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This day in history

This day in history: 14 December

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day241 · 120

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Key facts

415 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 14 December.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2025: At least 16 people are killed, including one gunman, and 43 injured in a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in the deadliest terror incident in Australia.

Holidays and observances

Alabama Day (Alabama)

Christian feast day: Blessed Mary Frances Schervier

Christian feast day: December 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Folcwin

Christian feast day: John III of the Sedre (Syriac Orthodox Church)

Christian feast day: John of the Cross

Christian feast day: Nicasius of Rheims

Christian feast day: Nimatullah Kassab (Maronite Church)

Christian feast day: Spyridon (Western Church)

Christian feast day: Venantius Fortunatus

Forty-seven Ronin Remembrance Day (Sengaku-ji, Tokyo)

Martyred Intellectuals Day (Bangladesh)

Events

2025At least 16 people are killed, including one gunman, and 43 injured in a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in the deadliest terror incident in Australia.

2020A total solar eclipse is visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean, southern South America, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

2017The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.

2013A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.

2012Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

2004The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.

2003Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

1999Torrential 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.

1998Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.

1995Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the same day, NATO began ground peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1994Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.

1992War 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 Abkh

1986Qasba Aligarh massacre: Over 400 Muhajirs killed in revenge killings in Qasba colony after a raid on Pashtun heroin processing and distribution center in Sohrab Goth by the security forces.

1985Wilma Mankiller takes office as the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

1981Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the Golan Heights.

1972Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the most recent person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.

1971Bangladesh 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.)

1964American 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.

1963The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.

1962NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

1960Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.

1958The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.

1955Albania, 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.

1948Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game.

1942An Aeroflot Tupolev ANT-20 crashes near Tashkent, killing all 36 people on board.

1940Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.

1939Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.

1925Wozzeck, Alban Berg's first opera, is premiered at the Berlin State Opera conducted by Erich Kleiber.

1918Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King of Finland, renounces the throne.

1918Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premieres at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

1918Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.

1918The 1918 United Kingdom general election occurs, the first where women were permitted to vote. In Ireland the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin wins a landslide victory with nearly 47% of the popular vote.

1914Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1913Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.

1911Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

1909New 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.

1907The 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.

1903The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1902The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.

1900Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Physic Society in Berlin.

Born on this day

2002Francisco Conceição, Portuguese footballer

2001Joshua Rush, American actor and activist

1998Kim Ji-woong, South Korean singer and actor

1998Lonnie Walker IV, American basketball player

1997DK Metcalf, American football player

1996Barbie Ferreira, American actress and model

1996Li Zijun, Chinese figure skater

1996Raphinha, Brazilian footballer

1995Álvaro Odriozola, Spanish footballer

1995Calvyn Justus, South African swimmer

1995Ivan Barbashev, Russian ice hockey player

1994Kuldeep Yadav, Indian cricketer

1993Antonio Giovinazzi, Italian race car driver

1992Ryo Miyaichi, Japanese footballer

1992Tori Kelly, American singer-songwriter

1991Ben Henry, New Zealand rugby league player

1991Offset, American rapper

1990Robert Covington, American basketball player

1989Onew, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer

1989Pedro Botelho, Brazilian footballer

1989Sam Burgess, English rugby league player

1988Hayato Sakamoto, Japanese baseball player

1988Nate Ebner, American football player

1988Nicolas Batum, French basketball player

1988Vanessa Hudgens, American actress and singer

1987Kenneth Medwood, Belizean-American hurdler

1985Alex Pennie, Welsh keyboard player

1985Jakub Błaszczykowski, Polish footballer

1985Nonami Takizawa, Japanese actress and singer

1985Tom Smith, English-Welsh rugby player

1984Chris Brunt, Northern Irish footballer

1984Ed Rainsford, Zimbabwean cricketer

1984Jackson Rathbone, American actor, singer, and musician

1984Rana Daggubati, Indian actor and producer

1983Leanne Mitchell, English singer-songwriter

1982Anthony Way, English singer and actor

1982Josh Fields, American baseball player

1982Steve Sidwell, English footballer

1981Amber Chia, Malaysian model

1981Johnny Jeter, American wrestler

Died on this day

2025Rob Reiner, American filmmaker and actor (born 1947)

2024Isak Andic, Turkish-Spanish billionaire businessman (born 1953)

2023Tomáš Janovic, Slovak writer (born 1937)

2022Jean Franco, American academic and literary critic (born 1924)

2020Gérard Houllier, French Football manager (born 1947)

2019Chuy Bravo, Mexican-American comedian and actor (born 1956)

2017Yu Kwang-chung, Chinese writer (born 1928)

2016Bernard Fox, Welsh actor (born 1927)

2016Paulo Evaristo Arns, Brazilian cardinal (born 1921)

2015Glen Sonmor, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1929)

2015Lillian Vernon, German-American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded the Lillian Vernon Company (born 1927)

2015Terry Backer, American soldier and politician (born 1954)

2015Vadym Tyshchenko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (born 1963)

2014Bess Myerson, American model, activist, game show panelist and television personality; Miss America 1945 (born 1924)

2014Fred Thurston, American football player (born 1933)

2014Irene Dalis, American soprano and pianist (born 1925)

2014Louis Alphonse Koyagialo, Congolese politician, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (born 1947)

2014Theo Colborn, American zoologist and academic (born 1927)

2013C. N. Karunakaran, Indian painter and illustrator (born 1940)

2013Dennis Lindley, English statistician and academic (born 1923)

2013George Rodrigue, American painter (born 1944)

2013Janet Dailey, American author (born 1944)

2013Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor (born 1932)

2012Edward Jones, American police officer and politician (born 1950)

2012John Graham, English general (born 1923)

2012Victoria Leigh Soto, American educator (born 1985)

2011Billie Jo Spears, American singer-songwriter (born 1937)

2011Joe Simon, American author and illustrator (born 1913)

2010Dale Roberts, English footballer (born 1986)

2010Neva Patterson, American actress (born 1920)

Quote of the day

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

Marcus Aurelius

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