January 18 » An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.
February 1 » La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
February 21 » An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
March 1 » Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
June 2 » Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph.
November 17 » The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.
Day of death March 12, 1897
The temperature on March 12, 1897 was about 4.6 °C. The airpressure was 75 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 94%. Source: KNMI
January 31 » Czechoslav Trade Union Association is founded in Prague.
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.
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.
September 1 » The Tremont Street Subway in Boston opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
December 30 » The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.
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/I132200.php : accessed December 29, 2025), "Jelle Spoelstra (1896-1897)".
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