March 14

March 14 is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 292 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

Pre-1600

• 1074 – Battle of Mogyoród: Dukes Géza and Ladislaus defeat their cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, forcing him to flee to Hungary's western borderland.
• 1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne, during the French Wars of Religion.

1601–1900

• 1647 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
• 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.
• 1674 – The Third Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of Ronas Voe results in the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam being captured with a death toll of up to 300 Dutch crew and soldiers.
• 1757 – Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
• 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans.
• 1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
• 1885 – The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London.
• 1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.

1901–present

• 1901 – Utah governor Heber Manning Wells vetoes a bill that would have eased restriction on polygamy.
• 1903 – Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt.
• 1920 – In the second of the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, about 80% of the population in Zone II votes to remain part of Weimar Germany.
• 1921 – Six members of a group of Irish Republican Army activists known as the Forgotten Ten, are hanged in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison.
• 1926 – The El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica, kills 248 people and wounds another 93 when a train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás.
• 1931 – Alam Ara, India's first talking film, is released.
• 1939 – Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
• 1942 – Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead.
• 1943 – The Holocaust: The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is completed.
• 1945 – The R.A.F. drop the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany.
• 1951 – Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul for the second time.
• 1961 – A USAF B-52 bomber crashes near Yuba City, California whilst carrying nuclear weapons.
• 1964 – Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy.
• 1967 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
• 1972 – Sterling Airways Flight 296 crashes near Kalba, United Arab Emirates while on approach to Dubai International Airport, killing 112 people.
• 1978 – The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon.
• 1979 – Alia Royal Jordanian Flight 600 crashes at Doha International Airport, killing 45 people.
• 1980 – LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
• 1982 – The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.
• 1988 – In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands.
• 1995 – Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
• 2006 – The 2006 Chadian coup d'état attempt ends in failure.
• 2006 – Operation Bringing Home the Goods: Israeli troops raid an American-supervised Palestinian prison in Jericho to capture six Palestinian prisoners, including PFLP chief Ahmad Sa'adat.
• 2007 – The Nandigram violence in Nandigram, West Bengal, results in the deaths of at least 14 people.
• 2008 – A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet.
• 2017 – A naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance.
• 2019 – Cyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1,000 deaths.
• 2021 – Burmese security forces kill at least 65 civilians in the Hlaingthaya massacre.

Births

Pre-1600

None

1601–1900

• 1638 – Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (d. 1710)
• 1737 – Ioan Nicolidi of Pindus, Aromanian physician and noble (d. 1828)
• 1790 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver (d. 1863)
• 1800 – James Bogardus, American inventor and architect (d. 1874)
• 1801 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet (d. 1822)
• 1804 – Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1849)
• 1813 – Joseph P. Bradley, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1892)
• 1820 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (d. 1878)
• 1822 – Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1889)
• 1823 – Théodore de Banville, French poet and critic (d. 1891)
• 1833 – Frederic Shields, English painter and illustrator (d. 1911)
• 1833 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor, American dentist and educator (d. 1910)
• 1835 – Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (d. 1910)
• 1836 – Isabella Beeton, English author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (d. 1865)
• 1837 – Charles Ammi Cutter, American librarian (d. 1903)
• 1844 – Umberto I of Italy (d. 1900)
• 1844 – Arthur O'Shaughnessy, English poet and herpetologist (d. 1881)
• 1847 – Castro Alves, Brazilian poet and playwright (d. 1871)
• 1853 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
• 1854 – Paul Ehrlich, German physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1915)
• 1854 – John Lane, English publisher, co-founded The Bodley Head (d. 1925)
• 1854 – Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian author and poet (d. 1920)
• 1854 – Thomas R. Marshall, American lawyer and politician, 28th Vice President of the United States of America (d. 1925)
• 1862 – Vilhelm Bjerknes, Norwegian physicist and meteorologist (d. 1951)
• 1864 – Casey Jones, American engineer (d. 1900)
• 1868 – Emily Murphy, Canadian jurist, author, and activist (d. 1933)
• 1869 – Algernon Blackwood, English author and playwright (d. 1951)
• 1874 – Anton Philips, Dutch businessman, co-founded Philips Electronics (d. 1951)
• 1879 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
• 1882 – Wacław Sierpiński, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1969)
• 1885 – Raoul Lufbery, French-American soldier and pilot (d. 1918)
• 1886 – Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (d. 1964)
• 1887 – Sylvia Beach, American-French bookseller and publisher, who founded Shakespeare and Company (d. 1962)
• 1898 – Reginald Marsh, French-American painter and illustrator (d. 1954)
• 1899 – K. C. Irving, Canadian businessman, founded Irving Oil (d. 1992)

1901–present

• 1901 – Sid Atkinson, South African hurdler and long jumper (d. 1977)
• 1903 – Adolph Gottlieb, American painter and sculptor (d. 1974)
• 1904 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress and dancer (d. 2010)
• 1905 – Raymond Aron, French journalist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1983)
• 1906 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Turkish composer and educator (d. 1972)
• 1908 – Ed Heinemann, American designer of military aircraft (d. 1991)
• 1908 – Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher and academic (d. 1961)
• 1908 – Philip Conrad Vincent, English engineer and businessman, founded Vincent Motorcycles (d. 1979)
• 1911 – Akira Yoshizawa, Japanese origamist (d. 2005)
• 1912 – Cliff Bastin, English footballer (d. 1991)
• 1912 – Les Brown, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2001)
• 1912 – W. Graham Claytor, Jr. American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1994)
• 1912 – W. Willard Wirtz, American lawyer and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Labor (d. 2010)
• 1914 – Lee Hays, American singer-songwriter (d. 1981)
• 1914 – Bill Owen, English actor and songwriter (d. 1999)
• 1914 – Lee Petty, American race car driver and businessman, founded Petty Enterprises (d. 2000)
• 1915 – Alexander Brott, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2005)
• 1916 – Horton Foote, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
• 1917 – Alan Smith, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 2013)
• 1918 – Zoia Horn, American librarian (d. 2014)
• 1919 – Max Shulman, American author and screenwriter (d. 1988)
• 1920 – Hank Ketcham, American author and cartoonist, created Dennis the Menace (d. 2001)
• 1920 – Dorothy Tyler-Odam, English high jumper (d. 2014)
• 1921 – S. Truett Cathy, American businessman, founded Chick-fil-A (d. 2014)
• 1921 – Ada Louise Huxtable, American author and critic (d. 2013)
• 1922 – Les Baxter, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971)
• 1925 – William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (d. 2014)
• 1925 – Joseph A. Unanue, American sergeant and businessman (d. 2013)
• 1926 – François Morel, Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, and educator (d. 2018)
• 1928 – Frank Borman, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
• 1928 – Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (d. 1980)
• 1929 – Bob Goalby, American golfer (d. 2022)
• 1932 – Mark Murphy, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2015)
• 1932 – Naina Yeltsina, Russian wife of Boris Yeltsin, First Lady of Russia
• 1933 – Michael Caine, English actor
• 1933 – Quincy Jones, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer
• 1934 – Eugene Cernan, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017)
• 1934 – Paul Rader, American 15th General of The Salvation Army
• 1936 – Bob Charles, New Zealand golfer
• 1937 – Peter van der Merwe, South African cricketer and referee (d. 2013)
• 1938 – Eleanor Bron, English actress and screenwriter
• 1938 – Jan Crouch, American televangelist, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (d. 2016)
• 1938 – John Gleeson, Australian cricketer (d. 2016)
• 1938 – Árpád Orbán, Hungarian footballer (d. 2008)
• 1939 – Raymond J. Barry, American actor
• 1939 – Bertrand Blier, French director and screenwriter
• 1939 – Yves Boisset, French director and screenwriter
• 1941 – Wolfgang Petersen, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2022)
• 1942 – Rita Tushingham, English actress
• 1943 – Anita Morris, American actress and singer (d. 1994)
• 1944 – Boris Brott, Canadian composer and conductor
• 1944 – Václav Nedomanský, Czech ice hockey player and manager
• 1944 – Bobby Smith, English footballer and manager
• 1944 – Tom Stannage, Australian historian and academic (d. 2012)
• 1945 – Jasper Carrott, English comedian, actor, and game show host
• 1945 – Michael Martin Murphey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1945 – Walter Parazaider, American saxophonist
• 1946 – William Lerach, American securities and class action attorney
• 1946 – Wes Unseld, American basketball player, coach, and manager (d. 2020)
• 1947 – Roy Budd, English pianist and composer (d. 1993)
• 1947 – William J. Jefferson, American lawyer and politician
• 1947 – Jona Lewie, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
• 1948 – Tom Coburn, American physician and politician (d. 2020)
• 1948 – Billy Crystal, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1948 – Theo Jansen, Dutch sculptor
• 1950 – Rick Dees, American actor and radio host
• 1951 – Jerry Greenfield, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Ben & Jerry's
• 1953 – Nick Keir, Scottish singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
• 1955 – Jonathan Kaufer, American director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
• 1956 – Indu Malhotra, Judge of the Supreme Court of India
• 1956 – Butch Wynegar, American baseball player and coach
• 1957 – Tad Williams, American author
• 1958 – Albert II, Prince of Monaco
• 1959 – Laila Robins, American actress
• 1959 – Tamara Tunie, American actress
• 1960 – Heidi Hammel, American astronomer and academic
• 1960 – Kirby Puckett, American baseball player (d. 2006)
• 1961 – Garry Jack, Australian rugby league player and coach
• 1961 – Mike Lazaridis, Greek–Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded BlackBerry Limited
• 1963 – Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer and coach
• 1965 – Kevin Brown, American baseball player and coach
• 1965 – Aamir Khan, Indian film actor, producer, and director
• 1965 – Billy Sherwood, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
• 1965 – Kevin Williamson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1966 – Jonas Elmer, Danish actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1966 – Elise Neal, American actress and producer
• 1968 – Megan Follows, Canadian-American actress
• 1969 – Larry Johnson, American basketball player and actor
• 1970 – Kristian Bush, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1972 – Irom Chanu Sharmila, Indian poet and activist
• 1973 – Rohit Shetty, Indian film director and producer
• 1974 – Santino Marella, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1974 – Patrick Traverse, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1975 – Steve Harper, English footballer and referee
• 1975 – Dmitri Markov, Belarusian-Australian pole vaulter
• 1976 – Phil Vickery, English rugby player and sportscaster
• 1977 – Vadims Fjodorovs, Latvian footballer and coach
• 1977 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (d. 2011)
• 1977 – Jeremy Paul, New Zealand-Australian rugby player
• 1978 – Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch swimmer
• 1979 – Nicolas Anelka, French footballer and manager
• 1979 – Chris Klein, American actor
• 1979 – Sead Ramović, German-Bosnian footballer
• 1980 – Aaron Brown, English footballer and coach
• 1980 – Ben Herring, New Zealand rugby player
• 1981 – Bobby Jenks, American baseball player
• 1981 – George Wilson, American football player
• 1982 – Carlos Marinelli, Argentinian footballer
• 1982 – François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (d. 2008)
• 1983 – Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
• 1986 – Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1986 – Jessica Gallagher, Australian skier and cyclist
• 1986 – Andy Taylor, English footballer
• 1988 – Stephen Curry, American basketball player
• 1988 – Rico Freimuth, German decathlete
• 1989 – Kevin Lacroix, Canadian race car driver
• 1990 – Joe Allen, Welsh footballer
• 1990 – Tamás Kádár, Hungarian footballer
• 1990 – Haru Kuroki, Japanese actress
• 1990 – Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, Icelandic footballer
• 1991 – Emir Bekrić, Serbian hurdler
• 1991 – László Szűcs, Hungarian footballer
• 1991 – Steven Zellner, German footballer
• 1993 – Philipp Ziereis, German footballer
• 1994 – Ansel Elgort, American actor and DJ
• 1996 – Batuhan Altıntaş, Turkish footballer
• 1997 – Simone Biles, American gymnast
• 2000 – Paige Rini, Canadian water skier
• 2008 – Abby Ryder Fortson, American actress

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 840 – Einhard, Frankish scholar
• 968 – Matilda of Ringelheim, Saxon queen (b. c. 896)
• 1555 – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (b. 1485)

1601–1900

• 1647 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (b. 1584)
• 1648 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (b. 1584)
• 1696 – Jean Domat, French lawyer and jurist (b. 1625)
• 1698 – Claes Rålamb, Swedish statesman (b. 1622)
• 1748 – George Wade, Irish field marshal and politician (b. 1673)
• 1757 – John Byng, British admiral and politician, 11th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1704)
• 1791 – Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and critic (b. 1725)
• 1803 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (b. 1724)
• 1811 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1735)
• 1823 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general and politician, French Minister of War (b. 1739)
• 1860 – Carl Ritter von Ghega, Italian engineer, designed the Semmering railway (b. 1802)
• 1877 – Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentinian general and politician, 17th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (b. 1793)
• 1883 – Karl Marx, German philosopher and theorist (b. 1818)
• 1884 – Quintino Sella, Italian economist and politician, Italian Minister of Finances (b. 1827)

1901–present

• 1921 – Bernard Ryan executed Irish republican (b. 1901)
• 1923 – Charlie Daly, Executed Irish republican (b. 1896)
• 1932 – George Eastman, American inventor and businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (b. 1854)
• 1932 – Frederick Jackson Turner, American historian (b. 1861)
• 1941 – C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, English historian (b. 1887)
• 1953 – Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovak Communist politician and 14th President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1896)
• 1957 – Evagoras Pallikarides, Cypriot activist (b. 1938)
• 1965 – Marion Jones Farquhar, American tennis player (b. 1879)
• 1968 – Erwin Panofsky, German historian and academic (b. 1892)
• 1969 – Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-American painter, illustrator, and educator (b. 1898)
• 1973 – Howard H. Aiken, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1900)
• 1973 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
• 1975 – Susan Hayward, American actress (b. 1917)
• 1976 – Busby Berkeley, American director and choreographer (b. 1895)
• 1977 – Fannie Lou Hamer, American activist and philanthropist (b. 1917)
• 1980 – Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Indonesia (b. 1902)
• 1980 – Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (b. 1928)
• 1984 – Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet (b. 1915)
• 1989 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (b. 1892)
• 1991 – Howard Ashman, American playwright and composer (b. 1950)
• 1995 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• 1997 – Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (b. 1907)
• 1999 – Kirk Alyn, American actor (b. 1910)
• 1999 – John Broome, American author (b. 1913)
• 2003 – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-American painter (b. 1945)
• 2003 – Jean-Luc Lagardère, French engineer and businessman (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Lucie Aubrac, French educator and activist (b. 1912)
• 2008 – Chiara Lubich, Italian activist, co-founded the Focolare Movement (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Peter Graves, American actor (b. 1926)
• 2012 – Pierre Schoendoerffer, French director and screenwriter (b. 1928)
• 2012 – Ċensu Tabone, Maltese general and politician, 4th President of Malta (b. 1913)
• 2013 – Jack Greene, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1930)
• 2013 – Aramais Sahakyan, Armenian poet and author (b. 1936)
• 2013 – Ieng Sary, Vietnamese-Cambodian politician, Cambodian Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1925)
• 2014 – Tony Benn, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
• 2014 – Meir Har-Zion, Israeli commander (b. 1934)
• 2016 – John W. Cahn, German-American metallurgist and academic (b. 1928)
• 2016 – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor (b. 1934)
• 2016 – Suranimala Rajapaksha, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (b. 1949)
• 2018 – Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality (b. 1937)
• 2018 – Marielle Franco, Brazilian politician and human rights activist (b. 1979)
• 2018 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (b. 1942)
• 2018 – Liam O'Flynn, Irish uileann piper (b. 1945)
• 2019 – Jake Phelps, American skateboarder and Thrasher editor-in-chief (b. 1962)
• 2019 – Charlie Whiting, British motorsport director (b. 1952)
• 2019 – Haig Young, Canadian politician (b. 1928)
• 2022 – Scott Hall, Professional wrestler (b. 1958)

Holidays and observances

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