/year

March 14 in history

216 sourced entries recorded on March 14, from 313 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 675Princess Tōchi and Princess Abe of Japan proceed to Ise Jingū.source
  • 1074Battle of Mogyoród: King Solomon is defeated by his cousins, Duke Géza I and Ladislaus I. He is dethroned and Géza becomes the new ruler of Hungary.source
  • 1077German nobles opposing king Henry IV elected an antiking, Rudolf of Rheinfelden, despite king Henry having been absolved.source
  • 1273Battle of Xiangyang: Chinese forces surrender to Kublai Khan's general Aju (or Achu) after a 6-year siege. The battle is the first in which firearms are used in combat.source
  • 1309(1 Shawwal 708 AH) Sultan Muhammad III is deposed during a palace coup after a 7-year reign, and is replaced by his half-brother Abu al-Juyush Nasr, as ruler of the Emirate of Granada. Muhammad III is spared and allowed to live in Almuñécar, but his vizier, Abu Abdallah ibn al-Hakim, is killed.source
  • 1319The Military Order of Christ (Ordem Militar de Cristo) is established in Portugal by King Denis of Portugal after Pope John XXII issues the papal bull Ad ea ex quibus. The new Order is the revival of former Knights Templar who had aided the Kingdom of Portugal in its post-war reconstruction.source
  • 1369King Pedro of Castile loses the Battle of Montiel to French soldiers led by Bertrand du Guesclin and Castilians led by his half-brother, Enrique. Pedro takes refuge in a fortress and offers du Guesclin 200,000 gold coins and a promise of several towns in Castile, in return for betraying Enrique. Afterwards, du Guesclin informs Enrique of the offer.source
  • 1372Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a deed in Wrocław, acknowledging the sovereignty of King Louis I of Hungary as ruler of Hungary, Croatia and Poland.source
  • 1381The Italian town of Chioggia concludes an alliance with the Croatian towns of Zadar and Trogir against the Republic of Venice, which lsts until 1412.source
  • 1408John of Bourbon, son of Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, is appointed as the Grand Chamberlain of France by King Charles VI.source
  • 1419Braccio da Montone is awarded Governorship of Bologna by Pope Martin V in recognition of his ouster of Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio.source
  • 1440The Prussian Confederation is formed by 53 nobles and clergy, representing 19 Prussian cities, who meet at Elbing to form an opposition to the Teutonic Knights.source
  • 1457Ladislaus Hunyadi, who had assassinated the Hungarian regent Ulrich of Celje on November 9, is arrested soon after being tricked by King Ladislaus V into believing that he would become Lord Treasurer and Captain-General upon his arrival in Budapest. Hunyadi is beheaded two days later by order of the King.source
  • 1468King Edward IV ratifies the treaty permitting his sister to marry the Duke of Burgundysource
  • 1475King Edward IV, gives royal assent to several acts passed by the English Parliament, including the Safe Conducts Act and the Wool Act.source
  • 1488Hadım Ali Pasha, the Ottoman beylerbey of Karaman, recaptures Adana and Tarsus from the Mamluks.source
  • 1489The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to the Republic of Venice.source
  • 1502Christopher Columbus begins preparation for his fourth and final voyage, with a goal of finding a westward passage in the New World to link the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.source
  • 1536Ayas Mehmed Pasha is appointed by the Sultan Suleiman to be the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • 1580Miler Magrath is deposed as Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Gregory XIII for heresy, having for a decade simultaneously held bishoprics in the Protestant Church of Ireland.source
  • 1590Battle of Ivry: Henry IV of France again defeats the forces of the Catholic League, under Charles, Duke of Mayenne.source
  • 1592Ultimate Pi Day: the largest correspondence between calendar dates and significant digits of pi since the introduction of the Julian calendar according to the American method of writing the number of the month prior to the day.source
  • 1605The March–April 1605 papal conclave of Roman Catholic cardinals to elect a successor to Pope Clement VIII opens at the Vatican in Rome, 11 days after Clement's death. Sixty-one of the 69 cardinals meet behind closed doors for the rest of the month. Discussion becomes heated, with shouting and jostling.source
  • 1647Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.source
  • 1647Thirty Years' War: France, Bavaria, Cologne, and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.source
  • 1647Sweden, France, and Bavaria sign the Truce of Ulm (which was eventually broken by Bavaria to assist Austria against Sweden and France) ending the Bavarian Campaign.source
