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History on the 15th of May

History
Date Text
15 May 1455 RELIGIOUS A crusade against the Turks and for the capture of Constantinople was proclaimed by Pope Calixtus III.
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15 May 1686 RELIGIOUS Rev. Robert Ratcliffe arrived in Boston from England, with orders from King Charles II to establish the Anglican Church in Massachusetts.
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15 May 1816 RELIGIOUS Birth of Sylvanus Dryden Phelps, U.S. Baptist clergyman and poet. His several writings included the hymn, "Savior, Thy Dying Love."
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15 May 1889 RELIGIOUS At the close of a two-day denominational conference in Cleveland, Ohio, the Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. It became the foundation of the current United Methodist Youth (UMY) fellowship programs.
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15 May 1915 WW2 Oliver Leese joined the Colstream Guards regiment of the British Army. 
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15 May 1915 WW1 Begin of Battle of Festubert
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15 May 1916 WW1 Begin of Battle of Asiago
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15 May 1916 WW1 Begin of Trentino Offensive
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15 May 1917 WW2 George Patton was promoted to the rank of captain. 
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15 May 1917 WW2 Friedrich Christiansen scored his first air-to-air victory, a British Pup aircraft, over Dover, England, United Kingdom. 
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15 May 1917 WW2 George Brett was promoted to the rank of captain. 
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15 May 1917 WW2 Richard O'Connor was Mentioned in Despatches. 
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15 May 1920 WW2 Battlecruiser HMS Hood was commissioned with Captain W. Tomkinson in command. 
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15 May 1920 WW2 The Bolsheviks struck back at the Polish forces with a rapid thrust in the Potock area in Ukraine. 
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15 May 1924 WW2 Martin Bormann received a 10-year sentence for the murder of Walther Kadow. 
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15 May 1924 WW2 Rudolf Höss received a 10-year sentence for the murder of Walther Kadow. 
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15 May 1928 WW2 The cartoon character Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in the animated film Plane Crazy. 
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15 May 1929 WW2 The Republic of China established the Order of the Precious Tripod. 
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15 May 1931 WW2 Vice Admiral Shunzo Mito was named the Chief of Staff of the Mako naval port at Pescadores islands, Taiwan. 
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15 May 1934 WW2 In Germany, the "Unified Theatre Law" gave the Reich Chamber of Culture the right to dictate the content of what could be performed. 
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15 May 1934 WW2 Germany banned workers from changing jobs without official authorization. 
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15 May 1937 WW2 Largo Caballero resigned as Spanish Prime Minister. 
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15 May 1939 WW2 Japanese troops in Hubei Province, China began to falter from the Chinese counteroffensive which began a week prior. 
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15 May 1939 WW2 Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for women was established in Germany. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 The Netherlands surrendered to Germany at 1015 hours; Dutch General Winkelman signed the surrender document. The Battle of Gembloux in Belgium ended with the Germans losing about 250 tanks, which was the equivalent of an entire armored division; the weakened French forces, however, were unable to hold the line despite their effective 75mm artillery and 25mm anti-tank guns; they fell back toward the Belgian-French border. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 The British War Cabinet decided to attack the German oil industry, communications centers, and forests and crops; attacks on industrial areas were to focus on the Ruhr region. Also, due to the costly daylight bombings, attacks were to be launched at nights. On the same day these directives were issued, the RAF began attacking industrial targets in the Ruhr, with 99 bombers flying the first mission. The decision to begin bombing civilian property outside of combat zones was the direct result of the German bombing of Rotterdam on the previous day. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 British butter ration was reduced from 8 ounces to 4 ounces per person per week. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 Winston Churchill sent a message to Franklin Roosevelt, asking for 40 to 50 destroyers, hundreds of fighters, anti-aircraft guns, steel, among other war-related materials. He also asked the US President to order a visit by US Navy warships to Ireland as a show of force. In regards to the situation in the Pacific Ocean, he requests Roosevelt to intimidate the Japanese, offering the Americans the use of Singapore if deemed necessary. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 The Communist Party of the Netherlands held a meeting to organize underground resistance during German occupation. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 US Minister in Uruguay Edwin C. Wilson reported to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull that there had been an increase in German activities in Uruguay. Although Uruguayan police had been moving against the Germans to a certain degree, the general indifference by the government was beginning to worry him. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 Paul von Kleist was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 At 0730 hours, French Prime Minister Reynaud called his British counterpart Churchill on the telephone, saying "e are beaten. We have lost the battle." Later on the same day in Paris, France, a reported German breakthrough at Sedan caused panic, with fleeing civilians jamming roads and blocking military traffic south and west of the city. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 In London, England, United Kingdom, at a British cabinet meeting attended by Winston Churchill, Archibald Sinclair, Lord Beaverbrook, and Cyril Newall, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding argued the case for expanding the strength of RAF Fighter Command to 52 squadrons for the immediate air defence of Britain. Despite his insistence that no more squadrons should be sent to France orders were still given to send four more squadrons to France. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 The fast food chain McDonalds opened its first restaurant at San Bernardino, California, United States. 
