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History on the 31st of May

History
Date Text
31 May 1578 RELIGIOUS Italian archaeologist Antonio Bosio became the first man in modern times to rediscover the Christian catacombs in Rome. Researchers (e.g., Giovanni B. de Rossi) who followed him dubbed Bosio "the Columbus of the Catacombs."
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31 May 1638 RELIGIOUS Colonial clergyman Thomas Hooker, 51, first arrived at the site of New Haven, CT, having migrated there with his church members who repudiated the autocratic rule of Puritanism in Boston. Hooker (the founder of Connecticut) believed Boston had become corrupt, and that church authority should rest in the people's consent.
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31 May 1769 RELIGIOUS Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'He fulfills His promise in making our strength equal to our day; and every new trial gives us new proof how happy it is to be enabled to put our trust in Him.'
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31 May 1821 RELIGIOUS The first Catholic cathedral in the U.S.
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31 May 1915 WW2 The first airship raid was made on London, England, United Kingdom by German Army Zeppelin LZ 38. Bombs fell on the East End of the capital, killing seven civilians and injuring at least fourteen more. 
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31 May 1915 WW1 Begin of Capture of Amara
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31 May 1916 WW1 Begin of Battle of Jutland
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31 May 1918 WW2 Quintin Brand was awarded the Distinguished Service Order award. 
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31 May 1918 WW2 In Siberia, Russia, the Czech Legion captured Petropavlovsk and Tomsk. 
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31 May 1919 WW2 Tatsuta was commissioned into service. 
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31 May 1920 WW2 Masafumi Arima enrolled in gunnery school in Japan. 
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31 May 1922 WW2 Joseph Rochefort was assigned to tanker Cuyama. 
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31 May 1923 WW2 Rudolf Höss and a group of Nazi Party members killed suspected communist Walther Kadow in Mecklenburg, Germany to avenge the death of fellow party member Albert Leo Schlageter. 
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31 May 1931 WW2 Cruiser Köln conducted training operation in the Baltic Sea. 
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31 May 1932 WW2 Takao was commissioned into service. 
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31 May 1933 WW2 The Tanggu Truce was signed between China and Japan to end the undeclared war between China and Japan, with terms extremely favorable to Japan. 
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31 May 1933 WW2 Uyghur guerilla fighters attacked Muslim Chinese troops at the oases of Aksu, Xinjiang, China; each side suffered several hundred casualties. 
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31 May 1933 WW2 Saburo Sakai joined the Japanese Navy. 
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31 May 1937 WW2 The Spanish Republicans began an offensive to capture Segovia, Spain. Three Republican Divisions, under the command of General Domingo Moriones, broke through the Spanish Nationalist front-line at San Ildefonso and captured La Granja. Nationalist troops, led by General José Varela, were detached from the Madrid front and used to mount a counter-attack which stopped any further Republican advance. 
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31 May 1938 WW2 Garland entered drydocks at Sheerness, England, United Kingdom for a scheduled overhaul and repairs on her low-pressure turbines. 
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31 May 1939 WW2 Vyacheslav Molotov gave his first speech as the Soviet foreign minister before the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union. He called for the Soviet Union to guarantee the borders of neighboring countries in Eastern Europe as means to contain German aggression, but at the same time, friendly relations should be maintained with Germany and Italy as commercial agreements with them were still of interest to the Soviet Union. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 Poor weather clouded over Dunkirk, France and gave the British a chance to bring in the modern destroyers into the area to assist the evacuation with less fear of German air attacks; 68,014 (45,072 from harbor and 22,942 from beaches) were rescued on this date, including British Expeditionary Force commanding general Lord Gort. French destroyer Leopart and British destroyers HMS Express, HMS Icarus, HMS Keith, and HMS Winchelsea were damaged by German aerial bombing. German torpedo boats damaged French destroyers Sirocco and Cyclone; Sirocco was finished off by German aircraft, killing 59 crew and 600 troops. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 British sloop HMS Weston sank German submarine U-13 with depth charges 14 miles southeast of Lowestoft, England. The entire crew of 26 were taken prisoner. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 German submarine U-101 attacked Allied convoy HG-31F and sank British ship Orangemoor with 8,150 tons of iron on board west of Guernsey, killing 18. The convoy's escorts attacked U-101 with 41 depth charges over the course of 8 hours; the submarine survived the attack. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 US Ambassador to Argentina Norman Armour and US Minister in Uruguay Edwin C. Wilson met in Montevideo, Uruguay regarding the deteriorating political situation in Uruguay. They jointly requested Secretary of State Cordell Hull to ask President Roosevelt to sent 40 to 50 warships to the eastern coast of South America as a show of force to prevent Uruguay from partnering with Germany. Later in the day, Hull would inform them that heavy cruiser USS Quincy was dispatched for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil per their suggestion, and she would visit Montevideo on the journey. State Department official Laurence Duggan would suggest Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles to publicize USS Quincy's South American tour. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 No. 829 Squadron FAA took their newly issued Fairey Albacore aircraft into action for the first time with attacks on German E-boats off Zeebrugge, Belgium and road and rail targets at Westende, Belgium. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 UK Prime Minister Churchill traveled to Paris, France for a Supreme Allied War Council meeting. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 US-built DB-7 medium bombers of the French Air Force saw combat for the first time against German columns near Saint-Quentin in the Picardy Region of northeastern France. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 Oliver Leese was evacuated from a beach near Dunkerque, France. 
