March 1 » Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
March 2 » The Battle of Adwa: The Italian Army defeated by the Ethiopian Army in Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia.
April 15 » Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
May 26 » Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
December 10 » Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance.
December 17 » Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire.
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
January 1 » Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces.
January 2 » Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
January 29 » The first Melodifestivalen is held in Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden.
January 30 » The forces of the Sultanate of Muscat occupy the last strongholds of the Imamate of Oman, Saiq and Shuraijah, marking the end of Jebel Akhdar War in Oman.
July 1 » Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
July 7 » Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
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 3, 2026), "Marthinus Christoffel Fourie (1876-1959)".
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