January 8 » Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.
January 22 » Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.
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.
July 8 » The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.
July 11 » Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
November 2 » North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
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.
April 13 » CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.
May 4 » Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
May 25 » Nuclear weapons testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
August 12 » The first testing of a real thermonuclear weapon (not test devices): The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb.
November 9 » Cambodia gains independence from France.
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 21, 2026), "Jacobus Johannes van Niekerk (1889-1953)".
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