January 1 » The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.
March 2 » United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.
April 25 » New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
June 11 » The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.
August 28 » Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. It is the first American private school in the country.
September 2 » Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
Day of death December 28, 1957
The temperature on December 28, 1957 was between 3.1 °C and 7.9 °C and averaged 6.0 °C. There was 2.7 mm of rain during 3.8 hours. The partly or heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the west-southwest. Source: KNMI
January 22 » Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.
January 23 » American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".
January 31 » Eight people (5 total crew from 2 aircraft and 3 on the ground) in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
February 18 » Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
August 21 » The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.
November 3 » Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Chris Merricks, "Merricks Tree", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/merricks-tree/I242298535422.php : accessed February 3, 2026), "Martin Dirk van der Werf (± 1875-1957)".
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