February 28 » Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
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.
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 1 » The Tremont Street Subway in Boston opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
Day of death January 18, 1955
The temperature on January 18, 1955 was between -4.0 °C and 2.0 °C and averaged -0.3 °C. There was 7.2 mm of rain during 4.7 hours. There was 0.4 hours of sunshine (5%). The partly or heavily clouded was. The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the west-southwest. Source: KNMI
May 25 » First ascent of Mount Kangchenjunga: A British expedition led by Charles Evans, Joe Brown and George Band reaches the summit of the third-highest mountain in the world (8,586 meters); Norman Hardie and Tony Streather join them the following day.
June 26 » The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
August 17 » Hurricane Diane made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, and it went on to cause major floods and kill more than 184 people.
October 1 » The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is established.
October 26 » Ngô Đình Diệm declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.
December 31 » General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Hans Weening, "Family tree Weening", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-weening/I108974.php : accessed October 19, 2026), "Sjoerd de Wit (1897-1955)".
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