October 14

Events
Up to 1900
1066 - Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings - In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman invasion forces of William the Conqueror defeat the English army and kill King Harold II of England.
1322 - Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.
1582 - Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1586 - Mary, Queen of Scots goes on trial for conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I of England.
1651 - Laws are passed in Massachusetts forbidding poor people from adopting excessive styles of dress.
1656 - Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against Quakers. The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the ritual-free Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.
1773 - The first recorded ministry of education, the Commission of National Education, is formed in Poland.
1773 - American Revolutionary War: Britain's East India Company tea ships' cargo is burned at Annapolis, Maryland.
1806 - Battle of Jena-Auerstadt.
1808 - The Republic of Ragusa is annexed by France.
1812 - A digest of Pennsylvania laws could not bring itself to print the word "buggery," instead printing it as "B_GG__Y."
1812 - Work on London's Regent's Canal starts.
1813 - Bavaria declares war on France.
1834 - In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
1835 - John Templeton, John Moore, Stanley Cuthbart and Ellen Ritchie were charged in Wheeling, Virginia with illegally teaching blacks to read.
1840 - Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
1843 - The British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy to commit crimes.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Bristol Station - Confederate General Robert E. Lee forces fail to drive the Union Army out of Virginia.
1865 - Cheyennes and Arapahos signed a treaty with the U.S. at a camp on the Little Arkansas River in Kansas. However, none of the parties to the treaty abided by it.
1878 - The first football match under flood lights is played in Sheffield, England.
1881 - 189 fisherman are killed in a storm off Eyemouth, Scotland.
1882 - The University of the Punjab is founded in a part of India that is now part of Pakistan.
1888 - French inventor Louis Le Prince films the "Roundhay Garden Scene", the earliest-surviving motion picture in Roundhay, Leeds, England.
1901 1950
1910 - The English aviator Claude Graham-White lands his Farman biplane on the Executive Avenue near the White House in Washington, DC.
1912 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former US President Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper William Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
1913 - The Senghennydd Colliery disaster kills 439 people in South Wales. It is the UK's worst mining disaster.
1913 - The New Mexico Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction. Ex Parte DeVore, 136 P. 47.
1915 - World War I: The Kingdom of Bulgaria joins with the Central Powers.
1916 - Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee Universities refuse to play against a black person.
1920 - Part of Petsamo Province is ceded by the Soviet Union to Finland.
1925 - Anti-French uprising in French-occupied Damascus, Syria.
1926 - The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, is first published.
1927 - The California Court of Appeals, in upholding a sodomy conviction, rules that corroborative evidence could be circumstantial in nature.
1933 - Nazi Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1939 - World War II: The German U-boat U 47 sinks the battleship HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow, Orkney.
1940 - The Balham Underground Station Disaster occurs in London during the Luftwaffe raids on the city.
1942 - Canadian passenger ferry Caribou is torpedoed off Newfoundland by German U-boat U-69.
1943 - Jose P. Laurel becomes President of the Philippines.
1944 - World War II: Given the choice between a public treason trial and a certain death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel chooses the latter.
1947 - Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.
1949 - Eleven leaders of the U.S. Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial, of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Ten defendants are sentenced to 5 years in prison each, and the eleventh to 3 years. The Supreme Court upheld the convictions on June 4, 1951.
1951 2000
1952 - Korean War: UN and South Korean forces launch Operation Showdown against Chinese strongholds in the Iron Triangle, resulting in the deadliest battle of 1952.
1953 - The Qibya massacre was carried out by Israeli troops in a West Bank village.
1955 - Jim Henson creates Kermit the Frog.
1955 - Vienna's Burgtheater theatre re-opens, after World War II.
1957 - Elizabeth II opens an annual session of Canada's parliament.
1958 - The Anshai Emath Reform Jewish Temple in Peoria, Illinois was damaged by a crude bomb.
1958 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.
1958 - The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept black Americans as members.
1960 - U.S. presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first suggests the idea for the Peace Corps.
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.
1964 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes general secretary of the CPSU and leader of the Soviet Union, ousting Nikita Khrushchev.
1964 - American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1966 - The city of Montreal inaugurates its metro system (see Montreal Metro).
1967 - Vietnam War: Folk singer Joan Baez is arrested in a blockade of the military induction center in Oakland, California.
1968 - Vietnam War: 27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio in San Francisco for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War. Charged with mutiny, their long prison sentences are later reduced to two years.
1968 - Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
1969 - Olof Palme becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.
1969 - The United Kingdom introduces the 50 pence coin.
1970 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.
1971 - Two people are killed in a Memphis, Tennessee race riot.
1971 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.
