January 11 » The first American life insurance company, the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of the Presbyterian Ministers (now part of Unum Group), is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
January 15 » The British Museum opens to the public.
May 1 » Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.
August 1 » Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.
September 13 » Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
December 31 » Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
Day of death May 15, 1789
The temperature on May 15, 1789 was about 16.0 °C. There was 4 mm of rainWind direction mainly south-southeast. Weather type: zeer betrokken. Source: KNMI
February 4 » George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
April 28 » Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
July 12 » In response to the dismissal of the French finance minister Jacques Necker, the radical journalist Camille Desmoulins gives a speech which results in the storming of the Bastille two days later.
July 15 » Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.
September 15 » The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties.
October 3 » George Washington proclaims a Thanksgiving Day for that year.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Hendrik Dreyer, "Dreyer Tree", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/dreyer-tree/I11467.php : accessed February 5, 2026), "Elizabeth (Elisabeth) Bockelenberg (< 1741-1789)".
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.