August 14Birthdays & History

On this day: August 14 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 74 BCA group of officials, led by the Western Han minister Huo Guang, present articles of impeachment against the new emperor, Liu He, to the imperial regent, Empress Dowager Shangguan.Asia
2. 70 BCGaius Verres is found guilty of corruption after his defense lawyer Quintus Hortensius abandons the case as hopeless.Europe
3. 29 BCOctavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.Europe
4. 1040King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.Europe
5. 1136Abbasid Caliph al-Rashid Billah flees from Bagdhad, which had been besieged by an army of the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Ghiyath ad-Din Mas'ud for fifty days.Middle East
6. 1183Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan.Asia
7. 1264After tricking the Venetian galley fleet into sailing east to the Levant, the Genoese capture an entire Venetian trade convoy at the Battle of Saseno.Europe
8. 1352War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.Europe
9. 1370Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Karlovy Vary.Europe
10. 1385Portuguese Crisis of 1383–85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by John I of Portugal defeat the Castilian army of John I of Castile.Europe
11. 1592The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis.Latin America
12. 1598Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.Europe
13. 1720The Spanish military Villasur expedition is defeated by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.EuropeNorth America
14. 1784Russian colonization of North America: Awa'uq Massacre: The Russian fur trader Grigory Shelikhov storms a Kodiak Island Alutiit refuge rock on Sitkalidak Island, killing 500+ Alutiit.EuropeNorth America
15. 1790The Treaty of Wereloe ends the 1788–1790 Russo-Swedish War.Europe
16. 1791Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution.Latin America
17. 1814A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ends the Swedish–Norwegian War.Europe
18. 1816The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.EuropeAfrica
19. 1842American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida.North America
20. 1848Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.North America
21. 1848Pica Law (Legge Pica), a form of martial law, is established as the Italian government passes this anti-brigandage law to suppress resistance to the Unification of Italy.Europe
22. 1880Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.Europe
23. 1885Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.Asia
24. 1893France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.Europe
25. 1900Battle of Peking: The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.Asia
26. 1901The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.North America
27. 1914World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive.Europe
28. 1917World War I: The Republic of China, which had heretofore been shipping labourers to Europe to assist in the war effort, officially declares war on the Central Powers, although it will continue to send to Europe labourers instead of combatants for the remaining duration of the war.AsiaEurope
29. 1920The 1920 Summer Olympics, having started four months earlier, officially open in Antwerp, Belgium, with the newly adopted Olympic flag and the Olympic oath being raised and taken at the Opening Ceremony for the first time in Olympic history.Europe
30. 1921Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).Europe
31. 1933Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2) of land.North America
32. 1935Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.North America
33. 1936Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last known public execution in the United States.North America
34. 1941World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.North AmericaEurope
35. 1947Pakistan gains independence from the British Empire as the Dominion of Pakistan, due to the partition of India.AsiaEurope
36. 1948An Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers known as Beaver drop occurred. This program relocated beavers from Northwestern Idaho to Central Idaho by airplane and then parachuting the beavers into the Chamberlain Basin.North America
37. 1959Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.North America
38. 1967UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.Europe
39. 1969The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner.Europe
40. 1971Bahrain declares independence from Britain.Middle EastEurope
41. 1972An Ilyushin Il-62 airliner crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany killing 156 people.Europe
42. 1974Turkey launches the second phase of the invasion of Cyprus, which eventually resulted in the Turkish occupation of 37% of Cyprus.Middle East
43. 1980Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.Europe
44. 1994Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.AfricaEurope
45. 1996Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is shot and killed by a Turkish security officer while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.EuropeMiddle East
46. 2003A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.North America
47. 2005Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.Middle EastEurope
48. 2006Lebanon War: A ceasefire takes effect three days after the United Nations Security Council's approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, formally ending hostilities between Lebanon and Israel.Middle East
49. 2006Sri Lankan Civil War: Sixty-one schoolgirls killed in Chencholai bombing by Sri Lanka Air Force air strike.Asia
50. 2007The Kahtaniya bombings kill at least 500 people.Middle East
51. 2013UPS Airlines Flight 1354 crashes short of the runway at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, killing both crew members on board.North America
52. 2013Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.Middle East
53. 2015The U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off.North AmericaLatin America
54. 2018The collapse of the Ponte Morandi bridge in Genoa, Italy, left 16 people injured and 43 people killed.Europe
55. 2021A magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes southwestern Haiti, killing at least 2,248 people and causing a humanitarian crisis.Latin America
56. 2022An explosion destroys a market in Armenia, killing six people and injuring dozens.Europe
57. 2023Former U.S. president Donald Trump is charged in Georgia along with 18 others in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state, his fourth indictment of 2023.North America

Source: Wikipedia "August 14" / CC BY-SA 4.0