On this day: March 14

Events on March 14

• 1309 On Eid al-Fitr, the citizens of Granada stormed palaces in the city, deposing Sultan Muhammad III and placing his half-brother Nasr on the throne. Wikipedia
• 1489 Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, was forced to abdicate and sell the administration of the island to the Republic of Venice. Wikipedia
• 1593 Japanese invasions of Korea: A force of 3,000 Korean soldiers successfully defended Haengju Fortress against 30,000 Japanese invaders. Wikipedia
• 1663 According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, detailing his experiments on vacuum and his discovery of electrostatic repulsion. Wikipedia
• 1757 Royal Navy Admiral John Byng was executed by firing squad for failing to "do his utmost" during the Battle of Minorca at the start of the Seven Years' War. Wikipedia
• 1794 Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin. Wikipedia
• 1864 The Petite messe solennelle by Gioachino Rossini was first performed in Paris, 34 years after his retirement as a composer. Wikipedia
• 1885 The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan's most frequently performed Savoy opera, debuted at the Savoy Theatre in London. Wikipedia
• 1916 Battle of Verdun: German attack captures Côte 265 at the west end of Mort-Homme but the French 75th Infantry Brigade manages to hold Côte 295 at the east end. Wikipedia
• 1920 In the second of the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, about 80% of the population in Zone II votes to remain part of Weimar Germany. Wikipedia
• 1931 Alam Ara, the first Indian sound film, premiered at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay. Wikipedia
• 1945 The Royal Air Force first used the Grand Slam, a 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) earthquake bomb, on a strategic railway viaduct in Bielefeld, Germany. Wikipedia
• 1951 Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul for the second time. Wikipedia
• 1964 Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin who had shot and killed John F. Kennedy the previous year. Wikipedia
• 1972 Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, known for his translation of Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago after it had been smuggled out of the Soviet Union, died in an explosion. Wikipedia
• 1972 Sterling Airways Flight 296 crashes near Kalba, United Arab Emirates while on approach to Dubai International Airport, killing 112 people. Wikipedia
• 1973 Vietnam War: After having been captured by North Vietnamese forces five and a half years earlier, U.S. Navy pilot John McCain was released with 108 other prisoners of war. Wikipedia
• 1978 The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon. Wikipedia
• 1980 LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team. Wikipedia
• 1984 Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by Ulster Freedom Fighters in central Belfast, Northern Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1988 China defeated Vietnam in a naval altercation while attempting to establish oceanographic observation posts on the Spratly Islands. Wikipedia
• 1991 Escondida, one of the most productive copper mines in the world, was officially inaugurated. Wikipedia
• 2008 A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet. Wikipedia
• 2017 A naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance. Wikipedia
• 2019 Cyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1,000 deaths. Wikipedia
• 2021 The Burmese military and police forces killed at least 65 civilians during the Hlaingthaya massacre in Yangon, including those protesting a recent coup d'état. Wikipedia

Born on March 14

• 1804 Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1849) Wikipedia
• 1820 Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (died 1878) Wikipedia
• 1823 Théodore de Banville, French poet and critic (died 1891) Wikipedia
• 1835 Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1844 Umberto I of Italy (died 1900) Wikipedia
• 1854 Paul Ehrlich, German physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1915) Wikipedia
• 1854 Thomas R. Marshall, American lawyer and politician, 28th Vice President of the United States of America (died 1925) Wikipedia
• 1879 Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, academic and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955) Wikipedia
• 1905 Raymond Aron, French journalist, sociologist, and philosopher (died 1983) Wikipedia
• 1908 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher and academic (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1928 Frank Borman, American astronaut (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1933 Michael Caine, English actor Wikipedia
• 1933 Quincy Jones, American producer (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1934 Eugene Cernan, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1941 Wolfgang Petersen, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1948 Billy Crystal, American actor, comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1958 Albert II, Prince of Monaco Wikipedia
• 1965 Aamir Khan, Indian film actor, producer, and director Wikipedia
• 1977 Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1979 Nicolas Anelka, French footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1988 Stephen Curry, American basketball player Wikipedia
• 1997 Simone Biles, American gymnast Wikipedia

Died on March 14

• 840 Einhard, Frankish scholar Wikipedia
• 1803 Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (born 1724) Wikipedia
• 1877 Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentinian general and politician, 17th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (born 1793) Wikipedia
• 1883 Karl Marx, German philosopher and theorist (born 1818) Wikipedia
• 1932 George Eastman, American inventor and businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (born 1854) Wikipedia
• 1953 Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovak Communist politician and 4th President of Czechoslovakia (born 1896) Wikipedia
• 1968 Erwin Panofsky, German historian and academic (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1975 Susan Hayward, American actress (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 1989 Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1995 William Alfred Fowler, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 1997 Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (born 1907) Wikipedia
• 2006 Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2014 Tony Benn, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2018 Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (born 1942) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Leobinus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Matilda of Ringelheim Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Andorra) Wikipedia
• Heroes' Day (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) Wikipedia
• Mother Tongue Day (Estonia) Wikipedia
• Nanakshahi New Year, first day of the month of Chet (Sikhism) Wikipedia
• Pi Day Wikipedia
• Steak and Blowjob Day, a satirical unofficial holiday created in the United States as a male response to Valentine's Day Wikipedia
• Summer Day (Albania) Wikipedia
• White Day on which men give gifts to women; complementary to Valentine's Day (Japan and other Asian nations) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 14” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 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 “March 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 March 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.