December 14

is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 17 days remaining.

Events

867 - Adrian II becomes Pope.
872 - John VIII becomes Pope.
1287 - St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.
1702 - The 47 Ronin (master less samurai), under the command of Ôishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, Asano Takumi no kami Naganori, by beheading Kira Kozukenosuke Yoshinaka. Later the 46 surviving ronin would commit ritual suicide, seppuku (disembowelment), and would later achieve legendary status as the embodiments of the ideals of the samurai.
1769 - Dartmouth College is chartered by King George III of England.
1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
1900 - Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
1902 - The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
1939 - Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.
1946 - The UN General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.
1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
1959 - The Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan by Berry Gordy.
1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1962 - The Mona Lisa is assessed at States dollar|US$" target="_blank" >^*100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.
1964 - American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States - The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
1977 - Releasing of Saturday Night Fever film.
1979 - First release of the album London Calling by The Clash.
1981 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
1982 - Government of the 23rd Dáil first sits
1989 - Patricio Aylwin is elected President of Chile.
1995 - Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by President Slobodan Milošević, President Franjo Tuđman, President Alija Izetbegović, President Jacques Chirac, President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister John Major, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
1999 - Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, announces his retirement.
2000 - The "Texas 7" rob a Radio Shack store in Pearland, Texas, stealing police radio scanners.
2003 - The La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, rebuilt following arson, is reopened.
2003 - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, spanning the valley of the River Tarn near Millau, France and designed by British architect Lord Foster in collaboration with French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, is officially opened.
2005 - The Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, Australia starts to issue NSW Photo Card.

Births

1009 - Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (d. 1045)
1503 - Nostradamus, French astrologer (d. 1566)
1546 - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (d. 1601)
1625 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville, French orientalist (d. 1695)
1631 - Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway, English philosopher (d. 1679)
1640 - (baptism date) - Aphra Behn, English playwright and novelist (d. 1689)
1678 - Daniel Neal, English historian (d. 1743)
1720 - Justus Möser, German statesman (d. 1794)
1775 - Philander Chase, American founder of Kenyon College (d. 1852)
1775 - Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British admiral (d. 1860)
1824 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter (d. 1898)
1866 - Roger Fry, British artist and art critic (d. 1934)
1870 - Karl Renner, President of Austria (d. 1950)
1881 - Katherine MacDonald, American actress and fim producer (d. 1956)
1884 - Jane Cowl, American actress and playwright (d. 1950)
1895 - Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)
1895 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
1896 - Jimmy Doolittle, American General (d. 1993)
1897 - Margaret Chase Smith, American politician (d. 1995)
1902 - Frances Bavier, American actress (d. 1989)
1908 - Morey Amsterdam, American comedian and actor (d. 1996)
1909 - Edward Tatum, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
1911 - Spike Jones, American comedian and musician (d. 1965)
1913 - Dan Dailey, American actor (d. 1978)
1914 - Karl Carstens, President of Germany (d. 1992)
1914 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (d. 2003)
1916 - Shirley Jackson, American writer (d. 1965)
1918 - James T. Aubrey, American television executive (d. 1994)
1918 - B.K.S. Iyengar, Indian yoga advocate
1920 - Clark Terry, American trumpeter
1922 - Nikolay Basov, Soviet-born Russian physicist and Noble Prize laureate (d. 2001)
1923 - Gerard Reve, Dutch writer
1924 - Raj Kapoor, Indian actor (d. 1988)
1932 - Charlie Rich, American musician (d. 1995)
1935 - Lee Remick, American actress (d. 1991)
1938 - Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian
1946 - Jane Birkin, British-born actress
1946 - Patty Duke, American actress
1946 - Michael Ovitz, American film producer
1946 - Stan Smith, American tennis player
1946 - Ruth Fuchs, East German athlete
1947 - Christopher Parkening, American guitarist
1949 - Bill Buckner, American baseball player
1949 - Cliff Williams, British-born bassist (AC/DC)
1949 - Dee Wallace-Stone, American actress
1951 - Jan Timman, Dutch chess grandmaster
1953 - René Eespere, Soviet-born Estonian composer
1954 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (d. 1993)
1954 - James Horan, American actor
1956 - Hanni Wenzel, Liechtenstein skier
1957 - Gary Ferris, American author
1958 - Mike Scott, British singer and songwriter (The Waterboys)
1958 - Spider Stacy (Peter Richard Stacy), British-born tin whistle player, (The Pogues)
1960 - Bob Paris, American bodybuilder and gay rights advocate
1962 - Ginger Lynn (Ginger Lynn Allen), American adult film actress
1963 - Cynthia Gibb, American actress
1965 - Craig Biggio, American baseball player
1966 - Bill Ranford, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 - Ewa Białołęcka, Polish writer
1969 - Scott Hatteberg, American baseball player
1970 - Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer
1973 - Tomasz Radzinski, Polish-born Canadian international footballer
1974 - Billy Koch, baseball player
1977 - KaDee Strickland, American actress
1979 - Michael Owen, English international footballer
1979 - Jean-Alain Boumsong, French footballer
1980 - Tata Young, Thai-American singer
1981 - Johnny Jeter, Professional wrestler
1982 - Anthony Way, British singer and actor
1984 - Chris Brunt, Northern Irish footballer
1984 - Edward Rainsford, Zimbabwean cricketer
1985 - Tom Smith, Welsh Rugby Union Player
1988 - Nicolas Batum, French basketball player
1988 - Vanessa Anne Hudgens, American actress
1990 - Murakawa Daisuke, professional Go player

Deaths

1460 - Guarino da Verona, Italian humanist and translator (b. 1370)
1510 - Friedrich of Saxony (b. 1473)
1542 - King James V of Scotland (b. 1512)
1591 - Saint John of the Cross, Spanish friar and poet (b. 1542)
1624 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English statesman (b. 1536)
1651 - Pierre Dupuy, French scholar (b. 1582)
1713 - Thomas Rymer, English historian (b. 1641)
1715 - Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1636)
1735 - Thomas Tanner, English bishop and antiquarian (b. 1674)
1741 - Charles Rollin, French historian (b. 1661)
1788 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (b. 1714)
1788 - King Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)
1799 - George Washington, first President of the United States (b. 1732)
1861 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria (b. 1819)
1865 - Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist (b. 1794)
1873 - Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist (b. 1807)
1902 - Julia Grant, wife of President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1826)
1947 - Edward Higgins, the 3rd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1864)
1963 - Dinah Washington, American singer (b. 1924)
1964 - William Bendix, American actor (b. 1906)
1970 - Franz Schlegelberger, German Nazi politician (b. 1876)
1984 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
1985 - Catherine Doherty, social justice activist (b. 1896)
1985 - Roger Maris, baseball player (b. 1934)
1989 - Andrei D. Sakharov, Russian physicist, activist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
1990 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)
1993 - Myrna Loy, American actress (b. 1905)
1998 - Norman Fell, American actor (b. 1924)
1998 - Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (b. 1924)
1998 - Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr., American civil rights activist and author (b. 1928)
2003 - Jeanne Crain, American actress (b. 1925)
2003 - Blas Ople, foreign minister of the Philippines (b. 1927)
2004 - Rod Kanehl, baseball player (b. 1934)
2004 - Fernando Poe, Jr., Filipino actor and presidential candidate (b. 1939)
2005 - Dr. Rodney William Whitaker, of pen name Trevanian, American author (b. 1931)

Holidays and observances

R.C. Saints - Memorial of Saint John of the Cross
Precalentines Day - Unofficial Mathematics Holiday

External links

December 13 - December 15 - November 14 - January 14 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: December 14

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links