April 14 in History

The Roman Senate was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy. With different powers throughout its existence, it lasted from the first days of the city of Rome as the Senate of the Roman Kingdom, to the Senate of the Roman Republic and Senate of the Roman Empire and eventually the Byzantine Senate of the Eastern Roman Empire, existing well into the post-classical era and Middle Ages.

AD 69 (LXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the consulship of Galba and Vinius. The denomination AD 69 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Doubravka of Bohemia, Dobrawa (Czech: Doubravka Přemyslovna, Polish: Dobrawa, Dąbrówka; c. 940/45 – 977) was a Bohemian princess of the Přemyslid dynasty and Duchess of the Polans by her marriage to Mieszko I of Poland. She was the daughter of Boleslaus I the Cruel, Duke of Bohemia, whose wife may have been the mysterious Biagota, and had been already divorced or widowed by the time she married Mieszko. According to near-contemporary sources, Doubravka urged her Polish husband to accept baptism in 966, the year after their marriage. Modern historians believe, however, that the change of religion by Mieszko was one of the points discussed in the Polish-Bohemian agreement concluded soon before his marriage with Doubravka. Her role in his conversion is not considered now to be as important as it is often represented in medieval chronicles.

Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (German: der Rote), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, he was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy. Otto II was made joint-ruler of Germany in 961, at an early age, and his father named him co-Emperor in 967 to secure his succession to the throne. His father also arranged for Otto II to marry the Byzantine Princess Theophanu, who would be his wife until his death. When his father died after a 37-year reign, the 18-year-old Otto II became absolute ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in a peaceful succession. He spent his reign continuing his father's policy of strengthening Imperial rule in Germany and extending the borders of the Empire deeper into Southern Italy. Otto II also continued the work of Otto I in subordinating the Catholic Church to Imperial control. Early in his reign, Otto II defeated a major revolt against his rule from other members of the Ottonian dynasty who claimed the throne for themselves. His victory allowed him to exclude the Bavarian line of the Ottonians from the line of Imperial succession. This strengthened his authority as Emperor and secured the succession of his own son to the Imperial throne. With domestic affairs settled, Otto II would focus his attention from 980 onward to annexing the whole of Italy into the Empire. His conquests brought him into conflict with the Byzantine Empire and with the Muslims of the Fatimid Caliphate, who both held territories in southern Italy. After initial successes in unifying the southern Lombard principalities under his authority and in conquering Byzantine-controlled territory, Otto II's campaigns in southern Italy ended in 982 following a disastrous defeat by the Muslims. While he was preparing to counterattack Muslim forces, a major uprising by the Slavs broke out in 983, forcing the Empire to abandon its major territorial holdings east of the Elbe river. Otto II died suddenly in 983 at the age of 28 after a 10-year reign. He was succeeded as Emperor by his three-year-old son Otto III, plunging the Empire into a political crisis.

The Tokhtamysh–Timur war was fought from 1386 to 1395 between Tokhtamysh, the khan of the Golden Horde, and the warlord and conqueror Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, in the areas of the Caucasus Mountains, Turkestan and Eastern Europe. The battle between Timur and Tokhtamysh played a key role in the decline of Mongol power over the Russian principalities.

The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. It fought with the House of Lancaster, another cadet branch of the House of Plantagenet, for the English crown in the second half of the 15th century. The differences ultimately led to the Wars of the Roses. These wars are so named because each house had a rose in its coat of arms: York a white one and Lancaster a red one.

In April 1561, a broadsheet by Hans Glaser described a mass sighting of celestial phenomena or unidentified flying objects (UFO) above Nuremberg (then a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire). Ufologists have speculated that contemporary observers may have witnessed extraterrestrial spacecraft. Skeptics assert that the incident was likely to have been an atmospheric event, such as a sun dog, although the print does not fit the usual classic description of the phenomenon.

The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, with parts of Germany reporting population declines of more than 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco–Spanish War, the Torstenson War, the Dutch–Portuguese War, and the Portuguese Restoration War.

