August 14

2024 Calendar

August 14 is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 139 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

29 BC – Octavian celebrates the second of his three consecutive triumphs in Rome after his victory over the Dalmatians.
1040 – Macbeth kills King Duncan I of Scotland, and crowns himself King of Scotland.
1352 – War of the Breton Succession: The Anglo-Britons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.
1385 – The Battle of Aljubarrota is fought, in which forces of King John I of Portugal defeat those of King John I of Castile.
1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands in present-day Honduras; this is the first time he sets foot on the mainland of the Americas.
1592 – Imjin War: Battle of Hansan Island - Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese Navy at Hansan Island.
1762 – English forces take Havana, Cuba during the Seven Years' War.
1816 – The United Kingdom annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic.
1842 – Seminole Native Americans are forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
1848 – The Oregon territory is created by an act of the United States Congress.
1880 – After taking more than 600 years, the construction of Cologne Cathedral is completed.
1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of rust-proof paint.
1888 – Danish passenger steamer Geiser sinks off Sable Island after a collision with a ship of the same shipping line, killing 118 people.
1893 – France introduces motor vehicle registration.
1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupy Beijing, China, in an attempt to end of the Boxer Rebellion.

1901 – 2000

1912 – US marines land in Nicaragua to support the US-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
1914 – The Big Hole Diamond mine in South Africa is closed.
1916 – World War I: Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1917 – World War I: China declares war on Germany.
1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later the Tuvan People's Republic, is established as a completely independent country, supported by Soviet Russia.
1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later becoming known as the forest fire of Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5.
1935 – The Social Security Act creates a government pension for retired people in the United States.
1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last 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.
1945 – World War II: Japan accepts Allied terms of surrender and the Emperor, Hirohito, records the Imperial Rescription surrender.
1945 – Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France, is sentenced to death.
1947 – Partition of India: Pakistan, a new Islamic state, becomes independent from the United Kingdom, and consists of West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
1958 – A propeller plane operated by the Dutch airline KLM crashes into the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland.
1959 – The American Football League is founded.
1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed to Northern Ireland.
1971 – Bahrain declares its independence.
1972 – A plane crash, of an Ilyushin II-62, in East Berlin kills 156 people.
1973 – The Pakistan Constitution of 1973 goes into effect.
1974 – The Second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins. 140,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots become refugees. 6,000 are killed and 1,619 are missing.
1980 – The Gdansk shipyard strike in Poland occurs, as an uprising against Communist rule, and leads to the foundation of the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa.
1992 – Georgian troops enter Abkhazia, which had declared independence.
1994 – Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal is arrested.

From 2001

2003 – A wide scale power blackout affects parts of Canada and the northeastern United States.
2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522, travelling from Larnaca in Cyprus, crashes near Grammatiko in Greece, killing all 121 people on board, after the air conditioner fails.
2006 – Chencholai bombing: 61 Tamil girls are killed in a bombing by the Sri Lankan Air Force.
2007 – Bomb attacks across Northern Iraq kill a total of 796 people. 1,500 are injured.
2010 – The first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games begin in Singapore. 3,531 athletes aged 14 to 18, from 204 National Olympic Committees take part.
2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators who support the ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
2013 – The England national football team and Scotland national football team play each other for the first time since 1999 in the oldest international football fixture. England wins a closely fought match 3-2.
2015 – The United States re-opens its Embassy in Havana, Cuba, 54 years after the countries initially broke diplomatic ties.
2017 – Heavy rain and mudslides kill hundreds of people in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
2018 – Part of the Morandi motorway Bridge in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, collapses, killing 43 people.
2019 – With support on board, Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg starts sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, Devon, England to New York City to take part in a climate change summit.
2021 – 2021 Haiti earthquake of M 7.2 occurs in Haiti.