  • 1674Third Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Ronas Voe – The English Royal Navy captures the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam in Shetland.source
  • 1674Third Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Ronas Voe – the English Royal Navy captures the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam in Shetland.source
  • 1683Ageng Tirtayasa, Sultan of Banten on the island of Java (part of modern-day Indonesia), is captured by soldiers hired by the Dutch East India Company.source
  • 1691The Public Security Police Force of Macau is founded.source
  • 1695Paul Foley is elected as the new Speaker of the House after the expulsion of John Trevor.source
  • 1701all illegal cargoes of grain brought from Ireland to the west of Scotland are ordered to be sunk.source
  • 1701all illegal cargoes of grain brought to the west of Scotland from Ireland are ordered to be sunk.source
  • 1702An earthquake in the middle of the Calore valley in Italy, east of Benevento, kills 400 people.source
  • 1705Queen Anne gives royal assent to the Parliament of England's Alien Act 1705, setting a deadline of December 25, 1705, for Scotland's parliament to authorize negotiations for a Treaty of Union with England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain and threatening that unless Scotland agrees to negotiate terms for union and accepts the Hanoverian succession by December 25, there would be a ban on the import of all Scottish staple products into England and Scots would also lose the privileges of Englishmen under English law – thus endangering rights to any property they held in England.source
  • 1705The Alien Act 1705 (a response to the Parliament of Scotland's Act of Security 1704) provides that Scottish nationals in England would be treated as aliens (foreign nationals), and estates held by Scots would be treated as alien property, and also that trade embargoes would be placed on Scottish staple products, unless the Scots enter into negotiations regarding a proposed Treaty of Union of the parliaments of Scotland and England by 25 December.source
  • 1715James Stuart, the "Old Pretender" attempting to restore the House of Stuart to control of Great Britain as King James III of England and James VIII of Scotland, meets with Pope Clement XI for the assistance of the Roman Catholic Church in the Jacobite rising.source
  • 1728Jean-Jacques Rousseau leaves Geneva for the first time.source
  • 1767Antonio de Ulloa, the Colonial Governor of Spanish Louisiana (Luisiana), dispatches Captain Francisco Ríu y Morales up the Mississippi River to establish two forts, one at San Luis (now St. Louis, Missouri) and to set up a colony for displaced French-speaking Acadians and protect shipping on the river.source
  • 1773March 9–19 – Second voyage of James Cook: Tobias Furneaux in HMS Adventure explores the coast of Van Diemen's Land.source
  • 1788The Edinburgh Evening Courant carries a notice of £200 reward for the capture of William Brodie, a town councilor doubling as a burglar.source
  • 1790William Bligh arrives back in Britain with the first report of the Mutiny on the Bounty.source
  • 1794Eli Whitney is granted a United States patent for the cotton gin.source
  • 1795March 13–14 – War of the First Coalition Battle of Genoa: The British and Neapolitan fleets are victorious over the French.source
  • 1799The public premiere of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation takes place at the Burgtheater in Vienna.source
  • 1800Papal conclave, 1799–1800: cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti succeeds Pius VI as Pius VII, the 251st pope. He is crowned on March 21, in Venice.source
  • 1801Henry Addington becomes First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, effectively Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • 1801William Pitt the Younger resigns over the failure to introduce Catholic emancipation, having first tendered his resignation on 5 February.source
  • 1808Denmark-Norway declares war on Sweden.source
  • 1812France and Austria sign the Treaty of Paris.source
  • 1814Thomas Kendall and William Hall leave Sydney on the Active, captain Dillon, for Hobart, on the way to explore the Bay of Islands for a suitable mission site. Also with them is Tui (Tupaea), younger brother of the Ngāpuhi chief Korokoro, who has been staying with Kendall in Sydney.source
  • 1831March 13-15: Night of the Bottle Fight – A street fight between the Portuguese and the Brazilians.source
  • 1831The Surprise, the first paddle steamer built in Australia, was launched in Sydney.source
  • 1834John Herschel discovers the open cluster of stars now known as NGC 3603, observing from the Cape of Good Hope.source
  • 1836HMS Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin, leaves Australia.source
  • 1843March 11–14 – Eta Carinae flares, to become the second-brightest star.source
