January 4 » Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
January 28 » Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8mph (13km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2mph (3.2km/h).
May 18 » Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.
June 28 » An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.
August 27 » Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:02 to 09:40), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
December 14 » The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
Day of death July 20, 1959
The temperature on July 20, 1959 was between 11.0 °C and 23.7 °C and averaged 17.6 °C. There was 14.3 hours of sunshine (89%). The almost cloudless was. The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the north-northwest. Source: KNMI
February 28 » Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched but fails to achieve orbit.
April 25 » The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
May 30 » The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham.
July 15 » The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
September 14 » The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
November 19 » The Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.
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/I16703.php : accessed February 18, 2026), "Marthinus Christoffel Fourie (1876-1959)".
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