September 14

1723 – Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.

1741 – George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah.

1752 – The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days, the previous day being September 2.

1763 – Seneca warriors inflict heavy casualties at almost no cost as they defeat British forces near Niagara Gorge in New York during Pontiac’s War.

1782 – Rendering honors to French General Rochambeau as he departs with his army, General Washington forms the Continental Army for a formal Pass In Review at Verplanck’s Point, New York.

1829 – The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1862 – At the end of the Battle of South Mountain, Maryland, with his troops suffering heavy casualties, General Lee is forced to withdraw his army after losing one engagement at Crampton’s Gap and nearly losing at the engagements at Turner’s and Fox gaps.

1901 – President William McKinley dies after being mortally wounded on September 6th with Theodore Roosevelt succeeding him in office.

1917 – The Russian Empire is formally replaced by the very short-lived Russian Republic.

1944 –  Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces in World War II

1959 – The first man made object to reach the Moon, the Soviet Luna 2 probe, crashes on the surface.

1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.

1982 – Her Serene Highness Princess Grace Kelly Grimaldi of Monaco dies at Monaco Hospital, of injuries suffered in an auto accident.

1984 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1989 –Before committing suicide, Joseph T. Wesbecker, kills 8 and wounds 12 people at his former workplace, Standard Gravure, in Louisville, Kentucky.

1994 – The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike by the players.

1998 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete a $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.

2001 – A National Prayer Service is held at the Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks.

2015 – Staff at the National Science Foundation’s LIGO interferometer laboratories in the U.S. collaborating with the European Gravitational Observatory’s Virgo laboratory near Pisa, Italy make the first direct observations of gravitational waves, confirming Albert Einstein’s prediction under General Relativity.