August 14

Sunday 14, 2005:

Helios Airways Flight 522 crashes north of Athens, killing the 121 on board.

Saturday 14, 2004:

Sales tax holiday in Massachusetts. All sales taxes are suspended on purchases of $2500 or less.

Thursday 14, 2003:

Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.

Sunday 14, 1994:

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.

Thursday 14, 1980:

Lech Wa??sa leads strikes at Gda?sk, Poland shipyards.

Saturday 14, 1976:

The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.

Monday 14, 1972:

An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156

Saturday 14, 1971:

Bahrain declares its independence from United Kingdom

Thursday 14, 1969:

United Kingdom troops deploy in Northern Ireland

Monday 14, 1967:

UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.

Thursday 14, 1947:

Pakistan gain independence from the United Kingdom

Tuesday 14, 1945:

Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).

Thursday 14, 1941:

Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims

Wednesday 14, 1935:

United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired

Friday 14, 1936:

Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States

Monday 14, 1933:

Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).

Wednesday 14, 1912:

United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya resigned three years earlier

Friday 14, 1908:

First beauty contest held in Folkestone, England

Wednesday 14, 1901:

The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

Tuesday 14, 1900:

A joint European-Japanese-United States force occupies Beijing, in campaign to end the Boxer Rebellion in China.

Monday 14, 1893:

1893 - France introduces motor vehicle registration

Friday 14, 1885:

Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.

Saturday 14, 1880:

Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, completed

Monday 14, 1848:

Oregon Territory organized by Act of U.S. Congress

Friday 14, 1846:

The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.

Sunday 14, 1842:

Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma

Friday 14, 1598:

Irish under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, destroy English force at the Battle of the Yellow Ford.

Sunday 14, 1385:

1383-1385 Crisis: Castilians are defeated by Portuguese at the Battle of Aljubarrota.

Sunday 14, 1183:

Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).

Friday 14, 1040:

King Duncan I of Scotland is killed in battle against his cousin and successor Macbeth