September 14

Events

Pre-1600

*AD 81 – Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.
* 629 – Emperor Heraclius enters Constantinople in triumph after his victory over the Persian Empire.
* 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.
* 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.
* 1180 – Genpei War: Battle of Ishibashiyama in Japan.
* 1226 – The first recorded instance of the Catholic practice of perpetual Eucharistic adoration formally begins in Avignon, France.
*1402 – Battle of Homildon Hill results in an English victory over Scotland.

1601–1900

*1607 – Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland.
*1682 – Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded.
*1723 – Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.
*1741 – George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio ''Messiah''.
* 1752 – The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2).
*1763 – Seneca warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Devil's Hole during Pontiac's War.
*1782 – American Revolutionary War: Review of the French troops under General Rochambeau by General George Washington at Verplanck's Point, New York.
* 1791 – The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France.
* 1808 – Finnish War: Russians defeat the Swedes at the Battle of Oravais.
*1812 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée enters Moscow. The Fire of Moscow begins as soon as Russian troops leave the city.
*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.
* 1829 – The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, thus ending the Russo-Turkish War.
*1846 – Jang Bahadur and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.
*1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.

1901–present

*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.
*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.
*1914 – , the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, is lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
* 1917 – The Russian Empire is formally replaced by the Russian Republic.
*1936 – Raoul Villain, who assassinated the French Socialist Jean Jaurès, is himself killed by Spanish Republicans in Ibiza.
*1939 – World War II: The Estonian military boards the Polish submarine in Tallinn, sparking a diplomatic incident that the Soviet Union will later use to justify the annexation of Estonia.
* 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.
*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.
*1944 – World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.
* 1948 – The Indian Army captures the city of Aurangabad as part of Operation Polo.
*1954 – In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village.
* 1958 – The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.
*1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.
* 1960 – Congo Crisis: Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution.
*1975 – The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.
*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.
*1982 – President-elect of Lebanon Bachir Gemayel is assassinated.
*1984 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
*1985 – Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in Malaysia, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opens to traffic.
* 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.
*1992 – The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.
*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.
*1994 – The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.
*1997 – Eighty-one killed as five bogies of the Ahmedabad–Howrah Express plunge into a river in Bilaspur district of Madhya Pradesh, India.
*1998 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
*1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
*2000 – Microsoft releases Windows Me.
*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.
*2002 – Total Linhas Aéreas Flight 5561 crashes near Paranapanema, Brazil, killing both pilots on board.
*2003 – In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union.
* 2003 – Bissau-Guinean President Kumba Ialá is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra.
*2007 – Financial crisis of 2007–2008: The Northern Rock bank experiences the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years.
*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.
*2015 – The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.
*2019 – Yemen's Houthi rebels claim responsibility for an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
*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 queues of up to 30 hours stretching for miles along the River Thames.

Births

Pre-1600

* 208 – Diadumenian, Roman emperor (d. 218)
* 768 – Al-Ma'mun, Abbasid caliph, 7th (d. 833)
* 938 – Sahib ibn Abbad, Persian scholar and statesman (d. 995)
* 953 – Guo Zongxun, Chinese emperor (d. 973)
* 1032 – Dao Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1101)
* 1246 – John Fitzalan III, English nobleman (d. 1272)
* 1384 – Ephraim of Nea Makri, Greek martyr and saint (d. 1426)
* 1388 – Claudius Clavus, Danish geographer and cartographer (d. 1438)
*1401 – Maria of Castile, Queen consort of Aragon and Naples (d. 1458)
* 1485 – Anna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Landgravine of Hesse (d. 1525)
*1486 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German theologian, astrologer, and alchemist (d. 1535)
* 1543 – Claudio Acquaviva, Italian priest, 5th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (d. 1615)
*1547 – Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch politician (d. 1619)
*1580 – Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish poet and politician (d. 1645)

1601–1900

*1618 – Peter Lely, Dutch-English painter (d. 1680)
* 1643 – Jeremiah Dummer, American silversmith (d. 1718)
* 1656 – Thomas Baker, English historian and author (d. 1746)
* 1713 – Johann Kies, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1781)
*1721 – Eliphalet Dyer, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (d. 1807)
* 1736 – Robert Raikes, English philanthropist, founded Sunday school (d. 1811)
*1737 – Michael Haydn, Austrian singer and composer (d. 1806)
* 1769 – Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer and explorer (d. 1859)
* 1774 – Lord William Bentinck, English general and politician, 14th Governor-General of India (d. 1839)
* 1791 – Franz Bopp, German linguist and academic (d. 1867)
*1804 – John Gould, English ornithologist and illustrator (d. 1881)
* 1804 – Louis Désiré Maigret, French bishop (d. 1882)
*1816 – Mary Hall Barrett Adams, American book editor and letter writer (d. 1860)
*1837 – Nikolai Bugaev, Georgian-Russian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1903)
* 1843 – Lola Rodríguez de Tió, Puerto Rican poet, abolitionist, and women's rights activist (d. 1924)
*1847 – Fanny Holland, English actress and singer (d. 1931)
* 1850 – Anton Mahnič, Slovenian bishop, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1920)
* 1853 – Ponnambalam Arunachalam, Ceylonese civil servant and politician (d. 1924)
*1857 – Julia Platt, American embryologist and politician (d. 1935)
*1860 – Hamlin Garland, American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer (d. 1940)
*1864 – Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English lawyer and politician, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
* 1867 – Charles Dana Gibson, American illustrator (d. 1944)
*1868 – Théodore Botrel, French singer-songwriter, poet, and playwright (d. 1925)
* 1869 – Kid Nichols, American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
*1872 – John Olof Dahlgren, Swedish-American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1963)
* 1879 – Margaret Sanger, American nurse and activist (d. 1966)
*1880 – Benjamin, Russian bishop and missionary (d. 1961)
* 1880 – Archie Hahn, American sprinter, football player, and coach (d. 1955)
*1883 – Richard Gerstl, Austrian painter and illustrator (d. 1908)
*1885 – Vittorio Gui, Italian conductor, composer, and critic (d. 1975)
* 1886 – Jan Masaryk, Czech soldier and politician, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1948)
*1887 – Karl Taylor Compton, American physicist (d. 1954)
* 1891 – Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1983)
*1892 – Laurence W. Allen, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 1968)
*1896 – José Mojica, Mexican tenor and actor (d. 1974)
*1898 – Lawrence Gellert, Hungarian-American musicologist and song collector (d. 1979)
* 1898 – Ernest Nash, German-Italian photographer and scholar (d. 1974)

