the Soviet Politburo. 
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07 May 1946 WW2 Soviet Politburo named Viktor Abakumov the head of the Soviet Ministry for State Security (MGB). 
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07 May 1946 WW2 Commander Warren Ronald Thompson was named the commanding officer of USS Ticonderoga. 
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07 May 1949 WW2 US Public Law 58-81 changed Henry Arnold's rank of General of the Army to General of the Air Force, making him the only man to hold five-star rank in two separate US military branches. 
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