May 14 in History

May 14 spans 52 recorded events across recorded history, from 1027 to 2022. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.

Holidays and observances on May 14

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Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is es

1948 — Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.

Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

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Historical Events 52 events 1027 – 2022

More major events on May 14

The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.

  1. 1961 Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle. Source
  2. 2010 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135. Source

Did you know

In 1948, Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.

Did you know

The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, was proclaimed at the Tel Aviv Museum on 14 May 1948, at the end of the civil war phase and beginning of the Arab–Israeli War of the 1948 Palestine war, by the Va'ad Leumi led by David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the World Zionist Organization and chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Did you know

In 1948, Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.

Did you know

In 1948, Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.

Did you know

In 1948, Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.


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Showing all 51 events

1027 Robert II of France

Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks.

Robert II (c. 972 – 20 July 1031), called the Pious (French: le Pieux) or the Wise (French: le Sage), was king of the Franks from 996 to 1031, the second from the Capetian dynasty. Crowned junior king in 987, he assisted his father on military matters (notably during the two sieges of Laon, in 988 and 991). His solid education, provided by Gerbert of Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II) in Reims, allowed him to deal with religious questions of which he quickly became the guarantor (he headed the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy in 991 and that of Chelles in 994). Continuing the political work of his father after becoming sole ruler in 996, he managed to maintain the alliance with the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou and thus was able to contain the ambitions of Count Odo II of Blois. Robert II distinguished himself with an extraordinarily long reign for the time. His 35-year-long reign was marked by his attempts to expand the royal domain by any means, especially by his struggle to gain the Duchy of Burgundy (which ended in 1005 with his victory) after the death in 1002 without male descendants of his paternal uncle Duke Henry I, and after a war against Otto-William of Ivrea, Henry I's stepson adopted by him as his heir. His policies earned him many enemies, including three of his sons. The marital setbacks of Robert II (he married three times, having two of these annulled and attempting to have the third annulled, prevented only by the pope's refusal to agree to a third annulment), strangely contrasted with the pious aura, bordering on holiness, which his biographer Helgaud of Fleury was willing to lend him in his work "Life of King Robert the Pious" (Epitoma vitæ regis Roberti pii). His life was then presented as a model to follow, made of innumerable pious donations to various religious establishments, of charity towards the poor and, above all, of gestures considered sacred, such as the healing of certain lepers. Robert II was the first sovereign considered to be a "miracle worker". The end of his reign revealed the relative weakness of the sovereign, who had to face the revolt of his third wife Constance and then of his own sons (Henry and Robert) between 1025 and 1031.
1097 Siege of Nicaea

The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade.

The siege of Nicaea was the first major battle of the First Crusade, taking place from 14 May to 19 June 1097. The city was under the control of the Seljuk Turks who opted to surrender to the Byzantines in fear of the Crusaders breaking into the city. The siege was followed by the Battle of Dorylaeum and the Siege of Antioch, all taking place in modern Turkey.
1264 Battle of Lewes

Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the effective ruler of England.

The Battle of Lewes was one of two main battles of the conflict known as the Second Barons' War. It took place at Lewes in Sussex, on 14 May 1264. It marked the high point of the career of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and made him the "uncrowned King of England". Henry III's forces left the safety of Lewes Castle and St. Pancras Priory to engage the barons in battle and were initially successful, with Henry's son Prince Edward routing part of the baronial army with a cavalry charge. However, Edward pursued his quarry off the battlefield and left Henry's men exposed. Henry was forced to launch an infantry attack up Offham Hill where he was defeated by the barons' men defending the summit. The royalists fled back to the castle and priory and the King was forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, ceding many of his powers to de Montfort.
1450 Ottoman_Empire

A large Ottoman force begins the siege of Albanian rebel forces in Krujë, that ultimately will fail.

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.
1465

During the 1465 Moroccan revolution which overthrows the Marinid dynasty, the Jewish mellah is attacked by the population of Fez, though the extent of the massacre is debated.

