April 30 » J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.
July 2 » British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
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.
September 12 » Tirah Campaign: In the Battle of Saragarhi, ten thousand Pashtun tribesmen suffer several hundred casualties while attacking 21 Sikh soldiers in British service.
December 30 » The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.
Day of death April 2, 1959
The temperature on April 2, 1959 was between 6.8 °C and 14.6 °C and averaged 10.6 °C. There was 1.2 hours of sunshine (9%). The partly or heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the east. Source: KNMI
January 30 » MSHans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMSTitanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
July 21 » NSSavannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.
August 17 » Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
September 25 » Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.
October 30 » Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 crashes on approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport in Albemarle County, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 on board.
November 21 » American disc jockey Alan Freed, who had popularized the term "rock and roll" and music of that style, is fired from WABC-AM radio over allegations he had participated in the payola scandal.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: R.A.Hemerik, "Descendants Hemerik-Broekhuizen-Huner-Koper-Barink", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/parenteel-hemerik/I3046.php : accessed January 22, 2026), "David Batelaan (1897-1959)".
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