The temperature on April 1, 1895 was about 4.3 °C. There was 0.2 mm of rain. The airpressure was 75 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 90%. Source: KNMI
January 13 » First Italo-Ethiopian War: the war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.
February 1 » Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
May 25 » Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
October 21 » The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
November 8 » While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
December 28 » The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.
Day of death May 21, 1962
The temperature on May 21, 1962 was between 7.0 °C and 13.4 °C and averaged 10.7 °C. There was 4.5 mm of rain during 3.5 hours. There was -0.1 hours of sunshine (0%). The heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the south-southwest. Source: KNMI
January 26 » Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400km).
April 26 » NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
August 5 » Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
September 12 » President Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University.
September 30 » James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying racial segregation rules.
October 27 » Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.
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/I19607.php : accessed January 26, 2026), "Thomas Frederick van Niekerk (1895-1962)".
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