February 21 » An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
May 27 » The F4-strength St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10-million in damage.
July 9 » William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
July 28 » The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
August 17 » Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.
September 22 » Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.
Christening day January 11, 1897
The temperature on January 11, 1897 was about -1.8 °C. The airpressure was 75 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 96%. Source: KNMI
April 18 » The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
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.
May 26 » Dracula, a Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
July 2 » British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
July 11 » Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.
December 30 » The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Gert Esterhuizen, "Family tree Eric Esterhuizen", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-eric-esterhuizen/I101730906.php : accessed February 19, 2026), "Hermanus Gerhardus PRETORIUS (1896-????)".
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