The 1465 Fez revolt was a popular uprising in the Marinid capital of Fez against Sultan Abd al-Haqq II, the final ruler of the Marinid dynasty, and his Jewish vizier, Harun ibn Batash. The Marinid Sultanate faced a severe crisis in the mid-15th century, exacerbated by progressive Portuguese incursions into its territory. The Marinid sultans, the nominal rulers, held little power outside the capital of Fez, while much of their former realm was controlled by the Wattasids, a powerful family of viziers. In 1458, Sultan Abd al-Haqq II launched a successful coup to reclaim direct power from the Wattasids. He subsequently appointed Jewish officials, notably Harun ibn Batash, to high-ranking administrative positions, a move that generated significant resentment among the majority-Muslim population of Fez. According to traditional accounts, the revolt was sparked in 1465 by allegations that a Jewish official had assaulted a female sharif. This prompted a local preacher to call for Jihad, culminating in a pogrom against the city's Jewish community. The uprising was heavily supported, and possibly orchestrated, by Muhammad ibn Imran, the leader of the sharifs of Fez. During the unrest, Sultan Abd al-Haqq II was lynched or executed by the mob, effectively ending the Marinid dynasty, and Muhammad ibn Imran briefly assumed control of the city. Following the revolt, the Wattasids attempted to regain power but faced opposition from Muhammad ibn Imran. This conflict culminated in 1471 when the Wattasid leader Muhammad al-Sheikh conquered Fez, though at the cost of ceding significant territory to the Portuguese. The Wattasids, who maintained the traditional Berber tribal structure of earlier regional dynasties, were ultimately discredited by their inability to halt the Portuguese advance. In the 16th century, they were overthrown by the Saadis, a non-tribal dynasty of sharifs. Because the territory has been governed by sharifian dynasties ever since, Abun-Nasr view the 1465 uprising, despite its failure to establish lasting sharifian control at the time, a harbinger of the rule by sharifs which would shape the region's subsequent history.
1509 Battle of Agnadello

Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Republic of Venice.

The Battle of Agnadello, also known as Vailà, was fought on 14 May 1509 between the army of King Louis XII of France and the Venetian rear-guard elements commanded by Bartolomeo d'Alviano. After a three hour struggle, and after Bartolomeo found himself abandoned by a part of his army, the Venetians were defeated with losses in excess of 4,000 men. Louis then occupied the rest of Lombardy. It was one of the most significant engagements of the War of the League of Cambrai and a pivotal episode in the broader context of the Italian Wars, with Machiavelli describing it as Venice losing in a single day the territorial gains of eight centuries.
1607 Jamestown

English colonists establish "James Fort", which would become Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest permanent English settlement in the Americas.

The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located, in what later became James City County, on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of present-day Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S. (May 14, 1607 N.S.). It followed earlier, failed English colonization attempts, including the 1585 Roanoke Colony. A river island was selected to evade Spanish naval patrols; however, it was infested with mosquitoes, lacked potable water, and was used by the Paspahegh people. Despite supply missions, only 60 of the original 214 settlers survived the 1609–1610 winter known as Starving Time. In 1612, West Indies tobacco was successfully cultivated, leading to an economic boom for the colony and England. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. The year 1619 had three seminal events: the first legislative assembly in the New World, a labor strike, and the first recorded African slaves in Virginia colony. The Africans most likely worked in the tobacco fields, under a system of race-based indentured servitude. The modern conception of slavery in the British colonies was formalized in 1640, and fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660. In 1622, a native uprising decimated the surrounding settlements, but the capital was warned before a decisive attack could occur. In 1676, Jamestown was deliberately burned during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was rebuilt. In 1699, the colonial capital was moved to present-day Williamsburg, Virginia. In the 18th century, Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement and remains as an archaeological site, Jamestown Rediscovery, which houses museums and historical sites, including the Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. Jamestown is one of three locations composing the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, along with Williamsburg and Yorktown. Historic Jamestowne is the archaeological site on Jamestown Island and is a cooperative effort by Jamestown National Historic Site and Preservation Virginia. Jamestown Settlement, a living history interpretive site, is operated by the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, a state agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
1608 Protestant Union

The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states, is founded to defend the rights, land and safety of each member against the Catholic Church and Catholic German states.

The Protestant Union (German: Protestantische Union), also known as the Evangelical Union, Union of Auhausen, German Union or the Protestant Action Party, was a coalition of Protestant German states. It was formed on 14 May 1608 by Frederick IV, Elector Palatine in order to defend the rights, land and safety of each member. It included both Calvinist and Lutheran states, and dissolved in 1621.
1610 Henry IV of France

Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne.

