March 2 » In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
April 29 » A landslide kills 70 people in Frank, in the District of Alberta, Canada.
July 19 » Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.
August 2 » The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottoman Empire begins.
October 6 » The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
October 31 » The Purdue Wreck, a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, kills 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team.
Day of death April 13, 1979
The temperature on April 13, 1979 was between 6.8 °C and 17.7 °C and averaged 12.3 °C. There was 11.0 hours of sunshine (80%). The partly clouded was. The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the south-southwest. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
March 17 » The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.
May 4 » Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
July 19 » The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill.
November 1 » In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d'état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara.
November 17 » Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra is commissioned.
December 12 » The 8.2 Mw Tumaco earthquake shakes Colombia and Ecuador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 300–600, and generating a large tsunami.
Day of burial April 18, 1979
The temperature on April 18, 1979 was between 1.4 °C and 7.8 °C and averaged 4.8 °C. There was 1.8 hours of sunshine (13%). The partly or heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north-northeast. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
May 9 » Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran.
June 2 » Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
June 3 » A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000m) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.
August 11 » Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk and crash, killing all 178 aboard both airliners.
September 29 » The dictator Francisco Macias of Equatorial Guinea is shot by soldiers from Western Sahara.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Eva Drenth, "Family tree Diverse", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-drenth/I28998.php : accessed March 10, 2026), "Klaas Ritsema (1903-1979)".
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