Person report

★04 Nov 1938
The deportation of several thousand Jews from Slovakia by the Hlinka Guard and police began.

★08 Nov 1939
Georg Elser unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a time bomb, but killed eight people and injured more than sixty-two others.

★19 Sep 1940
Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be captured by German forces and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather intelligence.

★09 Dec 1940
Second World War: British and Commonwealth forces opened Operation Compass, the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign.

★05 Feb 1941
Second World War: British and Free French forces began the Battle of Keren to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian Eritrea.

★05 Jun 1941
Second Sino-Japanese War: During one sortie in a five-year bombing campaign on Chongqing, 4,000 people died of asphyxiation when the tunnel they were hiding in became blocked.

★05 Aug 1949
A magnitude 6.8 ML earthquake struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people.

★16 Jan 1964
The musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway, and went on to win ten Tony Awards, a record that stood for 37 years.

★17 May 1974
The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force detonated a series of car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, killing 33 people and injuring over 300 more.

★29 Mar 1975
Jeff Beck released Blow by Blow, his most successful album in the U.S., reaching the top five and selling over one million copies.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.