September 14 in History

Historical Events on September 14

AD 81

Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.
629

Emperor Heraclius enters Constantinople in triumph after his victory over the Persian Empire.
786

"Night of the three Caliphs": Harun al-Rashid becomes the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi. Birth of Harun's son al-Ma'mun.
919

Battle of Islandbridge: High King Niall Glúndub is killed while leading an Irish coalition against the Vikings of Uí Ímair, led by King Sitric Cáech.
1180

Battle of Ishibashiyama in Japan.
1402

Battle of Homildon Hill results in an English victory over Scotland.
1607

Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland.
1682

Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded.
1723

Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.
1741

George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah.
1752

The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2).
1763

Seneca warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Devil's Hole during Pontiac's War.
1791

The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France.
1808

Finnish War: Russians defeat the Swedes at the Battle of Oravais.
1812

Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée enters Moscow. The Fire of Moscow begins as soon as Russian troops leave the city.
1814

Battle of Baltimore: The poem Defence of Fort McHenry is written by Francis Scott Key. The poem is later used as the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner.
1829

The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, thus ending the Russo-Turkish War.
1846

Jang Bahadur and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.
1862

American Civil War: The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.
1901

U.S. President William McKinley dies after an assassination attempt on September 6, and is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
1914

HMAS AE1, the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
1917

Russia is officially proclaimed a republic.
1936

Raoul Villain, who assassinated the French Socialist Jean Jaures, is himself killed by Spanish Republicans in Ibiza
1939

World War II: The Estonian military boards the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł in Tallinn, sparking a diplomatic incident that the Soviet Union will later use to justify the annexation of Estonia.
1940

Ip massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, an act of ethnic cleansing.
1943

World War II: The Wehrmacht starts a three-day retaliatory operation targeting several Greek villages in the region of Viannos, whose death toll would eventually exceed 500 persons.
1944

World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.
1954

In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village.
1958

The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.
1959

The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
1960

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.
1960

Congo Crisis: With CIA help, Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.
1969

The US Selective Service selects September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date.
1975

The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.
1979

Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki is assassinated upon the order of Hafizullah Amin, who becomes the new president.
1982

President-elect of Lebanon Bachir Gemayel is assassinated.
1984

Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
1985

Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in Malaysia, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opens to traffic.
1992

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.
1994

The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.
1997

Eighty-one killed as five bogies of the Ahmedabad-Howrah Express plunge into a river in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh, India.
1998

Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
1999

Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
2000

Microsoft releases Windows ME.
2001

Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation's capital.
2003

In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union.
2007

Financial crisis of 2007-2008: The Northern Rock bank experiences the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years.
2015

The first observation of gravitational waves was made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.

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