The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society. It was founded April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and held four meetings. Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initial meetings of the Society were Quakers, that is, members of the Religious Society of Friends, a branch of Christianity notable in the early history of Pennsylvania. It was reorganized in 1784 as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, (better known as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society) and was incorporated in 1789. At some point after 1785, Benjamin Franklin was elected as the organization's president. The society asked him to bring the matter of slavery to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He petitioned the U.S. Congress in 1790 to ban slavery. The Pennsylvania Abolition (or Abolitionist) Society, which had members and leaders of both races, became a model for anti-slavery organizations in other states during the antebellum years. Prominent African-American members included Robert Purvis, who was admitted in 1842 as the Society's first Black member. In 1984 when the Society was revived, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed on Philadelphia's Front Street below Chestnut Street, at the site of its original offices. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society still exists, dedicated to the cause of combating racism. The oldest abolitionist organization in the United States, since the late twentieth century, it has worked to improve issues of criminal justice and the over-representation of African Americans in prison, reduction in harsh sentencing laws, and improving economic and environmental justice.

Léger-Félicité Sonthonax (7 March 1763 – 23 July 1813) was a French politician and colonial administrator. He was a Jacobin before joining the Girondins, which emerged in 1791. During the Haitian Revolution, he controlled 7,000 French troops in Saint-Domingue. His official title was Civil Commissioner. From September 1792, he and Polverel became the de facto rulers of Saint-Domingue's non-slave population. Because they were associated with Brissot’s party, they were put in accusation by the convention on July 16, 1793, but a ship to bring them back in France didn’t arrive in the colony until June 1794, and they arrived in France in the time of the downfall of Robespierre. They had a fair trial in 1795 and were acquitted of the charges the white colonists brought against them. Sonthonax believed that Saint-Domingue's whites were royalists or separatists, so he attacked the military power of the white settlers and by doing so alienated the colonial settlers from their government. Many gens de couleur (mixed-race residents of the colony) asserted that they could form the military backbone of Saint-Domingue if they were given rights, but Sonthonax rejected this view as outdated in the wake of the August 1791 slave uprising. He believed that Saint-Domingue would need ex-slave soldiers among the ranks of the colonial army if it was to survive. In August 1793, he proclaimed freedom for all slaves in the north province. Historians have debated his motives for abolishing slavery, with some arguing that he was influenced by revolutionary ideals of equality, and others alleging that he was forced into ending slavery in order to maintain his own power.

The Hungarian Declaration of Independence declared the independence of Hungary from the Habsburg monarchy during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The declaration of Hungarian independence was made possible by the positive mood created by the military successes of the Spring Campaign. It was presented to the National Assembly in closed session on 13 April 1849 by Lajos Kossuth, and in open session the following day, despite political opposition from within the Hungarian Peace Party. The declaration was passed unanimously the following day. Kossuth issued the declaration himself, from the Reformed Great Church of Debrecen. The declaration accused the Habsburgs of crimes, saying The House of Habsburg-Lorraine is unexampled in the compass of its perjuries [...] Its determination to extinguish the independence of Hungary has been accompanied by a succession of criminal acts, comprising robbery, destruction of property by fire, murder, maiming [...] Humanity will shudder when reading this disgraceful page of history. [...] "The house of Habsburg has forfeited the throne". In a banquet speech before the Corporation of New York, Kossuth urged the United States to recognize Hungarian independence, saying The third object of my humble wishes, gentlemen, is the recognition of the independence of Hungary. [...] our Declaration of Independence was not only voted unanimously in our Congress, but every county, every municipality, has solemnly declared its consent and adherence to it; so it became not the supposed, but by the whole realm positively, and sanctioned by the fundamental laws of Hungary.

