August 14

1559 | Explorer Tristan de Luna y Arellano lands in Pensacola Bay, Florida.

1765 | Massachusetts colonists challenged British rule by an Elm (Liberty Tree) that became a rallying image.

1784 | Indian Wars: Awa’uq Massacre. Russian fur traders killed hundreds of Alutiiq people while Alaska was under Russian ownership.

1842 | Indian Wars: Second Seminole War declared over after nearly seven years.

1851 | Gunfighter Doc Holliday was born.

1852 | First Lady Margaret Taylor died.

1861 | Engineer Bion J. Arnold was born in Casanova, Michigan.

1862 | POTUS: Republican President Lincoln received the first group of African Americans (clerics, entrepreneurs, and educators) to confer with a US president.

1863 | Poet Ernest Thayer was born.

1870 | Admiral David Farragut died.

1873 | “Forest & Stream” began publishing.

1888 | Entrepreneur Charles Crocker died.

1890 | Cleric Fr. Michael J. McGivney died.

1900 | Allied forces (including the U.S. Army and Marine Corps) capture Beijing, China, lifting the 55-day siege of the International Legations during the Boxer Rebellion.

1903 | Entertainer John Ringling North was born.

1908 | Civil Rights: Race riot in Springfield, Illinois.

1911 | Journalist Ethel Lois Payne was born.

1913 | Entrepreneur and inventor Josephine Cochrane died.

1923 | Composer William Flanagan was born in Detroit, Michigan.

1929 | Writer Thomas Meehan was born.

1935 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act.

1936 | Outlaw Rainey Bethea died in the U.S.’s last public execution.

1937 | The Appalachian Trail was formally completed from Georgia to Maine.

1941 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt joins with British Prime Minister Churchill to issue the “Atlantic Charter.”

1945 | Actor Steve Martin was born.

1945 | WWII: Victory over Japan (V-J) Day.

1946 | Actor Antonio Fargas was born.

1947 | Author Danielle Steele was born.

1950 | Cartoonist Gary Larson was born.

1951 | Entrepreneur William Randolph Hearst died.

1952 | Architect C. Howard Crane died.

1959 | Basketball Pro Magic Johnson was born in Lansing, Michigan.

1959 | POTUS: Republican President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10834, establishing the official layout of the 50-star American flag following Hawaii’s impending statehood.

1962 | Civil Rights: Shady Grove Baptist Church burned in Leesburg, Georgia.

1963 | Musician Clyde Hurley died.

1966 | Actress Halle Berry was born.

1973 | Vietnam War: The U.S. ends its bombing of Cambodia.

1976 | Poet Jericho Brown was born.

1997 | War on Terror: Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

2003 | The Northeast Blackout of 2003 leaves over 50 million people across eight U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, without electrical power.

2024 | Actress Gena Rowlands died.