On this day: May 14

Events on May 14

• 1450 A large Ottoman force begins the siege of Albanian rebel forces in Krujë, that ultimately will fail. Wikipedia
• 1608 The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states, is founded to defend the rights, land and safety of each member against the Catholic Church and Catholic German states. Wikipedia
• 1610 Henry IV of France is assassinated by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac, and Louis XIII ascends the throne. Wikipedia
• 1796 Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation. Wikipedia
• 1800 The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the Federal government of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., begins the following day. Wikipedia
• 1811 Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor. Wikipedia
• 1857 Mindon Min is crowned as King of Burma in Mandalay, Burma. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: Union troops captured Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces drive Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi in the Battle of Jackson. Wikipedia
• 1870 The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club. Wikipedia
• 1879 The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas. Wikipedia
• 1915 The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1919 Sir Harry Hands, the mayor of Cape Town, performed the first public observance of a two-minute silence in remembrance of those killed in World War I. Wikipedia
• 1925 Mrs Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf's earliest and best-known novels, is published. Wikipedia
• 1939 In Lima, Peru, Lina Medina became the youngest confirmed mother in history, giving birth at the age of five years, seven months and twenty-one days. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The bulk of Dutch forces surrendered to the German Wehrmacht, ending the Battle of the Netherlands. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands, is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center. Wikipedia
• 1943 Second World War: Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, killing 268 people aboard. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland. Wikipedia
• 1951 Trains ran on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since its preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers. Wikipedia
• 1951 Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers. Wikipedia
• 1953 Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike. Wikipedia
• 1955 Cold War: Eight Eastern Bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty to establish the Warsaw Pact. Wikipedia
• 1955 Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact. Wikipedia
• 1977 A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people. Wikipedia
• 2010 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135. Wikipedia

Born on May 14

• 1316 Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1378) Wikipedia
• 1553 Margaret of Valois, Queen of France (died 1615) Wikipedia
• 1592 Alice Barnham, wife of statesman Francis Bacon (died 1650) Wikipedia
• 1727 Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (died 1788) Wikipedia
• 1771 Robert Owen, Welsh businessman and social reformer (died 1858) Wikipedia
• 1794 Fanny Imlay, daughter of British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (died 1816) Wikipedia
• 1863 John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician, founder of the Fields Medal (died 1932) Wikipedia
• 1869 Arthur Rostron, English mariner, captain of the rescue ship Carpathia during the Titanic disaster (died 1940) Wikipedia
• 1907 Johnny Moss, gambler and professional poker player, first winner of the World Series of Poker (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1907 Ayub Khan, Pakistani general and politician, 2nd President of Pakistan (died 1974) Wikipedia
• 1922 Franjo Tuđman, Croatian historian and politician, 1st President of Croatia (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1943 Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Icelandic academic and politician, 5th President of Iceland Wikipedia
• 1944 George Lucas, American director, producer, and screenwriter, founded Lucasfilm Wikipedia
• 1945 Yochanan Vollach, Israeli footballer Wikipedia
• 1952 Robert Zemeckis, American director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1961 Tim Roth, English actor and director Wikipedia
• 1969 Cate Blanchett, Australian actress Wikipedia
• 1971 Sofia Coppola, American director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1975 Gulmurod Khalimov, Tajikistani police commander turned Islamic State mercenary outlaw Wikipedia
• 1984 Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and businessman, co-founder of Facebook Wikipedia
• 1993 Miranda Cosgrove, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1996 Martin Garrix, Dutch DJ Wikipedia

Died on May 14

• 649 Pope Theodore I Wikipedia
• 964 Pope John XII (born 927) Wikipedia
• 1610 Henry IV of France (born 1553) Wikipedia
• 1643 Louis XIII of France (born 1601) Wikipedia
• 1912 August Strindberg, Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist (born 1849) Wikipedia
• 1940 Emma Goldman, Lithuanian author and activist (born 1869) Wikipedia
• 1943 Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1854) Wikipedia
• 1954 Heinz Guderian, Prussian-German general (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1984 Walter Rauff, German SS officer (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1987 Rita Hayworth, American actress and dancer (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 1995 Christian B. Anfinsen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 1998 Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2000 Keizō Obuchi, Japanese politician, 84th Prime Minister of Japan (born 1937) Wikipedia
• 2015 B.B. King, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1925) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Boniface of Tarsus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Justa, Justina and Henedina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maria Domenica Mazzarello Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Matthias the Apostle (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Michael Garicoïts Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mo Chutu of Lismore (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Théodore Guérin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Victor and Corona Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Paraguay) Wikipedia
• Hastings Banda's Birthday (Malawi) Wikipedia
• National Unification Day (Liberia) Wikipedia
• The first day of Izumo-taisha Shrine Grand Festival. (Izumo-taisha) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 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.