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and died the next day, one month into his second term and towards the conclusion of the American Civil War. Lincoln was watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd, Major Henry Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancé Clara Harris when John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot him in the head. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street, where he died the following morning. With Union victory imminent, Booth and his conspirators, including Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt, originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederacy. After that plan failed to materialize, they decided to assassinate him, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Booth hoped that eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government would revive the Confederate cause. Powell and Herold were assigned to kill Seward, while Atzerodt was assigned to kill Johnson. Booth succeeded in killing Lincoln, but Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt became drunk and never targeted Johnson. Booth fled into Maryland after shooting Lincoln and rendezvoused with Herold. Lincoln's secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, directed the largest manhunt in US history at the time, involving thousands of troops. After a 12-day search, on April 26, Booth and Herold were located at a tobacco farm in King George County, Virginia. Booth was fatally shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett after refusing to surrender. The other conspirators were captured by the end of April 1865, except for John Surratt, whom the US captured in Egypt in November 1866. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were hanged in July 1865, while John Surratt was released after a mistrial in 1867 and never retried. Johnson was hastily sworn in as the 17th president on April 15 and served for the remainder of Lincoln's second term. Lincoln's state funeral was held on April 19, after which a funeral train transported his remains through seven states for burial in Illinois. He was the third US president to die in office, and the first by assassination. The assassination drew international condemnation and left a profound impact on the US. It made Lincoln a national martyr and led to a lengthy period of mourning as the US entered the Reconstruction era.

William Henry Seward (; May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was prominent in the Republican Party in its formative years and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. He also negotiated the treaty for the United States to purchase the Alaska Territory. Seward was born in 1801 in the village of Florida, in Orange County, New York, where his father was a farmer and owned slaves. He was educated as a lawyer and moved to the Central New York town of Auburn. Seward was elected to the New York State Senate in 1830 as an Anti-Mason. Four years later, he became the gubernatorial nominee of the Whig Party. Though he lost that race, Seward was elected governor in 1838 and won a second two-year term in 1840. During this period, he signed several laws that advanced the rights of and opportunities for black residents, as well as guaranteeing jury trials for fugitive slaves in the state. The legislation protected abolitionists, and he used his position to intervene in cases of freed black people who were enslaved in the South. After many years practicing law in Auburn, he was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1849. Seward's strong stances and provocative words against slavery brought him hatred in the South. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855 and soon joined the nascent Republican Party, becoming one of its leading figures. As the 1860 presidential election approached, he was regarded as the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. Several factors, including his opposition to slavery, his support for immigrants and Catholics, and his association with the editor and political boss Thurlow Weed, worked against him, and Abraham Lincoln secured the presidential nomination. Although devastated by his loss, he campaigned for Lincoln, who appointed him Secretary of State after winning the election. Seward did his best to stop the southern states from seceding; once that failed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Union cause. His firm stance against foreign intervention in the Civil War helped deter the United Kingdom and France from recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. He was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward remained in his post through the presidency of Andrew Johnson, during which he negotiated the Alaska Purchase in 1867 and supported Johnson during his impeachment. His contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as "one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints".

The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight was a famous gun fight that occurred on April 14, 1881, on El Paso Street, in El Paso, Texas. Witnesses generally agreed that the incident lasted no more than five seconds after the first gunshot, though a few would insist it was at least ten seconds. Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire accounted for three of the four fatalities with his twin .44 caliber Smith & Wesson revolvers.

The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas.

A film, movie, or motion picture is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since the 1930s, synchronized with sound and sometimes feature other sensory stimuli. Films are produced by recording people and objects with cameras or by creating them using animation techniques and special effects. They comprise a series of individual frames, but when these images are shown rapidly in succession, the illusion of motion is seen by the viewer. Flickering between frames is not noticeable due to an effect traditionally known as persistence of vision, and now more specifically known as flicker fusion, whereby the visual system processes a sufficiently fast succession of pictures and interruptions into a steady image of averaged brightness. Films are widely considered to be an important art form; films entertain, educate, enlighten, and inspire audiences. The visual elements of cinema need no translation, giving the motion picture a universal power of communication. Any film can become a worldwide attraction, especially with the addition of dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue. Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them.

On 14 April 1895, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Carniola, a crown land of Austria-Hungary and the capital of modern-day Slovenia. It was the most, and the last, destructive earthquake in the history of Ljubljana.

