February 20 » The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
April 25 » "La Marseillaise" (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
April 25 » Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
May 21 » A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that kills nearly 15,000 people.
October 3 » A militia departs from the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia to quell a Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.
December 11 » French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
Day of death February 19, 1878
The temperature on February 19, 1878 was about 10.8 °C. The air pressure was 2 kgf/m2 and came mainly from the west-southwest. The airpressure was 77 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 73%. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 the cabinet Kappeijne van de Coppello, with Mr. J. Kappeijne van de Coppello (liberaal) as prime minister.
January 28 » Yale Daily News becomes the first independent daily college newspaper in the United States.
February 18 » John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
February 19 » Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
May 14 » The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
July 1 » Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
September 1 » Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.
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/I514707.php : accessed January 31, 2026), "Joseph Robbertse (1792-1878)".
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