History Events on April 14

The Exposition Universelle begins.

#Exposition_Universelle_(1900)

Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.

#Temür_Khan

Co-Emperor Otto II, a son of Otto I (the Great), marries the Byzantine princess Theophanu. She is crowned empress by Pope John XIII at Rome.

#Otto_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

World War II: German general Erwin Rommel attacks Tobruk.

#Erwin_Rommel

The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, reaches Greenly Island, Canada - the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.

#Bremen_(aircraft)

James Cash Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

#James_Cash_Penney

The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.

#USS_Samuel_B._Roberts_(FFG-58)

Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V, Marquess of Saluzzo.

#Saluzzo

Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.

#Battle_of_Adrianople_(1205)

Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.

#1944_Bombay_explosion

Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).

#Septimius_Severus

The foundation stone of Nantes Cathedral, France is laid.

#Nantes_Cathedral

In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.

#Friendly_fire

The Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.

#Cortes_Generales

Malta receives the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and is now an emblem on the Maltese national flag.

#Malta

Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum to take power over Rome.

#Vitellius

Hauser Dam, a steel dam on the Missouri River in Montana, U.S., fails, sending a surge of water 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 m) high downstream.

#Hauser_Dam

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.

#Venezuela

World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.

#World_War_II

Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Aulus Hirtius.

#Battle_of_Forum_Gallorum

The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

#Abolitionism_in_the_United_States

Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.

#Hungarian_Declaration_of_Independence

The Azusa Street Revival opens and will launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.

#Azusa_Street_Revival

The Black Sunday dust storm, considered one of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl, swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring areas.

#Black_Sunday_(storm)

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day.

#Abraham_Lincoln

Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria.

#Chibok_schoolgirls_kidnapping

Razing of Friesoythe: The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroyed the German town of Friesoythe on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes.

#Razing_of_Friesoythe

Khalsa: The Sikh religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.

#Khalsa

The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.

#Film

The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

#Georgia_(country)

U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.

#Baghdad

NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.

#NATO

Nearly 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

#2010_Yushu_earthquake

The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.

#Four_Dead_in_Five_Seconds_Gunfight

In Japan, the foreshock of Kumamoto earthquakes occurs.

#2016_Kumamoto_earthquakes

Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.

#Noah_Webster

The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.

#Soviet_Union

A celestial phenomenon is reported over Nuremberg, described as an aerial battle.

#1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg

U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked at home by Lewis Powell.

#United_States_Secretary_of_State

A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.

#1999_Sydney_hailstorm

Imperial forces are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz. The Swedish victory prolongs the Thirty Years' War and allows them to advance into Bohemia.

#Battle_of_Chemnitz

The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

#Human_Genome_Project

Henry III, son of Conrad, is elected King of Germany.

#Henry_III,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

Gnassingbé Eyadéma overthrows President of Togo Nicolas Grunitzky and installs himself as the new president, a title he would hold for the next 38 years.

#Gnassingbé_Eyadéma

In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

#United_Nations

The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

#The_Grapes_of_Wrath

Twin blasts triggered by crude bombs during Asr prayer in Jama Masjid, Delhi injure 13 people.

#Asr_prayer

STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight.

#STS-1

Twin bomb blasts in Abuja, Nigeria, kill at least 75 people and injures 141 others.

The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.

The heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.

Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).

A massacre is organized by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population of Cilicia.

The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.

Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion and is killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.

In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.

After his marriage to the Christian Doubravka of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converts to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.

Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions.