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History on the 18th of August

History
Date Text
18 Aug 1688 RELIGIOUS Puritan clergyman John Bunyan, 69, preached his last sermon, before dying 13 days later. In 1678 he had authored Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory describing the difficulties encountered in the Christian life, while journeying through this world.
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18 Aug 1856 RELIGIOUS Birth of Charles Gabriel, American sacred music artist. He edited a great number of hymnbooks, and wrote several hymns, including "More Like the Master," "I Stand Amazed in the Presence" and "Send the Light."
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18 Aug 1910 WW2 Wilhelm Keitel was promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant. 
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18 Aug 1911 WW2 General Arisawa Ueda was named the commanding officer of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea, relieving Haruno Okubo. 
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18 Aug 1911 WW2 Henry Arnold set an altitude record of 1,270 meters, or 4,167 feet. 
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18 Aug 1914 WW2 Prince Hiroyasu was named the commandant of the Japanese Navy Academy. 
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18 Aug 1914 WW2 Settsu was assigned to the First Fleet of the Japanese Navy. 
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18 Aug 1916 WW2 Repulse was commissioned into service. 
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18 Aug 1916 WW2 General Yoshifuru Akiyama was named the commanding officer of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea, relieving Seigo Inokuchi. 
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18 Aug 1919 WW2 The Russian battleship Petropavlovsk was torpedoed and sunk at Kronstadt near Petrograd, Russia by a British coastal motorboat. Salvaged and repaired she was renamed Marat but was crippled by German dive-bombers at Kronstadt in Sep 1941. Repaired (and renamed Petropavlovsk again) she would see out World War II as a floating battery. 
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18 Aug 1920 WW2 Defeated, Mikhail Tukhachevsky's 15th, 3rd and 16th Armies were in full retreat, whilst his 4th Army was trapped by a Polish counter attack from Warsaw, Poland by Józef Pilsudski's 1st, 2nd and 5th Armies. 
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18 Aug 1921 WW2 Lydia Litvyak was born in Moscow, Russia. 
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18 Aug 1924 WW2 France began to withdraw its troops from Germany. 
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18 Aug 1927 RELIGIOUS At age 20, Christian radio pioneer Theodore Epp was converted to a living faith. In 1939 he founded Back to the Bible Broadcast, an evangelistic radio program with outlets today on over 600 stations around the world.
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18 Aug 1930 RELIGIOUS English apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'One creeps home, tired and bruised, into a state of mind that is really restful, when all ambitions have been given up. Then one can really for the first time say, "Thy Kingdom come."
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18 Aug 1931 WW2 The keel of Émile Bertin was laid down by Chantiers de Penhoët at Saint-Nazaire, France. 
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18 Aug 1937 WW2 Japanese Army General Masakazu Kawabe entered Beiping, China and proclaimed himself the military governor of the city. 
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18 Aug 1938 WW2 3 Chinese Hawk 75 and 7 Chinese I-15 fighters intercepted 27 Japanese bombers over Hengyang, Hunan, China, shooting down 1 Japanese bomber and damaging another but losing 1 Hawk 75 fighter. The remaining two Hawk 75 fighters crashed while landing. 
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18 Aug 1938 WW2 In Berlin, Germany, Colonel-General Ludwig Beck was forced to resign as Chief of the Army General Staff because of his consistent opposition to Adolf Hitler's decision to attack Czechosovakia. 
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18 Aug 1939 WW2 Romania placed an additional order to purchase 6 more German He 112 fighters. 
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18 Aug 1939 WW2 German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop pushed for his visit to the Soviet Union, offering Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov favorable terms in terms of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's negotiation with the western powers stalled again as Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck continued to resist allowing Soviet entry into Polish territory even in the face of a German invasion. 
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18 Aug 1939 WW2 Prince Hiroyasu's wife Tsuneko Tokugawa passed away. 
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18 Aug 1940 WW2 The British evaucation of Berbera, British Somaliland was completed after troopships Chakdina, Chantala, Laomedon, and Akbar and hospital ship Vita departed the port, destined for Aden. Australian cruiser HMAS Hobart was left behind to collect stragglers and destroy vehicles, fuel, and stores. Colonial troops of the Somaliland Camel Corps chose to remain in their homeland; their British officers respected their decision and allowed them to keep their weapons. 
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18 Aug 1940 WW2 No. 302 (Polish) and No. 310 (Czechoslovakian) squadrons were activated by the RAF. 
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18 Aug 1940 WW2 US President Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister King signed the Ogdensburg Agreement which established the Permanent Joint Board for the Defense of the United States and Canada. 
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18 Aug 1940 WW2 On this "Hardest Day", German aircraft attacked Kenley and Biggin Hill airfields in southern England in the United Kingdom, among other locations, subjecting the airfields to heavy bombing. Losses on both sides were heavy with the Germans losing 69 aircraft and the RAF Fighter Command 29. 
