agreement protecting and defending legal rights of the territorial Antarctic, mutually recognizing their claims. On 7 April 1948, Decree No. 9905 settled the administrative unit of the Argentine Antarctic Sector of the maritime Governor of the National Territory of Tierra del Fuego. By her Decree No. 17040 of 9 June the "Antarctic and Malvinas Division" was created under authority of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first continental Argentine base in Antarctica, the Almirante Brown Naval detachment was opened in the year 1951. The following year opened the Esperanza Naval detachment (now Esperanza Base). While building this last base at hope Bay, occurred the first shooting war in Antarctica on 1 February 1952, when a team of coast Argentine, after a warning, fired over the heads of a burst of machine gun and forced to re-embark a civil team of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey unloading materials of the ship John Biscoe intending to restore the British base "D" burned down in 1948. On 17 January 1953, at Deception Island, the Refugio Teniente Lasala (a hut and a tent) was opened by the staff of the Argentine ship ARA Chiriguano, becoming a Sergeant and a corporal of the Argentina Navy. On 15 February, in the incident of Deception Island, 32 Royal Marines of the British frigate HMS Snipe armed with Sten submachine guns, rifles, and tear gas captured two Argentine sailors. The Argentine refuge and a nearby uninhabited Chilean hut were destroyed and Argentine sailors were delivered to a vessel of that country on 18 February to South Georgia. A British detachment stayed three months on the island while the frigate patrolled the waters until April. On 4 May 1955, the United Kingdom filed two lawsuits against Argentina and Chile respectively, the International Court of Justice in The Hague so this declared the invalidity of claims of the sovereignty of the two countries on the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic areas. On 15 July 1955, the Chilean Government rejected the jurisdiction of the Court in that case, and on 1 August, the Argentine Government did the same, by what the demands on 16 March 1956 they were archived. On 1 December 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed by Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the United States, entering into force on 23 June 1961. In the