June 8 » American Revolutionary War: American attackers are driven back at the Battle of Trois-Rivières.
July 8 » Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
July 9 » George Washington orders the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, while thousands of British troops on Staten Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island.
August 10 » American Revolutionary War: Word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.
September 7 » According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist).
September 15 » American Revolutionary War: British forces land at Kip's Bay during the New York Campaign.
Christening day May 16, 1776
The temperature on May 16, 1776 was about 10.0 °C. There was 66 mm of rainWind direction mainly north-northwest. Weather type: zeer betrokken regen. Source: KNMI
January 27 » American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
March 9 » The Wealth of Nations by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith is published.
May 19 » American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars.
June 11 » The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
July 9 » George Washington orders the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, while thousands of British troops on Staten Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island.
October 11 » American Revolution: A fleet of American boats on Lake Champlain is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: W.J. Oving, "Family tree Oving", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-oving/I7096.php : accessed January 30, 2026), "Janna Geertruit SMEES (1776-????)".
Copy warning
Genealogical publications are copyright protected. Although data is often retrieved from public archives, the searching, interpreting, collecting, selecting and sorting of the data results in a unique product. Copyright protected work may not simply be copied or republished.
Please stick to the following rules
Request permission to copy data or at least inform the author, chances are that the author gives permission, often the contact also leads to more exchange of data.
Do not use this data until you have checked it, preferably at the source (the archives).
State from whom you have copied the data and ideally also his/her original source.