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.
May 25 » The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Jingsong as its president.
August 31 » German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon.
October 21 » The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
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.
November 5 » George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
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
February 10 » Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.
March 19 » Highly influential artist Bob Dylan releases his first album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records.
April 26 » NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
June 7 » The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) sets fire to the University of Algiers library building, destroying about 500,000 books.
August 5 » Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
October 20 » China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian 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 January 26, 2026), "Thomas Frederick van Niekerk (1895-1962)".
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