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.
February 12 » The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
April 6 » Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.
September 7 » Eugène Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris, becoming the first aviator in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
September 20 » The South Africa Act 1909 creates the Union of South Africa from the British Colonies from four smaller colonies.
September 30 » The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania makes a record-breaking westbound crossing of the Atlantic, that will not be bettered for 20 years.
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
January 11 » Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River, linking New York City's boroughs of The Bronx and Queens, opens to road traffic.
April 17 » Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
April 30 » K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
August 1 » U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara orders the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation's first centralized military espionage organization.
August 25 » President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964.
September 16 » Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.
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 2, 2026), "Hermanus Fredericus Witjes (1909-1961)".
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