Births

Up to 1900

1297 – Emperor Hanazano of Japan (d. 1348)
1337 – King Robert III of Scotland (d. 1406)
1473 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence (d. 1541)
1479 – Princess Catherine of York (d. 1527)
1552 – Paolo Sarpi, Italian church reformer and historian (d. 1623)
1642 – Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1723)
1688 – Frederick William I of Prussia (d. 1740)
1714 – Claude Joseph Vernet, French painter (d. 1789)
1727 – Princess Marie Louise Elisabeth of France (d. 1759)
1727 – Princess Anne Henriette of France (d. 1752)
1734 – Thomas Sumter, American general and politician (d. 1832)
1738 – Leopold Hofmann, Austrian composer (d. 1793)
1740 – Pope Pius VII (d. 1823)
1758 – Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, French painter (d. 1835)
1773 – Jean-Baptiste de Villele, French statesman (d. 1854)
1777 – Hans Christian Orsted, Danish physicist (d. 1851)
1777 – Francis I of the Two Sicilies (d. 1830)
1802 – Fabio Maria Asquini, Italian cardinal (d. 1878)
1814 – Adolph Tidemand, Norwegian painter (d. 1876)
1818 – François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville, French admiral (d. 1900)
1819 – Agenor, duc de Gramont, French diplomat (d. 1880)
1840 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychologist (d. 1902)
1847 – Robert Comtesse, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1922)
1848 – Margaret Lindsay Hughes, Irish-English astronomer (d. 1915)
1851 – Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
1857 – Max Wagenknecht, German composer (d. 1922)
1862 – Prince Henry of Croatia (d. 1929)
1863 – Ernest Thayer, American poet (d. 1940)
1865 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (d. 1952)
1866 – Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician and academic (d. 1962)
1867 – John Galsworthy, English writer (d. 1933)
1867 – Cupid Childs, American baseball player (d. 1912)
1871 – Quangxu Emperor of China (d. 1908)
1874 – Georgios Kondylis, Greek politician (d. 1936)
1876 – Alexander Obrenovich, King of Serbia (d. 1903)
1876 – Sibilla Aleramo, Italian writer and poet (d. 1960)
1878 – Georgios Kondylis, Greek general and Prime Minister (d. 1936)
1880 – Fred Alexander, American tennis player (d. 1969)
1881 – Francis Ford, American actor (d. 1953)
1882 – Gisela Richter, British-born art historian (d. 1972)
1883 – Gwendoline Eastlake-Smith, English tennis player (d. 1941)
1887 – Marija Leiko, Latvian actress (d. 1937)
1889 – Willi Münzenberg, German Communist, publisher and movie producer (d. 1940)
1892 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English pianist and composer (d. 1988)
1895 – Jack Gregory, Australian cricketer (d. 1973)
1899 – Alma Reville, British actress and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1899 – Evelyn Kozak, American supercentenarian (d. 2013)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Franz Konwitschny, German conductor (d. 1962)
1910 – Willy Ronis, French photographer (d. 2009)
1910 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (d. 1995)
1911 – Jaime Rodriguez, Chilean footballer (d. 2003)
1912 – Frank Oppenheimer, American particle physicist (d. 1985)
1914 – Poul Hartling, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 2000)
1916 – Fumio Fujimura, Japanese baseball player (d. 1992)
1921 – Julia Hartwig, Polish writer and translator (d. 2017)
1921 – Sidney Rittenberg, American linguist (d. 2019)
1923 – Kuldip Nayar, Indian journalist (d. 2018)
1924 – Sverre Fehn, Norwegian architect (d. 2009)
1924 – Holger Juul Hansen, Danish actor (d. 2013)
1924 – Georges Pretre, French conductor (d. 2017)
1925 – Russell Baker, columnist
1926 – René Goscinny, French comic-strip writer (d. 1977)
1928 – Lina Wertmüller, Italian director
1929 – Giacomo Capuzzi, Italian bishop
1929 – Thomas Meehan, American playwright (d. 2017)
1930 – Liz Fraser, English actress (d. 2018)
1930 – Earl Weaver, American Baseball Hall of Fame manager (d. 2013)
1931 – Frederick Raphael, American screenwriter, biographer, novelist and journalist
1932 – James V. Hansen, American politician (d. 2018)
1933 – Richard R. Ernst, Swiss chemist
1935 – John Brodie, American football player
1936 – Trevor Bannister, English actor (d. 2011)
1940 – Dash Crofts, musician
1940 – Aristides Royo, 36th President of Panama
1940 – Arthur Laffer, American economist
1941 – David Crosby, American guitarist, songwriter
1941 – Lynne Cheney, American political figure, former Second Lady of the United States
1942 – Molefi Kete Asante, American author
1943 – Jimmy Johnson, American football player and broadcaster
1945 – Steve Martin, American comedian and actor
1945 – Wim Wenders, German director
1946 – Antonio Fargas, actor
1946 – Susan Saint James, actress
1946 – Tom Walkinshaw, Scottish racing driver (d. 2010)
1947 – Danielle Steel, American novelist
1949 – Morten Olsen, Danish footballer and coach
1950 – Gary Larson, American cartoonist
1950 – Bob Backlund, American professional wrestler

