January 20 » The Kingdom of Great Britain signed preliminary articles of peace with France, setting the stage to the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year.
June 4 » The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).
June 8 » Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine.
June 22 » A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.
December 4 » At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers.
December 23 » George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
Day of death August 17, 1864
The temperature on August 17, 1864 was about 12.5 °C. There was 0.1 mm of rain. The air pressure was 1 kgf/m2 and came mainly from the north-northwest. The airpressure was 76 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 78%. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from February 1, 1862 to February 10, 1866 the cabinet Thorbecke II, with Mr. J.R. Thorbecke (liberaal) as prime minister.
April 29 » Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the only fraternity to be founded during the American Civil War.
May 12 » American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Union troops assault a Confederate salient known as the "Mule Shoe", with the fiercest fighting of the war, much of it hand-to-hand combat, occurring at "the Bloody Angle" on the northwest.
May 20 » American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
October 2 » American Civil War: Confederates defeat a Union attack on Saltville, Virginia. A massacre of wounded Union prisoners (most of them are from a Black cavalry unit) ensues.
November 25 » American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.
December 8 » Pope Pius IX promulgates the encyclical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Eric Brouwer, "Family tree Brouwer - Koster", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-eric-brouwer/I9634.php : accessed March 1, 2026), "John Rider Congdon (1783-1864)".
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