May 14

Events
Up to 1900
1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
1483 - Coronation of Charles VIII of France ("Charles l'Affable").
1509 - Battle of Agnadello: In northern Italy, French forces defeat the Venetians.
1607 - The settlement of Jamestown, Virginia is founded.
1608 - The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen, Bavaria.
1610 - King Henry IV of France is murdered, leaving the throne to his son, King Louis XIII of France, who dies exactly 33 years later, on the same date.
1643 - Four year-old Louix XIV becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. Louis XIV's reign would become the longest in European history, lasting until 1715.
1747 - A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre.
1787 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States.
1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
1811 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain.
1858 - As one of three explorers, John McDouall Stuart starts a journey that crosses Australia.
1861 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859-gram chondrite-type meteorite strikes the earth near Barcelona, Spain.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Jackson.
1868 - Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikko.
1870 - The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.
1879 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji.
1889 - The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London.
1894 - In Blackpool, Lancashire, England, the Blackpool Tower is opened to the public.
1897 - Stars and Stripes Forever id first performed in public near Willow Grove Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1900 - The 1900 Summer Olympics open in Paris.
1901 2000
1901 - In Adalen, Sweden, five people are killed as soldiers fire on a trade union demonstration.
1913 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.
1914 - The Hellenic Holocaust starts, according to an official document from Talaat Bey (Minister of the Interior) to the prefect of Smyrna.
1927 - Cap Arcona is launched at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg.
1929 - Wilfred Rhodes takes his 4000th first-class wicket during a performance of 9 for 39 at Leyton.
1930 - The Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico become a National Park.
1935 - The Filipinos ratify an independence agreement.
1939 - Lina Medina, from Peru, becomes the world's youngest alleged mother in medical history at the age of five.
1940 - World War II: Rotterdam is bombed by the German Luftwaffe.
1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrenders to Germany.
1943 - World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks the ship AMS Centaur off Queensland, Australia.
1948 - Israel declares itself to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.
1948 - The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn, northern England, leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.
1955 - Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union sign a mutual defence treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
1955 - The United States carries out Operation Wigwam - atomic bomb tests around 900 kilometers southwest of San Diego, California in the Pacific Ocean.
1961 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob.
1963 - Kuwait joins the UN.
1970 - The Red Army Faction is established in Germany.
1973 - Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. It is the last launch of the Saturn V rocket.
1988 - Carrollton Bus Collision: A drunk driver travelling the wrong way on the Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. 27 people die in the resulting crash and fire.
1989 - Carlos Menem is elected President of Argentina.
1995 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama proclaims six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
1998 - After nine years on the air, the series finale of the television sitcom Seinfeld is aired on NBC.
From 2001
2004 - The marriage of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary Donaldson takes place in Copenhagen.
2004 - Piers Morgan is fired as editor of the Daily Mirror, when photographs that had been published in the newspaper of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers were proved to be fake.
2004 - Insurgents or terrorists in Iraq detonate a 155 mm shell containing several liters of binary precursors for sarin. The shell was designed to mix the chemicals as it spun during flight and the explosion failed to mix them properly. Although it only resulted in a small release of sarin, two U.S. soldiers are treated for exposure after displaying the early symptoms.
2005 - Pope Benedict XVI observes his first beatification, elevating Blessed Marianne of Molokai on the road to canonization into sainthood.
2005 - Nintendo opens up its first retail store, Nintendo World, in Rockefeller Center in New York City. They celebrated the grand opening with a block party in Rockefeller Plaza.
2006 - The final episode of US sitcom Malcolm in the Middle is broadcast.
2011 - Ell and Nikki of Azerbaijan win the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
2012 - Agni Air Flight CHT crashes near the airport in Jamsom, Nepal, after a failed turnaround, killing 15 people.
2013 - President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan declares a state of emergency in the Northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa due to the terrorist activities of Boko Haram.
2013 - Brazil effectively legalizes same-sex marriage.
2016 - Crimean-Tatar artist Jamala wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 for Ukraine with the ballad 1944, in Stockholm. Dami Im (Australia) and Sergey Lazarev (Russia) finish second and third respectively.
2017 - Emmanuel Macron takes office as the youngest-ever President of France, at the age of 39.
2017 - An election in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia results in the SPD-Green Party coalition under Hannelore Kraft losing its majority. The CDU under Armin Laschet makes significant gains.
2018 - Israeli troops kill 58 Palestinian protesters on the same day the Israel's new United States Embassy is opened in Jerusalem to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Israel.