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31 May 1940 WW2 The US Marine Corps 14th Naval District dispatched Captain Samuel G. Taxis to survey Midway Atoll with a small reconnaissance party for the planning of building a US Marine Corps presence there. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 At 0200 hours, Dublin, Ireland was accidentally bombed by German bombers intending to hit Liverpool, England, United Kingdom; 28 were killed and 87 were wounded, while about 25 homes were destroyed and about 300 homes were seriously damaged. Germany would later offer compensation. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 British destroyers HMS Napier and HMS Nizam embarked 1,510 troops at Sphakia, Crete, Greece and departed before dawn for Egypt; they were attacked by Axis aircraft en route, causing minor damage. At 0600 hours, British cruiser HMS Phoebe, minelayer HMS Abdiel, and destroyers HMS Jackal, HMS Kimberley, and HMS Hotspur departed Alexandria, Egypt for Sphakia to evacuate more troops. On the same day, 54 senior level Allied officers, including General Freyberg, were evacuated from Crete by aircraft. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 The mayor of Baghdad, Iraq surrendered to British Ambassador Sir Kinahan Cornwallis at the Washash Bridge. As a sign of good faith, the British allowed the Iraqi Army to return to their barracks, and all captured equipment were returned. Both sides released captured prisoners of war with the exception of German and Italian troops captured by the British. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-69 sank British ship Sangara at Accra harbor, Gold Coast at 0025 hours. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-38 sank Norwegian ship Rinda off Liberia at 0024 hours; 13 were killed, 18 survived and were rescued by British anti-submarine trawler HMS Pict. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-106 sank British ship Clan MacDougall near Cape Verde Islands at 0334 hours; 2 were killed, 85 survived. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-107 sank British ship Sire off Sierra Leone, British West Africa at 0739 hours; 3 were killed, 46 survived and were rescued by British corvette HMS Marguerite. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-147 sank British ship Gravelines 100 miles northwest of Ireland; 11 were killed, 25 survived and were rescued by British sloop HMS Deptford. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-204 sank small Icelandic fishing boat Holmsteinn northwest of Iceland at 0515 hours, killing the entire crew of 4. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 Before dawn, German bombers attacked Merseyside, England, United Kingdom in the early hours of the day. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 After successfully escaping the Oflag IV-C prisoner of war camp at Colditz Castle, Germany earlier in the month, British Lieutenant Anthony "Peter" Allan failed to secure assistance from the US Consulate at Vienna in occupied Austria. Giving up, he turned himself in at a local police station and was eventually returned to Colditz. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 A Soviet decree stated that children of traitors could be criminally charged after they reached the age of 15. 
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31 May 1941 WW2 US 22nd and 23rd Fighter Squadrons, both operating P-40 Warhawk fighters, was assigned to St. Croix Airfield, US Virgin Islands. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 USS Colorado patrolled 650 miles west of San Francisco, California, United States. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 British airfield RAF Bassingbourn's station log noted that from this date, when there were missions, "all personnel, officers, NCOs, and airmen to be served in the future in the airmen's mess." 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Unyo was commissioned into service. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Lord Gort stepped down as the Governor of Gibraltar. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 USS Pollack damaged a small boat with her deck gun off Kyushu, Japan. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-432 sank Canadian ship Liverpool Packet off Nova Scotia, Canada at 0140 hours; 2 were killed, 19 survived. At 0252 hours, U-506 sank British ship Fred W. Green with gunfire 200 miles southeast of Bermuda; 5 were killed, 36 survived. In the South Atlantic, Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini sank British Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Dinsdale, hitting her with 4 of 6 torpedoes fired; 5 were killed. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 British submarine HMS Proteus sank Italian merchant ship Gino Allegri 90 miles west of Benghazi, Libya. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Japanese submarines I-22, I-24, and I-27 launched three midget submarines 7 miles off of Sydney, Australia. At 2235 hours, one was caught in torpedo nets and was scuttled by her own crew of two (both were killed in the process). The two others continued into Sydney Harbor. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Soviet submarine ShCh-214 sank Turkish ship Mahbubdihan in the Black Sea; Mahbubdihan was suspected of carrying supplies for German troops. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 USS Finback departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for the anticipated Japanese attack on Midway Atoll. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii intercepted a radio message noting that carrier Zuikaku's air group was being transferred out of the carrier, which provided a strong hint that Zuikaku was not going to participate in the upcoming offensive. Later on the same day, Chester Nimitz informed his carrier task forces commanders that the Japanese attack would likely take place on 3 Jun 1942, and the Japanese would be operating four fleet carriers. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 50 trucks reached Bir Hakeim in Libya, bringing badly-needed fresh water and evacuating Indian troops and Italian prisoners of war. After sundown, Axis tanks attacked westward from within the Cauldron on the southern end of the Gazala Line, assaulting positions held by British 150th Brigade. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Hans-Joachim Marseille shot down the P-40 fighter piloted by Major Andre Duncan at 0726 hours near Fort Acroma, Libya. Two minutes later, he shot down his first victim's wingman. At 0734 hours, he scored his third kill of the day. His score stood at 68 by the end of this date. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Japanese submarine I-10 launched her floatplane for a reconnaissance mission over Diego-Suárez harbor, Madagascar to evaluate damage caused by the midget submarine attack that had taken place during the previous night. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 I-168 arrived in the Midway Atoll vicinity. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 Monowitz labor camp, later to become Auschwitz III, opened on this date, housing forced laborers charged with building the Buna-Works for the German chemical firm I. G. Farben. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 German bombers attacked Canterbury, England, United Kingdom. 
