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 » Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
April 15 » Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
August 27 » Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:02 to 09:40), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
September 21 » Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener take Dongola.
December 30 » Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.
Day of death February 14, 1897
The temperature on February 14, 1897 was about 2.9 °C. The airpressure was 76 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 100%. Source: KNMI
February 1 » Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
April 30 » J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.
May 26 » Dracula, a Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
June 16 » A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
September 11 » After months of pursuit, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom.
December 9 » Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper La Fronde in Paris.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Hans Pruckmuller, "Family tree Van Willigen", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/van-willigen-stamboom/I20578.php : accessed February 20, 2026), "Eliza Johannes van Willigen (1896-1897)".
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