April 18 » The 7.5 Mw Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800–2,000.
June 28 » The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.
August 22 » Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to make a public appearance in an automobile.
December 10 » The opening of the reservoir of the Aswan Dam in Egypt.
December 14 » The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
Day of marriage May 5, 1928
The temperature on May 5, 1928 was between 7.1 °C and 19.1 °C and averaged 13.6 °C. There was 13.0 hours of sunshine (86%). The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the east. Source: KNMI
March 12 » In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people.
May 3 » The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.
September 28 » Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
October 10 » Chiang Kai-shek becomes Chairman of the Republic of China.
December 13 » George Gershwin's An American in Paris is first performed.
December 17 » Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931.
Day of death August 21, 1974
The temperature on August 21, 1974 was between 7.8 °C and 21.9 °C and averaged 15.6 °C. There was 12.6 hours of sunshine (88%). The almost cloudless was. The average windspeed was 1 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the east-northeast. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from Friday, May 11, 1973 to Monday, December 19, 1977 the cabinet Den Uyl, with Drs. J.M. den Uyl (PvdA) as prime minister.
January 2 » United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
February 4 » M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
May 17 » Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.
September 15 » Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
September 18 » Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110mph winds, killing 5,000 people.
November 16 » The Arecibo message is broadcast from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. It was aimed at the current location of the globular star cluster Messier 13 some 25,000 light years away. The message will reach empty space by the time it finally arrives since the cluster will have changed position.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: J. van Broekhoven, "Database Van Broekhoven", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/database-van-broekhoven/I87945.php : accessed January 31, 2026), "Wilhelmus Martens (1902-1974)".
Copy warning
Genealogical publications are copyright protected. Although data is often retrieved from public archives, the searching, interpreting, collecting, selecting and sorting of the data results in a unique product. Copyright protected work may not simply be copied or republished.
Please stick to the following rules
Request permission to copy data or at least inform the author, chances are that the author gives permission, often the contact also leads to more exchange of data.
Do not use this data until you have checked it, preferably at the source (the archives).
State from whom you have copied the data and ideally also his/her original source.