September 14

326 In 326 the Roman Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena of Constantinople, undertook a trip to the Holy Places in Palestine. On September 14, 326, Helena discovered the True Cross (the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified) in Jerusalem. She returned to Rome, bringing with her large parts of the True Cross and other relics, which were then stored in her palace's private chapel, where they can be still seen today. 

Helena of Constantinople by Cima da Conegliano

1638 John Harvard, a clergyman and the teaching elder at Charlestown Church, Massachusetts, died of tuberculosis on September 14, 1638. Harvard bequeathed £780 (half of his monetary estate, with the remainder to his wife) together with his library of some 400 volumes to the recently founded and unnamed school in nearby Cambridge. The school renamed itself Harvard College in his honor the following year.

1667 On September 14, 1667 17-year-old John Churchill (later The Duke of Marlborough), obtained a commission as ensign in the King's Own Company in the 1st Guards, later to become the Grenadier Guards. He fought in Tangier and The Netherlands and was later promoted to Colonel. Churchill's career as an English soldier and statesman spanned the reigns of five monarchs and earned him fame and fortune.

1741 After several setbacks George Handel the Anglo-German composer was at his lowest ebb. He set to work to compose an oratorio with words taken from the Book of Isaiah and The Gospels in which he intended to depict Christ's life, death, resurrection and eternal glory. For 22 days and nights he worked solidly hardly eating, or sleeping, surviving totally on coffee. The result was a masterpiece, The Messiah, which he completed on September 14, 1741.

1752 Two centuries after the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, it was adopted by Great Britain and the English colonies on September 14, 1752. This switch to the Gregorian calendar meant that eleven days were skipped (the previous day was September 2nd).

1812 During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Muscovites burned their city on September 14, 1812 and fled, as Napoleon’s army was on their doorstep. The Fire of Moscow died down four days later after destroying more than three quarters of the city. One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s huge invading force entered a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army was forced to begin a hasty retreat out of Russia.

1814 Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer who wrote verse as a hobby began composing his most famous poem, which he during the shelling of Fort McHenry, which guarded Baltimore on September 14, 1814. Key wrote down its words on the back of an envelope and as soon as he reached his hotel room he wrote out the complete work as it now stands. Originally titled "Defence of Fort M'Henry," it was later re-named "The Star Spangled Banner".

1847 The Battle for Mexico City was a week-long series of engagements in the general vicinity of the city during the Mexican–American War. It culminated with the fall of Mexico City to Winfield Scott's US troops on September 14, 1847.

1852 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington died at Walmer Castle on September 14, 1852 aged 83. He was found to be unwell on that morning and was aided from his military campaign bed and seated in his chair where he passed away. Wellington's death was recorded as being due to the after-effects of a stroke culminating in a series of seizures.

1867 Karl Marx published the first volume of his political and economic treatise Das Kapital, subtitled A Critique of Political Economy, on September 14, 1867. It was researched mainly in the British Museum's reading room, where he spent ten hours a day gathering evidence for his communist philosophy.

First edition title page

1898 Citrus grower Julia Tuttle, the founder of Miami, died on September 14, 1898. She used the money from her parents' estate to purchase the James Egan grant of 640 acres (2.6 km2), where the city of Miami is now located, on the north side of the Miami river. In 1891, Tuttle brought her family to live there. Five years later just over 300 male residents voted to incorporate the city of Miami. 

1901 President William McKinley was shot at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York during a public handshaking reception. McKinley's wounds were not properly dressed and he died of gangrene a week later on September 14, 1901. McKinley was the third American President to be assassinated.

1913 Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz was born on September 14, 1913. In 1951 he carried out an agrarian reform under which uncultivated portions of large land-holdings were expropriated in return for compensation and redistributed to poverty-stricken agricultural laborers The US became suspicious of this as the Cold War developed and the CIA engineered a coup d'etat.

1914 During World War I, the Germans disguised one of their ocean liners as the British ship, the RMS Carmania and sent the disguised ship to ambush the British ones. Unluckily, the first ship it encountered on September 14, 1914 was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.

