May 2 » Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea.
May 11 » An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor.
May 31 » Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam fails and sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
August 13 » William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut is granted United States Patent Number 408,709 for "Coin-controlled apparatus for telephones."
September 23 » Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.
October 24 » Henry Parkes delivers the Tenterfield Oration, effectively starting the federation process in Australia.
Day of death October 15, 1953
The temperature on October 15, 1953 was between 11.7 °C and 14.5 °C and averaged 13.0 °C. There was 0.1 mm of rain. The almost completely overcast was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north. Source: KNMI
January 19 » Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
January 20 » Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States of America.
March 3 » A De Havilland Comet (Canadian Pacific Air Lines) crashes in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 11.
July 27 » Cessation of hostilities is achieved in the Korean War when the United States, China, and North Korea sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
September 21 » Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea with his jet fighter.
October 30 » President Eisenhower approves the top-secret document NSC 162/2 concerning the maintenance of a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union.
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/I8393.php : accessed January 22, 2026), "Jacobus Johannes van Niekerk (1889-1953)".
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