May 14th in History

Michael Dobson | May 14

Painting: Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia, Charles Marion Russell.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition set out on May 14, 1804.

Today in History

  • English settlers select the location for what will become Jamestown, Virginia (1607)
  • The Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia (1787)
  • The first smallpox vaccination is administered (1796)
  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins (1804)
  • An independent State of Israel is declared (1948)
  • A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the riders are beaten by a mob (1961)
  • Skylab is launched (1973)

Birthdays

  • Thomas Gainsborough, painter (1727)
  • Rudolf Lipschitz, mathematician (1832)
  • Ed Walsh, baseball player (1881)
  • Otto Klemperer, conductor (1885)
  • Sidney Bechet, composer (1897 — born and died on the same day)
  • Earle Combs, baseball player and coach (1899)
  • محمد ایوب خان (Ayub Khan), Pakistani coup leader (1907)
  • Richard Deacon, actor (1921)
  • Franjo Tuđman, Croatian leader and convicted war criminal (1922)
  • Oona O’Neill, wife of Charlie Chaplin (1925)
  • Bobby Darin, singer-songwriter (1936)
  • Tony Pérez, baseball player and manager (1942)
  • Elizabeth Ray, secretary and sex scandal figure (1943)
  • George Lucas, filmmaker (1944)
  • Tamara Dobson, actress (1947)
  • Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl books (1965)
  • Tony Siragusa, football player and television host (1967)
  • Cate Blanchett, actress (1969)
  • Sofia Coppola, filmmaker (1971)
  • Frank Gore, football player (1983)
  • Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder (1984)
  • Miranda Cosgrove, actress (1993)

Deaths

  • August Strindberg, playwright (1912)
  • James Gordon Bennett, Jr., publisher (1918)
  • Henry J. Heinz, catsup maker (1919)
  • H. Rider Haggard, author (1925)
  • Emma Goldman, activitist (1940)
  • Heinz Guderian, German general (1954)
  • Sidney Bechet, composer (1959 — born and died on the same day)
  • Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (1968)
  • Billie Burke, actress (1970)
  • Rita Hayworth, actress (1987)
  • 江青 (Jiang Qing), Chinese first lady and leader of the Gang of Four (1991)
  • Harry Blackstone, Jr., magician (1997)
  • Frank Sinatra, singer and actor (1998)
  • Wendy Hiller, actress (2003)
  • Robert Stack, actor (2003)
  • Will Elder, Mad cartoonist (2008)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Hasting Banda’s Birthday (Malawi)
  • National Unification Day (Liberia)
  • Izumo-taisha Shrine Grand Festival, first day (Izumo-taisha, Japan)
Informal and made-up holidays include Dance Like a Chicken Day, National Chocolate Chip Day, Stars and Stripes Forever Day (commemorating the first public performance of that song), and Underground America Day.