Henry IV (French: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (le Bon Roi Henri) or Henry the Great (Henri le Grand), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France, as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in Paris in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII. Henry was baptised a Catholic but raised as a Huguenot in the Protestant faith by his mother, Queen Jeanne III of Navarre. He inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on his mother's death. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. He later led Protestant forces against the French royal army. Henry inherited the throne of France in 1589 upon the death of Henry III, his distant cousin. Henry IV initially kept the Protestant faith (the only French king to do so) and had to fight against the Catholic League, which refused to accept a Protestant monarch. After four years of military stalemate, Henry converted to Catholicism, reportedly saying that "Paris is well worth a Mass". As a pragmatic politician (politique), he promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598), which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the French Wars of Religion. An active ruler, Henry worked to regularize state finance, promote agriculture, and encourage education. He began the first successful French colonization of the Americas. He promoted trade and industry, and prioritized the construction of roads, bridges, and canals to facilitate communication within France and strengthen the country's cohesion. These efforts stimulated economic growth and improved living standards. While the Edict of Nantes brought religious peace to France, some hardline Catholics and Huguenots remained dissatisfied, leading to occasional outbreaks of violence and conspiracies. Henry IV also faced resistance from certain noble factions who opposed his centralization policies, leading to political instability. His main foreign policy success was the Peace of Vervins in 1598, which made peace in the long-running conflict with Spain. He formed a strategic alliance with England. He also forged alliances with Protestant states, such as the Dutch Republic and several German states, to counter the Catholic powers. His policies contributed to the stability and prominence of France in European affairs.
1747 War_of_the_Austrian_Succession

War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre.

The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740 to 1748, was a conflict between the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King George's War, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the First Carnatic War, and the First and Second Silesian Wars.
1796 Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.

Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ("pustules of the cow"), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which Jenner described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox. Jenner is often called "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have saved "more lives than any other man". In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10% of the global population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily. In 1821, he was appointed physician to King George IV, and was also made mayor of Berkeley and justice of the peace. Jenner was a member of the Royal Society. In the field of zoology, he was among the first modern scholars to describe the brood parasitism of the cuckoo (Aristotle also noted this behaviour in his History of Animals). In 2002, Jenner was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.
1800 6th_United_States_Congress

The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the Federal government of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., begins the following day.

The 6th United States Congress was the 6th meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It initially met at Congress Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then was the first congress to meet in the new Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.. Its term was from March 4, 1799, to March 4, 1801, during the last two years of John Adams's presidency. It was the last Congress of the 18th century and the first to convene in the 19th. The apportionment of seats in House of Representatives was based on the 1790 United States census. Both chambers had a Federalist majority. This was the last Congress in which the Federalist Party controlled the presidency or either chamber of Congress.
1804 William Clark

William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's historic journey up the Missouri River.

William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark led the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, the first major effort to explore and map much of what is now the Western United States and to assert American claims to the Pacific Northwest. Before the expedition, he served in a militia and the United States Army. Afterward, he served in a militia and as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as a U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis.
1811 Paraguay

Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor.

Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country located in the central region of South America. It borders Bolivia to the northwest and north, Brazil to the northeast and east, and Argentina to the southeast, south, and west. Paraguay has access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Paraná–Paraguay Waterway, a system of navigable channels shared by five countries. The country is governed as a unitary presidential republic composed of a capital district and seventeen departments. Its capital and largest city is Asunción. It dates its independence from Spain to 1811.
1832 Battle of Stillman's Run

The Battle of Stillman's Run, the first battle of the Black Hawk War, is fought.