1951 – 1975

1952 – Carl Lumbly, actor
1952 – Debbie Meyer, swimmer
1953 – James Horner, American Academy Award-winning composer (d. 2015)
1954 – Mark Fidrych, American baseball player
1954 – Stanley McChrystal, American general
1954 – Christian Gross, Swiss football coach
1955 – Gillian Taylforth, English actress
1956 – Rusty Wallace, American race car driver
1957 – Peter Costello, Australian politician
1959 – Marcia Gay Harden, Academy Award-winning actress
1959 – Magic Johnson, American basketball player
1960 – Sarah Brightman, British singer
1961 – Susan Olsen, actress
1961 – Satoshi Tsunami, Japanese footballer
1962 – Rameez Raja, Pakistani cricketer and sportscaster
1964 – Brannon Braga, American writer and director
1965 – Emmanuelle Béart, French actress
1965 – Mark Francois, English politician
1966 – Halle Berry, American Academy Award-winning actress
1968 – Darren Clarke, Northern Irish golfer
1968 – Adrian Lester, English actor
1971 – Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan cricketer
1972 – Laurent Lamothe, Haitian politician
1972 – Giuseppe Mazzarelli, Swiss footballer
1973 – Daisuke Ishiwatari, Japanese game developer and composer
1973 – Rana Faheem Aslam, Pakistani journalist
1973 – Jared Borgetti, Mexican footballer
1973 – Jay-Jay Okocha, Nigerian footballer
1973 – Chucky Atkins, American basketball player
1974 – Ana Matronic, American singer (Scissor Sisters)
1974 – Martin Bulloch, Scottish drummer (Mogwai)

From 1976

1976 – Alex Albrecht, co-host of The Screen Savers
1977 – Juan Pierre, American baseball player
1977 – Philip Stamper, American pro wrestler, actor
1978 – Anastasios Kyriakos, Greek footballer
1981 – Matthew Etherington, English footballer
1982 – Simon Andrews, English motorcycle racer (d. 2014)
1983 – Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American television actress
1983 – Heiko Westermann, German footballer
1983 – Elena Baltacha, Ukrainian-born British tennis player (d. 2014)
1983 – Lu Yen-hsun, Taiwanese tennis player
1984 – Carl Valeri, Australian footballer
1984 – Nick Grimshaw, British radio DJ and television presenter
1984 – Robin Söderling, Swedish tennis player
1984 – Giorgio Chiellini, Italian footballer
1985 – Christian Gentner, German footballer
1986 – Cameron Jerome, English footballer
1989 – Ander Herrera, Spanish footballer
1990 – Jaydee Bixby, Canadian singer
1992 – Sarah Correa, Brazilian swimmer (d. 2015)
1993 – Gongchan, South Korean singer and actress
1993 – Cassi Thomson, Australian-American actress and singer
1999 – Garrett Ryan, American actor

Deaths

Up to 1900

582 – Tiberius II, Byzantine Empress (b. 535)
1040 – Duncan I of Scotland
1167 – Rainald of Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne
1204 – Minamoto no Yoriie, Japanese shogun (b. 1182)
1369 – Philippa of Hainault, Queen Consort of England (b. 1311)
1390 – John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel, English soldier (b. 1364)
1430 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1404)
1433 – King John I of Portugal (b. 1357)
1464 – Pope Pius II (b. 1405)
1573 – Saito Tatsuoki, Japanese warlord (b. 1548)
1691 – Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Irish rebel (b. 1630)
1704 – Roland Laporte, French Protestant leader (b. 1675)
1727 – William Croft, English composer (b. 1678)
1754 – Maria Anna of Austria (b. 1683)
1774 – Johann Jakob Reiske, German scholar and physician (b. 1716)
1784 – Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (b. 1718)
1852 – Margaret Taylor, First Lady of the United States (b. 1788)
1856 – Constant Prévost, French geologist (b. 1787)
1860 – André Marie Constant Duméril, French zoologist (b. 1774)
1870 – David Farragut, American navy officer (b. 1801)
1891 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (b. 1803)

