March 14

Historic Events

2021

Burmese security forces kill at least 65 civilians in the Hlaingthaya massacre. ›

2019

Cyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1,000 deaths. ›

2017

A naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance. ›

2008

A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet. ›

2007

The Nandigram violence in Nandigram, West Bengal, results in the deaths of at least 14 people. ›

2006

The 2006 Chadian coup d'état attempt ends in failure. ›

2006

Operation Bringing Home the Goods: Israeli troops raid an American-supervised Palestinian prison in Jericho to capture six Palestinian prisoners, including PFLP chief Ahmad Sa'adat. ›

1995

Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle. ›

1991

Escondida in Chile's Atacama Desert – which was to become the worlds most productive copper mine – is officially inaugurated. ›

1988

In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands. ›

1982

The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London. ›

1980

LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team. ›

1979

Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600 crashes at Doha International Airport, killing 45 people. ›

1978

The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon. ›

1972

Sterling Airways Flight 296 crashes near Kalba, United Arab Emirates while on approach to Dubai International Airport, killing 112 people. ›

1967

The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery. ›

1964

Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin who had shot and killed John F. Kennedy the previous year. ›

1961

A USAF B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashes near Yuba City, California. ›

1951

Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul for the second time. ›

1945

The R.A.F. drop the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany. ›

1943

The Holocaust: The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is completed. ›

1942

Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead. ›

1939

Slovakia declares independence under German pressure. ›

1931

Alam Ara, India's first talking film, is released. ›

1926

The El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica, kills 248 people and wounds another 93 when a train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás. ›

1923

Charlie Daly and three other members of the Irish Republican Army are executed by Irish Free State forces. ›

1921

Six members of a group of Irish Republican Army activists known as the Forgotten Ten are hanged in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison. ›

1920

In the second of the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, about 80% of the population in Zone II votes to remain part of Weimar Germany. ›

1916

Battle of Verdun: German attack captures Côte 265 at the west end of Mort-Homme but the French 75th Infantry Brigade manages to hold Côte 295 at the east end. ›

1903

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt. ›

1901

Utah governor Heber Manning Wells vetoes a bill that would have eased restrictions on polygamy. ›

1900

The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard. ›

1885

The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London. ›

1864

Rossini's Petite messe solennelle is first performed, by twelve singers, two pianists and a harmonium player in a mansion in Paris. ›

1794

Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin. ›

1780

American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans. ›

1757

Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War. ›

1674

The Third Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of Ronas Voe results in the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam being captured with a death toll of up to 300 Dutch crew and soldiers. ›

1663

According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, detailing his experiments on vacuum and his discovery of electrostatic repulsion. ›

1647

Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm. ›

1590

Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne, during the French Wars of Religion. ›

1074

Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza and Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland. ›