The Exposition Universelle of 1900 (French pronunciation: [ɛkspozisjɔ̃ ynivɛʁsɛl]), better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. It was the sixth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It was held at the esplanade of Les Invalides, the Champ de Mars, the Trocadéro and at the banks of the Seine between them, with an additional section in the Bois de Vincennes, and it was visited by more than fifty million people. Many international congresses and other events were held within the framework of the exposition, including the 1900 Summer Olympics. Many technological innovations were displayed at the fair, including the Grande Roue de Paris ferris wheel, the Rue de l'Avenir moving sidewalk, the first ever regular passenger trolleybus line, escalators, diesel engines, electric cars, dry cell batteries, electric fire engines, talking films, the telegraphone (the first magnetic audio recorder), the galalith and the matryoshka dolls. It also brought international attention to the Art Nouveau style. Additionally, it showcased France as a major colonial power through numerous pavilions built on the hill of the Trocadéro Palace. Major structures built for the exposition include the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Pont Alexandre III, the Gare d'Orsay railroad station, and the Paris Métro Line 1 (including its entrances designed by Hector Guimard), all of which survive today (including two original canopied Métro entrances).

Hauser Dam (also known as Hauser Lake Dam) is a hydroelectric straight gravity dam on the Missouri River about 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Helena, Montana, in the United States. The original dam, made out of an innovative material, steel, was built between 1905 and 1907 but failed in 1908 and caused severe flooding and damage downstream. A second dam was built on the site in 1908 and opened in 1911 and comprises the present structure. The current Hauser Dam is 700 feet (210 m) long and 80 feet (24 m) high. The reservoir formed by the dam, Hauser Lake (also known as Hauser Reservoir), is 25 miles (40 km) long, has a surface area of 3,800 acres (1,500 ha), and has a storage capacity of 98,000 acre-feet (121,000,000 m3) of water when full. The dam is a "run-of-the-river" dam because it can generate electricity without needing to store additional water supplies behind the dam. The powerhouse contains six generators, bringing Hauser dam's generating capacity to 17 MW.

The Ottoman Empire, also known historically as Turkey or the Turkish Empire, was a state that spanned much of Southeastern Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th century to the early 20th century, centred in modern-day Turkey. It also controlled parts of southeastern Central Europe between the early 16th and early 18th centuries.

RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Of the 2,208 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (estimates vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture. It was the second time White Star Line had lost a ship on her maiden voyage, the first being RMS Tayleur in 1854. Titanic was the largest ship afloat upon entering service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for White Star Line. The ship was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship. White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, survived in a lifeboat. The first-class accommodations were designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. They included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for passenger use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship's reputation as "unsinkable". Titanic was equipped with sixteen lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total capacity of 48 boats. Despite this capacity, the ship was equipped with twenty lifeboats. Fourteen of these were regular lifeboats, two were cutter lifeboats, and four were collapsible boats that proved difficult to prepare for launch while the ship was sinking. Together, these lifeboats could have held 1,178 people – roughly half the number of passengers on board, and a third of the number that the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era). The British Board of Trade's regulations required fourteen lifeboats for a ship of 10,000 tonnes. Titanic carried six more than that, room for 338 more people than the standard. When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were carrying an average of 60% of their rated capacity.

The 1929 Monaco Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix to be run in the principality. It was set up by wealthy cigarette manufacturer Antony Noghès, who had set up the Automobile Club de Monaco with some of his friends. This offer of a Grand Prix was supported by Prince Louis II and the Monégasque driver of that time, Louis Chiron. On 14 April 1929, their plan became reality when 16 invited participants turned out to race for a prize of 100,000 French francs. The event was won by William Grover-Williams (listed on timing sheets as W. Williams), who drove a Bugatti T35B.

