On this day: December 14

Events on December 14

• 835 In the Sweet Dew incident, Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspired to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot was foiled. Wikipedia
• 1542 Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week on the death of her father, King James V. Wikipedia
• 1650 English domestic servant Anne Greene survived being hanged for infanticide. Wikipedia
• 1812 The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia. Wikipedia
• 1819 Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1836 The Toledo War, a mostly bloodless territorial dispute between Ohio and the Michigan Territory, was unofficially ended with a resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention". Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: The Battle of Bean's Station, the final battle of the Knoxville campaign, was fought in Grainger County, Tennessee. Wikipedia
• 1900 Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Physic Society in Berlin. Wikipedia
• 1911 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first people to reach the South Pole. Wikipedia
• 1913 Haruna, the fourth and last Japanese battlecruiser of the Kongō class, was launched and went on to serve in both world wars. Wikipedia
• 1918 Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Wikipedia
• 1925 Wozzeck by composer Alban Berg, described as the first atonal opera, premiered at the Berlin State Opera. Wikipedia
• 1939 Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. Wikipedia
• 1948 American physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann were awarded a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the first interactive electronic game. Wikipedia
• 1960 Australian cricketer Ian Meckiff was run out on the last day of the first Test match between Australia and the West Indies, resulting in the first tied Test in cricket history. Wikipedia
• 1962 NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. Wikipedia
• 1972 Upon completing the third extra-vehicular activity of Apollo 17, American astronaut Gene Cernan became the last person to date to walk on the Moon. Wikipedia
• 1981 The Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli "laws, jurisdiction and administration" to the Golan Heights, effectively annexing the territory internationally recognized as part of Syria. Wikipedia
• 1992 War in Abkhazia: A helicopter carrying evacuees was shot down during the siege of Tkvarcheli, resulting in at least 52 deaths and catalysing more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia. Wikipedia
• 1995 Yugoslav 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. Wikipedia
• 1998 Kosovo War: Yugoslav forces ambushed a group of Kosovo Liberation Army militants attempting to smuggle weapons into Yugoslavia from Albania. Wikipedia
• 1999 Torrential rains caused flash floods in the Venezuelan state of Vargas, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure. Wikipedia
• 2003 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. Wikipedia
• 2008 During a press conference in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at U.S. president George W. Bush and Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, yelling "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq". Wikipedia
• 2012 A 20-year-old gunman shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Wikipedia
• 2025 Filmmakers Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner are stabbed to death in their Brentwood, Los Angeles residence. Wikipedia

Born on December 14

• 1546 Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist (died 1601) Wikipedia
• 1640 Aphra Behn, English playwright and author (died 1689) Wikipedia
• 1870 Karl Renner, Austrian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Austria (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1883 Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, developed aikido (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1895 George VI of the United Kingdom (died 1952) Wikipedia
• 1895 Paul Éluard, French poet and author (died 1952) Wikipedia
• 1901 Paul of Greece (died 1964) Wikipedia
• 1914 Karl Carstens, German lieutenant and politician, 5th President of the Federal Republic of Germany (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1922 Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1924 Raj Kapoor, Indian actor, director, and producer (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1935 Lee Remick, American actress (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1946 Jane Birkin, English-French actress and singer (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1946 Patty Duke, American actress (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1947 Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian economist and politician, 36th President of Brazil Wikipedia
• 1966 Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Danish academic and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Denmark Wikipedia
• 1970 Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer Wikipedia
• 1979 Michael Owen, English footballer and sportscaster Wikipedia
• 1985 Jakub Błaszczykowski, Polish footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Vanessa Hudgens, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1992 Ryo Miyaichi, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 Álvaro Odriozola, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1996 Raphinha, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 14

• 872 Pope Adrian II (born 792) Wikipedia
• 1542 James V, King of Scotland (born 1512) Wikipedia
• 1591 John of the Cross, Spanish priest and saint (born 1542) Wikipedia
• 1788 Charles III of Spain (born 1716) Wikipedia
• 1788 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (born 1714) Wikipedia
• 1799 George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (born 1732) Wikipedia
• 1861 Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (born 1819) Wikipedia
• 1947 Stanley Baldwin, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1956 Juho Kusti Paasikivi, Finnish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Finland (born 1870) Wikipedia
• 1984 Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 1989 Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 1990 Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and playwright (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2013 Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor (born 1932) Wikipedia
• 2025 Rob Reiner, American filmmaker and actor (born 1947) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Folcwin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John of the Cross Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John III of the Sedre (Syriac Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Mary Frances Schervier Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nicasius of Rheims Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nimatullah Kassab (Maronite Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Spyridon (Western Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Venantius Fortunatus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Alabama Day (Alabama) Wikipedia
• Forty-seven Ronin Remembrance Day (Sengaku-ji, Tokyo) Wikipedia
• Martyred Intellectuals Day (Bangladesh) Wikipedia
• Monkey Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 14” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 14” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 14” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 14 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.