February 1 » Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
June 11 » Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.
June 27 » The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
August 31 » German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon.
October 22 » In Paris an express train derails after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing almost 30 metres (100ft) of concourse before crashing through a wall and falling 10 metres (33ft) to the road below.
December 28 » The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.
Day of death January 1, 1896
The temperature on January 1, 1896 was about -0.6 °C. The airpressure was 77 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 98%. Source: KNMI
February 21 » An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
April 15 » Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
May 18 » Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.
May 27 » The F4-strength St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10-million in damage.
June 4 » Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run.
August 16 » Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
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/I7242.php : accessed October 2, 2026), "ARIE HESS (1895-1896)".
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