1973 - In the Thammasat Student Uprising over 100,000 people in Thailand protest against the Thanom Kittikachorn military government. 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
1979 - The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C. demands "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people," drawing 200,000 people.
1981 - Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
1981 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
1982 - Ronald Reagan declares War on Drugs.
1983 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and later executed in a military coup d'etat.
1985 - U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese says in U.S. News & World Report, "If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect."
1987 - 18-month-old Jessica McClure ("Baby Jessica") falls down an abandoned well in Midland, Texas (her nationally televised rescue takes 58 hours).
1991 - Aung San Suu Kyi wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat win the Nobel Peace Prize.
1998 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
1999 - The South Carolina Supreme Court rules that the video poker machines in the state must be unplugged by June 30, 2000.
From 2001
2001 - Delta Flight 458 from Atlanta to Newark, New Jersey, is diverted to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, and passengers are taken off the flight while officials investigate a report of two "Middle Eastern men" making threats in a foreign tongue. It turned out to be two Orthodox Jews who were praying peacefully.
2003 - Gyude Bryant becomes interim President of Liberia.
2006 - The UN imposes sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear weapons test on October 9.
2010 - Mark Rutte becomes Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
2010 - The 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi end.
2012 - Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to free-fall faster than the speed of sound, as he jumps from the stratosphere over Roswell, New Mexico.
2017 - A bomb attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu kills over 350 people.
2017 - The first commercial flight lands on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, coming from Johannesburg (South Africa) via Windhoek (Namibia).
2019 - Esther Duflo becomes the youngest and second female winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, sharing it with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer.
2019 - In Spain, long jail sentences are given to several politicians from Catalonia for their part in planning the Catalan independence referendum, 2017.
2019 - 2019 Chilean protests: Major protests begin in Chile over fuel and transport prices and inequality.
Births
Up to 1900
1254 - King Przemysl II of Poland (d. 1296)
1404 - Marie of Anjou, Queen of France (d. 1463)
1465 - Konrad Peutinger, German jurist and humanist (d. 1547)
1493 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyo (d. 1568)
1542 - Akbar the Great, Mughal Emperor (d. 1605)
1630 - Sophia of Hanover, heir to the British throne (d. 1714)
1633 - King James II of England/James VII of Scotland (d. 1701)
1634 - Emperor Bahadur Shah I of India (d. 1712)
1641 - Joachim Tielke, German instrument maker (d. 1719)
1644 - William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania (d. 1718)
1712 - George Grenville, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1770)
1784 - King Ferdinand VII of Spain (d. 1833)
1790 - Thursday October Christian I, son of Fletcher Christian (d. 1831)
1801 - Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist and photo pioneer (d. 1883)
1801 - Armand Trousseau, French economist (d. 1867)
1806 - Preston King, American politician (d. 1865)
1824 - Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli, French painter (d. 1886)
1840 - Dmitry Pisarev, Russian author (d. 1868)
1844 - John See, English-Australian politician, 14th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1907)
1853 - Ciprian Porumbescu, Ukrainian-Romanian composer (d. 1883)
1856 - Louis Gustave Binger, French explorer (d. 1936)
1859 - Camille Chevillard, French composer and conductor (d. 1923)
1872 - Reginald Doherty, English tennis player (d. 1910)
1873 - Ray Ewry, American jumper (d. 1937)
1873 - Jules Rimet, French football administrator (d. 1954)
1879 - Miles Franklin, Australian writer (d. 1954)
1882 - Eamon de Valera, Irish statesman, President of Ireland (d. 1975)
1887 - Carlo Grano, Italian cardinal (d. 1976)
1888 - Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand writer (d. 1923)
1890 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (d. 1969)
1890 - Louis Delluc, French director, screenwriter and author (d. 1924)
1892 - Andrey Yeryomenko, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1970)
1893 - Lillian Gish, American actress (d. 1993)
