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HISTORY & TIMELINE
14 June

A journey through
14 June in history

The story of 14 June runs from the ruling at Augsburg that first names Munich in 1158 to a Jamaican sprinter’s world record in Athens in 2005. In between come a peasants’ army inside the Tower of London, a French general stabbed in a Cairo garden, a calculating machine proposed to astronomers, a legal shield for Canada’s trade unions, a new American territory in the Pacific, the first computer built for civilian work, a monkey sent to the edge of space, a Church list of forbidden books laid to rest and a treaty signed on a riverboat that opened Europe’s borders.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

1158
A woodcut view of Munich published in 1572A woodcut view of Munich published in 1572Image: Unknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

An imperial ruling first names Munich

Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, had set up a market and a bridge over the River Isar at a place called Munichen, taking trade from the Bishop of Freising’s bridge nearby. The quarrel came before Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the imperial diet at Augsburg, and their ruling of 14 June 1158 is the first written record of the town. Munich counts it as its founding day.

Source: City of Munich: Munich Facts and Figures ↗
1381
The priest John Ball on horseback addressing Wat Tyler's rebels, from a manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles made around 1470The priest John Ball on horseback addressing Wat Tyler’s rebels, from a manuscript of Froissart’s Chronicles made around 1470Image: Unknown medieval artist illustrating Froissart's Chronicles · Public domain
politics · Europe

The 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.

Source: Historic Royal Palaces: The Peasants’ Revolt, the only time the Tower was breached ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1800
The Battle of Marengo, painted by Louis-François Lejeune, a French officer who fought thereThe Battle of Marengo, painted by Louis-François Lejeune, a French officer who fought thereImage: Louis-François, Baron Lejeune · Public domain
world · Europe

Napoleon 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.

Source: Britannica: Battle of Marengo ↗
1800
General Jean-Baptiste Kléber, a portrait by Louis-Léopold BoillyGeneral Jean-Baptiste Kléber, a portrait by Louis-Léopold BoillyImage: Louis-Léopold Boilly · Public domain
politics · Africa

General Kléber is assassinated in Cairo

When Napoleon slipped back to France in 1799 he left Jean-Baptiste Kléber in command of the French army in Egypt. Kléber defeated an Ottoman army at Heliopolis in March 1800 and put down a rising in Cairo. On 14 June 1800, the same day as Marengo, he was stabbed to death in the garden of his headquarters by Sulayman al-Halabi, a young man from Aleppo. Within a year the French had left Egypt.

Source: Britannica: Jean-Baptiste Kléber ↗
1822
A Babbage Difference Engine on display in a glass case at the Science Museum, LondonA Babbage Difference Engine on display in a glass case at the Science Museum, LondonImage: User:geni · CC BY-SA 4.0
science · Europe

Charles Babbage proposes a calculating engine

In the early 19th century navigators, astronomers and engineers depended on printed tables of numbers, all worked out by hand by human ‘computers’ and full of errors from calculation, copying and typesetting. The Cambridge mathematician Charles Babbage, a founder of the Astronomical Society, believed a machine could do the work without mistakes and print the results itself. On 14 June 1822 he announced his idea in a paper read to the society, a note on applying machinery to the calculation of astronomical tables. His Difference Engine would work out tables by the method of finite differences, using only addition, turned by a handle. The British government gave him money, one of the first state grants for technology, but after a dispute with his engineer the full machine was never finished. A working engine built to his later design was completed by the Science Museum in 1991.

Source: Science Museum: Charles Babbage’s Difference Engines ↗
1846
The Bear Flag Monument in the plaza at Sonoma, California, where the flag was raisedThe Bear Flag Monument in the plaza at Sonoma, California, where the flag was raisedImage: Zandcee · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Americas

Settlers 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.

Source: Britannica: Bear Flag Revolt ↗
1872
Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, photographed around 1875Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, photographed around 1875Image: George Lancefield · Public domain
politics · Americas

Canada makes trade unions legal

In spring 1872 Toronto’s printers struck for a nine-hour day, and their leaders were arrested for conspiracy, since unions were still treated as criminal combinations under old British law. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, keen to win working men’s votes and embarrass the Toronto Globe’s owner George Brown, brought in the Trade Unions Act. It became law on 14 June 1872 and declared that unions were not illegal conspiracies.

Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia: Toronto Feature, Printers’ Strike ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1900
Crowds watch the American flag raised over Iolani Palace in Honolulu at the annexation ceremony of 1898Crowds watch the American flag raised over Iolani Palace in Honolulu at the annexation ceremony of 1898Image: New York: Thompson Publishing Co, 1899 · Public domain
politics · Oceania

Hawaii becomes a US territory

American businessmen had overthrown Hawaii’s queen, Liliʻuokalani, in 1893, and the United States annexed the islands in August 1898. For two years they were run under temporary arrangements. The Hawaiian Organic Act, signed by President McKinley in April 1900, took effect on 14 June 1900, creating the Territory of Hawaii with its own elected legislature and a governor appointed from Washington. Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959.

Source: Hawaii State Legislature: The Organic Act ↗
1949
A V-2 rocket, the type that carried Albert II, on displayA V-2 rocket, the type that carried Albert II, on displayImage: AElfwine · CC BY-SA 3.0
science · Americas

A monkey rides a rocket to the edge of space

After the Second World War the United States tested captured German V-2 rockets in New Mexico, and scientists used them to ask whether living things could survive spaceflight. On 14 June 1949 a rhesus monkey named Albert II was carried to about 83 miles, above the usual boundary of space, making him the first primate and first mammal in space. He survived the flight, but his capsule’s parachute failed and he was killed on landing.

