On this day: August 14

Events on August 14

• 74 BC A group of officials, led by the Western Han minister Huo Guang, present articles of impeachment against the new emperor, Liu He, to the imperial regent, Empress Dowager Shangguan. Wikipedia
• 29 BC Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes. Wikipedia
• 1592 The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis. Wikipedia
• 1842 American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida. Wikipedia
• 1880 Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed. Wikipedia
• 1888 One of the first recordings of music, of Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", was played at a press conference in London to introduce Thomas Edison's phonograph. Wikipedia
• 1901 The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive. Wikipedia
• 1920 The 1920 Summer Olympics, having started four months earlier, officially open in Antwerp, Belgium, with the newly adopted Olympic flag and the Olympic oath being raised and taken at the Opening Ceremony for the first time in Olympic history. Wikipedia
• 1933 Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2) of land. Wikipedia
• 1935 Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims. Wikipedia
• 1941 After a secret meeting in Newfoundland, British prime minister Winston Churchill and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (both pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post–World War II world. Wikipedia
• 1947 Pakistan gains independence from the British Empire as the Dominion of Pakistan, due to the partition of India. Wikipedia
• 1948 An Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers known as Beaver drop occurred. This program relocated beavers from Northwestern Idaho to Central Idaho by airplane and then parachuting the beavers into the Chamberlain Basin. Wikipedia
• 1969 The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner. Wikipedia
• 1971 Bahrain declares independence from Britain. Wikipedia
• 1980 Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards. Wikipedia
• 2005 Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew. Wikipedia
• 2006 Lebanon War: A ceasefire takes effect three days after the United Nations Security Council's approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, formally ending hostilities between Lebanon and Israel. Wikipedia
• 2013 Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi. Wikipedia
• 2013 Security forces raided two camps of supporters of the ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo, leading to the deaths of at least 595 civilians. Wikipedia
• 2015 The U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off. Wikipedia
• 2018 The collapse of the Ponte Morandi bridge in Genoa, Italy, left 16 people injured and 43 people killed. Wikipedia
• 2021 A magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes southwestern Haiti, killing at least 2,248 people and causing a humanitarian crisis. Wikipedia
• 2023 Former U.S. president Donald Trump is charged in Georgia along with 18 others in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state, his fourth indictment of 2023. Wikipedia

Born on August 14

• 1688 Frederick William I of Prussia (died 1740) Wikipedia
• 1742 Pope Pius VII (died 1823) Wikipedia
• 1777 Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist (died 1851) Wikipedia
• 1867 John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1933) Wikipedia
• 1871 Guangxu Emperor of China (died 1908) Wikipedia
• 1876 Alexander I of Serbia (died 1903) Wikipedia
• 1926 René Goscinny, French author and illustrator (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1928 Lina Wertmüller, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1933 Richard R. Ernst, Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1941 David Crosby, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1945 Wim Wenders, German director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1945 Steve Martin, American actor, comedian, musician, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1947 Danielle Steel, American author Wikipedia
• 1953 James Horner, American composer and conductor (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1959 Magic Johnson, American basketball player and coach Wikipedia
• 1959 Marcia Gay Harden, American actress Wikipedia
• 1960 Sarah Brightman, English singer and actress Wikipedia
• 1966 Halle Berry, American model, actress, and producer Wikipedia
• 1983 Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress Wikipedia
• 1984 Giorgio Chiellini, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Robin Söderling, Swedish tennis player Wikipedia
• 1989 Ander Herrera, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 14

• 582 Tiberius II Constantine, Byzantine emperor Wikipedia
• 1433 John I of Portugal (born 1357) Wikipedia
• 1464 Pope Pius II (born 1405) Wikipedia
• 1941 Paul Sabatier, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1854) Wikipedia
• 1941 Maximilian Kolbe, Polish martyr and saint (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 1951 William Randolph Hearst, American publisher and politician, founded the Hearst Corporation (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1954 Hugo Eckener, German pilot and airship designer (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1956 Bertolt Brecht, German poet, playwright, and director (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 1956 Konstantin von Neurath, German lawyer and politician, Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1873) Wikipedia
• 1958 Frédéric Joliot-Curie, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1988 Enzo Ferrari, Italian racing driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 1994 Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-Swiss author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 2004 Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born American novelist, essayist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2024 Gena Rowlands, American actress (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Arnold of Soissons Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Domingo Ibáñez de Erquicia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eusebius of Rome Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fachtna of Rosscarbery Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jonathan Myrick Daniels (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maria Elisabetta Renzi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Martyrs of Otranto Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maximilian Kolbe Wikipedia
• National Navajo Code Talkers Day is a holiday in the United States honoring Navajo code talkers in the military. Wikipedia
• Falklands Day is the celebration of the first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis in 1592. Wikipedia
• Independence Day celebrates the independence of Pakistan from the United Kingdom in 1947. Wikipedia
• Partition Horrors Remembrance Day commemorates the victims and sufferings of people during the Partition of India in 1947. Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 14” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.