On This Day — 14 March
2000s
2021
Burmese security forces kill at least 65 civilians in the Hlaingthaya massacre.
Hlaingthaya massacre
2019
Cyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1,000 deaths.
Cyclone Idai
2017
A naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance.
Nihonium
2008
A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet.
2008 Tibetan unrest
2007
The Nandigram violence in Nandigram, West Bengal, results in the deaths of at least 14 people.
Nandigram violence
2006
The 2006 Chadian coup d'état attempt ends in failure.
2006 Chadian coup attempt
2006
Operation Bringing Home the Goods: Israeli troops raid an American-supervised Palestinian prison in Jericho to capture six Palestinian prisoners, including PFLP chief Ahmad Sa'adat.
Operation Bringing Home the Goods
1900s
1995
Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
Norman Thagard
1991
Escondida in Chile's Atacama Desert – which was to become the worlds most productive copper mine – is officially inaugurated.
Escondida
1988
In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands.
Johnson South Reef skirmish
1982
The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.
1982 bombing of the African National Congress headquarters in London
1980
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007
1979
Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600 crashes at Doha International Airport, killing 45 people.
Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600
1978
The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon.
Israel Defense Forces
1972
Sterling Airways Flight 296 crashes near Kalba, United Arab Emirates while on approach to Dubai International Airport, killing 112 people.
Sterling Airways Flight 296
1967
The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
John F. Kennedy
1964
Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin who had shot and killed John F. Kennedy the previous year.
Jack Ruby
1961
A USAF B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashes near Yuba City, California.
United States Air Force
1951
Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul for the second time.
Korean War
1945
The R.A.F. drop the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany.
Royal Air Force
1943
The Holocaust: The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is completed.
The Holocaust
1942
Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead.
Penicillin
1939
Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
Slovak Republic (1939–1945)
1931
Alam Ara, India's first talking film, is released.
Alam Ara
1926
The El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica, kills 248 people and wounds another 93 when a train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás.
El Virilla train accident
1923
Charlie Daly and three other members of the Irish Republican Army are executed by Irish Free State forces.
Charlie Daly
1921
Six members of a group of Irish Republican Army activists known as the Forgotten Ten are hanged in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison.
Irish Republican Army
1920
In the second of the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, about 80% of the population in Zone II votes to remain part of Weimar Germany.
1920 Schleswig plebiscites
1916
Battle of Verdun: German attack captures Côte 265 at the west end of Mort-Homme but the French 75th Infantry Brigade manages to hold Côte 295 at the east end.
Battle of Verdun
1903
Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge
1901
Utah governor Heber Manning Wells vetoes a bill that would have eased restrictions on polygamy.
Heber Manning Wells
1900
The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
Gold Standard Act
1800s
1885
The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London.
The Mikado
1864
Rossini's Petite messe solennelle is first performed, by twelve singers, two pianists and a harmonium player in a mansion in Paris.
Petite messe solennelle
Before 1800
1794
Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
Eli Whitney
1780
American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans.
American Revolutionary War
1757
Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
John Byng
1674
The Third Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of Ronas Voe results in the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam being captured with a death toll of up to 300 Dutch crew and soldiers.
Third Anglo-Dutch War
1663
According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, detailing his experiments on vacuum and his discovery of electrostatic repulsion.
Otto von Guericke
1647
Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
Thirty Years' War
1590
Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne, during the French Wars of Religion.
Battle of Ivry
1074
Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza and Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland.
Battle of Mogyoród