May 14

1097 – The Byzantine Siege of Nicaea, under control of moslem Turks since 1081, begins during the First Crusade.

1607 – James Fort, later Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony, the earliest permanent English settlement in the Americas.

1787 –Delegates to the Convention of the States begin to assemble in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation.

1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation on James Phipps, the 8 year old son of his gardener.

1800 – The 6th United States Congress recesses, and the process of moving the U.S. Government from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., begins.

1804 – William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois in modern Illinois, to join Meriwether Lewis and form the “Corps of Discovery” at St. Charles, in modern Missouri, to begin an exploration up the Missouri River region of the Louisiana Purchase.

1836 – The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas by Interim President David G. Burnet for Texas and Santa Anna for Mexico, concluding  hostilities between the two armies and beginning the first steps toward the official recognition of Texas’ independence from Mexico.

1878 – The last witchcraft trial in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, with Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accusing Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.

1913 – Governor William Sulzer of New York  approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.

1948 –  The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel which establishes a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, is declared by David Ben-Gurion in Tel-Aviv, to come into effect on termination of the League of Nations British Mandate for Palestine at midnight. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

1955 – 8 Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

1973 – The Skylab space station is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1988 – A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, hits a converted school bus carrying a church & youth group from 1st Assembly of God church in Radcliff, Kentucky, killing 27 of the 67 people aboard, becoming the impetus for MADD – Mothers Against Drunk Drivers – to be formed by the mothers of several of the victims.

2004 – Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815, an Embraer EMB 120, crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing all 33 passengers and crew aboard.

2010 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle launched Russian ISS component –  Rassvet. 

2022 –  At a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, 10 people are killed and 3 wounded when shot by a teenage racist.