May 18 » Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.
June 15 » The deadliest tsunami in Japan's history kills more than 22,000 people.
July 9 » William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
December 14 » The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
December 17 » Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire.
December 30 » Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.
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
February 1 » Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
May 26 » The original manuscript of William Bradford's history, "Of Plymouth Plantation" is returned to the Governor of Massachusetts by the Bishop of London after being taken during the American Revolutionary War.
July 11 » Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.
August 21 » Oldsmobile, an American automobile manufacturer and marque, is founded.
August 31 » Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
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.
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/I14585.php : accessed January 18, 2026), "Rudolf Cornelis PRETORIUS (1896-????)".
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