December 14 - Events

Events

• 1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
• 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
• 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.
• 1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
• 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
• 1825 – Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in theDecembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.
• 1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.
• 1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
• 1900 – Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
• 1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
• 1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
• 1907 – The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
• 1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
• 1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
• 1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
• 1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy,Buenos Aires.
• 1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
• 1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
• 1941 – World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
• 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.
• 1947 – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
• 1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain andSri Lanka join the United Nations.
• 1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
• 1961 – The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations.
• 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
• 1963 – Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles.
• 1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States – The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
• 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and finalExtra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission. This is the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
• 1981 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
• 1983 – The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
• 1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River.
• 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by leaders of various governments.
• 1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
• 2003 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
• 2004 – The Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.
• 2004 – Cuba and Venezuela found the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.
• 2006 – American spy satellite USA-193 is launched.
• 2008 – President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final (planned) trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a news conference in Baghdad.