Events on April 14 58
Year 193
Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
Year 966
After his marriage to the Christian Doubravka of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converts to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
Year 972
Co-Emperor Otto II, a son of Otto I (the Great), marries the Byzantine princess Theophanu. She is crowned empress by Pope John XIII at Rome.
Year 1294
Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.
Year 1341
Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V, Marquess of Saluzzo.
Year 1471
In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
Year 1561
A Celestial phenomenon is reported over Nuremberg, described as an aerial battle.
Year 1639
Imperial forces are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz. The Swedish victory prolongs the Thirty Years' War and allows them to advance into Bohemia.
Year 1699
Khalsa: The Sikh religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
Year 1775
The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
Year 1816
Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion and is killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.
Year 1849
Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.
Year 1865
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day.
Year 1865
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked at home by Lewis Powell.
Year 1890
The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.
Year 1894
The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.
Year 1906
The Azusa Street Revival opens and will launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
Year 1908
Hauser Dam, a steel dam on the Missouri River in Montana, U.S., fails, sending a surge of water 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 m) high downstream.
Year 1909
A massacre is organized by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population of Cilicia.
Year 1912
The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).
Year 1928
The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, reaches Greenly Island, Canada - the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west.
Year 1931
The Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.
Year 1935
The Black Sunday dust storm, considered one of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl, swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring areas.
Year 1939
The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.
Year 1940
World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
Year 1942
Malta receives the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and is now an emblem on the Maltese national flag.
Year 1944
Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
Year 1958
The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.
Year 1967
Gnassingbé Eyadéma overthrows President of Togo Nicolas Grunitzky and installs himself as the new president, a title he would hold for the next 38 years.
Year 1978
Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
Year 1981
STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight.
Year 1986
In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were killed, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.
Year 1986
The heaviest hailstones ever recorded (1 kilogram (2.2 lb)) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.
Year 1988
The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
Year 1988
In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
Year 1991
The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
Year 1994
In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
Year 1999
NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.
Year 1999
A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.
Year 2002
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.
Year 2003
The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
Year 2003
U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
Year 2005
The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
Year 2010
Nearly 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
Year 2014
Twin bomb blasts in Abuja, Nigeria, kill at least 75 people and injures 141 others.
Year 2014
Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria.
Year ?
Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Aulus Hirtius.
Year ?
Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.
Year ?
Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions.