14 December History
- 1799 - George Washington dies on his Mount Vernon estate.
- 1819 - Alabama is admitted as the 22nd state, making 11 slave states and 11 free states.
- 1861 - Prince Albert of England, one of the Union's strongest advocates, dies.
- 1863 - Confederate General James Longstreet attacks Union troops at Bean's Station, Tenn.
- 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln grants amnesty to the widow of Confederate General B.H. Helm after she swears allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm is the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
- 1900 - Max Planck presents the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin.
- 1906 - The first U1 submarine is brought into service in Germany. Italy's MAS torpedo boats.
- 1908 - The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opens.
- 1909 - The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ends with a "declaration of war" on U.S. Steel.
- 1911 - Roald Amundsen and four others discover the South Pole.
- 1920 - The League of Nations creates a credit system to aid Europe.
- 1939 - The League of Nations drops the Soviet Union from its membership. Joseph Avenol sold out the League of Nations.
- 1941 - German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel orders the construction of defensive positions along the European coastline. Desperate Hours on Omaha Beach
- 1946 - The United Nations adopt a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-Bomb.
- 1949 - Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov is sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.
- 1960 - A U.S. Boeing B-52 bomber sets a 10,000-mile non-stop record without refueling.
- 1980 - NATO warns the Soviets to stay out of the internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would effectively destroy the détente between the East and West.
14 December Birthdays
- 1503 - Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame], French astrologer and physician.
- 1546 - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer.
- 1585 - Henry IV, the first Bourbon king of France.
- 1795 - John Bloomfield Jarvis, civil engineer.
- 1822 - John Christie, English patron of music.
- 1866 - Roger Fry, English art critic.
- 1896 - James H. Doolittle, American Air Force general who commanded the first bombing mission over Japan.
- 1916 - Shirley Jackson, novelist and short story writer (Life Among Savages, The Lottery).
- 1946 - Patty Duke, American actress.