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History on the 27th of May

History
Date Text
27 May 1664 RELIGIOUS Colonial theologian Increase Mather, 24, was installed as minister of Boston's Second (Congregational) Church. He remained there until his death in 1723.
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27 May 1799 RELIGIOUS Birth of George Washington Doane, American Episcopal clergyman. One of the foremost promoters of Episcopal missions in his day, Doane also authored many hymns, including "Fling Out the Banner! Let It Float" and "Softly Now the Light of Day."
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27 May 1911 WW2 Hiroshi Nemoto graduated from the Japanese Army Academy. 
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27 May 1914 WW2 Hiroaki Abe was assigned to battlecruiser Kongo. 
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27 May 1917 RELIGIOUS Benedict XV promulgated the "Codex iuris canonici." Divided into five books and 2,414 regulations, the CIC was the first revision of canon law in the Catholic church in modern times, and went into effect at Pentecost the following year.
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27 May 1918 WW1 Begin of Third Battle of the Aisne
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27 May 1922 WW2 Joseph Rochefort was transferred out of destroyer USS Stansbury and was assigned to cruiser USS Charleston. 
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27 May 1924 RELIGIOUS The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, meeting at Springfield, Maryland, repealed its ban on dancing and theater attendance.
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27 May 1927 WW2 Thirteen years after its keel was laid down, the French aircraft carrier Béarn was completed. The Béarn would become the longest surviving aircraft carrier in the world (not being scrapped until 1968) although it spent much of its life out of commission. 
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27 May 1927 RELIGIOUS Birth of Ralph Carmichael, a popular sacred composer whose works flourished most during the 1960s-1970s. Among his oft
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27 May 1932 WW2 Prince Hiroyasu of Fushimi was promoted to the rank of fleet admiral. 
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27 May 1932 WW2 Kenzo Nakagawa was named the governor-general of Taiwan. 
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27 May 1936 WW2 The transatlantic ocean liner RMS Queen Mary made her maiden voyage, departing from Southampton, England, United Kingdom. Converted into a troopship in World War II she would carry thousands of American troops across to Europe. 
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27 May 1937 WW2 The Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco, California, United States was formally opened. Over 200,000 people crossed on foot on the first day but motor traffic was not permitted until the following day. 
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27 May 1939 WW2 USS Arizona became the flagship of Battleship Division 1's Rear Admiral Russell Wilson. 
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27 May 1939 WW2 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain finally agreed to hold a talk with the Soviet Union. Later on the same day, British and French ambassadors in Moscow, Russia presented a draft agreement for Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to review, who received the wording coolly. 
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27 May 1939 WW2 The United States Navy Fleet Auxiliary USS Dixie was launched at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, United States. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander G. H. Bahn she would spend the war employed as a destroyer tender in the Pacific, and later earned five battle stars during the Korean War. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 The British sugar ration was reduced from 12 ounce to 8 ounce per person. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 The British government abandoned the notion to introduce conscription to Northern Ireland. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 German tanks and aircraft maintained pressure on the Allies in France, pushing them back four miles toward the coast and placing Dunkirk within artillery range; meanwhile, the first 7,669 British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 Troops of the German 3rd SS Panzer Totenkopf Division, commanded by Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knöchlein, massacred 97 British prisoners of war by machine gun fire at the village of Le Paradis in France. Two survivors of the massacre would later provide testimony during the post-war war crimes trials against Knöchlein. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 German submarine U-37 sank British ship Sheaf Mead 150 miles west of Cape Finisterre, Spain; 32 men were killed and 5 were rescued. U-37 also forced the Argentinian ship Uruguay to scuttle; 15 men became missing and presumed dead, and 13 were rescued. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 Erwin Rommel was awarded the Knight Cross medal. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 Werner Mölders claimed his 19th and 20th victories southwest of Amiens, France; the victims were both P-36 fighters. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 British General Edmund Ironside stepped down from the position of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 James Lacey shot down two German He 111 bombers. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 King Leopold III of Belgium offered surrender terms to Germany and decided to remain in the country. Germany responded at 2200 hours, demanding an unconditional surrender. 
