Downs Tree » Benjamin Rowland Wilkinson Sr. (1830-1878)

Day of marriage April 16, 1853

• The temperature on April 16, 1853 was about 4.4 °C. There was 2 mm of rain. The atmospheric humidity was 81%. Source: KNMI
•  This page is only available in Dutch.
  De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden werd in 1794-1795 door de Fransen veroverd onder leiding van bevelhebber Charles Pichegru (geholpen door de Nederlander Herman Willem Daendels); de verovering werd vergemakkelijkt door het dichtvriezen van de Waterlinie; Willem V moest op 18 januari 1795 uitwijken naar Engeland (en van daaruit in 1801 naar Duitsland); de patriotten namen de macht over van de aristocratische regenten en proclameerden de Bataafsche Republiek; op 16 mei 1795 werd het Haags Verdrag gesloten, waarmee ons land een vazalstaat werd van Frankrijk; in 3.1796 kwam er een Nationale Vergadering; in 1798 pleegde Daendels een staatsgreep, die de unitarissen aan de macht bracht; er kwam een nieuwe grondwet, die een Vertegenwoordigend Lichaam (met een Eerste en Tweede Kamer) instelde en als regering een Directoire; in 1799 sloeg Daendels bij Castricum een Brits-Russische invasie af; in 1801 kwam er een nieuwe grondwet; bij de Vrede van Amiens (1802) kreeg ons land van Engeland zijn koloniën terug (behalve Ceylon); na de grondwetswijziging van 1805 kwam er een raadpensionaris als eenhoofdig gezag, namelijk Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (van 31 oktober 1761 tot 25 maart 1825).
• In The Netherlands , there was from November 1, 1849 to April 19, 1853 the cabinet Thorbecke I, with Mr. J.R. Thorbecke (liberaal) as prime minister.
• From April 19, 1853 till July 1, 1856 the Netherlands had a cabinet Van Hall - Donker Curtius with the prime ministers Mr. F.A. baron Van Hall (conservatief-liberaal) and Mr. D. Donker Curtius (conservatief-liberaal).
• In the year 1853: Source: Wikipedia
  • The Netherlands had about 3.3 million citizens.
  • January 19 » Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.
  • March 19 » The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864.
  • April 16 » The Great Indian Peninsula Railway opens the first passenger rail in India, from Bori Bunder to Thane.
  • October 4 » The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.
  • November 30 » Crimean War: Battle of Sinop: The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.
  • December 31 » A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England.

Day of death March 12, 1878

• The temperature on March 12, 1878 was about 5.8 °C. There was 1 mm of rain. The air pressure was 7 kgf/m² and came mainly from the west-northwest. The airpressure was 76 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 68%. Source: KNMI
• Koning Willem III (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from 1849 till 1890 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 the cabinet Kappeijne van de Coppello, with Mr. J. Kappeijne van de Coppello (liberaal) as prime minister.
• In the year 1878: Source: Wikipedia
  • The Netherlands had about 4.0 million citizens.
  • January 4 » Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Sofia is liberated from Ottoman rule and designated the capital of Liberated Bulgaria.
  • February 21 » The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
  • February 22 » In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
  • March 24 » The British frigate HMSEurydice sinks, killing more than 300.
  • May 14 » The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
  • December 31 » Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.

Source: Wikipedia

• 1898 » Zachris Topelius, Finnish-Swedish journalist, historian, and author (b. 1818)
• 1916 » Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian author (b. 1830)
• 1925 » Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (b. 1866)
• 1929 » Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician, 44th Mayor of Atlanta (b. 1851)
• 1935 » Mihajlo Pupin, Serbian-American physicist and chemist (b. 1858)
• 1942 » William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)