May 14

Historic Events

2022

Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. ›

2021

China successfully lands Zhurong, the country's first Mars rover. ›

2012

Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people. ›

2010

Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135. ›

2008

Battle of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre between Zenit supporters and Rangers supporters and the Greater Manchester Police; 39 policemen injured, one police dog injured and 39 arrested. ›

2004

The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun. ›

2004

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson are married at Copenhagen Cathedral. ›

2004

Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people. ›

1988

Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire. ›

1987

Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant colonel Sitiveni Rabuka. ›

1977

A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people. ›

1973

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. ›

1970

Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction. ›

1961

Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle. ›

1955

Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact. ›

1953

Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike. ›

1951

Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers. ›

1948

Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. ›

1943

World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland. ›

1940

World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands, is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center. ›

1939

Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. ›

1935

The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote. ›

1931

Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ådalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers. ›

1925

Mrs Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf's earliest and best-known novels, is published. ›

1918

Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the two-minute silence. ›

1915

The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal. ›

1913

Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller. ›

1900

Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games. ›

1879

The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas. ›

1878

The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers. ›

1870

The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club. ›

1868

Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward. ›

1863

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces drive Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi in the Battle of Jackson. ›

1857

Mindon Min is crowned as King of Burma in Mandalay, Burma. ›

1842

The first edition of The Illustrated London News, the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine, is published. ›

1836

The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas. ›

1832

The Battle of Stillman's Run, the first battle of the Black Hawk War, is fought. ›

1811

Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor. ›

1804

William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's historic journey up the Missouri River. ›

1800

The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the Federal government of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., begins the following day. ›

1796

Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation. ›

1747

War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre. ›

1610

Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne. ›

1608

The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states, is founded to defend the rights, land and safety of each member against the Catholic Church and Catholic German states. ›

1607

English colonists establish "James Fort", which would become Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest permanent English settlement in the Americas. ›

1509

Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Republic of Venice. ›

1465

During the 1465 Moroccan revolution which overthrows the Marinid dynasty, the Jewish mellah is attacked by the population of Fez, though the extent of the massacre is debated. ›

1450

A large Ottoman force begins the siege of Albanian rebel forces in Krujë, that ultimately will fail. ›

1264

Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the effective ruler of England. ›

1097

The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade. ›

1027

Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks. ›