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History on the 17th of May

History
Date Text
17 May 1291 RELIGIOUS Scottish medieval Franciscan philosopher John Duns Scotus, 25, was ordained. He believed in "divine will" rather than "divine intellect," and founded a scholastic system called Scotism. In the Catholic Church he is known as "the Subtle Doctor."
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17 May 1844 RELIGIOUS Birth of Julius Wellhausen, the German biblical scholar who, in his 1878 "History of Israel," first advanced the JEDP Hypothesis, claiming that the Pentateuch (i.e., the first five O.T. books) was a compilation of four earlier, literary sources.
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17 May 1881 RELIGIOUS The Revised Version (EV or ERV) of the New Testament was first published in England. The Old Testament was completed in 1885. In 1905 the American Standard Version (ASV)
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17 May 1920 WW2 Fox was commissioned into service. 
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17 May 1920 WW2 USS Arizona departed New York City, New York, United States. 
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17 May 1923 WW2 The sign of the General Government Building in Keijo (now Seoul), Korea was hung on the building during a ceremony. 
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17 May 1937 WW2 Dr. Juan Negrin became the new Spanish Prime Minister. His government would be dominated by Communists. 
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17 May 1938 WW2 Adolf Hitler asked for the latest intelligence report on Czechoslovakian border defenses. 
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17 May 1940 WW2 Colonel Charles de Gaulle of the French 4th Armored Division launched a 200-tank counterattack at Montcornet, France; the French forces saw initial success, capturing 500 prisoners, but the momentum quickly waned. Guderian seized upon the opportunity and launched his own counterattack in France, driving the French back several kilometers. In Belgium, British Expeditionary Force commander General Lord Gort, fearful of being surrounded, ordered his troops to fall back to the Scheldt River; this move allowed German General Reichenau to capture Brussels. Meanwhile, Dutch resistance to the German invasion comes to an end with the evacuation, by French destroyers, of the survivors of the Franco-Dutch forces in Zeeland and on the islands of Walcheren and Beverland. 
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17 May 1940 WW2 Erwin Rommel was awarded the 1939 clasp to his Iron Cross Second Class medal. 
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17 May 1940 WW2 US President Roosevelt announced the plans for recommissioning 35 additional flush deck destroyers to meet the requirements of fleet expansion and the Neutrality Patrol. 
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17 May 1940 WW2 HMS Effingham departed Harstad, Norway with 1,020 troops, 10 Bren Gun Carriers, and 130 tons of supplies on board for Bodø, Norway. En route, she hit the southern edge of the Faksen Shoal off Bodø, Norway and was seriously damaged. 
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17 May 1940 WW2 German oil storage facilities in Bremen and Hamburg were destroyed by the RAF. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 Pilot Officer Mike Kolendorski, an American serving in the British RAF, became the first No. 121 Squadron RAF member to be killed. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-107 attacked Dutch tanker Marisa with a torpedo at midnight, killing 2; U-107 allowed the 47 survivors to abandon ship before sinking her with guns. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 Operation Brevity: German Colonel Maximilian von Herff launched a counterattack in the area near Bir Wair and Musaid after 1600 hours. British Brigadier General William Gott withdrew his troops into the Halfaya Pass, Egypt, ending his offensive operation. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire delivered fresh Australian troops to Tobruk, Libya at 0100 hours; the artillery pieces that arrived with the destroyer were deployed on the front lines as early as 0530 hours. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 British bombers attacked Bramsfeld, 12 kilometers northwest of Köln, Germany; the Atlantik rubber plant was hit with 2 high explosive and 44 incendiary bombs. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 Arthur Compton and the United States National Academy of Sciences published a report noting the success rate of developing an atomic weapon was favorable. On the same day, Vannevar Bush created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). 
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17 May 1941 WW2 Viceroy of Italian East Africa Duke of Aosta surrendered Amba Alagi, Abyssinia to the British at 1730 hours. 
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17 May 1941 WW2 Sonderkommando Junck, a special formation of German Luftwaffe fighters, bombers and transports which had been hastily painted with Iraqi markings, commenced (with a dozen Bf 110 aircraft of 4./ZG 76) air attacks on British positions, especially those at Habbaniya, Iraq; or the next ten days the Bf 110 aircraft attacked, losing several aircraft in the process. Late in the evening, the British force from Palestine arrived at Habbaniya. After sundown, British and colonial troops crossed the Euphrates River toward Fallujah. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 USS Gar reported damaging a Japanese decoy ship in daylight with one of two torpedoes fired. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 USS Pollack damaged a small boat with her deck gun off Kyushu, Japan. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 USS Skipjack sank Japanese ship Tazan Maru off French Indochina. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 The British RAF launched two strikes against German cruiser Prinz Eugen while she was sailing toward Kiel, Germany. The first wave of 18 aircraft reached the ship but scored no hits; 3 aircraft were shot down. The second wave of 30 aircraft was intercepted by German fighters mid-way; 4 British bombers and 3 German Bf 109 fighters were shot down in action. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-103 sank US ship Ruth Lykes with her deck gun 200 miles south of the Grand Cayman island at 0044 hours; 6 were killed, 26 survived. Off Grenada, U-155 sank British tanker San Victorio at 0217 hours; 52 were killed, 1 survived). 75 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River in southern United States, U-506 sank US tanker Gulfoil at 0534 hours; 21 were killed, 19 survived. At 0952 hours, U-155 struck again, sinking US ship Challenger; 8 were killed, 56 survived. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-135 sank British ship Fort Qu'Appelle 480 miles east of Long Island, New York, United States; 14 were killed, 11 survived. Further south, also in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, U-653 sank British ship Peisander; all 65 aboard survived. Still further south in the Central Atlantic, German submarine U-156 sank British ship Barrdale at 0904 hours; 1 was killed, 52 survived. Finally, U-432 sank small US trawler Foam (1 was killed, 20 survived) and U-588 sank Norwegian ship Skottland (1 was killed, 23 survived) 85 miles south of Nova Scotia, Canada at about 1800 hours. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 USS Triton sank Japanese submarine I-64 south of Japan, killing all 81 aboard. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 USS Tautog attacked Japanese submarines I-22 and I-24 70 miles south of Truk, Caroline Islands at 0648 hours; all torpedoes missed. At 1107 hours, she discovered I-28 and attacked again, this time sinking the target, killing all 88 aboard. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 HMS Eagle launched 17 Spitfire and 6 Albacore aircraft for Malta; the Spitfire fighters successfully reached Malta, but the Albacore torpedo bombers returned due to engine trouble. Later in the day, 6 Italian SM.79 torpedo bombers attacked her, but all torpedoes missed. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 Saburo Sakai, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, and Toshio Ohta performed daring aerial stunts over an Allied airfield; they were later scolded by their commanding officer Lieutenant (jg) Junichi Sasai. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 USS Flying Fish departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 Shokaku, having evaded no less than eight submarines, returned to Kure, Japan for repairs. She was immediately placed in the Reserve Unit of the Mobile Force. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 Japanese Naval General Staff approved the plans for what was to become the I-400-class submarine design. An order for the construction of 18 examples would be issued within weeks. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 Tatsuta Maru departed Davao, Philippine Islands. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 German troops began capturing large numbers of artillery pieces and munitions around Kerch, Russia, which they would later use against Sevastopol. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 In Operation Fridericus, German 1st Panzer Army attacked Soviet troops at Izium, Ukraine, breaching the Soviet lines and capturing Barvenkovo. The spearhead of the Soviet offensive continued toward Kharkov, however, despite the actions behind it. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 From Washington DC, United States, Ernest King sent Chester Nimitz a message noting that King was now in agreement with the theory that Midway Atoll was likely one of the primary targets in the upcoming Japanese offensive. Later in the day, King messaged Harold Stark in London, England, United Kingdom, ordering him to relay the explanation for the US Navy removing two carriers from the South Pacific to British liaison officers. Also on this day, the US Office of Naval Intelligence also voiced its agreement in a report to King that the Japanese Navy code name AF was likely Midway Atoll. 
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17 May 1942 WW2 Submarine Gunnel was launched at Groton, Connecticut, United States, sponsored by the wife of US Navy Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks Ben Morell. 
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17 May 1943 WW2 The fifth Axis air offensive against Yugoslav partisans began. 
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17 May 1943 WW2 Lieutenant Colonel Robert M. Stillman led the 322nd Bomb Group on a disastrous low level mission to Haalem and Ijmuiden in the Netherlands. Light flak and Messerchmitt Bf 109G fighters accounted for the loss of ten out of the eleven American B-26 bombers that had set out. The only survivors were one crew that had turned back to its base early because of technical difficulties. 
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17 May 1943 WW2 Japanese 3rd Division surrounded Songzi, Hubei Province, China. 
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17 May 1943 WW2 René-Émile Godfroy successfully lobbied for the rearmament of the interned French warships at Alexandria, Egypt. 
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17 May 1943 WW2 Two of the Ruhr region dams in Germany were breached by British bombers; the resulting flooding killed over 1,000, many of whom were Ukrainian prisoners of war, and most of the rest were German civilians. The nearby industrial facilities suffered little direct harm. 
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17 May 1943 WW2 USS Grayback sank freighter England Maru and damaged two others in the South Pacific with four torpedo hits; eight torpedoes were expended in this attack. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 USS Hoe damaged a Japanese freighter with 1 of 5 torpedoes fired. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 USS Tunny received reports of a Japanese convoy from USS Sand Lance and intercepted the 3-ship and 3-destroyer convoy just after sunset in the Mariana Islands. She launched three torpedoes each against two cargo ships, sinking Nichiwa Maru. She endured a counterattack consisted of 81 depth charges, suffering no damage. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 USS Astoria was commissioned into service with Captain George Dye in command. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 USS Hawkbill was commissioned into service with Lieutenant Commander F. Worth Scanland, Jr. in command. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 The Japanese attack on the Blackpool site of Operation Thursday in Burma was repulsed. On the same day, William Slim handed operational control of the Chindits over to Joseph Stilwell. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 American, Chinese, and Kachin troops began the assault on Myitkyina, Burma. The attack began at 1000 hours, and by 1050 the airfield was captured. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Surabaya, Java. 
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17 May 1944 WW2 German troops evacuated Cassino, Italy. Meanwhile, the French penetration of the Gustav Line reached 25 miles. Nearby, Polish troops launched what was to become the final attack on Monte Cassino. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 470 American B-29 bombers conducted a raid on Nagoya, Japan. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft began to arrive at Ie Shima, Japan. They would start operating against the Japanese home islands on the following day. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 US Navy carrier aircraft attacked Maloelap Atoll, Marshall Islands. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Single day maximum of catapult launches (22). 
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17 May 1945 WW2 USS Miami arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Sasebo, Japan. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze departed Kure, Japan. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 In Japan, after a vicious 48-hour battle the Okinawan capital, Naha, was captured by the Americans. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 Yukio Araki and the 72nd Shinbu Squadron arrived at Metabaru Airfield in Saga Prefecture, Japan. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 Air Group 87 aircraft from USS Ticonderoga struck Taroa, Marshall Islands. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 Mexican 201st Expeditionary Squadron with P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft began operations from Clark Field in the Philippine Islands. 
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17 May 1945 WW2 B-24 bombers of US 380th Bomb Group attacked Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Taipei), Taiwan. 
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17 May 1947 RELIGIOUS The Conservative Baptist Association of America (CBAA) was formally established at Atlantic City, NJ, as a breakaway movement from within the American Baptist Convention.
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