February 9 » The Davis Cup competition is established.
April 5 » Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover a large cache of clay tablets with hieroglyphic writing in a script they call Linear B.
May 17 » Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
June 20 » Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.
June 21 » Boxer Rebellion. China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.
July 27 » Kaiser Wilhelm II makes a speech comparing Germans to Huns; for years afterwards, "Hun" would be a disparaging name for Germans.
Day of death August 16, 1968
The temperature on August 16, 1968 was between 12.3 °C and 18.1 °C and averaged 15.3 °C. There was 1.0 mm of rain during 0.8 hours. There was 6.0 hours of sunshine (41%). The partly or heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the southwest. Source: KNMI
January 24 » Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa.
February 1 » Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is recorded on motion picture film, as well as in an iconic still photograph taken by Eddie Adams.
March 16 » General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
March 21 » Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO.
October 16 » Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
November 5 » Richard Nixon is elected as 37th President of the United States.
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/I510607.php : accessed February 24, 2026), "Willem Pretorius (1900-1968)".
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