Births
Up to 1800
1265 - Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (d. 1321)
1316 - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1378)
1414 - Francis I, Duke of Bretagne (d. 1450)
1553 - Margaret of Valois, wife of Henry IV (d. 1615)
1574 - Francesco Rasi, Italian composer, singer, musician and poet (d. 1621)
1630 - Katakura Kagenaga, Japanese samurai (d. 1681)
1657 - Sambhaji, Indian emperor (d. 1689)
1666 - Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (d. 1732)
1699 - Hans Joachim von Zieten, Prussian field marshal (d. 1786)
1700 - Mary Delany, English artist and letter writer (d. 1788)
1701 - William Emerson, English mathematician (d. 1782)
1710 - King Adolf Frederick of Sweden (d. 1771)
1725 - Ludovico Manin, last Doge of Venice (d. 1802)
1727 - Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (d. 1788)
1737 - George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, British statesman and diplomat (d. 1806)
1759 - Aloys I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1805)
1761 - Samuel Dexter, American politician (d. 1816)
1771 - Robert Owen, Welsh social reformer (d. 1858)
1771 - Thomas Wedgwood, British photography pioneer (d. 1805)
1781 - Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian (d. 1873)
1801 1900
1814 - Charles Beyer, German-British locomotive engineer (d. 1876)
1817 - Alexander Kaufmann, German poet (d. 1893)
1832 - Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (d. 1903)
1836 - Wilhelm Steinitz, German chess player (d. 1900)
1850 - Alva Adams, Governor of Colorado (d. 1922)
1852 - Alton B. Parker, American politician (d. 1926)
1867 - Kurt Eisner, German politician (d. 1919)
1868 - Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and sexologist (d. 1935)
1869 - Concha Espina, Spanish writer (d. 1955)
1872 - Elia Dalla Costa, Italian cardinal (d. 1961)
1874 - Polaire, French singer and actress (d. 1939)
1878 - James L. Wilkinson, American baseball executive (d. 1964)
1880 - Wilhelm List, German field marshal (d. 1971)
1881 - G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (d. 1950)
1885 - Otto Klemperer, German-born conductor (d. 1973)
1885 - Nikolai Krylenko, Russian revolutionary and politician (d. 1938)
1893 - Louis Verneuil, French playwright (d. 1952)
1897 - Sidney Bechet, American jazz musician (d. 1959)
1897 - Ed Ricketts, American marine biologist (d. 1948)
1899 - Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist (d. 1993)
1899 - Earle Combs, American baseball player (d. 1976)
1900 - Hal Borland, American writer (d. 1978)
1900 - Walter Rehberg, Swiss pianist, composer and writer (d. 1957)
1900 - Leo Smit, Dutch composer (d. 1943)
1901 1950
1904 - Hans Albert Einstein, Swiss-American engineer and educator, son of Albert Einstein (d. 1973)
1905 - Nikolai Tikhonov, Soviet-Ukrainian politician (d. 1997)
1905 - Jean Danielou, French cardinal (d. 1974)
1906 - Hastings Banda, 1st President of Malawi (d. 1996)
1907 - Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 1974)
1907 - Hans von der Groeben, German diplomat, member of the European Commission (d. 2005)
1909 - Godfrey Rampling, British sprinter (d. 2009)
1916 - Del Moore, American comedian (d. 1970)
1917 - Lou Harrison, American composer (d. 2003)
1919 - John Hope, American meteorologist (d. 2002)
1921 - Richard Deacon, American actor (d. 1984)
1922 - Sinan Hasani, President of Yugoslavia (d. 2010)
1922 - Franjo Tudman, President of Croatia (d. 1999)
1923 - Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi politician
1923 - Mrinal Sen, Indian director, screenwriter and producer
1925 - Patrice Munsel, American opera soprano (d. 2016)
1925 - Oona O'Neill, wife of Charlie Chaplin (d. 1991)
1925 - Francois Maistre, French actor (d. 2016)
1926 - Eric Morecambe, British comedian (d. 1984)
1927 - Herbert W. Franke, Austrian writer
1928 - Frederik H. Kreuger, Dutch scientist, inventor and engineer (d. 2015)
1929 - Barbara Branden, Canadian writer (d. 2013)
1929 - Henry McGee, British actor (d. 2006)
1929 - Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2007)
1931 - Alvin Lucier, American composer
1933 - Michael Chevalier, German voice actor
1934 - Sian Phillips, Welsh actress
1934 - Eric Caldow, Scottish footballer (d. 2019)
1936 - Bobby Darin, American singer (d. 1973)
1936 - Waheeda Rehman, Indian actress
1938 - Clive Rowlands, Welsh rugby player and coach
1939 - Rupert Neudeck, German journalist and humanitarian (d. 2016)
1939 - Troy Shondell, American singer (d. 2016)
1941 - Ada den Haan, Dutch swimmer