Source: NASA: A Brief History of Animals in Space ↗
1951
UNIVAC I at its dedication for the US Census Bureau, with an operator at the consoleUNIVAC I at its dedication for the US Census Bureau, with an operator at the consoleImage: U.S. Census Bureau employees · Public domain
world · Americas

UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer, goes to work

UNIVAC I was built in Philadelphia by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the makers of ENIAC, for the US Census Bureau. On 14 June 1951 it was formally dedicated and handed over to the bureau at the Eckert-Mauchly plant. It was the first computer made in the United States for business and government use rather than for the military, and it went on to tabulate part of the 1950 census.

Source: US Census Bureau: UNIVAC I ↗
1966
Title page of an Index of Forbidden Books printed in Venice in 1564Title page of an Index of Forbidden Books printed in Venice in 1564Image: Unknown printer · Public domain
culture · Europe

The Catholic Church lays its Index of forbidden books to rest

In 1559, as the Reformation spread through printed books, Pope Paul IV issued an Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of works that Catholics were forbidden to read, own or sell without permission. The list was revised again and again over four centuries. At various times it included works by Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Kant and Victor Hugo, and its final edition, in 1948, still named some 4,000 titles. After the Second Vatican Council the Church changed its approach. On 14 June 1966 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, successor to the Holy Office, issued a notification that the Index no longer had the force of church law and that no new editions would appear. It kept only a moral value: Catholics were still asked to use their consciences about harmful reading. The Index has since been a historical document.

Source: Vatican: Notification regarding the abolition of the Index of books, 14 June 1966 ↗
1982
The 1982 Liberation Memorial in Stanley, the Falkland Islands' capitalThe 1982 Liberation Memorial in Stanley, the Falkland Islands’ capitalImage: Liam Quinn from Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0
world · Americas

Argentine 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.

Source: Imperial War Museums: Falklands conflict ↗
1985
The riverside at Schengen, Luxembourg, on the Moselle where the agreement was signedThe riverside at Schengen, Luxembourg, on the Moselle where the agreement was signedImage: carrasco · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Europe

Five 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.

Source: European Commission: History of Schengen ↗
1999
The gardens of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, seat of South Africa's governmentThe gardens of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, seat of South Africa’s governmentImage: NJR ZA · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Africa

Thabo Mbeki succeeds Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela served a single term as South Africa’s first democratically elected president and stepped down after the country’s second free election in 1999. On 14 June the new parliament unanimously elected Thabo Mbeki, the ANC leader and Mandela’s deputy, to succeed him. He was sworn in two days later at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and served until 2008.

Source: The Presidency of South Africa: Former President Thabo Mbeki ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2005
Asafa Powell at the Bislett Games in Oslo in 2010Asafa Powell at the Bislett Games in Oslo in 2010Image: Chell Hill · CC BY-SA 3.0
sport · Europe

Asafa Powell runs 100 metres in 9.77 seconds

Asafa Powell grew up in Jamaica and emerged in 2004 as one of the fastest men in the world, though he had been disappointed at the Athens Olympics that summer, finishing fifth in the 100 metres final. He returned to the same Olympic stadium in Athens in June 2005 for the Tsiklitiria Grand Prix. On 14 June, helped by a legal following wind of 1.6 metres per second, he crossed the line in a time first shown as 9.78 seconds. When officials studied the photo-finish, they corrected it to 9.77, a new world record. Powell went on to equal the mark twice more and later ran 9.74, and he became famous for the sheer number of races he ran under ten seconds.

Source: World Athletics: World 100m record for Powell, 9.77 seconds ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

City of Munich: Munich Facts and Figures↗Britannica: Henry III, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony↗Historic Royal Palaces: The Peasants’ Revolt, the only time the Tower was breached↗Britannica: Peasants’ Revolt↗Britannica: Battle of Marengo↗Britannica: Louis-Charles-Antoine Desaix de Veygoux↗Britannica: Jean-Baptiste Kléber↗Fondation Napoléon: L’Égypte française, du départ de Bonaparte à l’assassinat de Kléber↗Science Museum: Charles Babbage’s Difference Engines↗Computer History Museum: The Babbage Engines↗Britannica: Bear Flag Revolt↗California State Parks: Bear Flag Monument↗The Canadian Encyclopedia: Toronto Feature, Printers’ Strike↗The Canadian Encyclopedia: Nine-Hour Movement↗Hawaii State Legislature: The Organic Act↗US House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives: Hawaii↗NASA: A Brief History of Animals in Space↗Britannica: Laika and her ‘children’, animals in the space race↗US Census Bureau: UNIVAC I↗US Census Bureau: When was UNIVAC I installed at the Census Bureau?↗Vatican: Notification regarding the abolition of the Index of books, 14 June 1966↗Britannica: Index Librorum Prohibitorum↗Imperial War Museums: Falklands conflict↗National Army Museum: The British Army and the Falklands War↗European Commission: History of Schengen↗Britannica: Schengen Agreement↗The Presidency of South Africa: Former President Thabo Mbeki↗South African History Online: President Thabo Mbeki is inaugurated↗World Athletics: World 100m record for Powell, 9.77 seconds↗World Athletics: Powell, Jamaican Sportsman of 2005↗
WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 14 June, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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