1894 - Heinrich Lubke, second President of the Federal Republic of Germany (d. 1972)
1894 - E. E. Cummings, American writer and poet (d. 1962)
1900 - W. Edwards Deming, American statistician, educator and author (d. 1993)
1901 1950
1902 - Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist (d. 1963)
1904 - Christian Pineau, French politician (d. 1995)
1905 - Benny Yorston, Scottish footballer (d. 1977)
1906 - Hannah Arendt, German political theorist and writer (d. 1975)
1906 - Imam Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian religious figure (d. 1949)
1908 - Ruth Hale, American actress and playwright (d. 2003)
1909 - Dorothy Kingsley, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1996)
1909 - Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (d. 1938)
1910 - John Wooden, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
1911 - Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese politician (d. 1990)
1914 - Raymond Davis, Jr., American physicist (d. 2006)
1915 - Loris Francesco Capovilla, Italian archbishop (d. 2016)
1916 - C. Everett Koop, American politician and spokesperson (d. 2013)
1918 - Thelma Coyne Long, Australian tennis player (d. 2015)
1923 - Joel Barnett, Baron Barnett, English politician (d. 2014)
1924 - Robert Webber, American actor (d. 1989)
1927 - Roger Moore, English actor (d. 2017)
1929 - Norbert Gastell, Argentine-German actor (d. 2015)
1930 - Robert Parker, American singer and saxophonist
1930 - Alan Williams, Welsh politician (d. 2014)
1930 - Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire (d. 1997)
1931 - Nikhil Banerjee, Indian sitarist and composer (d. 1986)
1932 - Enrico Di Giuseppe, American tenor (d. 2005)
1932 - Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist (d. 2005)
1936 - Hans Kraay Sr., Dutch footballer (d. 2017)
1936 - Jurg Schubiger, Swiss psychotherapist and writer (d. 2014)
1938 - Farah Pahlavi, Empress of Iran
1939 - Litokwa Tomeing, former President of the Marshall Islands
1939 - Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
1940 - Cliff Richard, English singer
1940 - Christopher Timothy, Welsh actor, director and screenwriter
1941 - Jerry Glanville, American football player and coach
1945 - Colin Hodgkinson, English bass player
1945 - Lesley Joseph, English actress
1946 - Dan McCafferty, Scottish musician
1946 - Craig Venter, American biologist
1946 - Francois Bozize, former President of the Central African Republic
1949 - Katy Manning, English-Australian actress
1949 - Dave Schultz, Canadian ice hockey player and referee
1950 - Joey Travolta, American actor, director and producer
1951 1975
1952 - Harry Anderson, American actor and screenwriter
1952 - Nikolai Andrianov, Russian gymnast (d. 2011)
1953 - Aldo Maldera, Italian footballer (d. 2012)
1953 - Shelley Ackermann, American astrologer, actress and singer
1953 - Greg Evigan, American actor
1954 - Carole Malone, English journalist
1954 - Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician
1955 - Arleen Sorkin, American actress, screenwriter, presenter and comedian
1956 - Beth Daniel, American golfer
1958 - Thomas Dolby, English musician
1960 - Steve Cram, English athlete
1962 - Jaan Ehlvest, Estonian chess player
1962 - Chris Thomas King, American blues musician and actor
1963 - Yim Jae-beom, South Korean singer
1963 - Lori Petty, American actress, director and screenwriter
1963 - Alessandro Safina, Italian tenor
1965 - Steve Coogan, English actor and comedian
1965 - Alexei Devotchenko, Russian actor and activist (d. 2014)
1967 - Pat Kelly, American baseball player, coach and manager
1967 - Sylvain Lefebvre, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1968 - Matthew Le Tissier, English footballer
1971 - Jorge Costa, Portuguese footballer
1971 - Jyrki Katainen, former Prime Minister of Finland
1972 - Nyomi Banxxx, American radio personality and pornographic actress
1974 - Natalie Maines, American musician (Dixie Chicks)
1975 - Floyd Landis, American cyclist
1975 - Shaznay Lewis, English singer
From 1976
1977 - Bianca Beauchamp, American model
1978 - Paul Hunter, English snooker player (d. 2006)
1978 - Steven Thompson, Scottish footballer
1978 - Usher, American actor, singer and rapper
1979 - Stacy Keibler, American wrestler and actress
1979 - Rodrigo Tello, Chilean footballer
1980 - Ben Whishaw, English actor
1983 - Lin Dan, Chinese badminton player
1983 - Betty Heidler, German athlete
1984 - Kevin Thomson, Scottish footballer
1984 - Karen Bardsley, American-English footballer
1984 - Alex Scott, English footballer
1986 - Tom Craddock, English footballer
1986 - Skyler Shaye, American actress
1987 - Jay Pharaoh, American comedian and actor
1988 - Glenn Maxwell, Australian cricketer
1988 - Mario Titone, Italian footballer
1988 - Max Thieriot, American actor
1988 - Yusef Ali, Qatari footballer