  • 1846First property purchased for Feargus O'Connor's Chartist-backed English National Land Company to provide smallholdings and suffrage for working men, at Heronsgate (O'Connorville) in Hertfordshire.source
  • 1847Verdi's opera Macbeth premieres at the Teatro della Pergola, in Florence, Italy.source
  • 1857Youssef Bey Karam is assigned, by the people of Ehden and Bsharri, to be the region's ruler.source
  • 1863Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent granting Goulburn city status, making it Australia's first inland city.source
  • 1863Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent granting Goulburn, New South Wales city status, making it Australia's first inland city.source
  • 1864Rossini's Petite messe solennelle is first performed, by twelve singers, two pianists and a harmonium player in a mansion in Paris.source
  • 1874Third Carlist War: Battle of Castellfollit de la Roca – Appointed to command the Spanish Republican army in the north, General Ramón Nouvilas attempts to relieve the Carlist siege of Olot in Girona. But at Castellfollit de la Roca, in one of the Government's worst defeats, Nouvilas is routed by Carlist General Francesc Savalls, and captured along with about 2,000 of his men. Olot capitulates two days later.source
  • 1874peace treaty with the Ashanti gives freedom of movement for British Gold Coast traders, and a promise to end human sacrifice.source
  • 1877Trade agreement with Romania signed in Brussels.source
  • 1881The Parliament of Romania declares the dissolution of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and its replacement by the Kingdom of Romania.source
  • 188514 March Scotland 8–2 Ireland (in Glasgow)source
  • 1885Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens, at the Savoy Theatre in London.source
  • 1891In New Orleans, a lynch mob storms the Old Parish Prison, and lynches 11 Italians arrested but found innocent of the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy.source
  • 1891In New Orleans, a lynch mob storms the Old Parish Prison and lynches 11 Italian Americans who had been found not guilty of the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy.source
  • 1898Association football and sports club BSC Young Boys is established in Bern, Switzerland, as the Fussballclub Young Boys.source
  • 1899Kaiser Wilhelm II takes direct command of the Imperial Navy.source
  • 1900Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's laws of heredity.source
  • 1903The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian senate later rejects the treaty.source
  • 1905March 14 – 23 of the 26 crew of the British barque Kyber die when the ship is wrecked off England's Land's End.source
  • 1910The Lakeview Gusher is vented into the atmosphere.source
  • 1915Constantinople Agreement: Britain, France and the Russian Empire agree to give Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Bosphorus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik Revolution).source
  • 1915Battle of Más a Tierra: Off the coast of Chile, the British Royal Navy forces the Imperial German Navy light cruiser SMS Dresden (last survivor of the German East Asia Squadron) to scuttle.source
  • 1915Battle of Más a Tierrasource
  • 1918Eva Andén is elected the first female member of the Swedish Bar Association.source
  • 1920March 13–17 – Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz's Kapp Putsch (an attempted coup in Germany) briefly ousts the Weimar Republic government from Berlin, but fails due to public resistance and a general strike.source
  • 1921Act III of 1921 passed by the National Assembly. The so-called "order law" invests powers in the government to protect the social order against communists and other radicalssource
  • 1921Armenian Soghomon Tehlirian assassinates Mehmed Talaat, former Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, in Charlottenburg, Berlin.source
  • 1927Pan American World Airways is founded by Juan T. Trippe.source
  • 1939The Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence; priest Jozef Tiso becomes president of the independent Slovak government.source
  • 1939March 10–21 — 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)source
  • 1943WWII: British submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.source
  • 1945Establishment of TAP Portugalsource
  • 1947The Thames flood and other widespread flooding occurs, as the exceptionally harsh British winter of 1946–1947 ends in a thaw.source
  • 1951Korean War: Operation Ripper – For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.source
  • 1957President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia.source
  • 1967The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.source
  • 1967Nine executives of the German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal are charged with breaking German drug laws because of thalidomide.source