The Battle of Stillman's Run, also known as the Battle of Sycamore Creek or the Battle of Old Man's Creek, occurred in Illinois on May 14, 1832. The battle was named for the panicked retreat by Major Isaiah Stillman and his detachment of 275 Illinois militia after being attacked by an unknown number of Sauk warriors of Black Hawk's British Band. The numbers of warriors has been estimated at as few as fifty but as many as two hundred participated in the attack. However, reports found in Whitney's Black Hawk War (Letters and reports compiled by the Illinois State Library) indicated that large numbers of Indians were on the move throughout the region, and it appeared that widespread frontier warfare was underway. The engagement was the first battle of the Black Hawk War (1832), which developed after Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi River from Iowa into Illinois with his band of Sauk and Meskwaki warriors along with women, children, and elders to try to resettle in Illinois. The militia had pursued a small group of Sauk scouts to the main British Band camp following a failed attempt by Black Hawk's emissaries to negotiate a truce. During the engagement, 12 militiamen were killed by Band warriors while making a stand on a small hill. The remainder of the militia fled back to Dixon's Ferry. Citizens erected a monument in 1901 in Stillman Valley, Illinois commemorating the battle. A 2006 article corroborates that militia volunteer Abraham Lincoln was present at the battleground's burials; sources agree about little else. Investigation continues in the early 21st century about facts of the skirmish.
1836

The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas.

The Treaties of Velasco (Spanish: Tratados de Velasco) were two documents, one private and the other public, signed in Fort Velasco on May 14, 1836 between General Antonio López de Santa Anna and the Republic of Texas in the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The fort was located in the former Velasco, Texas, now part of the present-day location of Surfside Beach. The signatories were interim president David G. Burnet for Texas and Santa Anna for Mexico. Texas intended the agreements to conclude hostilities between the two armies and offer the first steps toward the official recognition of Texas's independence from Mexico. Santa Anna had been captured by Texans. Many wanted him hanged as just vengeance for the murder of comrades and family during the battles at Alamo and Goliad, but Sam Houston spared his life and extracted a promise from Santa Anna that Mexican troops would be removed from Texas. Santa Anna persuaded Burnet that if he were allowed to return to Mexico City, he would argue for the independence of Texas. Santa Anna signed both the public agreement and the secret treaty, but neither was ratified as a treaty by the Mexican government because he had signed them under duress while being held captive. Santa Anna later said, "I did promise to try to get a hearing for the Texas Commissioners, but this in itself did not bind the government to receive them." The Mexican Congress considered Santa Anna's actions scandalous and nullified both. Mexican conservatives removed Santa Anna as president and installed Anastasio Bustamante, and there was an agreement with the Mexican Congress that Santa Anna had "offered nothing in the name of the nation." A biographer of Santa Anna, Will Fowler, considered that the "general of tricks was at his most ingenious" with the negotiations with Texas since he did not commit himself to do anything other than to permit Texas commissioners to present their case to the Mexican government. He was "no longer in a position to act freely, and anything he said or signed would not be validated by Congress" since as a captive, he was no longer president. A draft of the agreement, which Santa Anna refused to sign until it was amended, stated that he recognized as "Head of the Mexican Nation" Texas's independence, text that was later dropped. Santa Anna sent a message to General Vicente Filisola to retreat below the Rio Grande, but his message made it clear that Filisola was in charge. Fowler argues that Filisola should have known that Santa Anna was in no position to be issuing orders since he had been captured. Both Filisola and Santa Anna were blamed for the defeat, but signing the Velasco documents did not commit either Santa Anna or Mexico to Texas independence. Mexico still claimed Texas but was too weak to attempt to reconquer it; thus, Texas was de facto independent. The documents were not even called "treaties" until they were so characterized by U.S. president James K. Polk in his justifications for war some ten years later, as U.S. representative Abraham Lincoln pointed out in 1848. Lincoln's efforts earned the freshman Whig U.S. representative the derisive sobriquet "Spotty" Lincoln because of his Spot Resolutions, which demanded to know that the "spot" at which American troops were killed was on American soil, which Polk argued to justify war with Mexico.
1842 The Illustrated London News

The first edition of The Illustrated London News, the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine, is published.

The Illustrated London News, founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less frequent publication schedule in 1971, and eventually ceased publication in 2003. The company continues today as Illustrated London News Ltd, a publishing, content, and digital agency in London, which holds the publication and business archives of the magazine.
1857 Mindon Min

Mindon Min is crowned as King of Burma in Mandalay, Burma.

