January 28 » Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8mph (13km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2mph (3.2km/h).
June 15 » The deadliest tsunami in Japan's history kills more than 22,000 people.
July 28 » The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
August 27 » Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:02 to 09:40), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
September 21 » Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener take Dongola.
December 14 » The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
Christening day January 31, 1897
The temperature on January 31, 1897 was about -7.0 °C. The airpressure was 74 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 86%. Source: KNMI
January 31 » Czechoslav Trade Union Association is founded in Prague.
July 11 » Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.
August 2 » Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand states.
August 10 » German chemist Felix Hoffmann discovers an improved way of synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).
September 12 » Tirah Campaign: In the Battle of Saragarhi, ten thousand Pashtun tribesmen suffer several hundred casualties while attacking 21 Sikh soldiers in British service.
December 6 » London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.
Day of death September 14, 1963
The temperature on September 14, 1963 was between 7.8 °C and 21.5 °C and averaged 14.2 °C. There was 10.3 hours of sunshine (80%). The average windspeed was 1 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north-northwest. Source: KNMI
February 27 » The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
March 5 » American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.
July 26 » An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead.
August 31 » Crown Colony of North Borneo (now Sabah) achieves self governance.
October 18 » Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat becomes the first cat launched into space.
November 2 » South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup.
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/I14474.php : accessed March 13, 2026), "Rudolph Cornelius PRETORIUS (1896-1963)".
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