1942 - Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green, British politician (d. 2014)
1942 - Valeriy Brumel, Soviet athlete (d. 2003)
1943 - Derek Leckenberg, English guitarist (d. 1994)
1943 - Jack Bruce, Scottish musician (d. 2014)
1943 - Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, 5th President of Iceland
1944 - George Lucas, American movie director
1944 - Francesca Annis, British actress
1945 - Vladislav Ardzinba, Abkhazian politician (d. 2010)
1945 - Yochanan Vollach, former Israeli football player and current president of the Maccabi Haifa association
1946 - Eric Peterson, Canadian actor
1946 - Elmar Brok, German politician
1947 - Tamara Dobson, American actress (d. 2006)
1948 - Bob Woolmer, English cricket player and coach (d. 2007)
1949 - Klaus-Peter Thaler, German cyclist
1949 - Walter Day, American game designer and businessman
1950 - Adolfo Dominguez, Spanish fashion designer
1950 - Jill Stein, American physician and politician
1951 1975
1952 - David Byrne, Scottish-American musician (Talking Heads)
1952 - Michael Fallon, British politician
1952 - Robert Zemeckis, American movie director
1952 - Donald R. McMonagle, American colonel, pilot and astronaut
1953 - Tom Cochrane, Canadian musician (Red Rider)
1953 - Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia
1953 - Hywel Williams, Welsh politician
1954 - Jens Sparschuh, German writer
1955 - Dennis Martinez, Nicaraguan baseball player
1955 - Big Van Vader, American professional wrestler (d. 2018)
1956 - Hazel Blears, British politician
1957 - Leon White, American professional wrestler
1959 - Patrick Bruel, French singer
1959 - Markus Buchel, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein (d. 2013)
1960 - Anne Clark, English singer
1960 - Simonetta Sommaruga, Swiss Federal Councillor
1961 - Ulrike Folkerts, German actress
1961 - Ian Blackford, Scottish politician
1961 - Tim Roth, English actor
1962 - Ferran Adria, Spanish chef and restaurateur
1962 - C.C. DeVille, American musician (Poison)
1963 - David Yelland, English journalist and broadcaster
1964 - Nestor Gorosito, Argentine footballer
1964 - James M. Kelly, American astronaut
1964 - Rosen Plevneliev, former President of Bulgaria
1965 - Eoin Colfer, Irish writer
1966 - Marianne Denicourt, French actress
1966 - Mike Inez, American musician and songwriter
1966 - Fab Morvan, French singer-songwriter, musician and producer
1966 - Raphael Saadiq, American singer-songwriter and musician
1968 - Greg Davies, British actor and comedian
1969 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
1969 - Danny Wood, American singer, songwriter and musician
1970 - Kenichi Shimokawa, Japanese footballer
1971 - Sofia Coppola, American movie director and producer
1971 - Oseas, Brazilian footballer
1972 - Kirstjen Nielsen, 6th United States Secretary of Homeland Security
1972 - Mark Ruskell, Scottish politician
1973 - Natalie Appleton, Canadian singer and actress
1973 - Fraser Nelson, Scottish journalist, Editor of The Spectator
1973 - Julian White, English rugby player
1973 - Voshon Lenard, American basketball player
From 1976
1976 - Martine McCutcheon, English actress
1977 - Sophie Anderton, English model
1977 - Roy Halladay, American baseball player (d. 2017)
1977 - Pusha T, American rapper
1978 - Eddie House, American basketball player
1978 - Lee McCulloch, Scottish footballer
1978 - Gustavo Varela, Uruguayan footballer
1979 - Carlos Tenorio, Ecuadorean footballer
1979 - Dan Auerbach, American singer-songwriter
1979 - Clinton Morrison, Irish footballer
1980 - Julia Sebestyen, Hungarian figure skater
1980 - Zdenek Grygera, Czech footballer
1980 - Hugo Southwell, Scottish rugby player
1982 - Ai Shibata, Japanese swimmer
1983 - Amber Tamblyn, American actress
1984 - Michael Rensing, German footballer
1984 - Nigel Reo-Coker, English footballer
1984 - Olly Murs, English singer
1984 - Mark Zuckerberg, American internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook
1986 - Alyosha, Ukrainian singer
1987 - Zarine Khan, Indian model and actress
1987 - Franck Songo'o, Cameroonian footballer
1987 - Francois Steyn, South African rugby player
1990 - Olga Ikonnikova, Estonian figure skater
1990 - Emily Samuelson, American ice dancer
1993 - Miranda Cosgrove, American actress and singer
1993 - Kristina Mladenovic, French tennis player
1994 - Edison Flores, Peruvian footballer
1996 - Martin Garrix, Dutch DJ and producer
1996 - McKaley Miller, American actress
Deaths
Up to 1950
694 - Pope Theodore I
964 - Pope John XII (b. 927)
1470 - King Charles VIII of Sweden (b. 1409)
1574 - Guru Amar Das, Sikh guru (b. 1479)
