347 May 14, Pachomius, Egyptian monastery founder, abbot (Coenobieten), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
649 May 14, Theodore, Greek Pope (642-49), excommunicated by Paul II, died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1264 May 14, The Baron’s War was fought in England. King Henry III was captured by his brother in law Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Lewes in England.
(HN, 5/14/99)(PC, 1992, p.113)
1509 May 14, In the Battle of Agnadello, the French defeat the Venetians in Northern Italy.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1533 May 14, Margaret of Valois, queen consort of Navarre, was born.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1607 May 14, Some 104 men and boys filed ashore from the small sailing ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, onto what English adventurers came to call Jamestown Island in Virginia. Capt. John Smith (27) was among the Englishmen who founded Jamestown.
(HN, 10/3/00)(AP, 5/14/97)(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T12)(ON, 2/07, p.7)
1610 May 14, King Henri IV, Henri de Navarre (56), Bourbon King of France (1572, 89-1610) was assassinated by a fanatical monk, François Ravillac. Henri IV was succeeded by 11-year-old Louis XIII, under the eye of Cardinal Richelieu. Henry’s legacy included straight roads flanked by arbres d’alignement on both sides.
(SFEM, 3/15/98, p.17)(HN, 5/14/99)(MC, 5/14/02)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.48)
1643 May 14, Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1679 May 14, Peder [Nielsen] Horrebow, Danish astronomer, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1686 May 14, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit German physicist and instrument maker, was born. He invented the thermometer. [see May 24]
(HN, 5/14/98)
1726 May 14, Moshe Darshan, Rabbi, author (Torat Ahsam), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1727 May 14, Thomas Gainsborough (d.1788), English painter, was born (baptized). His work included “The Blue Boy.”
(HN, 5/14/01)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.579)(MC, 5/14/02)
1767 May 14, British government disbanded the import duty on tea in America.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1771 May 14, Robert Owen, English factory owner, socialist, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1771 May 14, Thomas Wedgwood, English physicist, was born. He is acknowledged as the first photographer.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1787 May 14, Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1791 May 14, In Mexico a time capsule was placed atop a bell tower at Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral when the building’s topmost stone was laid, 218 years after construction had begun. Workers restoring the church found it in October, 2007.
(AP, 1/15/08)
1796 May 14, English physician Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to his gardener’s son, James Phipps (8). A single blister rose up on the spot, but James later demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Jenner actually used vaccinia, a close viral relation to smallpox. [see July 21, 1721]
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.77)(AP, 5/14/08)
1800 May 14, Friedrich Schiller’s translation of “Macbeth” premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1801 May 14, The Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the US after learning that Pres. Jefferson had refused to pay a renewed tribute of $225,000. American warships soon established a blockade.
(ON, 10/06, p.8)
1804 May 14, The Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory left St. Louis. Explorer William Clark sets off from St. Louis, Missouri, to travel upriver to wait for Meriwether Lewis. The two will soon depart together on a journey to reach the Pacific. The trip was retold in a TV movie by Ken Burns in 1997. [see May 22]
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC,11/4/97, p.B1)(HN, 5/14/99)
