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Births on June 17

1919Jun, 17

John Moffat (Royal Navy officer)

John Moffat, Scottish lieutenant and pilot (d. 2016)
John William Charlton Moffat (17 June 1919 – 11 December 2016) was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot, widely credited as the pilot whose torpedo crippled the German battleship Bismarck and author of the biographical I sank the Bismarck.

Moffat took part in the courageous strike on the German battleship Bismarck during its Atlantic sortie, codenamed Operation Rheinübung, on 26 May 1941 whilst flying a Fairey Swordfish biplane.

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Events on 1919

  • 5Jan

    Nazi Party

    The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.
  • 23Mar

    Italian Fascism

    In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
  • 4May

    Treaty of Versailles

    May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
  • 19May

    Turkish War of Independence

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.
  • 29May

    General relativity

    Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.