What Happened on May 14th in History
30 historical events on this date
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 1.6Â million workers from India were transported to labour in various overseas European colonies, beginning...
Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games.
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, 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...
Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100Â million donation from John D. Rockefeller.
William Sulzer, 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...
The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.
The May 14 Revolt (1915) was a politico-military uprising led by Ălvaro de Castro and General SĂĄ Cardoso which started in Lisbon, Portugal, with the objective of taking power from the dictatorship...
Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the two-minute silence.
Sir Harry Hands 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...
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 fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England.
Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ă dalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.
The Ă dalen shootings was a series of events in and around the sawmill district of Ă dalen, Kramfors Municipality, Ă ngermanland, Sweden, in May 1931. During a protest on 14 May, five people were...
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,...
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...
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. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHSÂ 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...
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 ArabâIsraeli War.
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...
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+1â4 miles (12Â km) from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. Opened in 1865 to...
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...
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...
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,...
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 BaaderâMeinhof Group or BaaderâMeinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970, active until 1998, and formally designated a terrorist...
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,...
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...
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, backed by the United States, and the Farabundo MartĂ National Liberation...
Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra is ousted from power in a coup d'Ă©tat 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.
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...
The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
The Constitutional Court of Korea is a constitutional court of South Korea, seated in Jongno, Seoul. It is one of the two apex courts â along with the Supreme Court â in South Korea's judiciary that...
Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson are married at Copenhagen Cathedral.
Frederik X is King of Denmark, reigning since the abdication of his mother, Margrethe II, in January 2024.
Rico Linhas AĂ©reas 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...
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...
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component â 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...
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...
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...
Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.
On May 14, 2022, an anti-black mass shooting and hate crime occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of...