History Events on December 14

Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

#Lisandro_de_la_Torre

Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.

#Winter_War

The 1918 United Kingdom general election occurs, the first where women were permitted to vote.

#1918_United_Kingdom_general_election

Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

#Alabama

The Thomas W. Lawson, the largest ever ship without a heat engine, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.

#Thomas_W._Lawson_(ship)

Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.

#Albania

World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.

#World_War_II

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

#Pervez_Musharraf

NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

#NASA

Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.

#Prince_Frederick_Charles_of_Hesse

The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km (1.2 mi).

#Montgolfier_brothers

War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

#War_of_1812

The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.

#Commercial_Pacific_Cable_Company

The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.

#Glasgow_Subway

The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.

#Theresian_Military_Academy

Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

#Roald_Amundsen

The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.

#Millau_Viaduct

Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.

#Apollo_program

The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.

#French_invasion_of_Russia

Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.

#Plutonium

The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

#Wright_brothers

Wilma Mankiller takes office as the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

#Wilma_Mankiller

Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.

#Constantinople

Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)

#Bangladesh_Liberation_War

Haruna, the fourth and last Kong?-class ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.

#Japanese_battleship_Haruna

Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights.

#Arab-Israeli_conflict

New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.

#New_South_Wales

Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.

#Quantum_mechanics

Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.

#President_of_Portugal

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.

#Vargas_tragedy

The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.

#The_Walt_Disney_Company

Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.

#Three_Gorges_Dam

Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

#Yugoslav_Wars

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

#Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting

A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.

Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.

War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.

American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.

The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.

Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.

The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.

Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game.

The Toledo War unofficially ends.

Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York

Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week on the death of her father, James V of Scotland.

St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.

Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.