February 9 » US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.
May 2 » Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs the Treaty of Wuchale, giving Italy control over Eritrea.
June 6 » The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
July 8 » The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.
November 11 » The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States.
November 23 » The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
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 5 » The play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett receives its première in Paris.
January 20 » Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States of America.
May 25 » The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
July 17 » The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.
October 1 » Andhra State is formed, consisting of a Telugu-speaking area carved out of India's Madras State.
November 21 » The Natural History Museum, London announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.
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 25, 2026), "Jacobus Johannes van Niekerk (1889-1953)".
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