164 BC In 167 BC the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes instituted laws that forbade the Jewish religion under pain of death. A revolt led by the Jewish priest Judas Maccabeus three years later re-established Jewish independence and drove Antiochus Epiphanes from Jerusalem. He cleansed the Temple of pagan abominations, rededicated it to the one God and on December 14, 164 BC re-established a regular order of priests.
1503 Michel de Nostradame (Latinised as Nostradamus) was born on December 14, 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France. After the death of Nostradamus' wife and two children, he became interested in the occult. He started to produce an annual almanac, the first being published in 1550. They were published two or three times each year and taken together, these almanacs contain at least 6,338 predictions.
1546 The astronomer Tycho Brahe was born at his family's ancestral seat of Knutstorp Castle, about five miles (eight kilometres) north of Svalöv in then Danish Scania on December 14, 1546. Tycho's father, Otte, was a nobleman and an important figure at the court of the Danish king. When he was around age two, his uncle, Danish nobleman Jørgen Thygesen Brahe, without the knowledge of his parents took him away with him to become a scholar.
1774 The only battle fought in New Hampshire during the American Revolution was the raid on Fort William and Mary, December 14, 1774, in Portsmouth Harbor, which netted the rebellion sizable quantities of small arms, gunpowder and cannon.
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| The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus by Peter Paul Rubens |
1503 Michel de Nostradame (Latinised as Nostradamus) was born on December 14, 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France. After the death of Nostradamus' wife and two children, he became interested in the occult. He started to produce an annual almanac, the first being published in 1550. They were published two or three times each year and taken together, these almanacs contain at least 6,338 predictions.
1546 The astronomer Tycho Brahe was born at his family's ancestral seat of Knutstorp Castle, about five miles (eight kilometres) north of Svalöv in then Danish Scania on December 14, 1546. Tycho's father, Otte, was a nobleman and an important figure at the court of the Danish king. When he was around age two, his uncle, Danish nobleman Jørgen Thygesen Brahe, without the knowledge of his parents took him away with him to become a scholar.
1774 The only battle fought in New Hampshire during the American Revolution was the raid on Fort William and Mary, December 14, 1774, in Portsmouth Harbor, which netted the rebellion sizable quantities of small arms, gunpowder and cannon.
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| Fort William and Mary in 1705 |
1799 George Washington died from acute laryngitis between 10 and 11 p.m. on December 14, 1799 with his wife Martha seated at the foot of his bed. His last words were "It is well. I die hard, but am not afraid to go." The news of Washington's death placed the entire country in mourning. Even Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte ordered ten days of mourning in France.
1812 In 1812 Napoleon decided to attack Russia. However the invasion proved to be a disaster and he lost 400,000 of his troops during their retreat through the freezing Russian winter. By December 14, 1812, the last French troops had escaped Russia, starving, cold and stalked by Cossacks. The six-month campaign shattered the Grande Armée and was a major turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
1819 Alabama became the 22nd state of the United States of America on December 14, 1819. The word Alabama means tribal town in the Creek Indian language. Its constitution provided for equal suffrage for white men, a standard it abandoned in its constitution of 1901, which reduced suffrage of poor whites and most blacks.
1861 Prince Albert died at 10:50 p.m. on December 14, 1861 of a chronic stomach disease in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria and five of their nine children were present. Every day for 40 years after his death, Victoria ordered that Albert's clothes be laid afresh on his bed in his Windsor Castle suite. She never really recovered from his death and was in continual mourning.
1895 George VI (real name Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor) was born at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on December 14, 1895. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V) and his mother the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary,)
1896 The Glasgow Underground Railway was opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company on December 14, 1896. It is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro.
1911 On December 14, 1911 Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team became the first people to reach the South Pole. He beat the team led by Englishman Robert Falcon Scott by 34 days, Apart from dog meat Amundsen and his men survived entirely on dried meat biscuits and chocolate powdered milk.
1918 The UK general election of 1918 was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended World War I. Held on December 14, it was the first general election to be held on a single day. It was also the first UK election where women aged over 30 could vote.
1931 On December 14, 1931 RAF pilot Douglas Bader attempted some low-flying aerobatics at Woodley airfield in a Bulldog Mk. IIA, K1676, of 23 Squadron, apparently on a dare. His aircraft crashed when the tip of the left wing touched the ground. As a result of the accident Bader had to have both legs amputated. Baden's laconic comment in his log book after the crash was: "Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show."
1934 The first streamlined locomotive, nicknamed the Commodore Vanderbilt, was introduced by the New York Central Railroad on December 14, 1934. Despite its elite status and opulent accommodations, the Commodore saw a short life in the post-war years. Following a series of cutbacks the Commodore was removed from the timetable in 1960.
1940 Plutonium was first produced and isolated on December 14, 1940 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg and his co-workers at the University of California, Berkeley by bombarding uranium with deuterons. Seaborg named the newly created element plutonium after Pluto. This was in keeping with the tradition of naming elements after newly discovered planets, following uranium after Uranus, and neptunium after Neptune.
