Also on this day
Lead Story
1879
On March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity drastically altered man’s view of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the atomic bomb.
After...
American Revolution
1776
On this day in 1776, Alexander Hamilton receives his commission as captain of a New York artillery company. Throughout the rest of 1776, Captain Hamilton established himself as a great military leader as he directed his artillery company in several battles in and around New York City. In...
Civil War
1862
On this day in 1862, at the Battle of New Bern, Union General Ambrose Burnside captures North Carolina’s second largest city and closes another port through which the Confederates could slip supplies.
The capture of New Bern continued Burnside’s success along the Carolina coast. Five weeks earlier, he led an amphibious...
Cold War
1990
The Congress of People’s Deputies elects General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev as the new president of the Soviet Union. While the election was a victory for Gorbachev, it also revealed serious weaknesses in his power base that would eventually lead to the collapse of his presidency in December 1991.Gorbachev’s election in...
Crime
1950
On this day in 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation institutes the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list in an effort to publicize particularly dangerous fugitives. The creation of the program arose out of a wire service news story in 1949 about the “toughest guys” the FBI wanted to capture. The...
Disaster
1980
A Polish Airlines flight, on a Soviet-built Ilyushin 62 jet, crashes while attempting to land in Warsaw, killing all 87 people on board, including 22 members of the United States boxing team, on this day in 1980. The flight originated in New York and carried 77 passengers and 10 crew...
General Interest
1964
Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald–the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy–is found guilty of the “murder with malice” of Oswald and sentenced to die in the electric chair. It was the first courtroom verdict to be televised in U.S. history.On November 24, 1963,...
1991
In the face of widespread questioning of their guilt, British authorities release the so-called “Birmingham Six,” six Irish men who had been sent to prison 16 years earlier for the 1974 terrorist bombings of two Birmingham, England, pubs.On November 21, 1974, two Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombs exploded in two...
Hollywood
1948
On this day in 1948, the comedian and actor Billy Crystal, who will become known for his starring roles in such movies as When Harry Met Sally… and City Slickers, is born in Long Beach, California.
Crystal began performing in comedy clubs as a teenager; after graduating from New York University’s...
Literary
1887
Sylvia Beach, owner of the Paris-based bookstore Shakespeare and Co., is born in Baltimore. Beach moved to Paris at the age of 14, when her father, a Presbyterian minister, was sent to France. She fell in love with the city. In 1919, she opened her bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., which...
Music
1958
For as long as most people have been buying popular music on records, tapes and compact disks, the records, tapes and disks they’ve bought have carried labels like “Certified Gold!” and “Double Platinum!!” Those labels have been in use since the early days of the rock-and-roll era, when a young...
Old West
1919
Max Brand, perhaps the most prolific writer of western stories, publishes his first novel, The Untamed.
Max Brand was one of 21 pen names used by the Seattle-born author Frederick Faust. When he was still a young boy, Faust’s family moved to the San Joaquin Valley of California, where he...
Presidential
1967
On this day in history, the body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a spot just a few feet away from its original interment site at Arlington National Cemetery. The slain president had been assassinated more than three years earlier, on November 22, 1963.
Although JFK never specified where...
Sports
1997
On this day in 1997, President Bill Clinton undergoes surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon of his right knee at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Clinton, an avid golfer, had injured his knee at 1:20 that morning when he slipped down some stairs at Australian professional golfer Greg...
Vietnam War
1965
Twenty-four South Vietnamese Air Force planes, led by Vice-Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky and supported by U.S. jets, bomb the barracks and depots on Con Co (“Tiger”) Island, 20 miles off the coast of North Vietnam. The next day, 100 U.S. Air Force jets and carrier-based bombers struck the ammunition depot...
1969
At a news conference, President Richard Nixon says there is no prospect for a U.S. troop reduction in the foreseeable future because of the ongoing enemy offensive. Nixon stated that the prospects for withdrawal would hinge on the level of enemy activity, progress in the Paris peace talks, and the...
World War I
1915
On this day in 1915, the British ships Kent and Glasgow corner the German light cruiser Dresden in Cumberland Bay, off the coast of Chile. After raising the white flag, the Dresden‘s crew abandoned and scuttled the ship, which sank with its German ensign flying.
Dresden, a 3,600-ton light cruiser, was...
World War II
1943
On this day, German troops re-enter Kharkov, the second largest city in the Ukraine, which had changed hands several times in the battle between the USSR and the invading German forces.
Kharkov was a high-priority target for the Germans when they invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, as the city...
