February 1 » La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
February 21 » An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
March 1 » Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.
May 27 » The F4-strength St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10-million in damage.
August 16 » Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
August 17 » Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.
Day of death February 17, 1953
The temperature on February 17, 1953 was between -2.8 °C and 5.1 °C and averaged 1.9 °C. There was 1.3 mm of rain during 6.4 hours. The almost completely overcast was. The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the southwest. Source: KNMI
February 28 » James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April's Nature (pub. April 2).
April 25 » Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA.
June 17 » Cold War: East Germany Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
July 7 » Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
August 22 » The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.
October 1 » Andhra State is formed, consisting of a Telugu-speaking area carved out of India's Madras State.
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/I5947.php : accessed May 1, 2025), "Andries Rufus Dreyer (1896-1953)".
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