1608 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
1610 - King Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
1643 - King Louis XIII of France (b. 1601)
1761 - Thomas Simpson, British mathematician (b. 1710)
1847 - Fanny Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (b. 1805)
1860 - Ludwig Bechstein, German writer (b. 1801)
1873 - Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician (b. 1797)
1878 - Okubo Tashimichi, Japanese statesman and samurai (b. 1830)
1879 - Henry Sewell, 1st Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1807)
1881 - Mary Seacole, Jamaican nurse (b. 1805)
1893 - Ernst Kummer, German mathematician (b. 1810)
1897 - Richard Coke, Governor of Texas (b. 1829)
1906 - Carl Schurz, German-American statesman (b. 1829)
1912 - King Frederick VIII of Denmark (b. 1843)
1912 - August Strindberg, Swedish writer and playwright (b. 1849)
1919 - Henry J. Heinz, German-American businessman (b. 1844)
1923 - Charles de Freycinet, Prime Minister of France (b. 1828)
1930 - John P. Buchanan, American politician, 28th Governor of Tennessee (b. 1847)
1931 - Viktor Dyk, Czech poet (b. 1877)
1931 - David Belasco, American producer, director and playwright (b. 1853)
1935 - Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and sexologist (b. 1868)
1940 - Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-born anarchist (b. 1869)
1943 - Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer (b. 1854)
1945 - Heber J. Grant, American Mormon leader (b. 1856)
From 1951
1957 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian painter (b. 1884)
1959 - Sidney Bechet, American jazz musician (b. 1897)
1959 - Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal (b. 1862)
1960 - Lucrezia Bori, Spanish soprano (b. 1887)
1962 - Florence Auer, American actress (b. 1880)
1967 - Osvaldo Moles, Brazilian journalist (d. 1967)
1968 - Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (b. 1882)
1969 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (b. 1880)
1973 - Jean Gelser, German linguist, philosopher and poet (b. 1905)
1976 - Keith Relf, English singer and songwriter (b. 1943)
1983 - Miguel Aleman Valdes, President of Mexico (b. 1900)
1988 - Willem Drees, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1886)
1991 - Jiang Qing, First Lady of the People's Republic of China (b. 1914)
1992 - Nie Rongzhen, Chinese military leader (b. 1899)
1995 - Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist (b. 1916)
1998 - Frank Sinatra, American singer and entertainer (b. 1915)
2000 - Obuchi Keizo, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
2001 - Gil Langley, Australian cricketer, footballer and politician (b. 1919)
2003 - Wendy Hiller, British actress (b. 1912)
2004 - Jesus Gil y Gil, Spanish businessman (b. 1933)
2006 - Stanley Kunitz, American poet (b. 1905)
2006 - Robert Bruce Merrifield, American biochemist (b. 1921)
2007 - Ulo Jogi, Estonian historian and patriot (b. 1921)
2014 - Stephen Sutton, British cancer charity fundraiser (b. 1994)
2015 - B.B. King, American blues and rock musician (b. 1925)
2016 - Darwyn Cooke, Canadian comic book artist (b. 1962)
2016 - Christy O'Connor Snr, Irish golfer (b. 1924)
2016 - Tony Barrow, British press officer (b. 1936)
2016 - Monteagle Stearns, American diplomat (b. 1924)
2017 - Powers Boothe, American actor (b. 1948)
2017 - Dilbagh Singh Athwal, Indian geneticist and agriculturist (b. 1928)
2017 - Bruce Hill, American racing driver (b. 1949)
2017 - Frank Brian, American basketball player (b. 1923)
2017 - Brad Grey, American producer (b. 1957)
2017 - Tom McClung, American jazz pianist and composer (b. 1957)
2017 - Brad Grey, American producer (b. 1957)
2018 - Elaine S. Edwards, American politician (b. 1929)
2018 - Doug Ford, American golfer (b. 1922)
2018 - Frank Quilici, American baseball player (b. 1939)
2018 - E. C. George Sudarshan, Indian theoretical physicist and professor (b. 1931)
2018 - Tom Wolfe, American writer and journalist (b. 1930)
2018 - Roberto Farias, Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1932)
2018 - William Vance, Belgian comics artist (b. 1935)
2019 - Leopoldo Brizuela, Argentine writer and translator (b. 1963)
2019 - Grumpy Cat, American-bred cat and internet celebrity (b. 2012)
2019 - Tim Conway, American actor (b. 1933)
2019 - Sven Lindqvist, Swedish author (b. 1932)
2019 - Alice Rivlin, American politician and economist (b. 1931)
2019 - Remig Stumpf, German cyclist (b. 1966)
Observances
National Unification Day (Liberia)
Hastings Banda's Birthday (Malawi)
Days of the year