Mindon Min (Burmese: မင်းတုန်းမင်း, pronounced [mɪ́ɰ̃dóʊɰ̃ mɪ́ɰ̃]; 1808 – 1878), born Maung Lwin, was the penultimate king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma because of his role in the Fifth Buddhist Council. Under his half brother King Pagan, the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852 ended with the annexation of Lower Burma by the British Empire. Mindon and his younger brother Kanaung overthrew their half brother King Pagan. He spent most of his reign trying to defend the upper part of his country from British encroachments, and to modernize his kingdom.
1863 American Civil War

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces drive Confederates under Joseph E.

Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi in the Battle of Jackson.
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.
1868 Boshin War

Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward.

The Boshin War (戊辰戦争, Boshin Sensō), sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperial Court. The war stemmed from dissatisfaction among many nobles and young samurai with the shogunate's handling of foreigners following the opening of Japan during the prior decade. Increasing Western influence in the economy led to a decline similar to that of other Asian countries at the time. An alliance of western samurai, particularly the domains of Chōshū, Satsuma, and Tosa, and court officials secured control of the Imperial Court and influenced the young Emperor Meiji. Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the sitting shōgun, realizing the futility of his situation, abdicated and handed over political power to the emperor. Yoshinobu had hoped that by doing this the House of Tokugawa could be preserved and participate in the future government. However, military movements by imperial forces, partisan violence in Edo, and an imperial decree promoted by Satsuma and Chōshū abolishing the House of Tokugawa led Yoshinobu to launch a military campaign to seize the emperor's court in Kyoto. The military tide rapidly turned in favour of the smaller but relatively modernized Imperial faction, and, after a series of battles culminating in the surrender of Edo, Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Those loyal to the Tokugawa shōgun retreated to northern Honshū and later to Hokkaido, where they founded the Republic of Ezo. The defeat at the Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the Emperor as the de facto supreme ruler throughout the whole of Japan, completing the military phase of the Meiji Restoration. Around 69,000 men were mobilized during the conflict, and of these about 8,200 were killed. In the end, the victorious Imperial faction abandoned its objective of expelling foreigners from Japan and instead adopted a policy of continued modernization with an eye to the eventual renegotiation of the unequal treaties with the Western powers. Due to the persistence of Saigō Takamori, a prominent leader of the Imperial faction, the Tokugawa loyalists were shown clemency, and many former shogunate leaders and samurai were later given positions of responsibility under the new government. When the Boshin War began, Japan was already modernizing, following the same course of advancement as that of the industrialized Western nations. Since Western nations, especially the United Kingdom and France, were deeply involved in the country's politics, the installation of Imperial power added more turbulence to the conflict. Over time, the war was romanticized as a "bloodless revolution", as the number of casualties was small relative to the size of Japan's population. However, conflicts soon emerged between the western samurai and the modernists in the Imperial faction, which led to the bloodier Satsuma Rebellion nine years later.
1870 Rugby_football

The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.

Rugby football is a type of football, a team sport which developed in the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom, and which later split into the modern sports of rugby union and rugby league.
1878 Salem witchcraft trial (1878)

The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.

The Salem witchcraft trial of 1878, also known as the Ipswich witchcraft trial and the second Salem witch trial, was an American civil case held in May 1878 in Salem, Massachusetts, in which Lucretia L. S. Brown, an adherent of the Christian Science religion, accused fellow Christian Scientist Daniel H. Spofford of attempting to harm her through his "mesmeric" mental powers. By 1918, it was considered the last witchcraft trial held in the United States. The case garnered significant attention for its startling claims and the fact that it took place in Salem, the scene of the 1692 Salem witch trials. The judge dismissed the case.
1879

The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.

The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million lower-class South-Asian workers from the Indian subcontinent were transported to work on plantations in various overseas European colonies, beginning shortly after the abolition of slavery in the early 19th century. Although described by colonial authorities as "free" migration, many poor, predominantly rural brown Indian recruits who were often referred to as "coolies" were deceived, Involuntary coerced, or kidnapped, and taken to the Caribbean on ships, leading historians such as Hugh Tinker to characterise the system as a "New form of slavery". The system began with the Atlas voyage to Mauritius in 1834, but early journeys were marked by mortality rates of over 17%, prompting British authorities to impose stricter shipping regulations. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted until the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large Indian diaspora in the Caribbean, Natal, Réunion, Mauritius, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-South African, Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Mauritian and Indo-Fijian populations. While many descendants celebrate their cultural resilience, historians emphasise the trauma and displacement caused by the indenture system.
1900 Exposition Universelle (1900)

Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games.

