Vera Mae (Van Kleeck) Winne (1900 - 1997)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Vera's lifetime.

In 1900, in the year that Vera Mae (Van Kleeck) Winne was born, the U.S. helped put down Boxer Rebellion. The Boxer Rebellion took place in China, where the presence of "outsiders" (foreigners) was resented. The United States, along with Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia, had business interests in China and these countries all sent troops to put down the Rebellion and keep China open to their presence and to Christian missionaries.

In 1955, by the time she was 55 years old, on September 30th, movie star James Dean, 24, died in a car accident. He was headed in his new Porsche 550 to a race in Salinas California when, traveling at 85 mph, he collided with a 1950 Ford Tudor, also speeding, driven by a 23 year old college student. Dean died, his passenger and the other driver survived.

In 1965, by the time she was 65 years old, on March 8th, the first US combat troops arrived in Vietnam. The 3500 Marines joined 23,000 "advisors" already in South Vietnam. By the end of the year, 190,000 American soldiers were in the country.

In 1971, by the time she was 71 years old, in March, Intel shipped the first microprocessor to Busicom, a Japanese manufacturer of calculators. The microprocessor has since allowed computers to become smaller and faster, leading to smaller and more versatile handheld devices, home computers, and supercomputers.

In 1997, in the year of Vera Mae (Van Kleeck) Winne's passing, on July 1st, Hong Kong was returned to China. In 1898, Great Britain was awarded Hong Kong for 99 years. In a subsequent agreement, China agreed to allow Hong Kong to remain capitalist. So the handing over of the area ended British rule but did not change the economic system of Hong Kong.