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History on the 13th of December

History
Date Text
13 Dec 1204 RELIGIOUS Death of Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon), 69, medieval Jewish scholar and author. His greatest writing, "Guide of the Perplexed" (1190) attempted to harmonize Aristotelian philosophy with rabbinic Judaism.
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13 Dec 1823 RELIGIOUS Birth of William W. How, Anglican clergyman. Shunning the glory of higher ecclesiastical positions, How was known for his work among the poor in East London. He also wrote 50 hymns, of which "We Give Thee But Thine Own" and "For All the Saints" remain two of his most popular.
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13 Dec 1835 RELIGIOUS Birth of Phillips Brooks, American Episcopal clergyman. Though he produced ten volumes of sermons, he is better remembered today as author of the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," written in 1868 for the children of his Sunday School.
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13 Dec 1851 RELIGIOUS Birth of E.O. Excell, American sacred chorister. Excell published 50 gospel songbooks and wrote and composed 2,000 hymns, including "Since I Have Been Redeemed, "Count Your Blessings" and "I'll Be a Sunbeam for Jesus."
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13 Dec 1915 WW2 Isoroku Yamamoto was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander. 
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13 Dec 1915 WW2 Tamon Yamaguchi was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant. 
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13 Dec 1915 WW2 Vice Admiral Takeshi Takarabe succeeded Vice Admiral Reijiro Kawashima as the commanding officer of the Ryojun Military Port (previously known as Port Arthur; now Lushunkou, Liaoning Province, China), Kwantung Leased Territory in northeastern China. 
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13 Dec 1915 WW2 Prince Hiroyasu was named the commanding officer of the 2nd Squadron. 
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13 Dec 1915 WW2 Captain Kesataro Kawahara was named the commanding officer of Settsu. 
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13 Dec 1915 WW2 Admiral Teijiro Kuroi was named the commanding officer of the Mako naval port at Pescadores islands, Taiwan. 
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13 Dec 1916 WW1 Begin of Second Battle of Kut
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13 Dec 1918 WW2 USS Arizona, among other ships, escorted the ship carrying US President Woodrow Wilson to Brest, France. 
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13 Dec 1919 WW2 Hans-Joachim Marseille was born at Berliner Straße 164, Berlin, Germany at 2345 hours. 
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13 Dec 1923 WW2 S-28 was commissioned into service. 
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13 Dec 1931 WW2 While visiting New York City in the United States, Winston Churchill was struck by a car as he crossed the street, having looked the wrong way as he crossed. He suffered injuries to the head but would recover fully. 
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13 Dec 1935 WW2 Harsh editorials against the Hoare-Laval Pact were published in British and French newspapers. 
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13 Dec 1936 WW2 With the frontal attack on Madrid, Spain having failed, the Spanish Nationalist forces attempted to tighten their siege by cutting off the capital from the rest of Republican Spain. José Varela launched an offensive to cut the Corunna Road which ran for 25 miles north of Madrid. 
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13 Dec 1937 WW2 The Japanese Sabae Regiment occupied the Guanghua Gate in Nanjing, China after two days of heavy fighting. In the afternoon, Chinese forces twice attempted to attack the headquarters of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force at Tangshuizhen, but the Japanese was able to repulse the attacks. Later in the day, Zhongshan Gate and Taiping Gate were captured by the Japanese as well, while Japanese Navy warships began to arrive to provide support. By nightfall, the Chinese capital city was declared as captured. German businessman John Rabe, who was in Nanjing, noted the diary entry on this date "It is not until we tour the city that we learn the extent of destruction. We come across corpses every 100 to 200 yards. The bodies of civilians that I examined had bullet holes in their backs. These people had presumably been fleeing and were shot from behind. The Japanese march through the city in groups of ten to twenty soldiers and loot the shops.... I watched with my own eyes as they looted the café of our German baker Herr Kiessling. Hempel's hotel was broken into as well, as almost every shop on Chung Shang and Taiping Road." On this day, troops of the Japanese 16th Division massacred over 3,000 Chinese people, military and civilian, attempting to flee the combat near Guanjiangan and Jiangli areas of Nanjing. Troops of the Japanese 114th Division captured over 1,000 Chinese during its mop up operations, most of whom would be executed within days. Vessels operated by the 11th Task Force of the Japanese 3rd Fleet fired on Chinese refugees attempting to cross the Yangtze River. 
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13 Dec 1938 WW2 Germany enacted a law to exclude Jewish doctors. 
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13 Dec 1939 WW2 At the Battle of the River Plate, three British cruisers damaged German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, forcing her enter the neutral port of Montevideo for repairs. 
