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 » Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.
May 26 » Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
November 27 » Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss is first performed.
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.
Day of death February 8, 1979
The temperature on February 8, 1979 was between -3.8 °C and 4.6 °C and averaged 0.4 °C. There was 7.4 hours of sunshine (78%). The partly clouded was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north-northwest. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
January 7 » Third Indochina War: Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
February 26 » The Superliner railcar enters revenue service with Amtrak.
May 25 » John Spenkelink, a convicted murderer, is executed in Florida; he is the first person to be executed in the state after the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1976.
September 13 » South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
December 3 » Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran.
December 9 » The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (rinderpest in 2011 being the other).
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/I170108.php : accessed October 16, 2026), "Geertje Dillema (1896-1979)".
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