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15 May 1940 WW2 A 12-foot clamshell dredge arrived at Johnston Atoll to dredge the lagoon to widen and deepen the entrance channel. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 At midnight, British cruisers HMS Gloucester and HMS Fiji completed the transfer of the 2nd Battalion Leicester Regiment from Alexandria, Egypt to Heraklion, Crete, Greece. During the day, German Luftwaffe aircraft attacked Salamis Navy Yard at Suda Bay, Crete, sinking Greek destroyer Leon. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 British losses in France and Norway were publicly announced to be 13,250 killed and 41,000 captured out of 437,000 deployed. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 Admiral Darlan returned from meeting with Hitler and Ribbentrop; Vichy-French cabinet approved German concessions as well as French counter-concessions. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin declared that he would not negotiate with Rudolf Heß. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 Axel von Blomberg passed away. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 In the Libyan-Egyptian border region, British forces advanced in three columns and captured Halfaya Pass and Fort Capuzzo before noon, capturing 347 Axis prisoners (mostly Italians). A German Panzer battalion counterattacked, recapturing Fort Capuzzo by 1445 hours, taking 70 British prisoners. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 An Iraqi Blenheim bomber attacked the British column moving from Palestine into Iraq, causing no damage. British Swordfish aircraft from HMS Hermes attacked the Al Qushla barracks in Samawah, Iraq; one aircraft was shot down. Meanwhile, British bombers again attacked French airfields at Palmyra and Damascus, Syria. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-105 sank British ship Benvenue 400 miles off Sierra Leone, British West Africa at 2029 hours; 2 were killed, 55 survived and rescued by British liner Empire Trader. To the north, 430 miles west of Brest, France, German submarine U-43 sank French sail Notre Dame du Châtelet; 28 were killed, 10 survived. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 In Russia a document from military planners was issued recommending a short strike against any assembling forces threatening Soviet territory. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 Washington was commissioned into service. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 Graph was commissioned into service. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 Dr. Sigmund Rascher requested Heinrich Himmler via a letter requesting concentration camp prisoners to be placed in his disposal to conduct experiments in decompression chambers which simulated high altitude environments. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 South African and Indian troops linked up at Triangle Hill near Amba Alagi, Abyssinia; they were also joined by Abyssinia guerrilla forces. Meanwhile, Allied shelling of the Italian fortress damaged a oil tank, causing a major oil leak into the garrison's only source of drinking water. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 RAF aircraft conducted raids on Berlin, Cuxhaven, and Hannover in Germany. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 The Dame of Sark Sibyl Mary Hathaway was reported to be transferred to a German concentration camp as reprisal for civil disobedience. 
