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History on the 21st of December

History
Date Text
21 Dec 1672 RELIGIOUS Birth of Benjamin Schmolck, German Lutheran clergyman. Though a busy pastor, Schmolck found time to pen 900 hymns, the best remembered of them being "My Jesus, As Thou Wilt."
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21 Dec 1672 RELIGIOUS Birth of Johann Christoph Schwedler, German clergyman and author of the hymn, "Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know." Schwedler penned more than 500 hymns during his life, many stressing the joy
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21 Dec 1776 RELIGIOUS Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here.'
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21 Dec 1835 RELIGIOUS Oglethorpe University was chartered in Milledgeville, Georgia under Presbyterian auspices. In 1913 the campus was moved to Atlanta.
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21 Dec 1843 RELIGIOUS Irish Catholic religious Frances Ward, 33, first arrived in the U.S. in Pittsburgh, where she afterward helped establish successive convents of the Sisters of Mercy, both in Chicago and in Loretto, Pennsylvania.
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21 Dec 1914 WW2 Britain was bombed for the first time when a German Taube dropped two bombs near the Admiralty Pier in Kent, England, United Kingdom. 
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21 Dec 1918 WW2 Erwin Rommel was transferred back to the 124th Infantry Regiment of the Wüttemberg Army. 
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21 Dec 1918 WW2 Stuart was commissioned into service. 
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21 Dec 1918 WW2 Josef Stroop arrived in Detmold, Germany to recuperate from combat wounds. 
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21 Dec 1921 WW2 Erwin Rommel joined the post-WW1 German Reichswehr and became the commanding officer of 4th Company of the 13th Infantry Regiment based in Stuttgart. 
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21 Dec 1926 WW2 Ira Eaker started the 35,200 km journey around South America in the Pan American Goodwill Flight in an OA-1 float plane. 
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21 Dec 1927 WW2 Papanikolis was commissioned into service. 
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21 Dec 1928 WW2 Iwane Matsui was attached to the Japanese Army General Staff. 
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21 Dec 1931 WW2 Japanese Kwantung Army launched an offensive from Mukden toward Jinzhou in Liaoning Province, China. 
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21 Dec 1932 WW2 Wernher von Braun attempted to light a rocket with a four meter long pole at Kummersdorf weapons research center south of Berlin, Germany; the rocket's motor exploded. 
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21 Dec 1933 WW2 France claimed the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea for the colony of Cochinchina, which was a member of the French Indochina federation. 
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21 Dec 1936 WW2 The Spanish Republican submarine C3 was sunk by an Italian submarine off the coast of Malaga, Spain. 
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21 Dec 1938 WW2 HMS Ashanti (L51) was commissioned into service with Commander W. G. Davis in command. 
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21 Dec 1938 WW2 Lord Gort recommended the British Chiefs of Staff that the United Kingdom must assist France in the defense of the Low Countries should they be challenged by Germany. To achieve this, he advocated the improvement of British infantry and armored divisions. 
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21 Dec 1938 WW2 Charles Pownall was named the commanding officer of USS Enterprise. 
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21 Dec 1939 WW2 Between 0725 and 1016 hours, German submarine U-21 sank two neutral Swedish ships Mars and SS Carl Henckel with one torpedo each. The German submarine did not pick up any survivors; only 8 out of the 36 floating in the water survived until when help arrived on the next day. 
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21 Dec 1939 WW2 Russia celebrated Joseph Stalin's 60th official birthday. His actual birthday is 18 Dec 1878, but was changed to 21 Dec 1879 after he came to power in 1922. 
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21 Dec 1939 WW2 Soviet 122nd Division was halted at the villages of Pelkosenniemi and Kemijärvi in Lapland, Finland. 
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21 Dec 1939 WW2 Finnish General Hugo Österman presented a plan for counterattack to Field Marshal Mannerheim; the plan was prepared by Österman's subordinate General Harald Öhqvist of the II Corps. 
