14 January

Events

• 1639 - Connecticut's first constitution, the "Fundamental Orders," is adopted.
• 1690 - The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg, Germany.
• 1724 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.
• 1784 - American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England.
• 1814 - Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden.
• 1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt.
• 1900 - Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.
• 1907 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
• 1939 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
• 1943 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).
• 1951 - The National Football League has its first Pro Bowl Game (Los Angeles, California).
• 1952 - The Today show premieres on NBC.
• 1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation.
• 1963 - George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama.
• 1969 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 25.
• 1970 - Sato Eisaku is elected to his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1973 - Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.
• 1972 - Queen Margaret II of Denmark's accession to the throne.
• 1972 - Sanford & Son premieres on NBC.
• 1978 - Johnny Rotten quits the Sex Pistols after the final show of their American tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
• 1984 - Ray Mancini defeats Bobby Chacon by a knockout in three to retain his WBA boxing world Lightweight title in Reno.
• 1985 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
• 1990 - The Simpsons debuts on FOX as a regular series with the episode "Bart the Genius".
• 1993 - David Letterman announces he was moving his television talk show from NBC to CBS.
• 1994 - President of the United States Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in the Ukraine.
• 1996 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
• 1998 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
• 1998 - An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people
• 2000 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
• 2004 - Amartya Sen steps down as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Births

• 1741 - Benedict Arnold (General in United States' Revolutionary War, turncoat), (d. 1801)
• 1798 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician, (d. 1872)
• 1800 - Ludwig Alois Ferdinand Köchel, Austrian researcher on music, (d. 1877)
• 1836 - Henri Fantin-Latour, painter, (d. 1904)
• 1841 - Berthe Morisot, Impressionist Painter, (d. 1895)
• 1861 - Mehmed VI, future Ottoman sultan, (d. 1926)
• 1866?- G. I. Gurdjieff, Greek-Armenian mystic and teacher of dancing. He stated that he was born at the stroke of midnight at the beginning of New Year's Day, Julian calendar, (d. 1949)
• 1875 - Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician, philosopher, and musician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1952, (d. 1965)
• 1886 - Hugh Lofting, author, (d. 1947)
• 1892 - Hal Roach, film producer, (d. 1992)
• 1896 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist, (d. 1984)
• 1896 - John Dos Passos, author, (d. 1970)
• 1905 - Cecil Beaton, photographer, (d. 1980)
• 1904 - Emily Hahn, novelist, travel author, bon vivant, (d. 1997)
• 1906 - William Bendix, actor, (d. 1964)
• 1908 - Rus Columbo, singer, bandleader, composer
• 1912 - Rudolf Hagelstange, German lyricist, narrator and essayist, (d. 1984)
• 1914 - Harold Russell, actor, (d. 2002)
• 1915 - Mark Goodson, game show producer, (d. 1992)
• 1919 - Andy Rooney, television journalist
• 1926 - Tom Tryon, actor, novelist, (d. 1991)
• 1931 - Caterina Valente, singer, actress
• 1933 - Stan Brakhage, filmmaker, (d. 2003)
• 1938 - Jack Jones, singer, actor
• 1940 - Julian Bond, civil rights activist (cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, chairman of NAACP board of directors)
• 1941 - Faye Dunaway, actress
• 1942 - Stig Engström, actor
• 1948 - Carl Weathers, actor
• 1948 - T-Bone Burnett, producer, musician
• 1949 - Lawrence Kasdan, director, screenwriter
• 1963 - Steven Soderbergh, director
• 1967 - Emily Watson, actres
• 1968 - LL Cool J, rapper, actor
• 1969 - Jason Bateman, actor
• 1969 - David Grohl, drummer, composer

Deaths

• 1898 - Lewis Carroll, writer, mathematician, (b. 1832)
• 1949 - Joaquín Turina, composer, (b. 1882)
• 1957 - Humphrey Bogart, actor, (b. 1899)
• 1965 - Jeanette MacDonald, actress, singer
• 1966 - Barry Fitzgerald, actor, (b. 1888)
• 1972 - King Frederick IX of Denmark, (b. 1899)
• 1977 - Peter Finch, actor, (b. 1916)
• 1977 - Anaïs Nin, author, (b. 1903)
• 1977 - Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, (b. 1897)
• 1978 - Kurt Gödel, mathematician, (b. 1906)
• 1986 - Donna Reed, actress, (b. 1921)
• 1988 - Georgi Malenkov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party

Holidays and observances

January 13 - January 15 - December 14 - February 14 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By