January 5 » Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
January 12 » The National Trust is founded in the United Kingdom.
May 25 » The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Jingsong as its president.
June 11 » Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.
June 20 » The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.
December 28 » Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
Day of death December 25, 1966
The temperature on December 25, 1966 was between 0.6 °C and 6.8 °C and averaged 2.9 °C. There was 1.6 mm of rain during 1.2 hours. There was 3.8 hours of sunshine (49%). The partly clouded was. The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the west-northwest. Source: KNMI
February 3 » The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and the first spacecraft to take pictures from the surface of the Moon.
March 16 » Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with an Agena Target Vehicle.
April 21 » Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
July 4 » U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
August 16 » Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.
August 18 » Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province.
Day of burial December 29, 1966
The temperature on December 29, 1966 was between 5.9 °C and 10.9 °C and averaged 9.2 °C. There was 14.4 mm of rain during 12.0 hours. The heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the south-southwest. Source: KNMI
April 26 » The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.
July 24 » Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.
August 26 » The South African Border War starts with the battle at Omugulugwombashe.
October 10 » The Beach Boys release one of their biggest singles, ranked the 6th greatest song by Rolling Stone, "Good Vibrations".
October 17 » The 23rd Street Fire in New York City kills 12 firefighters.
December 24 » A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Pauline Berens BC, "Local Heritage Book Barger-Compascuum", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/ofb-barger-compascuum/I18190.php : accessed February 3, 2026), "Herman Leo Wilmes (1895-1966)".
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