The temperature on May 3, 1909 was between -0.7 °C and 13.1 °C and averaged 6.8 °C. There was 9.8 hours of sunshine (65%). The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north-northeast. Source: KNMI
February 12 » New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SSPenguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
May 31 » The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), convenes for the first time.
September 23 » The novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera), by Gaston Leroux, is published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.
December 4 » The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.
December 10 » Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
December 14 » New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
Day of death December 21, 1961
The temperature on December 21, 1961 was between 2.6 °C and 5.6 °C and averaged 3.8 °C. There was 1.0 mm of rain during 1.8 hours. The almost completely overcast was. The average windspeed was 1 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the northwest. Source: KNMI
April 20 » Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
July 12 » Indian city Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams, killing at least two thousand people.
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 » Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.
December 9 » Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
December 19 » India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Jaap van Tuyll, "Descendants Engel van Tuil, omgeving Arnhem", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/parenteel-schuuring/I148105.php : accessed February 24, 2026), "Hermanus Fredericus Witjes (1909-1961)".
Copy warning
Genealogical publications are copyright protected. Although data is often retrieved from public archives, the searching, interpreting, collecting, selecting and sorting of the data results in a unique product. Copyright protected work may not simply be copied or republished.
Please stick to the following rules
Request permission to copy data or at least inform the author, chances are that the author gives permission, often the contact also leads to more exchange of data.
Do not use this data until you have checked it, preferably at the source (the archives).
State from whom you have copied the data and ideally also his/her original source.