AUGUST 14, 2003

• 410 - Alaric sacks Rome
• 1385 - Castilians are defeated by Portuguese at theBattle of Aljubarrota
• 1598 - Irish under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, destroy English force at the Battle of Yellow Ford
• 1842 - Second Seminole War ends, Seminole Indians forced from Florida to Oklahoma
• 1880 - Cologne Cathedral completed
• 1896 - Gold discovered in the Yukon
• 1900 - Beijing occupied by joint European-Japanese-United States force in campaign to end Boxer Rebellion in China
• 1912 - United States Marines invade Nicaragua
• 1933 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres.
• 1935 - Social Security Act passed
• 1941 - World War II - Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims
• 1945 - World War II - Japan surrenders following Soviet invasion of Manchuria and devastation of two cities by atomic bombs, ending the war
• 1947 - Pakistan and India gain independence from Britain at midnight, Pakistan commemorating the event on August 14 and India on August 15
• 1967 - In the United Kingdom a Marine Offences Act came into force prompting many offshore radio stations to close, most prominently Radio London off Frinton in Essex at 3pm local time on this day. Act boosted campaign for onshore commercial radio to be legalised enabling listeners to choose a non BBC English language station and for establishment style of BBC radio to be relaxed and refreshed. See BBC Radio 1
• 1969 - British troops deployed in Northern Ireland
• 1971 - Bahrain declares its independence from Great Britain
• 1972 - An East German Ilyushin-62 crashed during takeoff from East Berlin killing 156
• 1980 - Lech Walesa leads strikes at Gdansk, Poland shipyards
• 2003 - Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.

Births

• 1771 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist and poet
• 1840 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, psychologist (+ 1902)
• 1861 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress
• 1863 - Ernest Thayer, poet: Casey at the Bat (+ 1940)
• 1867 - John Galsworthy, author (+ 1933)
• 1910 - Pierre Schaeffer, composer and pioneer of musique concrete
• 1920 - Nehemiah Persoff, actor
• 1925 - Russell Baker, columnist
• 1926 - Lina Wertmüller, director
• 1926 - René Goscinny, comic-strip author
• 1935 - John Brodie, professional football player
• 1940 - Dash Crofts, musician
• 1941 - David Crosby, guitarist, songwriter
• 1943 - Jimmy Johnson, former NFL head coach, TV analyst
• 1945 - Steve Martin, comedian, actor
• 1945 - Wim Wenders, director
• 1946 - Susan Saint James, actress
• 1946 - Antonio Fargas, actor
• 1947 - Danielle Steel, novelist
• 1950 - Gary Larson, cartoonist
• 1952 - Debbie Meyer, Olympic gold medal swimmer
• 1959 - Earvin Magic Johnson, basketball player
• 1959 - Marcia Gay Harden, Academy Award winning actress
• 1960 - Sarah Brightman, singer
• 1961 - Susan Olsen, actress
• 1964 - Brannon Braga, writer, director
• 1965 - Emmanuelle Beart, Cesar Award winning actress
• 1966 - Halle Berry, Academy Award winning actress
• 1976 - April Edlow, African American artist and photographer

Deaths

• 1433 - King John I of Portugal
• 1951 - William Randolph Hearst, newspaper magnate
• 1955 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress
• 1956 - Bertolt Brecht, composer, playwright
• 1958 - Frédéric Joliot, scientist
• 1972 - Oscar Levant, actor, composer, musician
• 1977 - Michael Widman, labor union organizer
• 1985 - Gale Sondergaard, actress
• 2002 - Dave Williams, singer for Drowning Pool

Holidays and observances

See Also:

August 13 - August 15 - July 14 - September 14 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December