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).
1913 William Sulzer

Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D.

Rockefeller.
William Sulzer (March 18, 1863 – November 6, 1941), nicknamed Plain Bill, was an American lawyer and politician. He was the 39th governor of New York serving for 10 months in 1913, and a long-serving U.S. representative from the same state. Sulzer was the first, and to date only, New York governor to be impeached and the only governor to be convicted on articles of impeachment. He broke with his sponsors at Tammany Hall, and they produced convincing evidence that Sulzer had falsified his sworn statement of campaign expenditures.
1915 May 14 Revolt

The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.

The May 14 Revolt (1915) was a politico-military uprising led by Álvaro de Castro and General Sá Cardoso which started in Lisbon, Portugal, with the objective of taking power from the dictatorship of General Pimenta de Castro during the Portuguese First Republic and returning the government to the principles of the 1911 Constitution.
1918

Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the two-minute silence.

Sir Harry Hands (18 September 1860 – 17 March 1948) was a British colonial politician, who served from 1915 to 1918 as mayor of Cape Town, South Africa. He is credited with instituting the first practice in the world of an official two-minute silence to honour loss of life in conflict, following the death of his eldest son Reginald Hands in World War I, at the suggestion of councillor Robert Rutherford Brydone.
1925 Mrs Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf's earliest and best-known novels, is published.

Mrs Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925. It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a wealthy woman in post-First World War London. The working title of Mrs Dalloway was The Hours. The novel originated from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister". In autumn 1922, Woolf began to think of the "Mrs Dalloway" short story as the first chapter of her new novel, and she completed the manuscript in late autumn 1924. The book describes Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host in the evening and the ensuing party. With an interior perspective, the story travels forwards and backwards in time to construct an image of Clarissa's life and the inter-war social structure. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories, using a stream of consciousness narration style. In October 2005, Mrs Dalloway was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since its first issue in 1923.
1931 Ådalen shootings

Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ådalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.

The Ådalen shootings (Swedish: skotten i Ådalen) was a series of events in and around the sawmill district of Ådalen, Kramfors Municipality, Ångermanland, Sweden, in May 1931. During a protest on 14 May, five people were killed by Swedish Army troops called in as reinforcements by the police.
1935 Constitution_of_the_Philippines

The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote.

The Constitution of the Philippines, also known as the 1987 Constitution, is the supreme law of the Philippines. Its final draft was completed by the Constitutional Commission on October 12, 1986, and ratified by a nationwide plebiscite on February 2, 1987. The Constitution remains unamended to this day.
1939 Lina_Medina

Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.

Lina Marcela Medina de Jurado is a Peruvian woman who became the youngest confirmed mother in history when she gave birth to her son Gerardo on 14 May 1939 when she was five years, seven months, and 21 days of age. Based on the medical assessments of her pregnancy, she was four years old when she became pregnant, which was biologically possible due to precocious puberty.
1940 World_War_II

World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands, is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center.

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.
1943 AHS_Centaur

World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.

AHS Centaur was a hospital ship which was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 14 May 1943. Of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard, 268 died, including 63 of the 65 army personnel.
1951 Talyllyn_Railway

Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.

The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow-gauge railway in Wales, which runs for 7+1⁄4 miles (12 km) from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. Opened in 1865 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, it was the first narrow-gauge railway in Britain authorised by Act of Parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. Despite severe underinvestment, the line remained open, and in 1951 it became the first railway in the world to be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers.
1953 Milwaukee

Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike.

Milwaukee is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it had a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, making it the 31st-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most populous city in the Midwest. The Milwaukee metropolitan area has over 1.57 million residents and ranks as the 40th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. The city is the county seat of Milwaukee County.
1955 Cold_War

Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.
1961 Civil_rights_movement

Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle.

The civil rights movement was a social movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which most commonly affected African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century, and modern roots in the 1940s and in Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent movement in India. After years of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience campaigns, the civil rights movement achieved many of its legislative goals in the 1960s, during which it secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
1970 Red_Army_Faction

Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction.