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27 May 1940 WW2 Japanese bombers attacked Chongqing, China in three waves. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 German troops captured Canea, Crete, Greece, thus securing the use of the anchorage at Suda Bay. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 US Navy transferred ships from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt announced unlimited state of emergency, which enabled him to send more war supplies to the United Kingdom. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 At 0710 hours, battleship Bismarck sent in what would become her last radio report. She was sighted by battleships HMS King George V and HMS Rodney at 0844 hours, and their guns fired 3 minutes later, hitting Bismarck and quickly disabling her guns. Heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire joined in on the attack shortly after. After receiving about 400 gunfire hits from the British ships and several torpedo hits from HMS Dorsetshire, Bismarck's crew set off scuttling charges in the boiler room to scuttle her. She sank at 1039 hours; 2,091, most of her crew, were killed. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-107 sank British ship Colonial off Guinea, French West Africa at 0146 hours; the entire crew of 100 survived and rescued by HMS Centurion. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 Allied forces advanced toward Baghdad, Iraq in two columns. From the south, Indian 20th Brigade advanced north along and on the Euphrates River while Indian 21st Brigade advanced on the Tigris River from Basra. From the west, British forces departed Fallujah. Also on this date, 12 Italian CR.42 biplane fighters arrived at Mosul to reinforce the German and Iraqi forces in the area. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 Scirè launched three manned torpedoes into Gibraltar harbor; they failed to damage any enemy vessel. 
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27 May 1941 WW2 In Britain a secret War Office memo banned Fascists and Communists from joining the Home Guard. All those already in the service are to be dismissed as "Services no longer required". 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Yamato was deemed operational. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 US Marine Corps Fighter Squadron 212 began operations from Efate, New Hebrides. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Thai forces captured Kengtung, Burma. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 From Saipan and Guam in the Mariana Islands, an invasion fleet carrying 5,000 Japanese troops departed for Midway Atoll under Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka. In the northern Pacific Ocean, Japanese submarine I-25 launched her floatplane for a reconnaissance mission over Kodiak Island, US Territory of Alaska, which spotted a US cruiser and two destroyers. To the west, still in the Aleutian Islands, I-19 was preparing to launch her floatplane when lookouts spotted an American aircraft; the submarine dove for cover, destroying the floatplane in the process. In Japan, the naval leadership affected a radio encryption coding change for all fleets and bases. At Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, Joseph Finnegan and Wesley Wright, two intelligence officers working under Joseph Rochefort, broke the Japanese encryption used to secure operational dates after working on it for the entire previous night; with this new knowledge they determined that the Japanese were going to raid Dutch Harbor in Alaska on 3 Jun 1942 and to attack Midway Atoll on 4 Jun 1942. Finally, Rochefort visited Chester Nimitz's office to help him convince other admirals and generals of their belief that Midway was soon to be a Japanese target. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-578 sank Dutch ship Polyphemus 340 miles north of Bermuda just after 0000 hours; 15 were killed (all of Chinese ethnicity), 60 survived. German submarine U-172 sank British tanker Athelknight 1,260 miles northwest of Saint Barthélemy island at 0319 hours; 9 were killed, 25 survived. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-558 sank US Army transport Jack 100 miles southwest of Port Salut, Haiti at 1051 hours; 37 were killed, 23 survived. German submarine U-753 sank Norwegian tanker Hamlet in the Gulf of Mexico at 1103 hours; all 36 aboard survived. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 British minesweeper HMS Fitzroy hit a British mine and sank in the North Sea 43 miles east of Great Yarmouth, England, United Kingdom; 12 were killed. On the same day, a German Ju 87 Stuka aircraft sank British anti-submarine trawler HMT Arctic Pioneer off Portsmouth Harbour, England; 18 were killed, 16 survived. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 He 111 bombers of German Luftwaffe unit I./KG 26 and Ju 88 dive bombers of KG 30 attacked Allied convoy PQ-16 southeast of Bear Island (Bjørnøya), Norway in multiple waves. The first attack arrived over PQ-16 at 0320 hours, causing no damage. At 1100 hours, US freighter City of Joliet suffered a near miss. At 1310 hours, US freighter Alamar was hit by two bombs and was abandoned 20 minutes after with all aboard surviving. At 1315 hours, US ship Mormacsul was sunk by 1 bomb hit and 3 near misses; 3 were killed, 45 survived. At 1410 hours, British catapult aircraft merchantman Empire Lawrence was sunk after receiving 5 hits; 25 were killed. In the afternoon, Russian ship Stari Bolshevik, British ship Empire Baffin, and Polish destroyer Garland were damaged by German attacks, followed by US ship City of Joliet being damaged after being struck by a crashing German dive bomber (she would be abandoned at the end of the day). At 1945 hours, British merchant ship Empire Purcell was hit by 2 bombs and was abandoned. Finally, at 1950 hours, British merchant ship Lowther Castle was hit by a torpedo from a I./KG26 He 111 bomber and sank. I./KG 26 recorded the loss of two crews on this day. