January 28 » Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8mph (13km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2mph (3.2km/h).
March 2 » The Battle of Adwa: The Italian Army defeated by the Ethiopian Army in Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia.
May 18 » The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.
June 2 » Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph.
June 4 » Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run.
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 3, 1981
The temperature on February 3, 1981 was between 4.8 °C and 9.3 °C and averaged 6.9 °C. There was 15.9 mm of rain during 8.1 hours. There was 2.7 hours of sunshine (29%). The heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the west-southwest. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
In The Netherlands , there was from Friday, September 11, 1981 to Saturday, May 29, 1982 the cabinet Van Agt II, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA) as prime minister.
January 19 » Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
February 13 » A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
April 25 » More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of at the Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.
May 21 » Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven's Gate.
August 3 » Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front – Suxxali Reew Mi.
December 13 » General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, largely due to the actions by Solidarity.
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/I6812.php : accessed January 23, 2026), "James Albert Joseph (Bertie) Dreyer b4c2d5e3f1g5 (1896-1981)".
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