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18 Aug 1940 WW2 The keel of Columbia was laid down by New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey, United States. 
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18 Aug 1941 WW2 British War Cabinet member Mr. Butt wrote a report to the RAF Bomber Command, noting "f those aircraft recorded as attacking their target, only one in three got within five miles" of the intended targets. The conclusion was reached after studying post-bombing reconnaissance photos taken between 2 Jun and 25 Jul 1941. 
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18 Aug 1941 WW2 Radio Belgrade played an obscure German record which had been found in a pile of dusty 78s in the cellar of Radio Vienna. The song, Lili Marleen, sung by Lale Andersen, was an instant success. Within a week the station was receiving thousands of requests from the soldiers of the Deutsche Afrika Korps for it to be played over and over again. The song's success did not end there for, with English lyrics, it would become equally popular with the British and Commonwealth soldiers fighting in the Western Desert. 
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18 Aug 1941 WW2 In southern Ukraine, German troops established a bridgehead across the Dnieper River at Zaporizhia. Further southwest along the river, German troops began an attack on the city Kherson situated on the western bank of the river. The port facilities of Odessa, Ukraine was struck by He 111 bombers of German Luftwaffe KG 27; the pilots reported overwhelming success in terms of Soviet shipping destroyed. Out at sea, Two Romanian torpedo boats, NMS Viscolul and NMS Vijelia, damaged a Soviet destroyer south of Odessa. 
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18 Aug 1941 WW2 US President Franklin Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways had agreed to ferry Lend-Lease US warplanes to British forces in the Middle East.  
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 The US Navy ordered the transfer of two battleships from the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific Fleet. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 31 bombers of the British Path Finder Force conducted their first combat operation since the unit's formation on 15 Aug, dropping flares over Flensburg in Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany for the 87 bombers following behind them; most of the bombers targeting Flensburg missed and hit the towns of Sønderborg and Abenra to the north, destroying 26 houses, damaging 660 houses, and wounding 4 Danish civilians; 4 bombers were lost on this mission. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 Adolf Hitler issued the Commando Order that all Allied commandos encountered by German forces in Europe and Africa should be killed immediately, even if in uniform or if they attempted to surrender. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 The keel of submarine Cabrilla was laid down. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 German submarine wolfpack Blücher consisted of U-214, U-333, U-406, U-566, U-590, U-594, and U-653 attacked Allied convoy SL-118 565 miles west of Portugal; at 1852 hours, a spread of torpedoes fired by U-214 sank Dutch merchant ship Balingkar (2 were killed, 91 survived), sank British merchant ship Hatarana (all 108 aboard survived), and damaged British armed merchant cruiser Cheshire (all aboard survived); U-653 was detected by a British Liberator aircraft of No. 120 Squadron RAF, and was forced to return to Brest, France after sustaining heavy damage. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 German submarine U-553 attacked Allied convoy TAW-13 close to the coast of southeastern Cuba, sinking British merchant ship Emipre Bede at 0559 hours (2 were killed, 43 survived), US merchant ship John Hancock at 0913 hours (all 49 aboard survived), and Swedish merchant ship Blankaholm at 0913 hours (5 were killed, 23 survived). 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 Soviet submarine L-3 attacked a convoy and sank Swedish ship C. F. Liljevalch off Västervik, Sweden; 33 were killed, 7 survived. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 British submarine HMS United attacked an Axis convoy 45 miles south of Pantellaria island, Italy and sank Italian transport Rosolino Pilo; the resulting explosion caused HMS United to become damaged. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 British submarine Safari sank Italian freighter Perseo 10 miles south of Sardinia, Italy. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 German cruiser Admiral Scheer, destroyer Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, destroyer Z15 Erich Steinbrink, and destroyer Z4 Richard Beitzen entered Kara Sea. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 USS S-28 arrived at Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska, ending her second war patrol. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 Tenryu arrived at Basabua, Australian New Guinea. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 Two Japanese transports arrived at Buna, Australian Papua and disembarked reinforcements. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 Six Japanese destroyers delivered 916 troops to Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands; about 400 of them were of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Japanese Infantry Regiment who landed at Taivu Point, while the other about 500 were of the Yokosuka 5th Special Naval Landing Force who landed at Kokumbona; this was the first Japanese reinforcement of Guadalcanal by warships. On the same day, Henderson Field was declared completed. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 USS Wahoo arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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18 Aug 1942 WW2 German troops assaulted Novorossiysk and Tuapse on the Black Sea coast in southern Russia. 100 kilometers to the northeast, German 1st Panzer Army captured Krasnodar. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 Referencing an alliance from 1373 with Britain, Portugal allowed the Allies to use the Azore Islands for air and naval bases. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Tunny sighted Pagan and Alamagan in the Mariana Islands. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 Otto Skorzeny conducted an aerial reconnaissance mission over La Maddalena, Italy. His He 111 aircraft was shot down by British fighters. Skorzeny survived the crash, but suffered three broken ribs. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 Orde Wingate met Franklin Roosevelt at Quebec, Canada, introduced by Winston Churchill. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 US bombers attacked the four Japanese airfields at Wewak, Australian New Guinea (Boram, Wewak, But, and Dagna). The Americans lost two B-25 bombers and one P-38 fighter; the Japanese lost 30 aircraft and suffered damage to the airstrips. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 Shigure arrived at Rabaul, New Britain. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 At Wewak, New Guinea, Major Ralph Cheli leading his B-25 squadron of the 38th Group was attacked by a Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 aircraft while making his run-up to the target, which shot up the starboard engine and set it on fire. With the flames spreading rapidly to the wings he held his course aiming for a line of parked Zero fighters on the airfield. Only when he had pressed home his attack did Major Cheli call his wing man to take over command of the squadron. Then, within moments, the doomed aircraft rolled over and, before the horrified eyes of his fellow airmen, crashed into the sea and exploded. For his heroic sacrifice Major Cheli would ultimately be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 Duquesne arrived at Dakar, French West Africa. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 Between 0017 and 0043 hours, three waves of British bombers (227, 113, and 180 bombers, respectively) struck the German rocket research site at Peenemünde, dropping a total of 1,600 tons of high explosive bombs and 250 tons of incendiary bombs. Initially the damage appeared to be extensive, but the site returned to operation within four to six weeks. Many buildings would remain unrepaired and craters unfilled in order to trick the British into thinking that the site was abandoned after the raid. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Snook departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her third war patrol. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Wahoo attacked several freighters on separate occasions in the Sea of Okhotsk; all 3 torpedo missed. Several hours later, she sank a small fishing vessel with her deck gun. 
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18 Aug 1943 WW2 The US Marine Corps Division of Aviation was transferred from the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 German Seventh Army retreated across Orne River in France, leaving 18,000 men behind to be captured. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 In southern France, Germans began evacuating from areas of Spanish border and Bay of Biscay. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 Air Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of RAF Coastal Command. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Gabilan completed her second war patrol. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Ray attacked a Japanese convoy and sank Japanese tanker Nansei Maru (hitting her with 3 of 4 torpedoes fired) and transport Taketoyo Maru (hitting her with 1 of 2 torpedoes fired) north of the Balabac Strait in the Philippine Islands. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 Foch's wreck was sunk at the mouth of Toulon harbor, France as a blockship. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Marblehead arrived at Corsica, France. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Sargent Bay departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii to deliver aircraft to Eniwetok and Manus. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Night Attack and Combat Training Unit commissioned, Capt JH Griffin, commanding. On this date it was composed of 21 F6F's, 10 TBM's, 4 F4U's, 2 SB2C's, and 1 SNV. Compliment: 11 officers and 24 men. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Gunnel attacked a Japanese transport with her deck gun in the South China Sea, causing no damage. 
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18 Aug 1944 WW2 Soviet forces captured Sandomierz, Poland. 
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18 Aug 1945 WW2 Americans began parachuting medical and aid teams into selected prisoners of war camps in the Japanese home islands. 
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18 Aug 1945 WW2 In the Manchuria region of northeastern China, nearly 4,000 Japanese troops surrendered at Hailar, effectively ending organised resistance. Far to the northeast, Soviet troops landed on Paramushiro, Kurile Islands, Japan. 
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18 Aug 1945 WW2 Guo Fengwu, the deputy commander of the 24th Pursuit Squadron of the Chinese Air Force, flew over Guisui, Suiyuan (now Hohhot, Inner Mongolia), China and dropped leaflets containing a transcript of Emperor Showa's 15 Aug 1945 radio address. He was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and became the final Chinese Air Force casualty of the war. 
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18 Aug 1945 WW2 Soviet First Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Andrei Vyshinsky submitted a list of names of Germans who could be sent to the Nuremberg Trials to his superior Vyacheslav Molotov. The list consisted of Ferdinand Schörner, Hans Fritzche, Hans-Erich Voß, Adolf Beckerle, and Reiner Stahel. 
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18 Aug 1945 WW2 The last air conflict of WW2 took place over Tokyo, Japan. Two US reconnaissance aircraft were attacked by fighters and flak. One American crewman was killed and two fighters were shot down. 
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18 Aug 1945 WW2 Subhash Chandra Bose was killed during an air crash off Taiwan. 
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18 Aug 1949 WW2 Hiroshi Nemoto arrived at Xiamen (Postal Map: Amoy), Fujian Province, China. 
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18 Aug 1963 RELIGIOUS Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'Even if there is cause for great dissatisfaction with one's church, one should stay in it in the hope that new movements will come.... Only in this way could I continue to be a member of the Evangelical Reformed Church.'
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