1381The boy king meets the rebels, and the Tower of London falls
In 1381 a third poll tax in four years pushed the villagers of Essex and Kent into open revolt. Led by Wat Tyler and stirred by the preacher John Ball, who asked why some should be lords and others serfs, thousands marched on London. On 13 June they crossed into the city, and the government of the fourteen-year-old Richard II took refuge in the Tower.
On 14 June the young king rode out to meet the men of Essex at Mile End and promised them what they asked: an end to serfdom and forced labour, cheap land and free trade. While he was away, rebels forced their way into the Tower, the only time in its history it has been breached. They seized the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury, who was also chancellor, and the treasurer Sir Robert Hales, blamed for the tax, and beheaded them on Tower Hill. The next day Tyler was killed at Smithfield, and the king’s promises were soon withdrawn.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Historic Royal Palaces: The Peasants’ Revolt, the only time the Tower was breached ↗
1800Napoleon snatches victory at Marengo
In the spring of 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte, now First Consul of France, led an army over the Alps into northern Italy to strike at the Austrians. Believing the enemy was trying to slip away, he spread his forces out. On 14 June the Austrian commander Michael von Melas attacked on the plain of Marengo, near Alessandria, with about 31,000 men against some 28,000 French, and for most of the day the French were driven back.
The battle turned late in the afternoon. General Louis Desaix, sent off towards Genoa but held up by flooded rivers, marched back to the sound of the guns with about 6,000 men. His counter-attack, together with a sudden charge by François-Étienne Kellermann’s cavalry, broke the Austrian column. Desaix was shot dead leading it. The victory forced Austria to give up much of northern Italy and made Napoleon’s hold on power in Paris secure.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Battle of Marengo ↗
1846Settlers raise the Bear Flag over Sonoma
In 1846 California was still part of Mexico, thinly governed from far away, while American settlers were arriving in the Sacramento Valley in growing numbers. Rumours spread that the Mexican authorities meant to expel them, and war between the United States and Mexico had already begun on the Texas border, though the news had not yet reached California.
At dawn on 14 June about thirty armed settlers rode into Sonoma, the main Mexican post north of San Francisco Bay. They took the town without a fight and made prisoners of General Mariano Vallejo and his officers. Led by William B. Ide, they declared a ‘California Republic’ and raised a home-made flag showing a grizzly bear and a red star. The republic lasted less than a month: in July the US Navy raised the Stars and Stripes, and the bear later returned on California’s state flag.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Bear Flag Revolt ↗
1982Argentine forces surrender at Stanley
Argentina had seized the Falkland Islands, a British territory it claims as the Malvinas, on 2 April 1982. Britain sent a naval task force some 8,000 miles south, and after landings at San Carlos in May, British troops fought their way across East Falkland. In the second week of June they took the ring of mountains overlooking Stanley in hard night battles.
By the morning of 14 June it was clear to General Mario Menéndez, the Argentine commander, that his cut-off garrison could not hold out. A ceasefire was called, and that evening he signed the instrument of surrender with Major General Jeremy Moore, commander of the British land forces. The 74-day war cost 907 lives: 649 Argentine, 255 British and three islanders. In Argentina the defeat forced out the junta leader, General Galtieri, within days, and military rule ended the following year.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Imperial War Museums: Falklands conflict ↗
1985Five countries sign the Schengen Agreement on a riverboat
Schengen is a small wine village in Luxembourg, on the River Moselle at the point where Luxembourg, France and Germany meet. On 14 June 1985 ministers from Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands met there aboard the passenger boat Princesse Marie-Astrid and signed an agreement to lower the checks at their shared borders step by step.
The aim was that people could one day cross from one country to another without showing a passport at all. A detailed convention followed in 1990, and the first borders opened fully in March 1995, by which time Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece had joined. The Schengen area has since grown to cover most of the European Union and several countries outside it, and the village’s name has become shorthand for travel without border controls.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: European Commission: History of Schengen ↗
