#TodayInHistory – August 14

August 14 – Some important events on this day.

554 👉🏼 Ravenna becomes seat of Byzantine military governor in Italy
1040 👉🏼 King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare’s play). The latter does succeed him as King.

1281 👉🏼 During Kublai Khan’s second Mongol invasion of Japan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near Japan.
In 1274 the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan launched the first of two failed invasions of Japan. Eight years before, Kublai had sent a letter to the Japanese emperor (who in the letter he called the “King of Japan”), threatening the use of force unless Japan submitted.
The Japanese did not respond. So it was that five years later the Mongol empire (specifically the Yuan dynasty in China and Korean soldiers form the tributary state of Goryeo) launched an amphibious attack on Japan. The Mongols were however repulsed in their first invasion, and, upon being forced back to their ships, were sunk by a large typhoon.
Another invasion occurred in 1281. Prior to this Kublai Khan had sent emissaries from the Yuan dynasty to Japan to negotiate but the Japanese had them beheaded. Again the Mongols were defeated by stiff resistance and their retreating ships sunk by a typhoon.
The invasions were important moments in both countries, being a defining battle in the history of Japan and setting a limit on Mongol expansion which until then had been unabated.

1498 👉🏼 Christopher Columbus landed at the mouth of the Orinoco River in what is now Venezuela
1842 👉🏼 Second Seminole War declared over by Colonel Worth; Indians go on to be removed from Florida to Oklahoma
1893 👉🏼 France introduces motor vehicle registration, includes a driving test
1900 👉🏼 1st electric tram in Netherland (Leidseplein-Brouwersgracht)
1901 👉🏼 The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

1936 👉🏼 A crowd estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 gathered at Owensboro, Kentucky, to watch the last ever public hanging in the United States. The fact that the prisoner was a young black man and that the sheriff overseeing the execution was a white woman intensified the interest of both the public and the Press and, as a result, reporters from across the country arrived to cover the event.
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1938 👉🏼 BBC’s 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague)

1945 👉🏼 V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone).
New York City celebrated Japan’s surrender of Japan with a joy not seen for a generation.
They threw anything and kissed anybody in Times Square.

1947 👉🏼 Pakistan gains independence from Great Britain
1969 👉🏼 British Army deploys on the streets of Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of Operation Banner
1980 👉🏼 17,000 workers go on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, marking the beginning of the Solidarity movement
1987 👉🏼 “Les Miserables” opens at Rock Theatre, Szeged, Hungary
2010 👉🏼 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games opens in Singapore