14 August
August 14 is the 226th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (227th in leap years), with 139 days remaining.
Events
- 1040 - Assassination of King Duncan of Scotland by Macbeth.
- 1385 - 1383-1385 Crisis: Castilians are defeated by Portuguese at the Battle of Aljubarrota
- 1598 - Irish under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, destroy English force at the Battle of Yellow Ford
- 1842 - Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma
- 1848 - Oregon Territory organized by Act of Congress
- 1880 - Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, completed
- 1893 - France introduces motor vehicle registration
- 1896 - Gold discovered in the Yukon, leading to the Klondike Gold Rush
- 1900 - Beijing occupied by joint European-Japanese-United States force in campaign to end Boxer Rebellion in China
- 1901 - First powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
- 1908 - First Beauty Contest held in Folkestone, England
- 1912 - United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the US-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya resigned three years earlier
- 1933 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).
- 1935 - Social Security Act passed, creating a government pension system for the retired
- 1941 - World War II - Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims
- 1947 - Pakistan and India gain independence from Britain at midnight, Pakistan commemorating the event on August 14 and India on August 15
- 1969 - British troops deployed in Northern Ireland
- 1971 - Bahrain declares its independence from Britain
- 1972 - An East German Ilyushin-62 crashed during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156
- 1980 - Lech Walesa leads strikes at Gdansk, Poland shipyards.
- 1994 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos", is captured.
- 2003 - Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
- 2004 - Sales tax holiday in Massachusetts. All sales taxes are suspended on purchases of $2500.00 or less.
Births
- 1740 - Pope Pius VII (d. 1823)
- 1771 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist and poet
- 1840 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, psychologist (d. 1902)
- 1861 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress
- 1863 - Ernest Thayer, poet: Casey at the Bat (d. 1940)
- 1867 - John Galsworthy, author (d. 1933)
- 1882 - Gisela Richter, art historian (d. 1972)
- 1910 - Pierre Schaeffer, composer and pioneer of musique concrète
- 1920 - Nehemiah Persoff, actor
- 1925 - Russell Baker, columnist
- 1926 - René Goscinny, comic-strip author
- 1926 - Lina Wertmüller, director
- 1935 - John Brodie, professional football player
- 1940 - Dash Crofts, musician
- 1941 - David Crosby, guitarist, songwriter
- 1943 - Jimmy Johnson, former NFL head coach, TV analyst
- 1945 - Steve Martin, comedian, actor
- 1945 - Wim Wenders, director
- 1946 - Antonio Fargas, actor
- 1946 - Susan Saint James, actress
- 1947 - Danielle Steel, novelist
- 1950 - Gary Larson, cartoonist
- 1952 - Carl Lumbly, actor
- 1952 - Debbie Meyer, first Olympic swimmer to win 3 individual gold medals
- 1953 - James Horner, Academy Award-winning composer
- 1954 - Mark Fidrych, baseball pitcher
- 1956 - Rusty Wallace, NASCAR driver
- 1959 - Marcia Gay Harden, Academy Award-winning actress
- 1959 - Earvin "Magic" Johnson, basketball player
- 1960 - Sarah Brightman, singer
- 1961 - Susan Olsen, actress, The Brady Bunch
- 1964 - Brannon Braga, writer, director
- 1965 - Emmanuelle Béart, Cesar Award-winning actress
- 1966 - Halle Berry, Academy Award-winning actress
Deaths
- 1433 - King John I of Portugal
- 1464 - Pope Pius II
- 1784 - Nathaniel Hone, painter
- 1943 - Joe Kelley, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1871)
- 1951 - William Randolph Hearst, newspaper magnate
- 1955 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress
- 1956 - Bertolt Brecht, composer, playwright
- 1958 - Frédéric Joliot, scientist
- 1972 - Oscar Levant, actor, composer, musician
- 1977 - Michael Widman, labor union organizer
- 1984 - J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright
- 1985 - Gale Sondergaard, actress
- 2002 - Dave Williams, singer for Drowning Pool
- 2004 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980 (b. 1911)
Holidays and observances
August 13 - August 15 - July 14 - September 14 -- listing of all days