The Spanish Republic (Spanish: República Española), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (Spanish: Segunda República Española), was the democratic government of Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII. It was dissolved on 1 April 1939 after surrendering in the Spanish Civil War to the Nationalists rebels led by General Francisco Franco. After the proclamation of the Republic, a provisional government was established until December 1931, at which time the 1931 Constitution was approved. Over the next two years of constitutional government, known as the Reformist Biennium, Prime Minister Manuel Azaña initiated numerous reforms. In 1932, religious orders were forbidden control of schools, while the government began a large-scale school-building project. A moderate agrarian reform was carried out. Home rule was granted to Catalonia, with a parliament and a president of its own. Soon, Azaña lost parliamentary support and President Alcalá-Zamora forced his resignation in September 1933. In the subsequent 1933 election the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) won a plurality. However the President declined to invite its leader, Gil Robles, to form a government, fearing CEDA's monarchist sympathies. Instead, he invited the Radical Republican Party's Alejandro Lerroux to do so. The period following the CEDA's victory, called "black biennium", was marked by escalating clashes between the left and the right and state-sanctioned repression against the left. The CEDA exercised indirect influence over the government and in October 1934, was finally successful in forcing the acceptance of three ministries. A general strike was called by the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The strike developed into a 'revolutionary' uprising, allegedly aiming to overthrow the Republican government, although major action took place only in Asturias, where the rebels officially declared a proletarian revolution and abolished regular money. The rebellion was crushed by the Spanish Navy and the Spanish Republican Army, the latter using mainly Moorish colonial troops from Spanish Morocco. In 1935, after a series of crises and corruption scandals, President Alcalá-Zamora, who had always been hostile to the government, called for new elections, instead of inviting CEDA, the party with most seats in the parliament, to form a new government. The Popular Front won the 1936 general election with a narrow victory. The Right accelerated its preparations for a coup, which had been months in the planning. Amidst the wave of political violence that broke out after the triumph of the Popular Front in the February 1936 elections, a group of Guardia de Asalto and other leftist militiamen mortally shot José Calvo Sotelo, one of the leaders of the opposition, on 12 July 1936. This assassination convinced many military officers to back the planned coup. Three days later (17 July), the revolt began with an army uprising in Spanish Morocco, followed by military takeovers in many cities in Spain. Military rebels intended to seize power immediately, but they were met with serious resistance as most of the main cities remained loyal to the Republic. An estimated total of half a million people died in the war that followed. During the Spanish Civil War, there were three Republican governments. The first was led by left-wing republican José Giral (from July to September 1936); a revolution inspired mostly by libertarian socialist, anarchist and communist principles broke out in its territory. The second government was led by the PSOE's Francisco Largo Caballero. The UGT, along with the National Confederation of Workers (CNT), were the main forces behind the social revolution. The third government was led by socialist Juan Negrín, who led the Republic until the military coup of Segismundo Casado, which ended republican resistance and ultimately led to the victory of the Nationalists. The Republican government survived in exile and retained an embassy in Mexico City until 1976. After the restoration of democracy in Spain, the government-in-exile formally dissolved the following year.

Black Sunday was a particularly severe dust storm that occurred on April 14, 1935, as part of the Dust Bowl in the United States. It was one of the worst dust storms in American history and caused immense economic and agricultural damage. It is estimated that 300,000 tons of topsoil were displaced from the prairie area. On the afternoon of April 14, 1935, residents of several plains states were forced to take cover as a dust storm or "black blizzard" blew through the region. The storm first hit the Oklahoma panhandle and northwestern Oklahoma before moving south for the day. It hit Beaver, Oklahoma, around 4 p.m.; Boise City around 5:15; and Amarillo, Texas, at 7:20. The conditions were the most severe in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, but the storm's effects were also felt in surrounding areas. Drought, erosion, bare soil, and winds caused the dust to fly freely and at high speeds.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

The siege of Tobruk () took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. An Allied force, consisting mostly of the 9th Australian Division, commanded by Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, was besieged in the North African port of Tobruk by German and Italian forces. The tenacious defenders quickly became known as the Rats of Tobruk. After 231 days, they were finally relieved by the British Eighth Army. In late 1940, the Allies had defeated the Italian 10th Army during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941) and trapped the remnants at Beda Fomm. On 22 January 1941, Tobruk's Italian garrison surrendered. But in early 1941, much of the British Western Desert Force was sent to the Greek and Syria–Lebanon campaigns, leaving only a skeleton force short of equipment and supplies. Adolf Hitler felt compelled to send reinforcements, commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, to rescue his beleaguered Italian ally. Rommel launched Operation Sonnenblume (6 February – 25 May 1941), driving the Allies back across Libya to the Egyptian border. However, Tobruk held out, depriving Rommel of a supply port closer to the Egyptian–Libyan border than Benghazi, 560 mi (900 km) west of the Egyptian frontier. The Axis siege of Tobruk began on 10 April and continued despite two failed Allied relief attempts: Operation Brevity (15–16 May) and Operation Battleaxe (15–17 June). The garrison repulsed several Axis attacks. The port was frequently bombarded by artillery, dive-bombers and medium bombers, while the Royal Air Force flew defensive sorties from airfields far away in Egypt. Allied naval forces, such as the British Mediterranean Fleet (including the Inshore Squadron) ran the blockade, carrying reinforcements and supplies in and the wounded and prisoners out. Finally, Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December) succeeded in raising the siege.

