A Brief History
This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on December 14th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event.
Digging Deeper
On December 14, 835, Emperor Wenzong of the Chinese Tang Dynasty was given the news that “sweet dew” had formed on a pomegranate tree outside a military headquarters, a sign of divine favor for the Emperor.
On December 14, 1836, a war between the States ended, but one you may not be familiar with.
On December 14, 1909, the last paving brick was laid at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, giving the venue its iconic nickname, The Brickyard.
On December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen of Norway narrowly beat a doomed English expedition to win the race to the South Pole!
On December 14, 1940, at the University of California at Berkeley, atomic scientists first isolated the element Plutonium, a radioactive element with a designation of Pu-238 on the atomic chart of the elements (also known as the Periodic Chart), Element #94 for those keeping track.
On December 14, 1992, the War in Abkhazia took a sickening turn when a helicopter carrying refuges was shot down, killing 52 people, about half of which were innocent children.
On December 14, 2012, in Chenpeng Village of Henan Province, Chinese citizen Min Yongjun stabbed an 85-years-old lady in her own home with her own knife and then took the knife to the primary school next door and began stabbing children aged 6 to 11.
On December 14, 2017, we took a moment to discuss the new feature film, The Shape of Water, a science fiction Cold War based movie that is hard to fit into a particular movie genre.
On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company continued a trend of corporate mergers and acquisitions that are killing competition in many markets when they announced the deal to acquire the 20th Century Fox movie studio for over $52 billion.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Which event that occurred on today’s date would you like to learn more about?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.