The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970, active until 1998, and formally designated a terrorist organisation by the West German government. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term "faction" when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler.
1973 Skylab

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

Skylab was the United States' first space station launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4.
1977 Dan-Air

A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people.

Dan-Air was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo and passenger charter flights from Southend (1953–1955) and Blackbushe airports (1955–1960) using a variety of piston-engined aircraft before moving to a new base at Gatwick Airport in 1960, followed by expansion into inclusive tour (IT) charter flights and all-year round scheduled services. The introduction of two de Havilland Comet series 4 jet aircraft in 1966 made Dan-Air the second British independent airline after British United Airways to begin sustained jet operations.
1980 Salvadoran_Civil_War

Salvadoran Civil War: The Sumpul River massacre occurs in Chalatenango, El Salvador.

The Salvadoran Civil War was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador that was backed by the United States, against the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups that was backed by Cuba under Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of the civil war. The war did not formally end until after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, on 16 January 1992 the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in Mexico City.
1987 Timoci_Bavadra

Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant colonel Sitiveni Rabuka.

Timoci Uluivuda Bavadra was a Fijian medical doctor who founded the Fiji Labour Party and served as the Prime Minister of Fiji for one month in 1987.
1988

Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group.

Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.
The Carrollton bus collision occurred on May 14, 1988, on Interstate 71 in unincorporated Carroll County, Kentucky, United States. The collision involved a former school bus in use by a church youth group and a pickup truck driven by an alcohol-impaired driver. The head-on collision was the deadliest incident involving drunk driving and the third-deadliest bus crash in U.S. history.
2004 Constitutional_Court_of_Korea

The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.

The Constitutional Court of Korea is the constitutional court of South Korea, seated in Jongno, Seoul. Exercising constitutional review, it is one of the two highest courts in South Korea's judiciary, along with the Supreme Court. Composed of nine justices, the Constitutional Court has the power to nullify unconstitutional laws, remove impeached officials from office, dissolve antidemocratic political parties, oversee disputes on powers of public authorities, and handle constitutional complaints.
2004 Frederik_X

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson are married at Copenhagen Cathedral.

Frederik X is King of Denmark, reigning since 14 January 2024.
2004 Rico_Linhas_Aéreas_Flight_4815

Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people.

Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo de Olivença, via Tefé, to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, northwest Brazil. On 14 May 2004, the aircraft operating the flight, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, crashed into the dense Amazon rainforest while on approach to Manaus. All 33 people on board were killed.
2008 2008_UEFA_Cup_final_riots

Battle of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre between Zenit supporters and Rangers supporters and the Greater Manchester Police; 39 policemen injured, one police dog injured and 39 arrested.

Riots took place in Manchester, England, on the day of the 2008 UEFA Cup final between FC Zenit Saint Petersburg and Rangers FC. Serious disorder was allegedly sparked by the failure of a big screen erected in Piccadilly Gardens to transmit the match to thousands of Rangers fans who had travelled to the city without tickets. In addition to property damage, fifteen policemen were injured and ambulance crews attended 52 cases of assault. A Manchester City Council inquiry into the events estimated that over 200,000 Rangers fans visited Manchester for the match, with 39 fans arrested for a range of offences across the city, while 38 complaints were received about the conduct of Greater Manchester Police officers.
2010 Space_Shuttle_Atlantis

Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet.

This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985. Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J made from October 3 to 7, 1985. It was, along with Challenger, one of only two orbiters equipped to carry the Shuttle-Centaur booster.
2012 Agni_Air_Flight_CHT

Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.

On 14 May 2012, a Dornier 228 passenger aircraft of Agni Air operating Flight CHT, crashed near Jomsom Airport, Nepal, killing 15 of the 21 people on board, including both pilots and Indian child actress Taruni Sachdev and her mother.
2021 Zhurong_(rover)

China successfully lands Zhurong, the country's first Mars rover.

Zhurong is a Chinese rover on Mars, the country's first to land on another planet after it previously landed two rovers on the Moon. The rover is part of the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars conducted by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
2022 2022_Buffalo_shooting

Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were black, were murdered, and three people were injured. The perpetrator, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch until the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes.

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