The razing of Friesoythe was the destruction of the town of Friesoythe in Lower Saxony on 14 April 1945, during the Western Allies' invasion of Germany towards the end of World War II in Europe. The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division attacked the German-held town of Friesoythe, and one of its battalions, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, captured it. During the fighting, the battalion's commander was killed by a German soldier, but it was incorrectly rumoured that he had been killed by a civilian. Under this mistaken belief, the division's commander, Major-General Christopher Vokes, ordered that the town be razed in retaliation and it was substantially destroyed. Twenty German civilians died in Friesoythe and the surrounding area during the two days of fighting and its aftermath. Similar, if usually less extreme, events occurred elsewhere in Germany as the Allies advanced in the closing weeks of the war. The rubble of the town was used to fill craters in local roads to make them passable for the division's tanks and heavy vehicles. A few days earlier, the division had destroyed the centre of Sögel in another reprisal and also used the rubble to make the roads passable. Little official notice was taken of the incident and the Canadian Army official history glosses over it. It is covered in the regimental histories of the units involved and several accounts of the campaign. Forty years later, Vokes wrote in his autobiography that he had "no great remorse over the elimination of Friesoythe."

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve other countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). The world's flagship communist state, it was governed by the Communist Party under Marxism–Leninism, through soviet councils. The Soviet economy was also centrally planned. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

Gnassingbé Eyadéma was a Togolese military officer and politician who served as the third president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé.

STS-1 was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981, and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 37 times. Columbia carried a crew of two—commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American crewed space flight since the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975. STS-1 was also the maiden test flight of a new American spacecraft to carry a crew, though it was preceded by atmospheric testing (ALT) of the orbiter and ground testing of the Space Shuttle system.

Hail is a form of solid atmospheric precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets, though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) was one of the final ships in the United States Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry-class of guided missile frigates (FFG). Commissioned in 1986, the ship was severely damaged by an Iranian mine in 1988, leading U.S. forces to respond with Operation Praying Mantis. Repaired and returned to duty, the ship served until decommissioned in 2015.

The United Nations (UN) is an international intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations on 26 June 1945 with the articulated mission of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals.

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the east coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia and is generally regarded as part of Europe. It is bordered to the north and northeast by Russia; to the west by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. It has a population of 3.9 million, of which over a third live in Tbilisi, the capital and largest city. Georgians, who are native to the region and constitute the majority of the population, are ethno-linguistically distinct from their neighboring nations and primarily speak Georgian, a Kartvelian language that has no relation to any other language family in the world.

In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an unintentional attack by allied or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy or hostile targets. Many NATO militaries refer to these incidents as blue on blue. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, and long-range ranging errors or inaccuracy. Accidental fire not intended to attack enemy or hostile targets, or deliberate firing on one's own troops for disciplinary reasons, is not called friendly fire, and neither is unintentional harm to civilian or neutral targets, which is sometimes referred to as collateral damage. Training accidents and bloodless incidents also do not qualify as friendly fire in terms of casualty reporting.

