Posted: Dec 14, 2007 Topic Views : 314 Post subject: December 14: Raj Kapoor's Birthday, Indian Actor
December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 17 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events
* 1287 - St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
* 1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.
* 1702 (according to the old calendar; January 30, 1703 by the new calendar) - The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.
* 1751 - The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
* 1782 - The Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifts on its very first test flight.
* 1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
* 1825 - Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.
* 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.
* 1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
* 1914 - Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressist Party (Partido DemĂłcrata 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.
* 1939 - Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.
* 1941 - German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine issues an order, under which the Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within 2 days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days 15,000 Jews are shot at Drobitsky Yar.
* 1941 - World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
* 1946 - The UN General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.
* 1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
* 1955 - Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations.
* 1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
* 1959 - The Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan by Berry Gordy.
* 1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
* 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 its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
* 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 Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
* 1979 - Punk rock group The Clash release London Calling in the UK, a landmark album in rock music.
* 1981 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
* 1995 - Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by leaders of various governments.
* 2003 - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
* 2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.