January 5 » Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
March 14 » Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMSMonarch for breach of the Articles of War.
May 6 » English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
June 18 » Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War.
December 5 » Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen: Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
December 31 » Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.
Day of marriage January 17, 1786
The temperature on January 17, 1786 was about 1.0 °C. Weather type: betrokken mist. Source: KNMI
January 16 » Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
August 7 » The first federal Indian Reservation is created by the United States.
August 11 » Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.
August 29 » Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
November 30 » The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Pietro Leopoldo I, becomes the first modern state to abolish the death penalty (later commemorated as Cities for Life Day).
December 4 » Mission Santa Barbara is dedicated (on the feast day of Saint Barbara).
Day of death July 8, 1817
The temperature on July 8, 1817 was about 17.0 °C. Wind direction mainly southwest. Weather type: half bewolkt. Source: KNMI
This page is only available in Dutch.
De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden werd in 1794-1795 door de Fransen veroverd onder leiding van bevelhebber Charles Pichegru (geholpen door de Nederlander Herman Willem Daendels); de verovering werd vergemakkelijkt door het dichtvriezen van de Waterlinie; Willem V moest op 18 januari 1795 uitwijken naar Engeland (en van daaruit in 1801 naar Duitsland); de patriotten namen de macht over van de aristocratische regenten en proclameerden de Bataafsche Republiek; op 16 mei 1795 werd het Haags Verdrag gesloten, waarmee ons land een vazalstaat werd van Frankrijk; in 3.1796 kwam er een Nationale Vergadering; in 1798 pleegde Daendels een staatsgreep, die de unitarissen aan de macht bracht; er kwam een nieuwe grondwet, die een Vertegenwoordigend Lichaam (met een Eerste en Tweede Kamer) instelde en als regering een Directoire; in 1799 sloeg Daendels bij Castricum een Brits-Russische invasie af; in 1801 kwam er een nieuwe grondwet; bij de Vrede van Amiens (1802) kreeg ons land van Engeland zijn koloniën terug (behalve Ceylon); na de grondwetswijziging van 1805 kwam er een raadpensionaris als eenhoofdig gezag, namelijk Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (van 31 oktober 1761 tot 25 maart 1825).
January 24 » Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the Action of Picheuta.
March 8 » The New York Stock Exchange is founded.
June 5 » The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.
July 19 » Unsuccessful in his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Hawaii for the Russian-American Company, Georg Anton Schäffer is forced to admit defeat and leave Kauai.
October 16 » Simón Bolívar sentences Manuel Piar to death for challenging the racial-caste in Venezuela.
October 17 » The tomb of Pharaoh Seti I is discovered.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: G.J. Speckmann, "Family tree Speckmann", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-speckmann/I718.php : accessed February 26, 2026), "Johann Dierk Wille (1757-1817)".
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