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13 Dec 1939 WW2 In China, troops of the Chinese 47th Corps captured the Taihang Mountain and cut the Taosin Railway by taking the stations at Poshan and Changkou. Chinese troops launched an offensive in eastern Shanxi Province in China, nearly encircling the Japanese 36th Division. 
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13 Dec 1939 WW2 Cruiser Köln returned from screening mission for minelayers. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 Führer Directive 20 was issued to prepare for Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 German Army units began redeployment in preparation for Operation Barbarossa. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 British 4th Armored Brigade crossed the desert between Halfaya and Sidi Omar in Egypt in an attempt to cut the road to Tobruk, Libya. To counter the British naval bombardment, Italian submarine Neghelli attacked British cruiser HMS Coventry 40 miles northeast of Sidi Barrani, Egypt at 2042 hours, nearly blowing off her bow; she was able to sail under her own power to Alexandria, Egypt for repairs. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Truant sank Italian ship Sebastino Bianchi 20 miles off the southern tip of Italy. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 German submarine U-43 torpedoed and damaged British ship Orari 450 miles west of Land's End, England, United Kingdom at 2046 hours. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 HMS Manchester arrived in Britain from the Mediterranean Sea. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 Douglas Bader was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. 
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13 Dec 1940 WW2 Pierre Laval was dismissed as the Vice President of the Council, which in effect was the Prime Minister of France. He was placed under arrest shortly after. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 I-68 was attacked by American depth charges on this day and following days, damaging many battery cells and flooded the aft torpedo tubes. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 New Zealand and Indian troops of the British Eighth Army launched an attack on the Gazala Line in Libya while the Germans launched a counterattack. British tanks exploited the gap opened by Indian troops, but the advance was soon halted by German tanks. Both sides incurred heavy casualties in men and equipment after the day's fighting. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Niihau Incident: Downed Japanese pilot attempted to recover sensitive documents seized from him by Niihau islanders; two of the islanders attacked and killed the pilot. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 General Timoshenko's Southwest Front assaulted German lines at junction of 2.Panzergruppe and 2.Armee. 2.Armee withdrew, leaving 2.Panzergruppe's flank unprotected. Feldmarschall von Bock secretly ordered Armeegruppe Mitte to withdraw to a winter line 90 miles west of current positions, without informing Hitler. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Chinese troops mounted an offensive against Japanese troops in the Hong Kong area; earlier on the same day, the last British troops in Kowloon on the mainland were evacuated onto Hong Kong island. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Japanese Navy aircraft again struck the US Navy base at Olongapo at Subic Bay at Luzon, Philippine Islands. Various other bases and airfields in the Manila Bay area were attacked as well. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 British destroyers HMS Sikh, HMS Maori, and HMS Legion and Dutch destroyer HNLMS Isaac Sweers defeated Italian light cruisers Alberto da Giussano and Alberico da Barbiano and torpedo boat Cigno off Cape Bon, Tunisia at 0325 hours. The two Italian cruisers sank (1,020 killed, 645 survived) with nearly 2,000 tons of aviation fuel meant for Axis forces fighting in North Africa. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Goebbels wrote in his diary "The World War is here, the extermination of the Jews must be the necessary consequence." 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 The United States Marine Corps formed the Marine Garrison Forces, 14th Naval District at Honolulu, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Just after 0000 hours, Dutch submarine O.16 entered Mueang Patani, Thailand and damaged four Japanese freighters with six torpedoes, sinking a number of them in shallow water. All ships would later be repaired and put back into service. At 0200 hours, rearguard Indian troops blew up the bridge at Jitra, British Malaya before joining the main body falling back toward Gurun to the south. Later on the same day, Japanese troops arrived at the abandoned airfield at Alor Setar, British Malaya, capturing bombs and aviation fuel. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 British submarine HMS Upright sank Italian transports Fabio Filzi and Carlo del Greco in Gulf of Taranto, Italy. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 British battleship HMS Duke Of York departed the Clyde, Scotland, United Kingdom with Winston Churchill on board, sailing for the United States. The battleship was escorted by destroyers HMS Faulknor, HMS Foresight, and HMS Matabele. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto departed Naples, Italy. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 USS Pollack departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 USS Astoria arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Hans-Joachim Marseille scored his 33rd and 34th kills, both South African P-40 fighters, when he shot down Flying Officer Thomas Trimble and either Lieutenant Connel or Lieutenant Meek northeast of Tmimi, Libya at 1600 and 1610 hours. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Tenryu arrived at Roi, Kwajalein, Marshall Islands. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 US 22nd and 23rd Fighter Squadrons, both operating P-40 Warhawk fighters, was assigned to Vega Baja Auxiliary Airdrome in Puerto Rico. 
