1914

1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. (see link for calendar)

Events

January-April

• January 4 - 77 seal hunters freeze to death on ice near Labrador.
• January 5 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
• February 13 - Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
• March 10 - Suffragette Mary Richardson damages Velasquez painting Rokeby Venus in London’s national gallery with a meat chopper.
• March 16 - Wife of French minister Joseph Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmet, the editor of Le Figaro because he threatened to publish Caillaux's love letters to her during his previous marriage. (She is later acquitted.)
• March 27 - Belgian surgeon A. Hustin makes the first successful blood transfusion, using anticoagulants.
• April 14 - The city of Irving, Texas is incorporated.
• April 21 - 3000 US marines land in Vera Cruz, Mexico.
• The American Radio Relay League is founded.

May-July

• May 9 - J.T. Hearne becomes the first bowler to take 3000 first-class wickets.
• May 14 - Woodrow Wilson signs Mother's Day proclamation.
• May 14 - The Hellenic Holocaust begins in the Ottoman Empire.
• May 25 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule.
• May 29 - The ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 lives lost.
• June 1 - Woodrow Wilson's envoy Edward Mandell House meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• June 28 - The assassination in Sarajevo: Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife, the Archduchess Sophie are killed by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
• July 18 - The Signal Corps of the United States Army is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time.
• July 28 - World War I begins: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it fails to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the Sarajevo assassination.
• July 31 - French pacifist Jean Jaures is assassinated.

August

• August 1 - Germany declares war on Russia, following Russia's military mobilization in support of Serbia.
• August 2 - German troops occupy Luxembourg.
• August 2 - Secret treaty between Turkey and Germany to secure Turkish neutrality
• August 3 - Germany declares war on Russia's ally France.
• August 4 - German troops invade neutral Belgium. Britain declares war on Germany after the latter fails to respect Belgian neutrality. The United States declares neutrality.
• August 5 - In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
• August 15 - The Panama Canal opens to traffic.
• August 20 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
• August 23 - Japan declares war on Germany.

September-October

• September 1 - St. Petersburg, Russia changes its name to Petrograd.
• September 5 - London Agreement - no member of Triple Entente (Britain, France, or Russia) may seek a separate peace with Central Powers.
• September 5 - World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins - Northeast of Paris, the French 6th Army under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury attack German forces who are advancing on the capital. Over 2 million troops will fight in the battle and 100,000 will be killed or wounded in this significant Allied victory.
• September 6 - French and British counterattack at Marne ends German advance on Paris.
• September 17 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
• September 26 - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.
• October 9 - World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.
• October 29 - World War I: Ottoman warships shell Russian Black Sea ports: Russia, France, and Britain declare war on November 1-5.

November

• November 1 - World War I: Battle of Coronel fought - A Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock is met and defeated by the superior German forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. This is the first British naval defeat of the war.
• November 4 - Britain and France declare war on Turkey.
• November 5 - The United Kingdom annexes Cyprus, and together with France declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
• November 16 - A year after being created by passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.
• November 28 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

Unknown dates

• Ludlow Massacre in Colorado - 33 dead.
• Marcus Garvey in Jamaica founds Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
• First everyday items made of stainless steel come into public circulation.
• French Buddhist Alexandra David-Neel is the first European woman to visit Tibet (in disguise).
• Fulfillment of the prediction by Jehovah's Witnesses that the end of the "Gentile Times" had arrived.
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returns to India from South Africa to spearhead the Indian independence movement.
• W. H. Carrier patents design of an air conditioner.
• The capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China is moved from Guilin to Nanning.

Ongoing events

• World War I (1914-1918)
• Hellenic Holocaust (1914-1922)

Births

January-February

• January 1 - Noor Inayat Khan, World War II heroine (d. 1944)
• January 4 - Jane Wyman, American actress
• January 5 - George Reeves, American actor (d. 1959)
• January 6 - Danny Thomas, American singer, actor, and comedian (d. 1991)
• January 14 - Harold Russell, Canadian actor (d. 2002)
• January 17 - William Stafford, American poet and pacifist (d. 1993)
• January 18 - Arno Schmidt, German author (d. 1979)
• January 30 - John Ireland, Canadian-born actor (d. 1992)
• January 30 - David Wayne, actor (d. 1995)
• January 31 - Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (d. 1994)
• February 4 - Alfred Andersch, German writer (d. 1980)
  • Ida Lupino, English actress, director, and writer (d. 1995)
• February 5 - William S. Burroughs, American author (d. 1997)
• February 6 - Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor
• February 9 - Ernest Tubb, American country music singer (d. 1984)
• February 11 - Matt Dennis, singer
  • French Duynstee, Dutch lawyer
  • Winand Borgerhoff Mulder Dutch judge
  • Menelaos Pallantios, composer
• February 12 - Tex Beneke, American musician and band leader (d. 2000)
• February 24 - Zachary Scott, American actor (d. 1965)

