November 14 in History

Historical Events on November 14

1770

James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.
1812

Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Smoliani, French Marshals Victor & Oudinot defeated by Wittgenstein.
1851

Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.
1862

American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1889

Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
1910

Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first takeoff from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
1918

Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
1921

Foundation of the Communist Party of Spain.
1922

The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
1932

Al Shorta SC, one of Iraq's biggest football clubs, are founded as Montakhab Al Shorta.
1938

The Lions Gate Bridge, connecting Vancouver to the North Shore region, opens to traffic.
1940

World War II: In England, Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
1941

World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from the German submarine U-81 sustained on November 13.
1941

World War II: In Slonim, German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murder 9,000 Jews in a single day.
1952

The first regular UK Singles Chart published by the New Musical Express.
1957

The "Apalachin Meeting" in rural Tioga County in upstate New York is raided by law enforcement; many high level Mafia figures are arrested while trying to flee.
1960

Ruby Bridges becomes the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana.
1965

Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang begins: The first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
1967

The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as "Day of the Colombian Woman".
1967

American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.
1969

Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
1970

Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization.
1970

Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.
1971

Enthronment of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of Alexandria.
1971

Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
1973

In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.
1973

The Athens Polytechnic uprising, a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967-74, begins.
1975

With the signing of the Madrid Accords, Spain abandons Western Sahara.
1979

Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
1982

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
1984

Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.
1990

After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder-Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.
1991

American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.
1991

Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile.
1995

A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.
2001

War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
2003

Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
2008

The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C.
2012

Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate.

November 14 Birthdays

November 14 Deaths

Choose Another Date