1901 – 2000

1905 – Simeon Solomon, British artist (b. 1840)
1909 – William Stanley, American inventor and engineer (b. 1829)
1928 – Klabund, German writer and poet (b. 1890)
1941 – Maximilian Kolbe, Polish martyr and saint (b. 1854)
1941 – Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854)
1943 – Joe Kelley, American baseball player (b. 1871)
1951 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper magnate (b. 1863)
1954 – Hugo Eckener, German pilot and designer (b. 1868)
1955 – Herbert Putnam, American Librarian of Congress (b. 1861)
1956 – Bertolt Brecht, German writer (b. 1898)
1958 – Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1900)
1958 – Konstantin von Neurath, German diplomat (b. 1873)
1972 – Oscar Levant, American actor, composer, and musician (b. 1906)
1980 – Dorothy Stratton, Canadian actress and model (b. 1960)
1980 – Paul Snider, Canadian entrepreneur and manager (b. 1951)
1981 – Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (b. 1894)
1982 – Patrick Magee, Irish-English actor (b. 1922)
1984 – Spud Davis, American baseball player, coach and manager (b. 1904)
1984 – J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (b. 1894)
1985 – Gale Sondergaard, American actress (b. 1899)
1988 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian car maker (b. 1898)
1989 – Ricky Berry, American basketball player (b. 1964)
1991 – Alberto Crespo, Argentine racing driver (b. 1920)
1994 – Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer (b. 1905)
2000 – Alain Fournier, French-born computer graphics researcher (b. 1943)

From 2001

2002 – Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (b. 1972)
2003 – Helmut Rahn, German footballer (b. 1929)
2004 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
2005 – Coo Coo Marlin, American race car driver (b. 1932)
2007 – Kotozakura Masakatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1940)
2010 – Abbey Lincoln, American singer (b. 1930)
2011 – Shammi Kapoor, Indian actor (b. 1931)
2012 – Svetozar Gligoric, Serbian chess player (b. 1923)
2012 – Sergey Kapitsa, Russian physicist (b. 1928)
2012 – Phyllis Thaxter, American actress (b. 1919)
2012 – Ron Palillo, American actor (b. 1949)
2013 – Lisa Robin Kelly, American actress (b. 1970)
2014 – Mariana Briski, Argentine actress (b. 1965)
2014 – George V. Hansen, American politician (b. 1930)
2014 – Jay Adams, American skateboarder (b. 1961)
2014 – Stephen Lee, American actor (b. 1955)
2015 – Bob Johnston, American record producer (b. 1932)
2016 – Fyvush Finkel, American actor (b. 1922)
2016 – Hermann Kant, German historian (b. 1926)
2017 – Andrzej Blumenfeld, Polish actor (b. 1951)
2017 – Frank Broyles, American college football coach (b. 1924)
2017 – Franklin Cleckley, American state judge (b. 1940)
2017 – Abdelkrim Ghallab, Moroccan politician, journalist and novelist (b. 1919)
2017 – Stephen Wooldridge, Australian cyclist (b. 1977)
2017 – Lateef Raji, Nigerian politician (b. 1962)
2018 – Hugh Cortazzi, British diplomat (b. 1924)
2018 – Balram Das Tandon, Indian politician (b. 1927)
2018 – Jill Janus, American singer (b. 1975)
2018 – Michael Persinger, American-Canadian psychology professor and neuroscience researcher (b. 1945)
2018 – Eduard Uspensky, Russian author (b. 1937)
2018 – Chemmanam Chacko, Indian poet (b. 1926)
2019 – Graham Farmer, Australian footballer (b. 1935)
2019 – Karim Olowu, Nigerian sprinter and long jumper (b. 1924)
2019 – Héctor Rivoira, Argentine footballer (b. 1960)
2019 – Gjergj Xhuvani, Albanian film director (b. 1963)

Observances

Feast of Maximilian Kolbe, martyr
Independence Day (Pakistan)