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 5 » Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
January 12 » The National Trust is founded in the United Kingdom.
January 13 » First Italo-Ethiopian War: the war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.
May 7 » In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector—a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.
October 22 » In Paris an express train derails after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing almost 30 metres (100ft) of concourse before crashing through a wall and falling 10 metres (33ft) to the road below.
December 28 » Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
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
May 24 » Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
July 9 » Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital altitudes.
September 25 » The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.
October 22 » Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
October 27 » An aircraft carrying Enrico Mattei, post-war Italian administrator, crashes in mysterious circumstances.
October 27 » By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.
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 February 1, 2026), "Thomas Frederick van Niekerk (1895-1962)".
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