1901–present

* 1902 – Giorgos Papasideris, Greek singer-songwriter (d. 1977)
* 1902 – Alice Tully, American soprano and philanthropist (d. 1993)
* 1903 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet and author (d. 1980)
*1904 – Frank Amyot, Canadian sprint canoeist (d. 1962)
* 1904 – Richard Mohaupt, German composer and Kapellmeister (d. 1957)
* 1907 – Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (d. 1986)
*1909 – Peter Scott, English ornithologist, painter, and sailor (d. 1989)
* 1910 – Lehman Engel, American composer and conductor (d. 1982)
* 1910 – Jack Hawkins, English actor and producer (d. 1973)
* 1910 – Yiannis Latsis, Greek businessman (d. 2003)
* 1910 – Rolf Liebermann, Swiss-French composer and manager (d. 1999)
* 1910 – Rasuna Said, Indonesian women's rights campaigner and national hero (d. 1965)
*1911 – William H. Armstrong, American author and educator (d. 1999)
*1913 – Jacobo Árbenz, Guatemalan captain and politician, President of Guatemala (d. 1971)
* 1913 – Rubby Sherr, American physicist and academic (d. 2013)
*1914 – Mae Boren Axton, American composer and educator (d. 1997)
* 1914 – Clayton Moore, American actor (d. 1999)
*1915 – John Dobson, Chinese-American astronomer and author, designed the Dobsonian telescope (d. 2014)
* 1916 – Eric Bentley, English-American singer, playwright, and critic (d. 2020)
* 1916 – John Heyer, Australian director and producer (d. 2001)
* 1917 – Rudolf Baumgartner, Swiss violinist and conductor (d. 2002)
*1918 – Georges Berger, Belgian race car driver (d. 1967)
* 1918 – Cachao López, Cuban-American bassist and composer (d. 2008)
*1919 – Deryck Cooke, English musicologist and broadcaster (d. 1976)
* 1919 – Gil Langley, Australian cricketer, footballer, and politician (d. 2001)
* 1919 – Olga Lowe, South African-English actress (d. 2013)
* 1919 – Kay Medford, American actress (d. 1980)
*1920 – Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan journalist and author (d. 2009)
* 1920 – Lawrence Klein, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
* 1920 – Alberto Calderón, Argentinian-American mathematician and academic (d. 1998)
*1921 – Constance Baker Motley, American lawyer, judge, and politician (d. 2005)
* 1921 – A. Jean de Grandpré, Canadian lawyer, businessman, and academic (d. 2022)
* 1921 – Paul Poberezny, American pilot and businessman, founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (d. 2013)
* 1921 – Dario Vittori, Italian-Argentinian actor and producer (d. 2001)
*1922 – Michel Auclair, German-French actor (d. 1988)
* 1922 – Frances Bergen, American model and actress (d. 2006)
* 1922 – Alfred Käärmann, Estonian soldier and author (d. 2010)
* 1923 – Nicholas Georgiadis, Greek painter and costume designer (d. 2001)
* 1924 – Patricia Barringer, American baseball player and accountant (d. 2007)
* 1924 – Jerry Coleman, American baseball player and manager (d. 2014)
* 1924 – Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leonean-English physician, academic, and diplomat (d. 1994)
* 1924 – Wim Polak, Dutch journalist and politician, Mayor of Amsterdam (d. 1999)
* 1926 – Michel Butor, French author and critic (d. 2016)
* 1926 – Richard Ellsasser, American organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1972)
* 1926 – Carmen Franco, 1st Duchess of Franco, Spanish noblewoman (d. 2017)
* 1927 – Martin Caidin, American author and screenwriter (d. 1997)
* 1927 – Janet Davies, English actress (d. 1986)
* 1927 – Gardner Dickinson, American golfer (d. 1998)
* 1927 – Jim Fanning, American-Canadian baseball player and manager (d. 2015)
* 1927 – Edmund Szoka, American cardinal (d. 2014)
*1928 – Jay Cameron, American reed player and saxophonist (d. 2001)
* 1928 – Alberto Korda, Cuban photographer (d. 2001)
* 1928 – Angus Ogilvy, English businessman (d. 2004)
*1929 – Larry Collins, American-French journalist, historian, and author (d. 2005)
*1930 – Allan Bloom, American philosopher and academic (d. 1992)
* 1930 – Romola Costantino, Australian pianist and critic (d. 1988)
* 1930 – Eugene I. Gordon, American physicist and engineer (d. 2014)
*1932 – Harry Sinden, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
* 1932 – John Tembo