1989 - Mia Wasikowska, Australian actress
1991 - Shona McGarty, English actress
1991 - Andrea Duro, Spanish actress
1992 - Ahmed Musa, Nigerian footballer
1992 - Savannah Outen, American singer-songwriter
1992 - Khagendra Thapa Magar, Nepalese world's smallest man
1999 - Daniel Roche, English actor
2001 - Rowan Blanchard, American actress
Deaths
Up to 1900
222 - Pope Callixtus I
1066 - Harold Godwinson, English king (b. 1022)
1092 - Nizam al-Mulk, Persian scholar and politician (b. 1018)
1217 - Isabel, Countess of Gloucester (b. 1173)
1318 - Edward Bruce, Irish king (b. 1280)
1552 - Oswald Myconius, Swiss religious reformer (b. 1488)
1565 - Thomas Chaloner, English poet and politician (b. 1521)
1610 - Amago Yoshihisa, Japanese samurai (b. 1540)
1619 - Samuel Daniel, English poet and historian (b. 1562)
1637 - Gabriella Chiabrera, Italian poet (b. 1552)
1669 - Antonio Cesti, Italian organist and composer (b. 1623)
1703 - Thomas Kingo, Danish bishop and poet (b. 1634)
1711 - Tewoflos, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1708)
1758 - James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish-Prussian field marshal (b. 1696)
1758 - Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (b. 1709)
1792 - Sophie Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (b. 1714)
1831 - Jean-Louis Pons, French astronomer (b. 1761)
1880 - Victorio, Mexican tribal chief (b. 1825)
1901 2000
1911 - John Marshall Harlan, American lawyer and politician (b. 1833)
1923 - Marcellus Emants, Dutch-Swiss author, poet and playwright (b. 1848)
1929 - Henri Berger, German composer and bandleader (b. 1844)
1944 - Erwin Rommel, German military figure (b. 1891)
1950 - Antonio Maria da Silva, Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1872)
1953 - Emile Sarrade, French rugby player and tug-of-war competitor (b. 1877)
1958 - Douglas Mawson, Australian Antarctic explorer (b. 1881)
1959 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (b. 1909)
1961 - Paul Ramadier, 129th Prime Minister of France (b. 1888)
1961 - Harriet Shaw Weaver, English journalist and activist (b. 1876)
1965 - William Hogenson, American sprinter (b. 1884)
1969 - Haguroyama Masaji, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1914)
1977 - Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (b. 1903)
1984 - Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer (b. 1918)
1986 - Keenan Wynn, American actor (b. 1916)
1989 - Michael Carmine, American actor and singer (b. 1959)
1990 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer (b. 1918)
1992 - Willie Waddell, Scottish footballer (b. 1921)
1997 - Harold Robbins, American writer (b. 1916)
1998 - Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (b. 1915)
1999 - Julius Nyerere, 1st President of Tanzania (b. 1922)
From 2001
2001 - David Lewis, American philosopher (b. 1941)
2002 - Norbert Schultze, German composer (b. 1911)
2003 - Moktar Ould Daddah, first President of Mauritania (b. 1924)
2004 - Juan Francisco Fresno, Chilean archbishop and cardinal (b. 1872)
2007 - Bob Denard, French mercenary (b. 1929)
2007 - Big Moe, American rapper (b. 1974)
2007 - Raymond Pellegrin, French actor (b. 1925)
2009 - Lou Albano, American professional wrestler (b. 1933)
2010 - Benoit Mandelbrot, French-American mathematician (b. 1924)
2010 - Simon MacCorkindale, English actor (b. 1952)
2010 - Hermann Scheer, German politician (b. 1944)
2012 - Arlen Specter, American politician (b. 1930)
2013 - Bruno Metsu, French footballer and coach (b. 1954)
2014 - Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, American keyboardist (b. 1975)
2014 - Elizabeth Pena, American actress (b. 1959)
2015 - Nurlan Balgimbayev, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan (b. 1948)
2015 - Mathieu Kerekou, President of Benin (b. 1933)
2015 - Jordi Miralles, Spanish politician (b. 1962)
2015 - Robert M. White, American meteorologist (b. 1923)
2016 - Jean Alexander, English actress (b. 1926)
2017 - Wolfgang Botsch, German politician (b. 1938)
2017 - Richard Wilbur, American poet (b. 1921)
2018 - Robert Bushby, American aircraft designer (b. 1927)
2018 - Per Theodor Haugen, Norwegian actor (b. 1932)
2018 - Mel Ramos, American artist (b. 1935)
2018 - Valeriy Shmarov, Ukrainian politician (b. 1945)
2019 - Harold Bloom, American writer and literary critic (b. 1930)
2019 - Bohdan Butenko, Polish cartoonist (b. 1931)
2019 - Emmett Chappelle, American scientist (b. 1925)
2019 - Louis Frey Jr., American politician (b. 1934)
2019 - Anke Fuchs, German politician (b. 1937)
2019 - Rosemary Harris, English writer (b. 1923)
2019 - Baby Saroja, Indian actress (b. 1931)
2019 - Jeffrey Spalding, Canadian painter (b. 1951)
2019 - Sulli, South Korean singer, actress and model (b. 1994)
Observances
National Education Day (Poland)
Nyerere Day (Tanzania)
World Standards Day
Mother's Day (Belarus)
Days of the year