June 14th in History

The Disney Monorail System

Today in History

  • The city of München (Munich) is founded (1158)
  • The Continental Army, precursor to the United States Army, is established by the Continental Congress (1775)
  • The Second Continental Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States (1777)
  • Mutiny on the Bounty: Captain Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after traveling nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) in an open boat (1789)
  • Clergyman Rev. Elijah Craig first distills whiskey made from maize, which becomes known as Bourbon because Rev. Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky (1789)
  • Napoleon defeats the Austrians at Marengo (1800) and the Russians at Friedland (1807)
  • Charles Babbage proposes a “difference engine” (computer) in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society (1822)
  • The first Henley Royal Regatta takes place (1839)
  • Canada legalizes trade unions (1872)
  • Hawaii becomes a US territory (1900)
  • Norway gives women the right to vote (1907)
  • Alcock and Brown depart Newfoundland in a Vickers Vimy on the first nonstop transatlantic flight (1919)
  • The US House of Representatives passes the Marihuana Tax Act (1937)
  • Auschwitz receives its first group of prisoners (1940)
  • Albert II becomes the first monkey in space (1949)
  • The US Census Bureau dedicates its first computer, UNIVAC 1 (1951)
  • The words “Under God” are added to the US Pledge of Allegience (1954)
  • The Disneyland Monorail System opens to the public (1959)
  • The Vatican abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the “index of prohibited books” (1966)
  • Mariner 5 is launched (1967)
  • China tests its first H-bomb (1967)
  • Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley surrender to the British (1982)

Birthdays

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe, author (1811)
  • John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations compiler (1820)
  • Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Sr., Wisconsin governor (1855)
  • Андре́й Ма́рков (Andrey Markov), mathematician (1856)
  • Alois Alzheimer, neuropathologist and disease namesake (1864)
  • Alonzo Church, mathematician (1903)
  • Margaret Bourke-White, photojournalist (1904)
  • Arthur Davis, Warner Brothers animator (1905)
  • Burl Ives, actor and singer (1909)
  • Dorothy McGuire, actress (1916)
  • Gene Barry, actor (1919)
  • Sam Wanamaker, actor (1919)
  • Pierre Salinger, journalist (1925)
  • Don Newcombe, baseball player (1926)
  • Che Guevara, guerrilla leader (1928)
  • Marla Gibbs, actress (1931)
  • Junior Walker, saxophonist and singer (1931)
  • Joe Arpaio, Arizona sheriff (1932)
  • Jerzy Kosiński, novelist (1933)
  • Donald Trump, businessman (1946)
  • Harry Turtledove, author (1949)
  • Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury (1950)
  • Boy George, singer-songwriter (1961)
  • Yasmine Bleeth, actress (1968)
  • Steffi Graf, tennis player (1969)
  • Diablo Cody, filmmaker (1978)

Deaths

  • Benedict Arnold, general and defector (1801)
  • Pierre Charles L’Enfant, designer of Washington, DC (1825)
  • Edward FitzGerald, poet (1883)
  • Adlai Stevenson I, 23rd US vice-president (1914)
  • Max Weber, sociologist and economist (1920)
  • Mary Cassatt, painter (1926)
  • Jerome K. Jerome, author (1927)
  • G. K. Chesterton, author (1936)
  • John Logie Baird, television inventor (1949)
  • Jorge Luis Borges, author (1986)
  • Alan Jay Lerner, composer (1986)
  • Dame Peggy Ashcroft, actress (1991)
  • Henry Mancini, composer (1994)
  • Roger Zelazny, author (1995)
  • Robin Olds, triple ace fighter pilot and general (2007)
  • Kurt Waldheim, Austrian president, UN general secretary, and Wehrmacht officer (2007)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Feast of Vidar (ancient Norse religion)
  • Flag Day (United States)
  • Freedom Day (Malawi)
  • Leinapäev (Mourning and Commemoration Day) (Estonia, similarly named holidays in Latvia and Lithuania)
  • Liberation Day (Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands)
  • Mother’s Day (Afghanistan)
  • Women’s Day (Iraq)
  • World Blood Donor Day (World Health Organization)
Informal and made-up holidays include Family History Day, International Peace Prayer Day, International Webloggers Day, National Nursing Assistants Day, Pig Callers Day, Pop Goes the Weasel Day, Quotations Day (in honor of John Bartlett), and Strawberry Shortcake Day.
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June 14 is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years). There are 200 days remaining until the end of the year.