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Engineers and staff officers of the Japanese 25th Air Flotilla and 8th Base Force arrived at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands by flying boat to inspect prospective airfield building sites. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich departed his home in Panenské Brežany for his office at the Prague Castle in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the morning without his usual escort. British-trained Czech soldier Jozef Gabcík and others attacked his car at Liben, seriously wounding Heydrich with a grenade. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 The 152 members of a student group that openly displayed anti-Nazi posters in Berlin, Germany were executed. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 USS Yorktown arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii at 1420 hours. 1,400 dock workers were assigned to attempt to repair her, damaged from Battle of the Coral Sea, in time for the impending Midway battle. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 USS Astoria arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Groups from USS Hornet (Yorktown-class) and USS Yorktown (Yorktown-class) serviced. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 USS Hammann arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Akagi departed Hashirajima, Japan at 0600 hours for Battle of Midway as flagship of Vice Admiral Nagumo's Carrier Striking Force (Carrier Divisions 1 and 2). 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Kaga departed Hashirajima in Hiroshima Bay, Japan for Midway Atoll. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 The main offensive against the Gazala Line in Libya, which was a mobile tank assault around the southern end of the line, was launched by Axis armor divisions. Several Allied supply bases were overrun, including those guarded by men of the Indian 3rd Motor Brigade, but the French-held fort at Bir Hakeim, Libya would prove to be troublesome for the Axis forces for many days. While the left side of the offensive paused at Bir Hakeim, the right side reached El Adem by mid-morning, capturing the headquarters element of the British 7th Armored Division, including the commanding officer General Frank Messervy. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 168 prisoners, all Polish artists and actors arrested in the previous month, were shot at the execution wall in the courtyard of Block 11 in Auschwitz I in occupied Poland. They were killed in retaliation of the death of the German Luftwaffe commanding officer in Krakow, where the victims came from. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 Light cruiser Voroshilov delivered troops of the Russian 9th Naval Infantry Brigade to Sevastopol, Russia, suffering damage by German air attack but also claiming two He 111 aircraft shot down. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 German Luftwaffe commenced Operation Froschlaich which mined waters in the vicinity of Kronstadt and Leningrad, Russia; the operation would last nearly three weeks. 
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27 May 1942 WW2 German troops captured Lozovenka near Kharkov, Ukraine. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 Allied forces landed on Biak Island, New Guinea. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 The first unified meeting of French resistance groups took place, chaired by Jean Moulin; it recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the movement. Moulin would be betrayed to the Gestapo a month later, dying en route to a concentration camp. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 USS Gar ended her seventh war patrol. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 Franklin Roosevelt ordered that all defense contracts to be free of racial discrimination. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 USS Tunny refueled at Johnston Island, United States. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 In Samoa, the US 22nd Marine Regiment was reorganized as the Garrison Force, Defense Force, Samoan Group. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 USS Finback sank a Japanese cargo ship east of Philippine Islands, hitting her with 2 of 3 torpedoes fired. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 Japanese troops launched a major attack against Chinese troops in the Hubei-Hunan border region while 53 vessels ran the gauntlet on the Yangtze River, successfully sailing from Yichang to Wuhan. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 USS Hoe departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Torpedo Squadron 12 (VT-12) departed (Model TBF). Part of British Torpedo Squadron 832 departed. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 Mutsu arrived at Kure, Japan and entered dry dock No. 4 for hull scraping and re-painting. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 While on a search and rescue mission in the Pacific Ocean, the B-24 bomber "The Green Hornet" developed mechanical trouble and crashed 850 miles west of Oahu, US Territory of Hawaii, killing 8 of the 11 crew members. Louis Zamperini, Russell Phillips, and Francis McNamara survived the crash. 
