May 14
Events
Pre-1600
- 1027 - Robert II of France names his son Henry I as junior King of the Franks.
- 1097 - The Siege of Nicaea begins during the First Crusade.
- 1264 - 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.
- 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.
- 1509 - Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Republic of Venice.
1601–1900
- 1607 - English colonists establish "James Fort", which would become Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest permanent English settlement in the Americas.
- 1608 - 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.
- 1610 - Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne.
- 1747 - War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre.
- 1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.
- 1800 - 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.
- 1804 - 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 historic journey up the Missouri River.
- 1811 - Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor.
- 1832 - The Battle of Stillman's Run, the first battle of the Black Hawk War, was fought.
- 1836 - The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas.
- 1842 - The first edition of The Illustrated London News, the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine, was published.
- 1857 - Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma in Mandalay, Burma.
- 1863 - American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces drive Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi in the Battle of Jackson.
- 1868 - Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward.
- 1870 - The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.
- 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.
- 1879 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the.
1901–present
- 1900 - Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games.
- 1913 - 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.
- 1915 - The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.
- 1918 - Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the Two-minute silence.
- 1925 - Mrs Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf's earliest and best-known novels, was published.
- 1931 - Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ådalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.
- 1935 - The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote.
- 1939 - Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
- 1940 - 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.
- 1943 - World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks off the coast of Queensland.
- 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.
- 1951 - 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.
- 1953 - Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike.
- 1955 - Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
- 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.
- 1970 - Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction.
- 1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
- 1977 - A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people.
- 1980 - Salvadoran Civil War: the Sumpul River massacre occurs in Chalatenango, El Salvador.
- 1987 - Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant colonel Sitiveni Rabuka.
- 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.
- 2004 - The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
- 2004 - Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson are married at Copenhagen Cathedral.
- 2004 - Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people.
- 2008 - 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.
- 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.
- 2012 - Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.
- 2021 - China successfully lands Zhurong, the country's first Mars rover.
- 2022 - Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1316 - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1553 - Margaret of Valois, Queen of France
- 1574 - Francesco Rasi, Italian singer-songwriter, theorbo player, and poet
- 1592 - Alice Barnham, wife of statesman Francis Bacon
1601–1900
- 1630 - Katakura Kagenaga, Japanese samurai
- 1652 - Johann Philipp Förtsch, German composer
- 1657 - Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, Indian emperor
- 1666 - Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
- 1679 - Peder Horrebow, Danish astronomer and mathematician
- 1699 - Hans Joachim von Zieten, Prussian general
- 1701 - William Emerson, English mathematician and academic
- 1710 - Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden
- 1725 - Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice
- 1727 - Thomas Gainsborough, English painter
- 1737 - George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, Irish-English politician and diplomat, Governor of Grenada
- 1752 - Timothy Dwight IV, American minister, theologian, and academic
- 1752 - Albrecht Thaer, German agronomist and author
- 1761 - Samuel Dexter, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
- 1771 - Robert Owen, Welsh businessman and social reformer
- 1771 - Thomas Wedgwood, English photographer
- 1781 - Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian and academic
- 1794 - Fanny Imlay, daughter of British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft
- 1814 - Charles Beyer, German-English engineer, co-founded Beyer, Peacock & Company
- 1817 - Alexander Kaufmann, German poet and educator
- 1820 - James Martin, Irish-Australian politician, 6th Premier of New South Wales
- 1830 - Antonio Annetto Caruana, Maltese archaeologist and author
- 1832 - Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician and academic
- 1851 - Anna Laurens Dawes, American author and anti-suffragist
- 1852 - Henri Julien, Canadian illustrator
- 1863 - John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician, founder of the Fields Medal
- 1867 - Kurt Eisner, German journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Bavaria
- 1868 - Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and sexologist
- 1869 - Arthur Rostron, English mariner, captain of the rescue ship Carpathia during the Titanic disaster
- 1872 - Elia Dalla Costa, Italian cardinal
- 1878 - J. L. Wilkinson, American baseball player and manager
- 1879 - Fred Englehardt, American jumper
- 1880 - Wilhelm List, German field marshal
- 1881 - Lionel Hill, Australian politician, 30th Premier of South Australia
- 1881 - George Murray Hulbert, American judge and politician
- 1885 - Otto Klemperer, German composer and conductor
- 1887 - Ants Kurvits, Estonian general and politician, 10th Estonian Minister of War
- 1888 - Archie Alexander, American mathematician and engineer
- 1893 - Louis Verneuil, French actor and playwright
- 1897 - Sidney Bechet, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer
- 1897 - Ed Ricketts, American biologist and ecologist
- 1899 - Charlotte Auerbach, German-Scottish folklorist, geneticist, and zoologist
- 1899 - Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist and academic
- 1899 - Earle Combs, American baseball player and coach
- 1900 - Hal Borland, American journalist and author
- 1900 - Walter Rehberg, Swiss pianist and composer
- 1900 - Cai Chang, Chinese first leader of All-China Women's Federation
- 1900 - Leo Smit, Dutch pianist and composer
- 1900 - Edgar Wind, German-English historian, author, and academic