Updated May 14, 2014, 10:57 am
On May 14, 1948, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed as British rule in Palestine came to an end.
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On May 14, 1885, Otto Klemperer, who was one of the foremost German conductors, was born. Following his death on July 6, 1973, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
| 1643 | Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 on the death of his father, Louis XIII. |
|---|---|
| 1787 | Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution. |
| 1796 | English physician Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox. |
| 1804 | The Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory left St. Louis. |
| 1904 | The first Olympic games to be held in the United States opened in St. Louis. |
| 1942 | Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" was first performed, by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. |
| 1942 | The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps was established. |
| 1955 | Representatives from the Soviet Union and seven other Communist bloc countries signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. |
| 1973 | The United States launched Skylab 1, its first manned space station. |
| 1998 | Singer Frank Sinatra died at age 82. |
| 1998 | The TV series "Seinfeld" aired its final episode. |
| 2001 | The Supreme Court ruled that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses. |
| 2007 | DaimlerChrysler said it was selling almost all of Chrysler to a private equity firm for $7.4 billion, backing out of a troubled 1998 takeover. |
| 2007 | The trial of suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla opened in Miami. (Padilla was later convicted of terrorism conspiracy and sentenced to 17 years in prison.) |
| 2008 | The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. |
| 2011 | Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and potential candidate for president of France, was charged with sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid. (He later resigned from the IMF; the charges against him were dropped.) |
Historic Birthdays
Otto Klemperer
5/14/1885 - 7/6/1973
German conductor.Go to obituary »
| 61 |
Margaret of Valois 5/14/1553 - 3/27/1615 Queen consort of Navarre known mainly for her "Memoires" |
|---|---|
| 71 |
Francois de Callieres 5/14/1645 - 3/5/1717 French author and diplomat |
| 87 |
Robert Owen 5/14/1771 - 11/17/1858 Welsh manufacturer and social reformer |
| 69 |
Sir Frederick Borden 5/14/1847 - 1/6/1917 Canadian statesman; helped create Canadian navy |
| 73 |
Alton Parker 5/14/1852 - 5/10/1926 American politician; opposed Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 |
| 51 |
Kurt Eisner 5/14/1867 - 2/21/1919 German Socialist journalist and statesman |
| 57 |
Julian Eltinge 5/14/1883 - 3/7/1941 American vaudeville star and famous female impersonator |
| 87 |
Al White 5/14/1895 - 7/8/1982 American diver and Olympic gold medalist (1924) |
| 66 |
Mohammad Ayub 5/14/1907 - 4/19/1974 President of Pakistan (1958-1969) |