January 28 » Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8mph (13km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2mph (3.2km/h).
June 15 » The deadliest tsunami in Japan's history kills more than 22,000 people.
July 9 » William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
August 17 » Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.
August 27 » Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:02 to 09:40), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
December 30 » Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.
Day of marriage April 5, 1919
The temperature on April 5, 1919 was between -3.5 °C and 13.3 °C and averaged 6.2 °C. There was 9.4 hours of sunshine (71%). The average windspeed was 3 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the west-southwest. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from September 9, 1918 to September 18, 1922 the cabinet Ruys de Beerenbrouck I, with Jonkheer mr. Ch.J.M. Ruys de Beerenbrouck (RKSP) as prime minister.
January 15 » Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.
May 4 » May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
May 29 » Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin
June 11 » Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
July 6 » The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.
September 28 » Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska.
Day of death January 28, 1954
The temperature on January 28, 1954 was between -11.3 °C and -5.0 °C and averaged -8.6 °C. There was 3.3 hours of sunshine (37%). The partly clouded was. The average windspeed was 4 Bft (moderate breeze) and was prevailing from the east. Source: KNMI
January 20 » In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
March 1 » Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.
April 22 » Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.
August 13 » Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
October 10 » The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Muscat, Neil Innes, sends a signal to the Sultanate's forces, accompanied with oil explorers, to penetrate Fahud, marking the beginning of Jebel Akhdar War between the Imamate of Oman and the Sultanate of Muscat.
November 30 » In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap; this is the only documented case in the Western Hemisphere of a human being hit by a rock from space.
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/I197129.php : accessed October 18, 2026), "Sipke Mertens (1896-1954)".
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