History Events on August 14

Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).

#Japanese_Instrument_of_Surrender

Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution.

#Saint-Domingue

A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.

#Northeast_blackout_of_2003

The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

#Aviation

Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Carlsbad which is subsequently named after him.

#Charles_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis.

#Falkland_Islands

Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.

#Egypt

The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.

#Tristan_da_Cunha

Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeats an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.

#Nine_Years'_War_(Ireland)

Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; it is not fully extinguished until September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2).

#Wildfire

Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).

#Tannu_Uriankhai

United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.

#United_States_Senate

France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

#Vehicle_registration_plate

Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth day of the seventh month of the second year of the Juei (??) era).

#Taira_no_Munemori

An Ilyushin Il-62 airliner crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany, due to an in-flight fire, killing 156.

#1972_Königs_Wusterhausen_air_disaster

Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.

#Romania_during_World_War_I

War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.

#War_of_the_Breton_Succession

Publication of the Mainz Psalter, the first book to feature a printed date of publication and printed colophon

#Mainz_Psalter

World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.

#Winston_Churchill

UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.

#Marine,_&c.,_Broadcasting_(Offences)_Act_1967

The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when six Japanese bombers are shot down by Chinese fighters while raiding Chinese air bases.

#Air_combat_manoeuvring

Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.

#Bahrain

The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner.

#The_Troubles

The Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 334 people.

#2007_Yazidi_communities_bombings

The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.

#Eight-Nation_Alliance

The US Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba-United States relations were broken off

#Embassy_of_the_United_States,_Havana

Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.

#Cologne_Cathedral

American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.

#American_Indian_Wars

Lech Wa??sa leads strikes at the Gda?sk, Poland shipyards.

#Lech_Wa??sa

U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

#United_States_Marine_Corps

Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.

#Franklin_D._Roosevelt

An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.

#Sound_recording_and_reproduction

Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.

#Helios_Airways_Flight_522

The Viet Minh launches August Revolution amid the political confusion and power vacuum engulfing Vietnam.

#Viet_Minh

World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive designed to recover the lost province of Moselle from Germany.

#World_War_I

Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

#Pakistan

Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.

#Ottoman_invasion_of_Otranto

The Spanish military Villasur expedition is wiped out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.

#Villasur_expedition

Sixty-one schoolgirls killed in Chencholai bombing by Sri Lankan Air Force air strike.

Project Thread, an operation launched by CSIS and other Canadian law enforcement agencies, saw the arrest and incarceration of 24 innocent Muslim men, most of them young Pakistani students.

Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens in London.

The Pakistan Constitution of 1973 comes into effect.

Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.

Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last known public execution in the United States.

Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.

Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.

A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish-Norwegian War.

Portuguese Crisis of 1383-85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by King John I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King John I.

Count Adolf VIII of Berg grants town privileges to Düsseldorf, the village on the banks of the Düssel.

King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.

Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.