August 14
Events
Pre-1600
- 74 BC - A group of officials, led by the Western Han minister Huo Guang, present articles of impeachment against the new emperor, Liu He, to the imperial regent, Empress Dowager Shangguan.
- 29 BC - Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
- 1040 - King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
- 1183 - Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan.
- 1264 - After tricking the Venetian galley fleet into sailing east to the Levant, the Genoese capture an entire Venetian trade convoy at the Battle of Saseno.
- 1352 - War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.
- 1370 - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Karlovy Vary.
- 1385 - Portuguese Crisis of 1383–85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by John I of Portugal defeat the Castilian army of John I of Castile.
- 1592 - The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis.
- 1598 - Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
1601–1900
- 1720 - The Spanish military Villasur expedition is defeated by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.
- 1784 - Russian colonization of North America: Awa'uq Massacre: The Russian fur trader Grigory Shelikhov storms a Kodiak Island Alutiit refuge rock on Sitkalidak Island, killing 500+ Alutiit.
- 1790 - The Treaty of Wereloe ended the 1788–1790 Russo-Swedish War.
- 1791 - Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution.
- 1814 - A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish–Norwegian War.
- 1816 - The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
- 1842 - American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida.
- 1848 - Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.
- 1880 - Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
- 1885 - Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
- 1893 - France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
- 1900 - Battle of Peking: The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
1901–present
- 1901 - The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
- 1914 - World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive.
- 1917 - World War I: The Republic of China, which had heretofore been shipping labourers to Europe to assist in the war effort, officially declares war on the Central Powers, although it will continue to send to Europe labourers instead of combatants for the remaining duration of the war.
- 1920 - The 1920 Summer Olympics, having started four months earlier, officially open in Antwerp, Belgium, with the newly adopted Olympic flag and the Olympic oath being raised and taken at the Opening Ceremony for the first time in Olympic history.
- 1921 - Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country.
- 1933 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; destroying of land.
- 1935 - Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.
- 1936 - Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last known public execution in the United States.
- 1941 - World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
- 1947 - Pakistan gains independence from the British Empire as the Dominion of Pakistan, due to the partition of India.
- 1948 - An Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers known as Beaver drop occurred. This program relocated beavers from Northwestern Idaho to Central Idaho by airplane and then parachuting the beavers into the Chamberlain Basin.
- 1959 - Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
- 1967 - UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
- 1969 - The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner.
- 1971 - Bahrain declares independence from Britain.
- 1972 - An Ilyushin Il-62 airliner crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany killing 156 people.
- 1974 - Turkey launches the second phase of the invasion of Cyprus, which eventually resulted in the Turkish occupation of 37% of Cyprus.
- 1980 - Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
- 1994 - Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.
- 1996 - Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is shot and killed by a Turkish security officer while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
- 2003 - A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.
- 2005 - Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.
- 2006 - Lebanon War: A ceasefire takes effect three days after the United Nations Security Council's approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, formally ending hostilities between Lebanon and Israel.
- 2006 - Sri Lankan Civil War: Sixty-one schoolgirls killed in Chencholai bombing by Sri Lanka Air Force air strike.
- 2007 - The Kahtaniya bombings kill at least 500 people.
- 2013 - Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.
- 2013 - UPS Airlines Flight 1354 crashes short of the runway at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, killing both crew members on board.
- 2015 - The U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off.
- 2018 - The collapse of the Ponte Morandi bridge in Genoa, Italy, left 16 people injured and 43 people killed.
- 2021 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes southwestern Haiti, killing at least 2,248 people and causing a humanitarian crisis.
- 2022 - An explosion destroys a market in Armenia, killing six people and injuring dozens.
- 2023 - Former U.S. president Donald Trump is charged in Georgia along with 18 others in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state, his fourth indictment of 2023.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1479 - Catherine of York
- 1499 - John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, English politician
- 1502 - Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Flemish painter
- 1530 - Giambattista Benedetti, Italian mathematician and physicist
- 1552 - Paolo Sarpi, Italian writer
- 1599 - Méric Casaubon, Swiss-English scholar and author
1601–1900
- 1642 - Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
- 1653 - Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English colonel and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica
- 1688 - Frederick William I of Prussia
- 1714 - Claude Joseph Vernet, French painter
- 1738 - Leopold Hofmann, Austrian composer and conductor
- 1742 - Pope Pius VII
- 1758 - Carle Vernet, French painter and lithographer
- 1777 - Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist
- 1802 - Letitia Elizabeth Landon, English poet and novelist
- 1814 - Charlotte Fowler Wells, American phrenologist and publisher
- 1817 - Alexander H. Bailey, American lawyer, judge, and politician
- 1840 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German-Austrian psychologist and author
- 1847 - Robert Comtesse, Swiss lawyer and politician
- 1848 - Margaret Lindsay Huggins, Anglo-Irish astronomer and author
- 1851 - Doc Holliday, American dentist and gambler
- 1860 - Ernest Thompson Seton, American author, artist, and naturalist
- 1863 - Ernest Thayer, American poet and author
- 1865 - Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician and academic
- 1866 - Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician and academic
- 1867 - Cupid Childs, American baseball player
- 1867 - John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1871 - Guangxu Emperor of China
- 1875 - Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Russian-Lithuanian painter and illustrator
- 1876 - Alexander I of Serbia
- 1881 - Francis Ford, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1883 - Ernest Everett Just, American biologist and academic
- 1886 - Arthur Jeffrey Dempster, Canadian-American physicist and academic
- 1889 - Otto Tief, Estonian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia
- 1890 - Bruno Tesch, German chemist and businessman
- 1892 - Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English pianist, composer, and critic
- 1894 - Frank Burge, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1895 - Jack Gregory, Australian cricketer
- 1895 - Amaza Lee Meredith, American architect
- 1896 - Albert Ball, English fighter pilot
- 1896 - Theodor Luts, Estonian director and cinematographer
- 1900 - Margret Boveri, German journalist