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21 Dec 1939 WW2 The British RAF Bomber Command issued Operational Instruction 21, which in part noted the following that reflected the reluctance to end daylight bombing missions despite of the heavy losses sustained thus far: "With the intention of combining useful training and operations, sweeps will continue to be carried out.... If enemy aircraft are encountered, gunners will be able to practise shooting at real targets instead of drogues." 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 German raiders Komet and Orion and support ship Kulmerland released 514 prisoners captured from various ships, mainly women, children and the injured, at Emirau Island, Bismarck Islands. They were given food before being turned over to two English families living on that island. British ship Nellore would arrive on 29 Dec to pick them up. 150 prisoners remained aboard Orion. 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 German submarine U-65 attacked Panamanian tanker Charles Pratt with 2 torpedoes 250 miles west of Freetown, British West Africa (now Sierra Leone) at 1600 hours. The cargo of 96,069 barrels of fuel was ignited, but only 2 were killed. 40 survivors took to two lifeboats; they would be rescued 4 to 5 days later by British ships. 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 Allied convoy MG1 departed Malta at noon for Gibraltar. The convoy consisted of British merchant ships Clan Fraser, Clan Forbes, and Ulster Prince; it was escorted by battleship HMS Malaya and eight destroyers. 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 Luftwaffe bombers struck Liverpool, England, United Kingdom overnight. 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 RAF bombers bombed Porto Marghera, Italy, hitting docks and oil tanks. 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 The rear echelon of the newly established US Marine Corps 7th Defense Battalion arrived at Pago Pago, Tutuila, American Samoa. 
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21 Dec 1940 WW2 Berlin, Germany suffered minor damage from a British RAF bombing raid. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Former luxury ocean liner Hikawa Maru completed her conversion into a Japanese Navy hospital ship. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Isopescu, the Romanian governor of Golta, Transnistria, Romania (now Pervomaisk, Ukraine), ordered the execution of Jews at Bogdanovka Concentration Camp. 4,000 Jews were moved into cow sheds then burned alive. An unknown number of Jews were marched into a ravine and executed by gunfire in the following four days. The massacre ended in the evening of 24 Dec 1941. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 US submarines based in Manila in the Philippine Islands withdrew to Surabaya, Java. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 General Wavell arrived in Rangoon, Burma already aware that most of the promised reinforcements had already been diverted to Malaya. Wavell still entertained hopes of receiving the two East African Brigades from Kenya and most of the 17th Indian Division (Major-General J. H. "Jackie" Smyth VC). When the American Lieutenant General George H. Brett arrived in Rangoon on his way to visit Chiang at Chongqing, Wavell decided to go too, telling his chief of staff, Thomas Hutton, to take over from the GOC Burma (Major General D. K. McLeod) whose proposed replacement had been taken sick. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 A Japanese submarine fired star shells over Sand Island, Johnson Atoll. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 While Canadian and colonial Chinese troops completed the withdraw from Wong Nai Chung Gap in central Hong Kong island, order began to crumble as panic built up rapidly. On the same day, Japanese aircraft sank British river gunboat HMS Cicala, killing 1 and wounding 1. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Having seen previous success with the same tactic on a smaller scale, Japanese launched a large number of rafts down the Perak River toward Kuala Kangsar, Malaya in an attempt to bypass nearby roadblocks; casualties were heavy, but the Japanese troops were able to establish a bridgehead downstream, causing the British to abandon the Perak River positions and to fall back. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Dutch submarine K XVII struck a mine and sank 18 miles north of Tioman Island while exiting the Gulf of Siam; all 36 aboard were killed. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 German submarine U-567 attacked Allied convoy HG-76, en route between Gibraltar and Britain, 500 miles west of Cape Finisterre, Portugal at 1923 hours, sinking Norwegian ship Annavore; 34 were killed, 4 survived. During the counterattack, a merchant ship fired a flare in an attempt to visually find the attacker, but the flare was used by German submarine U-741at 2137 hours to spot and sink escort carrier HMS Audacity; 73 were killed, 407 survived. At 2230 hours, U-567 attacked again, but she was discovered by sloop HMS Deptford and corvette HMS Samphire, which jointly sank the submarine with depth charges, killing all 47 aboard. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 German submarine U-451 was sunk by a Swordfish aircraft of British No. 812 Squadron off Morocco; 44 were killed, 1 survived. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Soviet 31st Cavalry Division attacked Kaluga near Moscow, Russia. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Allied troops pursued retreating Axis units toward Beda Fomm, Libya. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 USS Stingray detected the Japanese invasion fleet sailing from Taiwan toward the Philippine Islands at 1313 hours, but did not attack. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 USS Seal sank Japanese cargo ship Hayataka Maru off Vigan, Luzon island, Philippine Islands. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Yamato departed Kure, Japan for Hiroshima Bay, Inland Sea and anchored west of battleship Nagato at Hashirajima island in Hiroshima Bay. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Germans and Italians increased air attacks on Malta. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 USS S-38 attempted to attack the Japanese invasion fleet in the Lingayen Gulf in western Luzon, Philippine Islands at 0710, but all four torpedoes missed. At 0758 hours, she attacked again, sinking freighter Hayo Maru at 0758 hours. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 Thailand declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom; only the United Kingdom reciprocated the declaration of war. On the same day, Thailand and Japan formally entered into an alliance. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 The US Marine Corps 1st Marine Aircraft Wing arrived at San Diego, California, United States; the unit had previously been based in Quantico, Virginia, United States. 