  • 1968Late this evening, the U.K. government at the request of the U.S. agrees that the London Gold Pool will be closed from tomorrow. George Brown, the British Foreign Secretary, apparently drunk, is absent from meetings to discuss the crisis and is forced to resign from the government on March 15.source
  • 1972It is denounced in Session No. 67 of the Senate that 10 Soviet ships are authorized by President Salvador Allende to carry out "scientific research actions".source
  • 1972Sterling Airways Flight 267, which was bringing Danish vacationers home from a holiday in Sri Lanka, crashed on its approach to the Dubai airport. All 112 people on board were killed.source
  • 19761975–76 Albanian Cup: KF Tirana defeats KF Skënderbeu 3-1 at Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tiranasource
  • 1978Operation Litani: Israeli forces invade Lebanon.source
  • 19791979–80 Balkans Cup: Albania is defeated by Yugoslavia 3-0 at Stadion Kantrida, Rijekasource
  • 1979In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing 31 people on the ground and injuring 200.source
  • 1979In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 260.source
  • 1980LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw, Poland, killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.source
  • 1984Sinn Féin MP Gerry Adams is shot and wounded in Belfast.source
  • 1985President-elect Tancredo Neves is admitted to the Emergency Room of the Hospital de Base in the Federal District.source
  • 1986The body of Sergeant David Manos, an Israeli soldier who disappeared in Israel in late 1984, is discovered in the West Bank. Four Palestinians from Deir Ballut would later be charged with his kidnapping and murder.source
  • 1989General Michel Aoun declares a "War of Liberation" to rid Lebanon of Syrian forces and their allies.source
  • 1989Gun control: U.S. President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of certain guns deemed "assault weapons" into the United States.source
  • 1990The Movement for Democracy political party establishedsource
  • 1991The Troubles: After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing an English public house in a Provisional IRA attack, the "Birmingham Six" are freed when a court determines that their conviction was unsafe and unsatisfactory.source
  • 1991Escondida in Chile's Atacama Desert –which is to become the world's most productive copper mine– is officially inaugurated.source
  • 1993March 13–15 – The 1993 Storm of the Century strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Quebec; it reportedly kills 184 people.source
  • 1995Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.source
  • 1995Alexandros Panayi represented Cyprus in Eurovision with the song "Sti fotia". It finished 9th with 79 points.source
  • 2000March 12–26 – Pope John Paul II visits Israel, and thus becomes the second pope to visit Israel. During his stay, the Pope visits Yad Vashem (the Israeli national Holocaust memorial) and the Western Wall placing a letter inside it in which he prayed for forgiveness for the actions against Jews in the past.source
  • 2001Battle of Tetovo: Violence erupts between Albanian rebels and Macedonian soldiers in Tetovo. Conflict in Tetovo will continue for months during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia.source
  • 2003United Nations Security Council resolution 1466 was adopted unanimously and extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) until 15 September 2003.source
  • 2003Opening of the Westerscheldetunnelsource
  • 2004Vladimir Putin is reelected president of Russia with 71.2 percent of the vote.source
  • 2005China ratifies an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence.source
  • 2005United Nations Security Council resolution 1586 was adopted unanimously and extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) until 15 September 2005.source
  • 20082008 Tibetan unrest: Demonstrations by Tibetan separatists turn violent as rioters target government and Han Chinese-owned buildings.source
  • 200883 of the 103 children who were at the centre of the Zoé's Ark controversy, who have been kept in an orphanage in Abéché since the eruption of the scandal five months ago, are reunited to their families.source
  • 2009Algerian border guards seized 3.5 tons of cannabis in a desert region close to the frontier with Morocco. The cannabis was confiscated near Erg Ferradj, approximately 100 kilometers from Béchar. More than 38 tons was seized in 2008 compared to only 4 tons in 2007.source
  • 2010Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions were released in North America. These are the highest rated games to date, with a user score of 9.1/10 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim," and a critic score of 87.source
  • 2013The Jebali Cabinet led by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali dissolves and the Laarayedh Cabinet led by Ali Laarayedh is formed.source
  • 2013Real Tonga was founded.source
