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 1 » Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.
May 26 » Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
June 4 » Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run.
June 28 » An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.
December 30 » Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.
Day of death August 4, 1897
The temperature on August 4, 1897 was about 23.5 °C. The airpressure was 77 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 59%. Source: KNMI
May 26 » Dracula, a Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
May 26 » The original manuscript of William Bradford's history, "Of Plymouth Plantation" is returned to the Governor of Massachusetts by the Bishop of London after being taken during the American Revolutionary War.
June 16 » A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
August 2 » Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand states.
August 21 » Oldsmobile, an American automobile manufacturer and marque, is founded.
August 31 » Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Sim Mostert, "Genealogy Pot en Smit", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/genealogie_pot_smit/I7078.php : accessed October 3, 2026), "DERKJE LAMBERTS (1896-1897)".
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