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31 May 1942 WW2 USS Maryland patrolled 650 miles west of San Francisco, California, United States. 
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31 May 1942 RELIGIOUS German warplanes bombed Canterbury, England, causing severe damage to the Canterbury Cathedral (seat of Anglicanism), in retaliation for Britain's assault on Cologne, Germany.
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31 May 1943 WW2 US troops completed their occupation of Attu in the Aleutian Islands. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 USS Tunny was attacked by a Japanese aircraft, incurring minor damage that was repaired at sea later in the day. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 Adolf Hitler expressed extreme dismay at the withdrawal of German submarines from the American coast. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was named the commanding officer of the 3rd Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 wing. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 Lydia Litvyak shot down a German observation balloon. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 George Kenney arrived at Port Moresby, Australian Papua to temporarily relieve Ennis Whitehead, who was sent to Australia for treatment for a badly infected toe. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 Japanese Army Major General Noboru Sasaki arrived at Kolombangara, New Georgia, Solomon Islands as the new commanding officer of the joint Army-Navy Southwest Detachment. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 Japanese forward positions in the Hubei-Hunan border region in China fell back in multiple places as the result of a large scale Chinese counterattack launched on the previous day. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 US 15th Air Force bombed Foggia airfield in Italy, destroying a number of German and Italian planes on the ground. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 Shokaku departed Yokosuka, Japan for the Inland Sea. 
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31 May 1943 WW2 USS S-35 completed post-repair trials off Bremerton, Washington, United States. 
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31 May 1944 WW2 Stalin approved the plan for Operation Bagration, aimed at the destruction of German Armeegruppe Mitte. 
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31 May 1944 WW2 USS Pintado began tracking a Japanese convoy in the Philippine Sea. 
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31 May 1944 WW2 A German counterattack near Iasi, Romania was repulsed. 
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31 May 1945 WW2 USS Cassin Young arrived at Okinawa, Japan. 
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31 May 1945 WW2 USS Segundo sank a four-masted sail ship with two torpedoes. 
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31 May 1945 WW2 12 M26 Pershing heavy tanks departed the United States board a cargo ship for Okinawa, Japan. They would arrive too late to see combat. 
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31 May 1945 WW2 Chiang Kaishek stepped down as the Premier of the Republic of China. 
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31 May 1945 WW2 Soviet SMERSH captured German intelligence officer Erwin Stolze in Berlin, Germany in civilian clothing. 
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31 May 1945 WW2 117 B-24 bombers of US 15th Air Force attacked Taihoku (now Taipei), Taiwan between 1000 and 1300 hours nearly without stop, dropping about 3,800 bombs. US air crews reported minimal Japanese fighter defense. Taihoku General Government Building suffered a direct hit, rendering it unusable until after the war. The anti-aircraft position in present day Sanzhong District of New Taipei City, Taihoku General Government building, residence of the Assistant Governor-General, Taihoku Raiway Hotel, Army Headquarters building, Taihoku Imperial University, Taihoku Train Station, Bank of Taiwan, Taihoku High Court, Taihoku Park, Taihoku First Girls' High School, Longshan Temple (main building and left corridor were damaged, destroying many precious artifacts), Penglai Catholic Church (used by civilians as an air raid shelter; it was completely destroyed), Huashan Catholic Church, and many other military, government, and civilian structures were damaged or destroyed. About 3,000 were killed, tens of thousands were made homeless. This was the largest US raid on the city during WW2. 
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31 May 1946 WW2 Piranha was decommissioned from service. 
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31 May 1946 WW2 Irwin was decommissioned from service. 
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31 May 1946 WW2 Chen Cheng was relieved from his position as the head of the political bureau of the Nationalist military, and was named the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Navy and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
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31 May 1946 WW2 I-401 was scuttled by two torpedoes from submarine USS Cabezon off Oahu, US Territory of Hawaii; the torpedoes hit her at 1051 hours and she sank at 1058 hours. 
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31 May 1946 WW2 USS ABSD-1 was decommissioned from service at Leyte Gulf, Philippine Islands. 
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31 May 1946 WW2 USS Menhaden was decommissioned from service at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, United States. She was placed in the US Navy Pacific Reserve Fleet. 
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31 May 1948 WW2 He Yingqin was transferred from the Office of the President of the Republic of China to the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China. 
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30th May 1st June
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