#TodayInHistory – October 14

October 14 – Some important events on this day.

1066 👉🏼 Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II who is killed in the battle.
In 1066 the course of British history changed forever when William, the Duke of Normandy, landed on the southern coast of England and seized the country from its Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwinson. The French had a long history of claims in England, and in 1002 the English king Aethelred the Unready married the sister of Richard II, the Norman duke.
The Normans weren’t the only ones keen on the English throne – the Norwegians, led by King Harald Hardrada, invaded northern England but Harold defeated them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25, but at the cost of severely weakening his army immediately prior to William the Conqueror’s invasion.
William invaded with around 7,000-12,000 men, and constructed a castle in the area of Hastings. This is where the famous Battle of Hastings would happen, on October 14, 1066. King Harold was killed (by an arrow to the eye according to legend – though this is debated among historians) and William marched on London, eventually receiving the capitulation of the English barons and Harold’s uncrowned successor Edgar Aetheling.
William was crowned on 25 December 1066 and reigned until 1087. The conquest introduced the Norman language to England, eliminated the English elite, changes to governance and the formal elimination of slavery.

1322 👉🏼 Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence
1774 👉🏼 1st Continental Congress makes Declaration of Colonial Rights in Philadelphia

1855 👉🏼 A carpenter mounted his soapbox on this day complaining about high food prices. He became the first recorded amateur orator to address a crowd at what was to become Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park. ✔️ READ THE ARTICLE!

1867 👉🏼 15th and last Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigns in Japan
1882 👉🏼 University of the Punjab is founded in present day Pakistan.
1892 👉🏼 Arthur Conan Doyle publishes “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” collection of 12 stories originally published serially in “The Strand Magazine”
1926 👉🏼 A. A. Milne’s book “Winnie the Pooh” released
1933 👉🏼 Nazi Germany announces its withdrawal from the League of Nations
1940 👉🏼 Balham tube station in London is bombed by the German Luftwaffe during the Blitz, killing 64-66 people
1947 👉🏼 U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier. He becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

1968 👉🏼 Opening of the rebuilt Euston railway station in London, England.
The original Euston railway Station was London’s first mainline station and the first station to connect London with another city. Planned by George and Robert Stephenson, it was designed by Philip Hardwick and opened in 1837.
When the station was first proposed its land was still farmland but it quickly became one of London’s busiest stations. It was controversially redeveloped in the 1960s and its original entrance portico, the Doric Euston Arch, dismantled.

1979 👉🏼 1st Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. by over 100,000 people
1982 👉🏼 US President Reagan proclaims a war on drugs
2019 👉🏼 Hundreds of forest fires break out in western Lebanon, killing three and prompting calls for international help