1948 American physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann were awarded a patent on December 14, 1948 for their "Cathode-ray tube amusement device," an oscilloscope featuring a set of knobs and switches. It was the first interactive electronic game.
1971 Over 200 of East Pakistan 's intellectuals were executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies on December 14, 1971. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.) The killings were undertaken with the goal of annihilating the intellectual class of what was then East Pakistan. Two days later Bangladesh became independent through the surrender of Pakistani forces.
1972 On December 14, 1972, astronaut Gene Cernan entered the Lunar Module just behind crewmate Harrison Schmidt for their return trip back to Earth on board Apollo 17. He was the last of 12 astronauts ever to have stood on the Moon.
1812 In 1812 Napoleon decided to attack Russia. However the invasion proved to be a disaster and he lost 400,000 of his troops during their retreat through the freezing Russian winter. By December 14, 1812, the last French troops had escaped Russia, starving, cold and stalked by Cossacks. The six-month campaign shattered the Grande Armée and was a major turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
1819 Alabama became the 22nd state of the United States of America on December 14, 1819. The word Alabama means tribal town in the Creek Indian language. Its constitution provided for equal suffrage for white men, a standard it abandoned in its constitution of 1901, which reduced suffrage of poor whites and most blacks.
1861 Prince Albert died at 10:50 p.m. on December 14, 1861 of a chronic stomach disease in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria and five of their nine children were present. Every day for 40 years after his death, Victoria ordered that Albert's clothes be laid afresh on his bed in his Windsor Castle suite. She never really recovered from his death and was in continual mourning.
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| Prince Albert replica by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, oil on canvas, 1867 (1859) |
1895 George VI (real name Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor) was born at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on December 14, 1895. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V) and his mother the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary,)
1896 The Glasgow Underground Railway was opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company on December 14, 1896. It is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro.
1911 On December 14, 1911 Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team became the first people to reach the South Pole. He beat the team led by Englishman Robert Falcon Scott by 34 days, Apart from dog meat Amundsen and his men survived entirely on dried meat biscuits and chocolate powdered milk.
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| Roald Amundsen and his crew looking at the Norwegian flag at the South Pole, 1911 |
1918 The UK general election of 1918 was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended World War I. Held on December 14, it was the first general election to be held on a single day. It was also the first UK election where women aged over 30 could vote.
1931 On December 14, 1931 RAF pilot Douglas Bader attempted some low-flying aerobatics at Woodley airfield in a Bulldog Mk. IIA, K1676, of 23 Squadron, apparently on a dare. His aircraft crashed when the tip of the left wing touched the ground. As a result of the accident Bader had to have both legs amputated. Baden's laconic comment in his log book after the crash was: "Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show."
1934 The first streamlined locomotive, nicknamed the Commodore Vanderbilt, was introduced by the New York Central Railroad on December 14, 1934. Despite its elite status and opulent accommodations, the Commodore saw a short life in the post-war years. Following a series of cutbacks the Commodore was removed from the timetable in 1960.
1940 Plutonium was first produced and isolated on December 14, 1940 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg and his co-workers at the University of California, Berkeley by bombarding uranium with deuterons. Seaborg named the newly created element plutonium after Pluto. This was in keeping with the tradition of naming elements after newly discovered planets, following uranium after Uranus, and neptunium after Neptune.
1948 American physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann were awarded a patent on December 14, 1948 for their "Cathode-ray tube amusement device," an oscilloscope featuring a set of knobs and switches. It was the first interactive electronic game.
1971 Over 200 of East Pakistan 's intellectuals were executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies on December 14, 1971. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.) The killings were undertaken with the goal of annihilating the intellectual class of what was then East Pakistan. Two days later Bangladesh became independent through the surrender of Pakistani forces.
1972 On December 14, 1972, astronaut Gene Cernan entered the Lunar Module just behind crewmate Harrison Schmidt for their return trip back to Earth on board Apollo 17. He was the last of 12 astronauts ever to have stood on the Moon.
1976 Chang'e 3 became the first spacecraft to land on the Moon since 1976 on December 14, 2013. Chang'e 3 was an unmanned lunar exploration mission operated by the China National Space Administration, incorporating a robotic lander and China's first lunar rover, the Yutu rover.
1980 Yoko Ono refused to hold a funeral for her late husband John Lennon, as she felt "his spirit would live forever." Instead, she asked people everywhere to observe ten minutes of silence and prayer for him six days after he was shot. On December 14, 1980, at 2:00 PM, the music playing in Central Park stopped, and people all over the world fell silent for ten minutes.
2008 During a December 14, 2008 press conference in Baghdad, George W. Bush was forced to duck to avoid being hit on the head by shoes that were thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist at a press conference. Muntadhar al-Zaidi shouted, "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog".
Al-Zaidi's shoeing inspired many similar incidents of political protest around the world.
2010 The largest officially discovered maple leaf measured 53 cm (20.86 in) wide and 52.2 cm (20.55 in) long and was discovered by Vikas Tanwar and family in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, on December 14, 2010. The leaf was found on a Western Red Maple (Acer macrophyllum) tree.
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