March-April

• March 1 - Ralph Ellison, American writer (d. 1994)
• March 2 - Martin Ritt, American director (d. 1990)
• March 6 - Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (d. 1981)
• March 8 - Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Soviet physicist (d.1987)
• March 13 - Edward O'Hare, American pilot (d. 1943)
• March 14 - Bill Owen, English actor (d. 1999
• March 17 - Sammy Baugh, American football player
• March 19 - Jay Berwanger, American football player (d. 2002)
• March 25 - Norman Borlaug, American plant pathologist and architect of the Green Revolution
• March 26 - William Westmoreland, U.S. general
• March 28 - Edmund Muskie, American politician (d. 1996)
• March 30 - Sonny Boy Williamson, American musician (d. 1948)
• March 31 - Octavio Paz, Mexican author, Nobel Prize for Literature (d. 1998)
• April 2 - Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)
• April 4 - Marguerite Duras, French author and director (d. 1996)
  • Frances Langford, American singer and actress (d. 2005)
• April 22 - Jan de Hartog, Dutch writer (d. 2002)
• April 25 - Ross Lockridge, Jr., American writer (d. 1948)
• April 26 - Bernard Malamud, American author (d. 1986)
  • Lilian Rolfe, French-born World War II heroine (d. 1945)

May-June

• May - Arnold Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skating trainer (d. 2003)
• May 8 - Romain Gary, Russian-born writer and diplomat (d. 1980)
• May 9 - Hank Snow, Canadian country musician (d. 1999)
• May 12 - Howard K. Smith, American journalist (d. 2002)
• May 13 - Joe Louis, American boxer (d. 1981)
• May 18 - Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera singer (d. 1993)
• May 19 - Go Seigen, Japanese go player
  • Max Perutz, Austrian molecular biologist (d. 2002)
• May 22 - Vance Packard, American author (d. 1996)
  • Sun Ra, American jazz musician (d. 1993)
• May 28 - W. G. G. Duncan Smith, World War II pilot (d. 1996)
• May 29 (?) - Tenzing Norgay, mountaineer (d. 1986)
  • Eduard Pestel, scientist and engineer (d. 1988)
• June 3 - Roy Glenn, American actor (d. 1971)
• June 15 - Yuri Andropov, Soviet politician (d. 1984)
• June 19 - Alan Cranston, U.S. Senator (d. 2000)
  • Harry Lauter, American character actor (d. 1990)
• June 21 - William Vickrey, Canadian economist (d. 1996)
• June 29 - Rafael Kubelik, Czech born swiss conductor (d. 1996)

July-September

• July 15 - Hammond Innes, English author (d. 1998)
• July 19 - John Kenneth Macalister, Canadian World War II hero (d. 1944)
  • Marius Russo, Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
• July 30 - Lord Killanin, Irish president of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1999)
• August 2 - Beatrice Straight, Academy Award-winning American actress (d. 2001)
• August 9 - Tove Jansson, Finnish author (d. 2001)
• August 15 - Paul Rand, American graphic designer (d. 1996)
• August 17 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1988)
  • Gabrielle Weidner, Belgian World War II heroine (d. 1945)
• September 5 - Sor Isolina Ferré, Puerto Rican Catholic nun (d. 2000)
• September 11 - Sidney Hart, British trade unionist and religious administrator (d. 2005)
• September 12 - Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (d. 1999)
  • Janusz Zurakowski, Polish-Canadian pilot (d. 2004)
• September 14 - Clayton Moore, American actor (d. 1999)
• September 15 - Creighton Williams Abrams, U.S. general (d. 1974)
• September 16 - Allen Funt, American television show host (d. 1999)
• September 23 - Bethsabée de Rothschild, English philanthropist and patron of dance (d. 1999)

October-December

• October 1 - Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, writer and Librarian of Congress (d. 2004)
• October 6 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (d. 2002)
• October 10 - Tommy Fine, Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
• October 14 - Raymond Davis Jr., American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 14 - Dick Durrance, American skier (d. 2004)
• October 16 - Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan
• October 17 - Jerry Siegel, American actor (d. 1996)
• October 21 - Martin Gardner, American writer on mathematics and games
• October 27 - Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (d. 1953)
• October 28 - Jonas Salk, American medical scientist (d. 1995)
• November 11 - Howard Fast, American novelist and television writer (d. 2003)
• November 13 - Alberto Lattuada, Italian film director (d. 2005)
• November 20 - Charles Berlitz, American author (d. 2003)
• November 20 - Jean-Pierre Grenier, French actor (d. 2000)
• November 25 - Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 1999)
• December 10 - Dorothy Lamour, American actress (d. 1996)
• December 24 - Herbert Reinecker, German writer
• December 26 - Richard Widmark, American actor
• December 29 - Billy Tipton, American jazz musician (d. 1989)
• December 30 - Bert Parks, American singer and actor (d. 1992)

Deaths

• February 24 - Joshua Chamberlain, American Civil War general (b. 1828)
• March 1 - Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto (b. 1845)
• March 6 - George Washington Vanderbilt II, American businessman (b. 1862)
• March 19 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (b. 1850)
• April 1 - Rube Waddell, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1876)
• April 2 - Paul von Heyse, German writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1830)
• May 2 - John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, husband of Princess Louise of the United Kingdom (b. 1845)
• June 21 - Bertha von Suttner, Austrian pacifist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1843)
• June 28 - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1873)
• June 28 - Archduchess Sophie Chotek, wife of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1868)
• July 3 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (b. 1836)
• August 4 - Hubertine Auclert, French feminist (b. 1848)
• August 12 - John Philip Holland, Irish developer of the submarine (b. 1840)
• August 20 - Pope Pius X (b. 1835)
• August 30 - Aleksander Samsonov, Russian general (b. 1859)
• September 3 - Albéric Magnard, French composer (b. 1865)
• December 24 - John Muir, American naturalist (b. 1838)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Max von Laue
• Chemistry- Theodore William Richards
• Medicine - Robert Bárány
• Literature - not awarded
• Peace - not awarded