January 22 » Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
June 11 » The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.
July 24 » O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
August 6 » Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
September 2 » Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.
November 1 » Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national male collegiate fraternity, is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, Virginia.
Day of death February 20, 1947
The temperature on February 20, 1947 was between -6.3 °C and -4.9 °C and averaged -5.9 °C. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the east. Source: KNMI
January 3 » Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
March 29 » Malagasy Uprising against French colonial rule in Madagascar.
June 5 » Cold War: Marshall Plan: In a speech at Harvard University, the United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
August 7 » Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
November 25 » Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.
December 30 » Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Harry Westerman, "Family tree Westerman", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-westerman/X8085.php : accessed March 17, 2026), "Hillechien Koopman (± 1873-1947)".
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