August 14

1040 Shakespeare's famous character Macbeth was based on a real Scottish king in the 11th century named Mac Bethad mac Findlaích. Macbeth succeeded his first cousin King Duncan I after killing him on the battlefield near Elgin on August 14, 1040. He went on to reign for 17 years. Macbeth’s reign was a time of relative peace and he encouraged the spread of Christianity. Chroniclers of the time described Macbeth as a "liberal king" with "fair, yellow hair and tall" and having a "ruddy countenance".

Imagined 19th century portrait of Macbeth

1457 The first printed book in Europe to bear the name of its printer is a magnificent Psalter completed in Mainz on August 14, 1457. It lists Johann Fust and and his son-in-law Peter Schöffer. The Psalter is decorated with hundreds of two-color initial letters and delicate scroll borders that were printed in a most ingenious technique based on multiple inking on a single metal block.

1687 John William Friso, Prince of Orange was born on August 14, 1687. He is the ancestor of all European monarchs occupying the throne today. Due to the intermarriage of the European royal houses, many kings and queens are descended from Friso in more than one way.

John William Friso, Prince of Orange (1710) by Lancelot Volders

1756 Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan in Yadkin River, North Carolina on August 14, 1756.  Rebecca was nearly as tall as her husband and was very attractive with black hair and dark eyes. Rebecca gave birth to a daughter named Jemima, fathered by Daniel’s brother Ned. Boone knew this but brought Jemima up as his own along with the many other children he and Rebecca had together. The relationship between Rebecca and Ned started when Boone was away on one of his long hunting trips. 

1835 Jacob Perkins, the father of the refrigerator, is credited with the first patent for the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, assigned on August 14, 1835 and titled, "Apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids." Perkins was the first to describe how pipes filled with volatile chemicals whose molecules evaporated very easily could keep food cool, like wind chilling your skin after a dip in the sea. But he neglected to publicize his invention and its evolution was slow.

1855 John Wilkes Booth, the American actor who shot Abraham Lincoln, made his stage debut on August 14, 1855, in the supporting role of the Earl of Richmond in Richard III at Baltimore's Charles Street Theater. The audience hissed at the inexperienced actor when he missed some of his lines. Booth stood 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic. His strikingly handsome appearance enthralled women and by 1865, the 26-year-old was a headliner on the American stage.

1856 English theologian, geologist and palaeontologist William Buckland died on August 14, 1856. He claimed to have eaten his way through the animal kingdom. Buckland opined that mole meat tastes vile and was the most distasteful he consumed along with bluebottle.

1880 The Cologne Cathedral is the largest cathedral in northern Europe. Built in the Gothic style, construction was began in 1248 on the site of an older church and completed, 632 years later on August 14, 1880. It was the tallest structure in the world until 1884, after which it was overtaken by the Washington Monument.

The cathedral from the south by Velvet . Wikipedia

1885 Japan's first patent was issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint. The patent was granted to a lacquerware craftsman named Hotta Zuisho on August 13, 1885 (according to the Gregorian calendar, which was in use in Japan at that time). The rust-proof paint he developed contained lacquer, which effectively protected ship bottoms from corrosion.

1888 A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord" one of the first recordings of music ever made was played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London on August 14, 1888. Arthur Sullivan toasted Edison with the words: "I am astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever".

1893 The first motor vehicle registration plates were issued in France on August 14, 1893. They were issued as a means of identifying and regulating vehicles on the road. These early plates were not standardized and were often unique to each vehicle owner. It wasn't until 1901 that France implemented a more formal system of vehicle registration and started issuing standardized registration plates.

1894 Eleanor Roosevelt was born into one of the most influential families in New York. Her father Elliott Roosevelt, the brother of Theodore Roosevelt, doted on his daughter. However Elliott suffered from a drink problem and began receiving treatments for his alcoholism. Confined to a sanitarium, Elliott's addictions got worse after the deaths of his wife and child and he died on August 14, 1894  after jumping from a window during a fit of delirium tremens, leaving 10-year-old Eleanor an orphan. 

Roosevelt with his daughter Eleanor in 1889

1913 Mrs. Josephine Cochran, inventor of the first dishwasher, died on August 14, 1913.  Exasperated with her staff’s ability to chip her fine china, Mrs. Josephine Cochran of Shelbyville, Illinois invented the first dishwasher with her mechanic employee, George Butters in 1886. Josephine Cochran had expected the public to welcome the new invention, which she unveiled at the 1893 World's Fair, but only the hotels and large restaurants bought her idea.

1914 The Kimberley Mine located in Northern Cape, South Africa is the largest ever hand-dug excavation in the world. This 1097 meter deep mine opened in 1871 and yielded over three tonnes of diamonds before its closure. The amount of earth removed by workers is estimated to have totalled 22.5 million tonnes. The Kimberley Mine closed on August 14, 1914. 

1914 H.G. Wells coined phrase for World War One, "The war that will end wars," in an article published in The Daily News on August 14, 1914. The phrase became famous as a description of World War I, highlighting the hope and optimism that some people had at the beginning of the war, believing that its immense destruction and loss of life would lead to such a devastating lesson that it would prevent any future global conflicts.

1936 The last public hanging in the U.S. took place on August 14, 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky when Rainey Bethea was executed. Bethea was convicted of robbing, raping and strangling to death a wealthy white woman, 70-year-old Elza Edwards. Approximately 20,000 people gathered around the gallows to witness the execution.  Mistakes in performing the hanging and the surrounding media circus contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.

1947 As the United Kingdom agreed upon partitioning of the Indian empire of British Raj, the modern state of Pakistan was established on August 14, 1947. Over 10 million people were uprooted from their homeland and traveled on foot, bullock carts and trains to their promised new home during the Partition of India. The name was coined in 1933 by student Choudhry Rahmat Ali  when he called for the creation of a Muslim state in NW  India. “Pak” means spiritually pure in Urdu and “Stan” means land. 

1947 American romance novelist Danielle Steel was born August 14, 1947. Steel is the bestselling author alive today and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time. She puts out 6-7 bestsellers a year, has 9 children and sleeps only 4 hours a day. 

2000 On August 14, 2000 Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family were canonized as passion bearers, or people who met their deaths with Christian humility, by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their five children were executed by Bolsheviks in 1918 during the Russian Revolution. 

2014 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie married in California on August 14, 2014 and in southern France nine days later. They have six children (four adopted, plus twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline whom Jolie gave birth to on July 12, 2008 in Nice, France.) Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt 26 months later.

World Lizard Day is celebrated annually on August 14, though nobody seems to know why that date was chosen.