1917 The Russian Republic was declared on September 14, 1917 under the leadership of Minister-President Alexander Kerensky. The Russians called the date September 1 because they were still using the Julian Calendar. They adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918. For the same reason, they call the Russian Revolution the "October Revolution" though it began on November 7 by the modern calendar.

1939 The Estonian military boarded the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł in Tallinn on September 14, 1939, sparking a diplomatic incident that the Soviet Union would use the following year to justify the annexation of Estonia. The country remained under Soviet control until August 20, 1991 when Estonia declared formal independence, reconstituting the pre-1940 state.

1949 India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages including 29 languages with at least one million native speakers each. The Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi as the Official Language of the Union on September 14, 1949. Hence, it is celebrated as Hindi Day. Hindi became the official language of India in 1965.

1953 The Spirit of St. Louis, an autobiographical account by Charles Lindbergh about the events leading up to and including his 1927 solo transAtlantic flight, was published on September 14, 1953. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954.

1959 Luna 2, a Soviet space probe, became the first man-made object to reach the Moon on September 14, 1959. It crashed into the satellite at around 7,500 mph. The U.S. duplicated the feat in 1962 with Ranger 4. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was the Russian-built Luna 9 in 1966.

1974 The comic strip character "Dennis the Menace" appeared in The Beano for the first time in issue 452 in 1951. From issue 1678 onwards (dated September 14, 1974) Dennis the Menace replaced Biffo the Bear on the front cover, and he has been there ever since. 

1975 On September 14, 1975, Elizabeth Ann Seton was canonized by Pope Paul VI. She was the first native-born American to be made a saint. Born to a socially prominent New York Episcopalian family on August 28, 1774, Seton established America's first Catholic girls' school in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she also founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity. 

1982 Grace Kelly was driving back to Monaco from her country home in Roc Agel when she had a stroke and lost control of her 1971 Rover P6 3500. Kelly drove off the steep, winding road and down the 120 ft mountainside. Her daughter, Stéphanie, who was in the passenger seat, tried to regain control of the car, but failed. The Monaco Princess died the following night on September 14, 1982, at the age of 52 after Prince Rainier decided to take her off life support.

1991 On September 14, 1991, Italian artist Piero Cannata attacked Michelangelo's statue of David with a small hammer he had concealed beneath his jacket; he was restrained while in the process of damaging the toes of the left foot.

1995 Up until September 14, 1995, registering an online domain name was free of charge. When Network Solutions were granted the authority to charge for domain names, they charged $100 for two years registration. The fee was imposed on all domains and 30% of this revenue went to the NSF to create an "Internet Intellectual Infrastructure Fund."

2003 Yetunde Price, who was Venus and Serena Williams' oldest half-sister was gunned down by gang members in Compton on September 14, 2003.  A nurse and mother of three children, she was also reported to have worked as a personal assistant to her sisters at times. Her death was a devastating event for the Williams family, and it brought attention to issues of gun violence and its impact on communities. 

2007 American Jeremy Harper counted aloud every number up to a million, live on the Internet. He spoke for 16 hours a day, completing the marathon after 89 days on September 14, 2007.  Harper did not leave his apartment or shave until he finished.

2012  Four days after Facebook went live in 2004 it had just 650 users. On September 14, 2012, the team at Facebook watched the one-billionth user sign up.  Facebook's growth was truly phenomenal. In just a few years, it went from being a small college network to the most popular social media platform in the world. 

2015 The existence of gravitational waves was confirmed on September 14, 2015.  The waves were observed in a signal emanating from the collision of two massive black holes. The signal was called GW150914, for “Gravitational Wave, 2015, 9th month, day 14”. The revelation confirmed the final unproven prediction of Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity published a hundred years earlier. 

2017 The world record for the highest jump cleared by a dog is 191.7 cm (75.5 in), achieved by Feather, a two year old female greyhound. Owned by Samantha Valle, the greyhound achieved the leap at Frederick, Maryland, USA, on September 14, 2017.