January 1 » The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.
April 25 » New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
May 3 » The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
May 9 » Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne.
September 7 » The Boxer Rebellion in Qing dynasty (modern-day China) officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.
September 17 » Second Boer War: A Boer column defeats a British force at the Battle of Blood River Poort.
Day of death March 23, 1961
The temperature on March 23, 1961 was between 6.7 °C and 11.4 °C and averaged 8.2 °C. There was 1.6 hours of sunshine (13%). The heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the west. Source: KNMI
January 8 » In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
April 9 » The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations.
May 9 » FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow gives his Wasteland Speech.
May 19 » At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement.
July 25 » Cold War: In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
October 31 » In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin's Mausoleum, also known as the Lenin Tomb.
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/I21230.php : accessed January 27, 2026), "Richard Gerald Dreyer (Richard Gerald Dreyer ) Steyn (1901-1961)".
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