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27 May 1943 WW2 USS Runner departed Midway Atoll for her third war patrol. 
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27 May 1944 WW2 The first Shinyo special attack boats were completed. 
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27 May 1944 WW2 USS Becuna was commissioned into service, Lieutenant Commander H. D. Sturr in command. 
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27 May 1944 WW2 Brigadier William Lentaigne ordered Michael Calvert to capture Mogaung, Burma by 5 Jun 1944. 
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27 May 1944 WW2 Hans Speidel, Konstantin von Neurath, and Karl Stroelin met at Stroelin's home in Freudenstadt, Germany to discuss the overthrow of Adolf Hitler. They concluded that Erwin Rommel was the ideal candidate to be the interim head of Germany or as the chief of the Germany military after Hitler's death as the Western Allies were more likely to negotiate peace with him than any of the officials in Berlin. They believed that a united European front could be formed to fight against Bolshevism. 
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27 May 1944 WW2 Italian "Folgore" parachute regiment reported a strength of 1,200 Italians and 130 Germans. 
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27 May 1944 WW2 In a Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle the word "Overlord" appeared as one of the answers. This caused considerable consternation among Allied invasion planners as "Overlord" was the codename for the whole D-Day operation. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 Operation Kikusui No. 8 was launched off Okinawa, Japan, participated by about 60 Japanese Navy and 50 Japanese Army special attack and escorting aircraft; together with manned torpedoes, these special attacks damaged 5 destroyers and 6 other ships in the area. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 USS Guitarro arrived at Saipan, Mariana Islands. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 USS Missouri bombarded Japanese positions on Okinawa, Japan. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 USS Ray sank 3 small Japanese vessels west of Japan with her deck gun. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 US 101st Airborne Division Master Sergeant Charles Dickey discovered Heinrich Himmler's emergency cash in Himmler's family barn in Bayern (Bavaria) in southern Germany. It consisted of currencies of 26 nations worth a total of US$4,000,000. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 USS Cero arrived at Guam, Mariana Islands, ending her seventh war patrol. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 Japanese submarines I-13 and I-14 departed Kure, Japan for Chinkai, Korea. They came under attack in the Straits of Shimonoseki later in the day, but escaped unscathed. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 USS Boarfish intercepted a two-masted junk in the Java Sea; the search party sent aboard found nothing suspicious and allowed the ship to leave. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 Corporal Yukio Araki died as a special attack pilot. His Ki-51 aircraft might be one of the two aircraft which crashed into destroyer USS Braine off Okinawa, Japan. 
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27 May 1945 WW2 US B-25 bombers and fighters based in the Philippine Islands attacked Koshun Airfield, Takao Prefecture, Taiwan. 
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27 May 1946 WW2 I. P. Konovalov stepped down as GUKR SMERSH's chief in the 4th Ukranian Front; A. P. Misyurev, V. P. Rogov, and I. T. Rusak stepped down from a similar position in the 1st Baltic Front, 3rd Byelorussian Front, and Karelian Front, respectively. 
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27 May 1947 WW2 Chinese communist forces captured Changtu County, Liaoning Province, China. 
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27 May 1947 WW2 Daniel Inouye was honorably discharged from the US Army at the rank of captain. 
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27 May 1949 WW2 The Central Intelligence Agency Act was passed by the US Congress. 
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