  • 2016The ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars.source
  • 2017March 2017 North American blizzard: A major late-season blizzard affects the Northeastern United States, New England and Canada, dumping up to three feet of snow in the hardest hit areas.source
  • 2018In response to gun violence in the United States, and particularly triggered by the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, thousands of high school students across the country participate in an organized protest they called the National School Walkout.source
  • 2018Prime Minister Miro Cerar announces his resignation following complications with planning the upgrade of the Divača–Koper Railway, one of the key infrastructural projects of his government.source
  • 2018March 9-18: Belarus takes part in the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.source
  • 2018March 9–18 – The 2018 Winter Paralympics are held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.source
  • 20192019 Special Olympics World Summer Games begins in Abu Dhabi.source
  • 2019USS Devastator is damaged by fire while at a Bahrain dock.source
  • 2020The country's first case of COVID-19 was confirmed. A 33-year-old woman, who returned from the United States at the end of February and then travelled to Lesotho before returning home to Eswatini, entered isolation.source
  • 20212021 Montenegrin municipal elections.source
  • 2023OpenAI launches GPT-4, a large language model for ChatGPT, which can respond to images and can process up to 25,000 words.source
  • 2023March 8–21 – The 2023 World Baseball Classic is held in, and won by, Japan.source
  • 2024The United Nations estimates that at least 56% of Palestinian civilians killed in the Gaza war were women and children.source
  • 2025March 8–17 – The 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games are held in Turin, Italy.source
  • 2025A systems failure at the Diezmero electric substation outside Havana causes a nationwide blackout.source

Births

  • 1105Drogo, Flemish hermit and saint (died 1186)source
  • 1271Stephen I, German nobleman and regent (died 1310)source
  • 1415Wilhelm II, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen (died 1444)source
  • 1418Philip II, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (1429–1492) (died 1492)source
  • 1473Reinhard IV, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (1500–1512) (died 1512)source
  • 1618Nadira Banu Begum, Mughal princess (died 1659)source
  • 1641Hyeonjong of Joseon, 18th monarch of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (died 1674)source
  • 1688Anna Maria Garthwaite, British designer (died 1763)source
  • 1692Pieter van Musschenbroek, Dutch naturalist (died 1761)source
  • 1739Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, second son and third child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (died 1767)source
  • 1742Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, Iranian king (died 1797)source
  • 1782Thomas Hart Benton, State Senator from Tennessee (died 1858)source
  • 1807Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway (died 1876)source
  • 1816William Marsh Rice, American university founder (died 1900)source
  • 1820Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (died 1878)source
  • 1822Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, Empress consort of Brazil (died 1889)source
  • 1847Castro Alves, Brazilian poet (died 1871)source
  • 1853Ferdinand Hodler, painter (died 1918)source
  • 1854Paul Ehrlich, German physician and scientist, recipient of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1915)source
  • 1879Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955)source
  • 1923Diane Arbus, American photographer (died 1971)source
  • 1958Zuraida Kamaruddin, former Malaysian Cabinet Minister.source
  • 1965Aamir Khan, Indian film director, producer, film and scriptwriter and actorsource
  • 1988Stephen Curry, American basketball playersource

Deaths

  • 313Huai of Jin, Chinese emperor (born 284)source
  • 313Emperor Huai of Jin is executed by Liu Cong, ruler of the Xiongnu state (Han-Zhao). At the imperial new year he and a number of former Jin officials are poisoned. Crown prince Min of Jin, age 13, succeeds, in Chang'an, his uncle Huai of Jin and becomes the new emperor of the Jin Dynasty.source
  • 557Leobinus, bishop of Chartressource
  • 757Li Lin, prince of the Tang Dynastysource
  • 840Einhard, Frankish scholarsource
  • 968Matilda of Ringelheim, Frankish queensource
  • 1051Gerard I, bishop of Cambraisource
  • 1074Ernyei, Hungarian lord and courtiersource
  • 1074Vid Gutkeled, Hungarian lord and courtier (born c. 1010)source
  • 1105Judith of Swabia, duchess of Poland (born 1054)source
  • 1237Guigues VI of Viennois, count of Albon (born 1184)source
  • 1272Enzo of Sardinia, king of Sardinia (born 1218)source
  • 1298Peter John Olivi, French theologian (born 1248)source