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21 Dec 1941 WW2 The US Navy PBY aircraft which had arrived at Wake Atoll on the previous day departed with passengers; these passengers would be the last US personnel to leave the atoll. During the day, 29 Japanese carrier aircraft from Soryu and Hiryu attack the island, followed by 33 land-based aircraft four hours later, damaging Battery D on Peale Island. Meanwhile, American intelligence indicated a large Japanese air force build-up in the Marshall Islands and a possible Japanese fleet present east of Wake Atoll, the latter of which seriously threatened the attempts to reinforce Wake. 
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21 Dec 1942 WW2 USS S-28 arrived at Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska. 
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21 Dec 1942 WW2 USS S-35 suffered electrical fires during a storm, forcing her to end the war patrol early. 
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21 Dec 1942 WW2 British and Commonwealth troops crossed the Indian-Burmese border, moving into Japanese-controlled Arakan Peninsula. 
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21 Dec 1942 WW2 Kurt Zeitzler asked Adolf Hitler for permission for Friedrich Paulus' German 6.Armee, encircled within Stalingrad, Russia, to break out to meet Erich von Manstein's relief efforts from the outside. Hitler rejected it, noting that German troops were to hold Stalingrad. 
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21 Dec 1942 WW2 Tatsuta Maru arrived at Mako, Pescadores and departed later in the same day. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Kwajalein, then arrived at Roi. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 The radio in the German embassy in Ireland was seized in response to Allied pressure to limit German espionage efforts. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 The German bridgehead across the Dneiper River at Kherson, Ukraine was destroyed. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 9 RAF Mosquito aircraft attacked the Mannesmann factory at Düsseldorf, Germany. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 Joseph Stilwell arrived in his field headquarters in Burma. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 The 112th Regiment of the Chinese 38th Division was surrounded by elements of the Japanese 18th Division at Yubang Ga, Burma, but by the end of the year the Japanese envelopment would be broken. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 A heavy bomber raid originally scheduled for Rabaul, New Britain was canceled due to poor weather. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 Canadian 1st Division attacked Ortona, Italy, beginning a period of tough street fighting in the town. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 Richard O'Connor, having escaped imprisonment, arrived at Bari, Italy and met with Harold Alexander. 
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21 Dec 1943 WW2 USS Grayback attacked a Japanese convoy off southwestern Japan, claiming the sinking of four vessels; 14 torpedoes were expended in this attack. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Wasp's aircraft attacked Japanese positions on Taiwan and in the Ryukyu Islands. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 USAAF pilot Donald Bryan damaged a German Ar 234 aircraft. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 US forces captured Stavelot, Belgium, while the Germans surrounded Bastogne and captured St. Vith. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Air Group 42 returned to station. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 Italian Marshal Rodolfo Graziani and General Mario Carloni inspected troops of the 4th Alpine Division "Monte Rosa" in the Garfagnana area of Toscana, Italy. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Whale attacked a Japanese trawler in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan; all 4 torpedoes missed. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 USS Preston guarded carriers while the carriers launched strikes against Luzon, Philippine Islands. 
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21 Dec 1944 WW2 Henry Arnold was promoted to the temporary rank of General of the Army. 
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21 Dec 1945 WW2 Austin was decommissioned from service. 
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21 Dec 1945 WW2 Canfield was decommissioned from service. 
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21 Dec 1945 WW2 USS Saint Paul and Chinese landing craft LST144 collided at Shanghai, China, causing slight damage to the cruiser's bow. 
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21 Dec 1945 WW2 George Patton passed away from pulmonary embolism at the US Army hospital in Heidelberg, Germany as the result of an automobile accident. 
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21 Dec 1945 WW2 USS Copahee arrived at Alameda, California, United States. 
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21 Dec 1948 WW2 He Yingqin stepped down from his position as the Minister of Defense. 
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21 Dec 1949 WW2 Chen Cheng stepped down from his position as the Chairman of Taiwan Province, Republic of China and the Chief of Police. 
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20th December 22nd December
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