January 18 » An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.
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).
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.
July 9 » William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
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.
November 27 » Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss is first performed.
Day of death August 20, 1903
The temperature on August 20, 1903 was between 7.4 °C and 17.2 °C and averaged 13.7 °C. There was -0.1 hours of sunshine (0%). Source: KNMI
July 1 » Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.
July 23 » The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
August 3 » Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists for only ten days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.
August 18 » German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.
September 27 » The Wreck of the Old 97, an American rail disaster that became the subject of a popular ballad.
December 30 » A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.
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/I97825.php : accessed October 6, 2026), "Jan Roorda (1896-1903)".
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