On This Day — 14 September

2022

Death of Queen Elizabeth II: The Queen's coffin is taken from Buckingham Palace, placed on a gun carriage of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and moved in a procession to Westminster Hall for her lying in state over the next four days with the queue of mourners stretching for miles along the River Thames.

Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II

2019

Yemen's Houthi rebels claim responsibility for an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.

Yemen

2015

The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.

First observation of gravitational waves

2008

Aeroflot Flight 821, a Boeing 737-500, crashes into a section of the Trans-Siberian Railway while on approach to Perm International Airport, in Perm, Russia, killing all 88 people on board.

Aeroflot Flight 821

2007

Prelude to the 2008 financial crisis: Northern Rock bank experiences the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years.

2008 financial crisis

2003

In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union.

2003 Estonian European Union membership referendum

2003

Bissau-Guinean President Kumba Ialá is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra.

Kumba Yala

2002

Total Linhas Aéreas Flight 5561 crashes near Paranapanema, Brazil, killing both pilots on board.

Total Linhas Aéreas Flight 5561

2001

Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation's capital.

Washington National Cathedral

2000

Microsoft releases Windows Me.

Microsoft

1999

Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.

Kiribati

1998

Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.

MCI Communications

1997

Eighty-one killed as five bogies of the Ahmedabad–Howrah Express plunge into a river in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

Howrah–Ahmedabad Superfast Express

1994

The rest of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.

Major League Baseball

1993

Lufthansa Flight 2904, an Airbus A320, crashes into an embankment after overshooting the runway at Okęcie International Airport (now Warsaw Chopin Airport), killing two people.

Lufthansa Flight 2904

1992

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1989

The Standard Gravure shooting where Joseph T. Wesbecker, a 47-year-old pressman, killed eight people and injured 12 people at his former workplace, Standard Gravure, before committing suicide.

Standard Gravure shooting

1985

Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in Malaysia, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opens to traffic.

Penang Bridge

1984

Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

Joseph Kittinger

1982

President-elect of Lebanon Bachir Gemayel is assassinated.

Bachir Gemayel

1979

Afghan leader Nur Muhammad Taraki is assassinated upon the order of Hafizullah Amin, who becomes the new General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party.

List of heads of state of Afghanistan

1975

The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.

Elizabeth Ann Seton

1960

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.

OPEC

1960

Congo Crisis: Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.

Congo Crisis

1958

The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.

Mohr Rocket

1954

In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village.

Totskoye nuclear exercise

1948

The Indian Army captures the city of Aurangabad as part of Operation Polo.

Indian Army

1944

World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.

Maastricht

1943

World War II: The Wehrmacht starts a three-day retaliatory operation targeting several Greek villages in the region of Viannos, whose death toll would eventually exceed 500 persons.

Wehrmacht

1940

Ip massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, an act of ethnic cleansing.

Ip massacre

1939

World War II: The Estonian military boards the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł in Tallinn, sparking a diplomatic incident that the Soviet Union will later use to justify the annexation of Estonia.

World War II

1936

Raoul Villain, who assassinated the French Socialist Jean Jaurès, is himself killed by Spanish Republicans in Ibiza.

Raoul Villain

1917

The Russian Empire is formally replaced by the Russian Republic.

Russian Empire

1914

HMAS AE1, the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, is lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

HMAS AE1

1911

Russian Premier Pyotr Stolypin is shot by Dmitry Bogrov while attending a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan at the Kiev Opera House, in the presence of Tsar Nicholas II.

Pyotr Stolypin

1901

U.S. president William McKinley dies after being mortally wounded on September 6 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz and is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

William McKinley

1862

American Civil War: The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.

American Civil War

1846

Jang Bahadur and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.

Jung Bahadur Rana

1829

The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, thus ending the Russo-Turkish War.

Ottoman Empire

1814

Battle of Baltimore: The poem Defence of Fort McHenry is written by Francis Scott Key. The poem is later used as the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Battle of Baltimore

1812

Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée enters Moscow. The Fire of Moscow begins as soon as Russian troops leave the city.

Napoleonic Wars

1808

Finnish War: Russians defeat the Swedes at the Battle of Oravais.

Finnish War

1791

The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France.

Papal States

1782

American Revolutionary War: Review of the French troops under General Rochambeau by General George Washington at Verplanck's Point, New York.

American Revolutionary War

1763

Seneca warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Devil's Hole during Pontiac's War.

Seneca people

1752

The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2).

Adoption of the Gregorian calendar

1741

George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah.

George Frideric Handel

1723

Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.

António Manoel de Vilhena

1685

Morean War: the Battle of Kalamata ends in a Venetian victory over the forces of the Ottoman Empire under the Kapudan Pasha.

Morean War

1682

Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded.

Bishop Gore School

1402

Battle of Homildon Hill: An invading Scottish army under Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany and Archibald, Earl Douglas is decimated by a contingent of 500 English archers under the command of George, Earl of March and Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland.

Battle of Homildon Hill

1226

The first recorded instance of the Catholic practice of perpetual Eucharistic adoration formally begins in Avignon, France.

Catholic Church

1180

Genpei War: In the Battle of Ishibashiyama in Japan, the new military commander of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo, is routed by Ōba Kagechika of the Taira clan.

Genpei War

1115

Roger of Salerno's Crusader army defeats a numerically superior Seljuk army in the battle of Sarmin

Roger of Salerno

919

Battle of Islandbridge: High King Niall Glúndub is killed while leading an Irish coalition against the Vikings of Uí Ímair, led by King Sitric Cáech.

Battle of Islandbridge

786

"Night of the three Caliphs": Harun al-Rashid becomes the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother al-Hadi. Birth of Harun's son al-Ma'mun.

Harun al-Rashid

81

Domitian became Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.

AD 81