December 14: Today in History

Today is Saturday, December 14, 2023. Let’s take a quick look at notable events, births, deaths, and other significant occurrences that happened on this day in history.

Observance:

• Martyred Intellectuals Day (Bangladesh)

Notable Events:

• 1124: Theobald Buccapecus was elected Pope.
• 1568: Mary Stuart became Queen of Scotland.
• 1575: István Báthory was elected King of Poland.
• 1656: The first artificial pearl was created.
• 1805: The calorific value of coal as a fossil fuel was discovered.
• 1901: Scientist Max Planck presented his quantum theory.
• 1903: The Wright brothers attempted their first aircraft flight in North Carolina.
• 1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first to reach the South Pole.
• 1915: Jack Johnson became the first African American heavyweight boxing champion.
• 1918: Women in Britain voted for the first time in a general election.
• 1946: The International Labour Organization (ILO) was recognized as a specialized UN agency.
• 1946: The UN General Assembly voted to establish its headquarters in New York.
• 1947: Romania became a republic.
• 1955: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sri Lanka joined the United Nations.
• 1960: Somalia established diplomatic relations with China.
• 1961: Tanzania joined the United Nations.
• 1971: During the Liberation War of Bangladesh, the Pakistani military and their local collaborators (Razakars, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams) brutally killed intellectuals, including academics, doctors, engineers, journalists, and writers, as the nation neared its final victory.
• 1981: Israel’s parliament officially declared the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israeli territory.
• 1994: Chinese Premier Li Peng announced the official commencement of construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
• 1995: The Dayton Peace Agreement was signed in Paris, bringing an end to the Bosnian War.
• 1996: The Indemnity Ordinance was repealed in Bangladesh after the President signed the bill.
• 1999: Kiribati, Nauru, and Tonga joined the United Nations.

Notable Births:

• 1503: Nostradamus, French astrologer and seer.
• 1546: Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist.
• 1626: Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan.
• 1912: Hemanga Biswas, musician and composer.
• 1946: Antony Beevor, English historian.

Notable Deaths:

• 1136: Harald IV, King of Norway.
• 1542: James V, King of Scotland.
• 1799: George Washington, first President of the United States, in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
• 1970: Poet Kumud Ranjan Mullick.
• 1984: Dhir Ali Mia, composer and music director.
• 1989: Andrei Sakharov, Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist.
• 1999: Abdul Latif, language movement activist in Bangladesh.