The temperature on April 20, 1878 was about 13.2 °C. There was 2 mm of rain. The air pressure was 1 kgf/m2 and came mainly from the south. The airpressure was 75 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 85%. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 the cabinet Kappeijne van de Coppello, with Mr. J. Kappeijne van de Coppello (liberaal) as prime minister.
January 4 » Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Sofia is liberated from Ottoman rule and designated the capital of Liberated Bulgaria.
February 19 » Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
May 14 » The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
June 4 » Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
November 17 » First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg.
December 31 » Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.
Day of death April 4, 1879
The temperature on April 4, 1879 was about 3.2 °C. There was 14 mm of rain. The air pressure was 2 kgf/m2 and came mainly from the northwest. The airpressure was 75 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 97%. Source: KNMI
In The Netherlands , there was from November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 the cabinet Kappeijne van de Coppello, with Mr. J. Kappeijne van de Coppello (liberaal) as prime minister.
In The Netherlands , there was from August 20, 1879 to April 23, 1883 the cabinet Van Lijnden van Sandenburg, with Mr. C.Th. baron Van Lijnden van Sandenburg (conservatief-AR) as prime minister.
January 23 » Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
March 11 » Shō Tai formally abdicated his position of King of Ryūkyū, under orders from Tokyo, ending the Ryukyu Kingdom.
March 23 » War of the Pacific: The Battle of Topáter, the first battle of the war is fought between Chile and the joint forces of Bolivia and Peru.
July 4 » Anglo-Zulu War: The Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burned to the ground, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
September 18 » The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
October 8 » War of the Pacific: The Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos.
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/I60131.php : accessed October 8, 2026), "Halbe van der Meer (1878-1879)".
Copy warning
Genealogical publications are copyright protected. Although data is often retrieved from public archives, the searching, interpreting, collecting, selecting and sorting of the data results in a unique product. Copyright protected work may not simply be copied or republished.
Please stick to the following rules
Request permission to copy data or at least inform the author, chances are that the author gives permission, often the contact also leads to more exchange of data.
Do not use this data until you have checked it, preferably at the source (the archives).
State from whom you have copied the data and ideally also his/her original source.