April 14
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Featured Event
© Johann Helgason/Dreamstime.com
After weeks of small earthquakes and lava flows that signaled an eruption was imminent, Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland began sending a plume of ash into the skies on this day in 2010. The plume stretched upward almost 7 miles (11 km) and then drifted across northern Europe, causing the largest interruption in commercial airline service since World War II. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© 1965 Embassy Pictures and Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
British film actress Julie Christie, born in India this day in 1940 (or 1941), was renowned for a wide range of roles in English and American films of the 1960s and ’70s, as well as for her offbeat, free-spirited personality.
Famous Birthdays
More on April 14
Kathy Willens—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
2021
American hedge-fund investment manager Bernie Madoff, who operated the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, died in federal prison at the age of 82. [Watch: How Bernie Madoff conned tens of billions of dollars from investors.]
© Kola Sulaimon—AFP/Getty Images
2014
Boko Haram, an Islamic sectarian movement that was declared a terrorist group in Nigeria in 2013, kidnapped more than 275 girls from a boarding school in Chibok, sparking worldwide condemnation.
© Wrangel/Dreamstime.com
2004
Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, formally accepted the apology offered by Pope John Paul II in 2001 for the sacking of Constantinople (now Istanbul) by Crusader armies in the early 13th century.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2003
Researchers announced the end of the Human Genome Project; over the course of 13 years, they had successfully determined, stored, and rendered publicly available the sequences of almost all the genetic content of the human genome. [How much do you know about genetics?]
MC2 Jesse Awalt/U.S. Department of Defense
1986
U.S. warplanes bombed several sites in Libya, killing or wounding several of Muammar al-Qaddafi’s children and narrowly missing Qaddafi himself. [Test your knowledge of Libya.]
© Alpha Stock/Alamy
1972
U.S. President Richard Nixon addressed Canada’s Parliament, declaring that “the Nixon Doctrine…rests on the premise that mature partners must have autonomous, independent policies” and “each nation must determine the path of its own progress.” [Explore a timeline of U.S.-Canada relations.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1952
Ralph Ellison’s debut novel, Invisible Man, was published; a bildungsroman that tells the story of a naive and idealistic young Black man, it is widely regarded as a classic. [Take our quiz about African American writers.]
© Anshuman Poyrekar—Hindustan Times/Getty Images
1944
The cargo ship Fort Stikine exploded while docked in Bombay, killing an estimated 750 people, injuring about 1,800, and making more than 50,000 homeless. The firefighters who died during the disaster are honored in India as part of National Fire Service Day, observed annually on this day.
AP Images
1941
Pete Rose, who in 1985 broke Ty Cobb’s record for the most career hits in Major League Baseball, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. [How much do you know about baseball?]
Viking Press/Penguin Group; Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc., Merchantville, NJ
1939
John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath—which was set during the Great Depression and traces the migration of an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family to California and their subsequent hardships as migrant farmworkers—was published. [Take our authors of classic literature quiz.]
Elliott Erwitt/Magnum
1924
Louis Sullivan, the father of modern American architecture, died in Chicago. [Test your knowledge of Chicago architecture.]
Archive Photos
1904
John Gielgud, an English actor, producer, and director considered one of the greatest performers of his generation on stage and screen, particularly as a Shakespearean actor, was born in London. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about actors.]
Photos and Prints Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2017706640)
1902
American businessman J.C. Penney opened his first dry-goods store, which was in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-78983)
1866
Anne Sullivan Macy, who was Helen Keller’s teacher, was born near Springfield, Massachusetts. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Americans.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1865
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. He died the next morning.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. cph 3b47136)
1828
Noah Webster published An American Dictionary of the English Language; based on the principle that word usage should evolve from the spoken language, the work was hugely influential, though it was initially attacked for its “Americanism.” [Take our quiz about word meanings and origins.]
Photos.com/Thinkstock
1471
The deposed and exiled king of England, Edward IV, defeated King Henry VI’s forces at the Battle of Barnet, near London, enabling him to retake the throne. [How much do you know about the kings of England?]
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.
193
Septimius was declared emperor of Rome by his troops, and he went on to found a personal dynasty and convert the government into a military monarchy. [From Julius Caesar to the city-state’s legendary founders, test your knowledge of ancient Rome.]