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15 May 1941 WW2 Gloster's E.28/39 prototype jet fighter took its first flight. The test pilot was Lieutenant Gerry Sayer. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru was detected by American submarine USS Tautog before dawn south of Truk; as the sun rose, USS Tautog noted the hospital ship markings and abandoned her attack. Hikawa Maru arrived at Truk later that day. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Tatsuta Maru arrived at Davao, Philippine Islands. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 The retreating Allied columns reached Assam in northeastern India. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-156 sank Norwegian ship Siljestad 420 miles northeast of Barbados at 0254 hours (2 were killed, 31 survived); several hours later, as Yugoslavian ship Kupa responded to the distress call and arrived to pick up survivors, she was attacked and sunk by U-156 at 2100 hours (2 were killed, 39 survived). 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Damaged British cruiser HMS Trinidad was scuttled by 3 torpedoes from HMS Matchless 170 miles north of Norway after her crew was taken off by destroyers HMS Matchless, HMS Foresight, and HMS Forester. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Ernest King allowed Chester Nimitz to move the two carriers currently in the South Pacific to move up to the Central Pacific area, but King noted that he was still not convinced that Midway Atoll was the primary target of the suspected Japanese offensive. Later in the same day, Nimitz responded to the message, stressing that he believed the Japanese was likely to launch a three-prong attack against Midway Atoll, Aleutian Islands, and, likely at a two-to-three-week delay, Port Moresby in Australian Papua. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Damaged by German aircraft two hours prior on the previous date, the abandon ship order was given by the captain of HMS Trinidad at 0000 hours; at 0120 hours, she was scuttled by a torpedo from HMS Matchless north of Russia. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Lützow departed Kiel, Germany for Ofotfjord in northern Norway. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Serviced Patrol Squadron 44 (VP-44), gasoline and oil 
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15 May 1942 WW2 British General Harold Alexander arrived at Imphal, India. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Joseph Stilwell arrived in India. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Irako arrived at Yokosuka, Japan. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Aichi received a request to design the world's first propose-built submarine-borne attack aircraft. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Nachi arrived at Ominato Guard District, Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan for a scheduled refit. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 The Australian Sparrow Force conducted a raid on Japanese barracks at Dili, Portuguese Timor. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Soviet test pilot Grigory Bakhchivandzhi made the first powered flight in the experimental Berezniak-Isaev BI-1 rocket-powered interceptor at Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, reaching an altitude of 840 meters and reaching the speed of 400 kilometers per hour. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 He 111 bombers of German Luftwaffe group I./KG 100 attacked Taman harbor, Russia with the heavy 1,800-kilogram SC 1800 bombs, causing heavy damage. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Soviet troops attempted a renewed offensive toward Kharkov, Ukraine, but failing to regain momentum. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 USS Wahoo was commissioned into service with Marvin Kennedy in command. 
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15 May 1942 WW2 Oveta Hobby was made the Director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Stalin dissolved the Comintern. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 USS Gar attacked a Japanese convoy in the Philippine Islands, sinking cargo ships Moikai Maru and Indus Maru, hitting them with four of the twelve torpedoes fired. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 British Admiral Andrew Cunningham announced that "the passage through the Mediterranean was clear", and convoys from Gibraltar to Alexandria, Egypt resumed. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 An American reconnaissance aircraft detected German submarine U-176 off Havana, Cuba. Nearby Cuban submarine chaser CS-13, escorting two freighters, was notified and closed in, attacking with depth charges and sinking U-176, killing the entire crew. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Famed Polish Jewish violinist Henri Czaplinski (aka. Genrikh Maksimovich Chaplinsky in Soviet documents) who had fought with Byelorussian partisans but now in Soviet captivity, was reported by Panteleimon Ponomarenko and Lavrentiy Tsanava to be a possible German spy. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 432nd Fighter Squadron (flying P-38 aicraft) of USAAF 475th Fighter Group was transferred to Dobodura No. 15 airstrip of Dobodura Airfield, Australian Papua. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Naka departed Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Japanese troops surrounded Chinese troops near Baiyang, Hunan Province, China, inflicting heavy casualties. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Satoru Anabuki, flying Ki-43 fighter "Fubuki", shot down four P-40 fighters over Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, increasing his score to 40. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 USS Hoe arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 The C6N Saiun carrier reconnaissance aircraft took its first flight. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Nachi arrived at Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 Pilots of US Marine Corps squadron VMF-214 were transferred to Efate, New Hebrides for rest after serving 8 weeks in combat capacity. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 USS Whale arrived off Wake Atoll. 