  • 1389Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughluq II, Sultan of Delhi (murdered)source
  • 1389The unpopular Sultan Tughluq Khan of Delhi is murdered and succeeded by his brother, Abu Bakr Shah. The assassins, including Abu Bakr, kill the Sultan Tughluq and his vizier, Jahan Khan.source
  • 1397Henry VIII the Sparrow, Duke of Żagań–Głogów (born c. 1357)source
  • 1457Jingtai Emperor of China (born 1428)source
  • 1471Thomas Malory, English author (born c. 1405)source
  • 1509Giovanni Antonio Sangiorgio, Italian cardinal (born unknown)source
  • 1527Shwenankyawshin, Burmese king of Ava (born 1476)source
  • 1555John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (born 1485)source
  • 1571John Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary (born 1540)source
  • 1623In the Korean kingdom of Joseon, Crown Prince Yi Ji is deposed and exiled to Ganghwa Island, where he dies soon after.source
  • 1632Tokugawa Hidetada, Japanese shōgun (born 1579)source
  • 1647Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (born 1584)source
  • 1648Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general (born 1584)source
  • 1653A Dutch fleet defeats the English in the Battle of Leghorn in the Mediterranean but the Dutch commander, Johan van Galen, later dies of his wounds.source
  • 1653First Anglo–Dutch War: Battle of Leghorn: A Dutch fleet defeats the English in the Mediterranean but the Dutch commander, Johan van Galen, later dies of his wounds.source
  • 1682Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael, Dutch painter (born c. 1628)source
  • 1743Jean-Paul Bignon, French priest and man of letters (born 1662)source
  • 1747Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, German aristocrat and general (born 1661)source
  • 1748George Wade, British military leader (born 1673)source
  • 1752Shō Kei, the ruler of Okinawa Island and the Ryukyu Kingdom, dies at the age of 41 after a reign that began when he was 13 years old. He is succeeded by his 12-year-old son, Shō Boku, who reigns for 42 years.source
  • 1757British Royal Navy Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad on board the ship HMS Monarch in the Solent after his court martial conviction for failing in the Battle of Minorca (1756) to save British troops who had been besieged by a numerically superior French force in the Siege of Fort St Philip. General Edward Cornwallis, the ranking British Army officer at the battle, is exonerated of charges of dereliction of duty, but his career is ruined. Byng's execution is the origin of the phrase "In this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others", coined by Voltaire in his novel Candide.source
  • 1757John Byng, British admiral (executed) (born 1704)source
  • 1757Seven Years' War: Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch in The Solent after his court martial conviction for breach of the Articles of War in failing in the Battle of Minorca (1756) to save British troops who had been besieged by a numerically superior French force in the Siege of Fort St Philip (1756). The execution is largely opposed by the Admiralty and the House of Commons. General Edward Cornwallis, the ranking British Army officer at the battle, is exonerated of charges of dereliction of duty, but his career is ruined.source
  • 1768Owen Rees, Calvinist minister, 50/51source
  • 1801Christian Friedrich Penzel, German musician and composer (born 1737)source
  • 1803Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (born 1724)source
  • 1810Ludwig Timotheus Spittler, German historian (born 1752)source
  • 1811Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1735)source
  • 1823Charles François Dumouriez, French general (born 1739)source
  • 1823John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, British Royal Navy admiral (born 1735)source
  • 1883Karl Marx, German communist philosopher (born 1818)source
  • 1883Karl Marx, German philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist (born 1818)source
  • 1884Quintino Sella, mathematician, politician, economist and mountaineer (born 1827)source
  • 1926El Virilla train accident in Costa Rica: 385 people are killed and 93 injured when an overloaded pilgrim special derails on a bridge. The SS Ile de france Was Launched at Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in Saint Nazaire, France As one of the first ships to embrace the Art Deco stylesource
  • 1932George Eastman, founder of Kodak, commits suicide in Rochester, New York.source
  • 1933Balto, American sled dog (born 1919)source
  • 2014Tony Benn, 88, British politician, Minister of Technology (1966–1970), Secretary of State (1974–1979), MP for Bristol South East (1950–1960, 1963–1983) and Chesterfield (1984–2001).source
  • 2018Stephen Hawking, 76, English theoretical physicist, professor (University of Cambridge) and writer (A Brief History of Time), complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.source