Olson's Tree » Horace Ransom Bigelow Allen (± 1893-1961)

Day of death December 17, 1961

• The temperature on December 17, 1961 was between -7.7 °C and -2.5 °C and averaged -5.3 °C. There was 6.2 hours of sunshine (80%). The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the east-southeast. Source: KNMI
• Koningin Juliana (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from September 4, 1948 till April 30, 1980 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from May 19, 1959 to July 24, 1964 the cabinet De Quay, with Prof. dr. J.E. de Quay (KVP) as prime minister.
• In the year 1961: Source: Wikipedia
  • The Netherlands had about 11.6 million citizens.
  • January 17 » U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military–industrial complex" as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.
  • April 9 » The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations.
  • April 20 » Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
  • July 19 » Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.
  • August 10 » Vietnam War: The U.S. Army begins Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20million US gallons (76,000m) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover.
  • September 16 » The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.

Source: Wikipedia

• 1956 » Eddie Acuff, American actor (b. 1903)
• 1957 » Dorothy L. Sayers, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1893)
• 1962 » Thomas Mitchell, American actor (b. 1892)
• 1964 » Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
• 1967 » Harold Holt, Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
• 1970 » Oliver Waterman Larkin, American historian, author, and educator (b. 1896)