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15 May 1943 WW2 German Luftwaffe I./KG 55, flying He 111 bombers, departed from Sarabuz Russkiy Airfield in Krym, Russia for Stalino (now Donetsk), Ukraine. The transfer was in response to the Soviet counter-offensive toward Kharkov, Ukraine. 
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15 May 1943 RELIGIOUS German Lutheran theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'I read the Psalms every day, as I have done for years; I know them and love them more than any other book.'
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15 May 1944 WW2 Shokaku arrived at Tawi-Tawi, Philippine Islands. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 Hungarian Jews began to be deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 Hans Speidel arranged a meeting between Erwin Rommel and anti-Hitler conspirators, but he would ultimately attend on his stead. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 The Chinese-American-Kachin force outside of Myitkyina, Burma transmitted the code phrase "strawberry sundae", signifying that it was in position to strike the Japanese-occupied city. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Tawi-Tawi, Philippine Islands. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 Over the following three days, about 7,500 prisoners of the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia were transferred to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland; part of the reason was to relieve Theresienstadt's overcrowded condition in preparation of a visit by the International Red Cross and the Danish Red Cross in the following month. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 US Navy 127th Construction Battalion relieved the 48th Construction Battalion in the work to build aviation gasoline facilities at Maui, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 Anglo-Indian troops pushed Japanese troops out of Potsangbam, 2 miles south of Bishenpur, India. To the north near Kohima, Indian 33rd Brigade captured Treasury Hill with little Japanese opposition. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 British 78th Division joined in on the attack of Cassino, Italy as German troops withdrew from Gustav Line to Hitler Line 30 miles to the south of Rome, Italy. 
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15 May 1944 WW2 Anti-submarine hunter-killer Task Group 22.3 departed Norfolk, Virginia, United States with Escort Carrier USS Guadalcanal as flagship and Captain Daniel V. Gallery in command. The remainder of the Task Group consisted of Destroyer Escorts, USS Pillsbury, USS Pope, USS Flaherty, USS Chatelain, and USS Jenks. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 USS Sargent Bay departed Okinawa and arrived at Guam for repairs. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Croatian troops that surrendered to British forces in Austria were handed over to Yugoslavian partisans, resulting in the murder of over 110,000, including women and children. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 British destroyer forces sank the Japanese cruiser Haguro in the Malacca Strait off the Malay Peninsula. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 In fighting at Wewak, New Guinea, Australian Private Ted Kenna exposed himself to Japanese machine guns only 50 yards away, thus enabling his comrades to capture the position without further casualties. His rash bravery won him the Victoria Cross. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 USS Croaker departed Subic Bay, Philippine Islands for her fifth war patrol in the Java Sea. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Otto Skorzeny requested the local American officers a staff car, in which he would travel to the Americans field headquarters to surrender. As a prisoner, he was taken to Salzburg, Austria in an armored car with a heavy escort. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 USS Ray rescued 10 airmen of a foundering PBM Mariner aircraft south of Kyushu, Japan. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Nobutake Kondo was appointed to the Japanese Supreme War Council. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Soviet SMERSH captured former German intelligence official and more recently commanding officer of German 81st Infantry Division Franz-Eccard von Bentivegni in the Courland Pocket in Latvia. Bentivegni would remain imprisoned in Russia until Oct 1955. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Crown Prince Olaf of Norway returned to Oslo in a Royal Navy destroyer and was greeted by a large crowd. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Viktor Abakumov appointed Isai Babich and Aleksandr Misyurev to head the SMERSH units attached to the Far Eastern Group of Soviet Troops. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 US B-24 bombers based in the Philippine Islands struck the city of Shinchiku (now Hsinchu), Taiwan. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 USS Saint Paul departed Boston, Massachusetts, United States. 
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15 May 1945 WW2 Alexander Löhr's war crimes trial in Belgrade, Yugoslavia began. 
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15 May 1946 WW2 Allied repatriation ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Menado, Celebes, Dutch East Indies and embarked Japanese personnel. She departed later on the same day. 
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15 May 1947 WW2 USS Sea Robin commenced a simulated war patrol which called for her to circumnavigate South America; she would become the first American submarine to round Cape Horn. 
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15 May 1947 WW2 Chinese communist forces launched an offensive in northeastern China. 
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