December 14 in History

Historical Events on December 14

557

Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.
835

Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.
1287

St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
1542

Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
1751

The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
1782

The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km (1.2 mi).
1812

The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
1814

War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
1819

Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1836

The Toledo War unofficially ends.
1896

The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
1900

Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
1902

The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
1903

The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1907

The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
1909

New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
1911

Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
1913

Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
1914

Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1918

Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
1918

Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
1939

Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1940

Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.
1941

World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.
1955

Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.
1958

The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.
1960

Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.
1962

NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1963

The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.
1964

American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.
1971

Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)
1972

Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
1981

Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights.
1992

War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.
1994

Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.
1995

Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1998

Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.
1999

Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.
2003

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
2004

The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.
2008

Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
2012

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
2013

A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.

December 14 Birthdays

December 14 Deaths

Choose Another Date