December 14

What happened that day?

• 2013: A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
• 2012: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
• 2008: Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
• 2004: The [Millau](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau) Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.
• 2003: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
• 1999: Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.
• 1998: Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.
• 1995: Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• 1994: Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.
• 1992: War in Abkhazia: Siege of [Tkvarcheli](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tkvarcheli): A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.
• 1981: Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the [Golan Heights](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights) Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights.
• 1972: Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
• 1971: Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)
• 1964: American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.
• 1963: The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.
• 1962: NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
• 1960: Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.
• 1958: The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.
• 1955: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.
• 1941: World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.
• 1940: Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.
• 1939: Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
• 1918: Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
• 1918: Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
• 1914: Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1913: Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
• 1911: Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
• 1909: New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
• 1907: The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
• 1903: The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
• 1902: The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
• 1900: Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
• 1896: The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
• 1836: The Toledo War unofficially ends.
• 1819: Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
• 1814: War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
• 1812: The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
• 1782: The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km (1.2 mi).
• 1751: The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
• 1542: Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 1287: St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
• 835: Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.
• 557: Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.