January 1 » New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.
May 1 » Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381 Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths.
May 8 » The first games of the Italian football league system are played.
June 22 » Spanish–American War: In a chaotic operation, 6,000 men of the U.S. Fifth Army Corps begins landing at Daiquirí, Cuba, about 16 miles (26km) east of Santiago de Cuba. Lt. Gen. Arsenio Linares y Pombo of the Spanish Army outnumbers them two-to-one, but does not oppose the landings.
September 13 » Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
October 14 » The steam ship SSMohegan sinks near the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall, killing 106.
Day of death August 11, 1981
The temperature on August 11, 1981 was between 14.2 °C and 18.0 °C and averaged 16.0 °C. There was 1.2 mm of rain during 2.2 hours. There was 0.1 hours of sunshine (1%). The almost completely overcast was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
In The Netherlands , there was from Friday, September 11, 1981 to Saturday, May 29, 1982 the cabinet Van Agt II, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA) as prime minister.
January 8 » A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".
July 27 » While landing at Chihuahua International Airport, Aeromexico Flight 230 overshoots the runway. Thirty-two of the 66 passengers and crew on board the DC-9 are killed.
September 18 » The Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.
October 14 » Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
November 23 » Iran–Contra affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
December 1 » Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: James Downs, "Downs Tree", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/downs-tree/I312392306132.php : accessed January 19, 2026), "Winnie Whittington (1898-1981)".
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.