Pai Hsiao-yen was the only daughter of popular Taiwanese television host and actress Pai Bing-bing and Japanese author Ikki Kajiwara. In April 1997, Pai was kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered by a group of people led by Chen Chien-hsing, Lin Chun-sheng, and Kao Tien-meen, a trio of criminals previously known to the National Police Agency. Chen, Lin, and Kao evaded a police manhunt for up to eight months, during which they abducted two other people for ransom and killed four people, including a police officer. Ultimately, Lin and Kao committed suicide during encounters with police in August and November, and Chen was arrested and executed after initiating the Alexander family hostage crisis in November.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 32 member states. Founded in the aftermath of World War II, NATO was established with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. The organization serves as a system of collective security and deterrence, whereby its independent members agree to defend each-other from attack by any outside party. This is enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty, which states that an armed attack against the territory of one member shall be considered an attack against them all.

On the afternoon 14 April 1999, a powerful hailstorm formed north of Nowra and moved north toward the city of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. It was the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history, causing extensive damage along the east coast of New South Wales. The storm struck the city's eastern suburbs, including the central business district, later that evening.

The Ramna Batamul bombing was a series of bomb attacks on 14 April 2001 at a cultural programme of the Pahela Baishakh celebrations arranged by Chaayanot, the leading cultural organization of Bangladesh.

Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and various islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises an area of 912,050 km2 (352,140 sq mi), with a population estimated at 31.8 million in 2025. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is Caracas. The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, on the south by Brazil, on the east by Guyana, and on the northeast by Trinidad and Tobago. Venezuela consists of 23 states, the Capital District, and the Federal Dependencies covering Venezuela's offshore islands. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America, with an estimated urbanization rate of 88.4% in 2022. The vast majority of Venezuelans live in urban areas in the north, including in the capital.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint. It started in 1990 and was completed in 2003. It was the world's largest collaborative biological project. Planning for the project began in 1984 by the US government, and it officially launched in 1990. It was declared complete on 14 April 2003, and included about 92% of the genome. Level "complete genome" was achieved in May 2021, with only 0.3% of the bases covered by potential issues. The full gapless sequence containing 22 autosomes and the X chromosome was published in January 2022, making it the first fully sequenced human genome. The full sequence of the Y chromosome was only published in August 2023 due to challenges with sequencing and assembling, caused by its highly repetitive nature.

Baghdad is the capital and largest city in Iraq. It is located on the banks of the Tigris in central Iraq. The city has an estimated population of 8 million. It ranks among the most populous and largest cities in the Middle East and the Arab world and constitutes 22% of Iraq's population. Baghdad is a primary financial and commercial center in the region.

The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States. The OSC holds court at the Oregon Supreme Court Building in Salem, Oregon, near the capitol building on State Street. The building was finished in 1914 and also houses the state's law library, while the courtroom is also used by the Oregon Court of Appeals.

On 14 April 2014 at about 6:45 am, two bombs exploded at a crowded bus station in Nyanya, Abuja, Nigeria, killing at least 88 people and injuring at least 200. The bus station is 8 km southwest of central Federal Capital Territory.

On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christian, with some Muslim, schoolgirls aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Prior to the raid, the school had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions, but the girls were in attendance to take final exams in physics.

The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes were a series of earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock which struck at 01:25 JST on April 16, 2016 beneath Kumamoto City of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu Region, Japan, at a depth of about 10 kilometres, and a foreshock earthquake with a magnitude 6.2 at 21:26 JST (12:26 UTC) on April 14, 2016, at a depth of about 11 kilometres.

On 24 February 2022, during the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting the current phase of the war, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II. By April 2022, the invasion's initial goal of a rapid Russian victory via decapitation had failed, with Ukraine pushing back the northern arm of the invasion and preventing the capture of Kyiv. Following this, the war transitioned to more conventional fighting in the south and east of Ukraine.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer is an interplanetary spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). It is on its way to orbit and study three icy moons of Jupiter: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. These planetary-mass moons are targets for study because they are thought to have significant bodies of liquid water beneath their frozen surfaces, which would make them potentially habitable for extraterrestrial life.

In April 2024 heavy rain severely impacted states in the Persian Gulf, causing flash flooding across the region. Several states recorded nearly a year's worth of rain in a single day. The floods had a significant impact across the region, with Oman and the United Arab Emirates being particularly affected, resulting in the deaths of at least 46 people, including 20 in Oman, and 18 in Iran. Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia also experienced heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding.