December
14
National
Energy Conservation Day
Events
557 – Constantinople
is severely damaged by an earthquake.
1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands
collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first
Military Academy in the world.
1782 – The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on
its first test flight.
1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the
remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne,
Louisiana.
1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.
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.
1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with
the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1907 – The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders
near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale.
The pilot and 15 seamen die.
1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat
of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer
of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital
Territory.
1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland,
Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the
first to reach the South Pole.
1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class,
launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses
during World War I and World War II.
1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic
Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the
Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires.
1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by
the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces
the Finnish throne.
1918 – President of Portugal Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League
of Nations for invading Finland.
1941 – World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish
its headquarters in New York City.
1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania,
Spain and Sri Lanka join the United Nations.
1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first
expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in
the Antarctic.
1961 – The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations.
1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly
by Venus.
1963 – Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts, killing five people
and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles.
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 the Constitution's Commerce Clause
power to fight discrimination.
1971 – Over 200 of East Pakistan's (now Bangladesh) intellectuals
are massacred by the Pakistani Army and their local allies.
1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk
on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third
and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
To date this is the last manned mission to the moon.
1981 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan
Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan
Heights.
1983 – The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
1988 – The ET3 television network is launched in Thessaloniki,
Greece.
1992 – War in Abkhazia: During the Siege of Tkvarcheli, a helicopter
carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli, Abkhazia, is shot down, resulting
in at least 52 deaths, 25 of which are children. The incident
catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf
of Abkhazia.
1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze
River.
1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris
by leaders of various governments.
1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela,
resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of
thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's
infrastructure.
2003 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes
an assassination attempt.
2004 – The Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world,
near Millau, France is officially opened.
2004 – Cuba and Venezuela found the Bolivarian Alliance for
the Americas.
2006 – American spy satellite USA-193 is launched.
2008 – President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final (planned)
trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes
thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during
a news conference in Baghdad
Holidays
and observances
Alabama
Day (Alabama)
Christian Feast Day:
John of the Cross
Spyridon (Western Church)
Day of the Martyred Intellectuals (Bangladesh)
Monkey Day
For details, contact Datacentre
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