History of the Day for:
April 14
- 1759: Composer George Frideric Handel died in London.
- 1775: Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush formed the first American society for the abolition of slavery.
- 1828: The first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" was published.
- 1865: President Abraham Lincoln died after he was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth the previous evening at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
- 1894: Thomas Edison demonstrated the kinetoscope for the first time with a "peep show" of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill footage.
- 1902: J.C. Penney opened his first store, in Kemmerer, Wyo.
- 1910: President William Howard Taft became the first Chief Executive to throw the first ball in a season opener. Taft's throw kicked off a 3-0 Washington Senators victory over the Philadelphia Athletics.
- 1912: The Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began sinking.
- 1931: King Alfonso the 13th of Spain went into exile, and the Spanish Republic was proclaimed.
- 1935: "Black Sunday Storm", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.
- 1939: The John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was published.
- 1940: World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
- 1941: World War II: The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organization is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the Axis Operation 25 invasion. In addition, Rommel attacks Tobruk.
- 1944: Bombay Explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
- 1945: Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from fascist occupation.
- 1956: In Chicago, Illinois, videotape is first demonstrated.
- 1958: The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
- 1968: The Matt Crowley play "The Boys in the Band" opened in New York.
- 1969: For only the second time in the history of the Academy Awards, a tie between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand resulted in two stars sharing the Best Actress Oscar, Streisand for "Funny Girl" and Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter."
- 1980: Stan Mikita retired after 21 years with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks. His No. 21 jersey became the first retired Blackhawks number.
- 1981: The first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
- 1985: Geraldo Rivera broke into the long-sealed vault of racketeer Al Capone during a live TV special, only to find nondescript broken bottles.
- 1986: In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.
- 1986: 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
- 1988: The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
- 1988: In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
- 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.
- 1999: NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees – Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.
- 1999: A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.
- 2000: Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich files a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually leads the movement against file-sharing programs.
- 2002: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.
- 2003: The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
- 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.
- 2005: The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
- 2007: At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.