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13 Dec 1941 WW2 Allied convoy PQ-5 arrived at Arkhangelsk, Russia. 
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13 Dec 1942 WW2 Kapitän zur See Hans Meyer took command of cruiser Köln. 
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13 Dec 1942 WW2 Italian troops fought off an attack by British troops north of El Agheila, Libya in a rear guard action. 
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13 Dec 1942 WW2 American troops captured Buna, New Guinea. 
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13 Dec 1942 WW2 "Millions of human beings, most of them Jews, are being gathered up with ruthless efficiency and murdered", reported American journalist Edward R. Murrow. "There are no longer 'concentration camps' - we must speak now only of 'extermination camps'." 
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13 Dec 1942 WW2 Irako sailed south from off Mizunoko Lighthouse, Oita, Japan with minelayer Nuwajima in escort. 
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13 Dec 1942 WW2 The British Admiralty announced the loss of the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Penylan (Lieutenant-Commander J. H. Wallace DSC, RN) which had been torpedoed and sunk off Start Point, Devon, England, United Kingdom by German E-Boat S-115 on 3 December 1942, while escorting convoy PW-257. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 American code breakers learned that battleship Yamato was scheduled to arrive at Truk, Caroline Islands on 25 Dec 1943 ferrying men and supplies. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 One of the first war crimes trials was held in Kharkov, where 4 Germans are accused of using death vans to murder thousands of civilians. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 German Armeegruppe Mitte was heavily engaged in defensive combat in and around Vitebsk, Byelorussia. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 USS Puffer sank Japanese freight Teiko Maru west of the Philippine Islands, hitting her with 1 of 4 torpedoes fired. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 403rd Bomb Squadron (flying B-24 aircraft) of USAAF 43rd Bomb Group was transferred from Port Moresby to Dobodura Airfield, Australian Papua. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 Repair ship Akashi completed the repair work for destroyer Samidare at Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 The Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) team in transit to Xamba, Suiyuan Province, China reached the Yellow River in Ninxia Province. As the river was partially frozen, thus no ferry service was available, they waited several weeks for the ice to thicken before attempting to drive their vehicles across. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 Troops of German 117th Jäger Division, under the orders of Karl von Le Suire, burned 200 women and children in a schoolhouse and machine gunned 500 males aged 12 or older in the town of Kalavryta, Greece. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: More of CASU-30 arrived. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 The Canadian attack in "The Gully" region in Italy was met with resistance, suffering heavy casualties, but it also began to wear down the strength of the defending German 90th Panzergrenadier Division, which began to fall back and was replaced by troops of German 1st Parachute Division. Nearby, after sundown, Indian troops launched an attack toward Caldari. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 The US 359th Fighter Group became operational in England, United Kingdom. 
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13 Dec 1943 WW2 USS Cero departed Midway Atoll for her second war patrol. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 Cruiser Köln's power stations and starboard engine were destroyed by Allied aerial attacks. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 German 7.Armee withdrew to fortified positions on the Westwall on the French-German border. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Pintado fired ten torepdoes at Japanese Transport No. 106 in the Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippine Islands; she claimed a sinking after observing one torpedo hit, but this kill was not awarded. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 In the late afternoon west of Mindoro, Philippine Islands, a special attack aircraft struck light cruiser USS Nashville amidships, killing 131 and wounding 192. Two hours later, another special attack aircraft struck, hitting destroyer USS Haraden. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Pompon departed for her seventh war patrol. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 Light carrier Ryuho received orders to embark Ohka weapons for delivery to Taiwan and Philippine Islands. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Croaker departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her third war patrol in the Philippines Islands and South China Sea areas. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 Unryu embarked 30 MXY-7 Ohka special attack aircraft at Kure, Japan. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 US submarine USS Bergall and Japanese heavy cruiser Myoko engaged in a brief combat south of French Indochina during in which both vessels sustained damage; Myoko was hit by one torpedo (of six fired) on the aft port side while Bergall was damaged by an 8-inch shell that passed through without detonating. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Preston guarded carriers while the carriers launched strikes against Luzon, Philippine Islands. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Ticonderoga launched Air Group 80 aircraft for strikes on Japanese positions in northern Luzon, Philippine Islands. 
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13 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Marcus Island transited Surigao Strait in the Philippine Islands. 
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13 Dec 1945 WW2 USS Tunny was decommissioned from service and was placed in the Mare Island Group of the 19th Fleet in reserve. 
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13 Dec 1946 WW2 A star shell accidentally struck USS Missouri during an exercise in the North Atlantic, causing no damage nor injuries. 
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13 Dec 1950 RELIGIOUS American missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'I think God is to be glorified by asking the impossible of Him.'
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