December 14

557 – A severe earthquake in Constantinople damages the dome of Hagia Sophia.

1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week on the death of her father, James V of Scotland.

1782 – The Montgolfier brothers test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats over a mile and a half.

1799 – Former President and General of The Armies, George Washington dies, age 67, at his home, Mt. Vernon, Virginia.

1814 – During the War of 1812, the Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

1836 – The boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan of the control of the mouth of the Maumee River into Lake Erie is resolved with both parties accepting Congress’ terms for admitting Michigan as a state.

1900 – Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his Black-body Radiation law within Quantum Mechanics to the German Physical Society in Berlin.

1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.

1903 – The Wright brothers make a first unsuccessful attempt to fly the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1907 – The Thomas W. Lawson, the largest sailing ship ever built, which was named after the American owner, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather’s Reef within the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall England, with the loss of the pilot and 15 seamen.

1911 – Roald Amundsen and his team of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first men to reach the South Pole.

1940 –The Pu-238 isotope of Plutonium is first synthesized by physicist Glenn Seaborg at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,  University of California, Berkeley.

1962 – NASA’s Mariner 2 probe becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

1964 – In the case of Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States expands the definition of ‘Commerce between the States” ruling that Congress can use the Constitution’s clause to fight discrimination.

1972 –At 00:40 hrs EST, Apollo 17 Mission Commander Eugene Cernan enters the Lunar Module Challenger after the last of 3 lunar surface activities, becoming the last man to walk on the Moon.
At 17:55 hrs, EST, Challenger launches from the Moon to rendezvous with the orbiting Command/Service Module America.

1985 – Wilma Mankiller takes office as the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

2012 – After murdering his mother at their home, a lone gunman murders 26 students and faculty at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut before committing suicide a minute after Police arrive at the school.

2017 – The Walt Disney Company announces that acquires 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.

2020 -The Electoral College votes 306-232 to elect Joe Biden as President.