What Happened Today in History on May 14

The London based "Virginia Company," holder of a royal charter granted in 1606 by King James for the colonial pursuit; establishes the first permanent English settlement in America as "James Fort" at now Jamestown, Virginia on May 14, 1607 (Gregorian Calendar) With 104 men arriving aboard the ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery.  Expand +

 Henry IV King of France and King of Navarre is assassinated. He was also known as Good King Henry (le Bon Roi Henri) or Henry the Great (Henri le Grand),  He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France, as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in Paris by François Ravaillac, a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII. More

The witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts begin with the arrest of Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good, and Tituba. Over the next year, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft, and 20 were executed, with 19 being hanged and one being pressed to death. The trials eventually came to an end in early 1693, with the governor eventually pardoning those who had been convicted. More  Expand +

British Dr. Edward Jenner successfully demonstrates that inoculation with cowpox matter provides immunity against smallpox, marking the beginning of modern vaccination. He famously vaccinated James Phipps, a boy of age 8, with cowpox, and, then later tested his immunity by exposing him to smallpox. James Phipps did not contract smallpox, proving Jenner's discovery. More

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, set out from St. Louis, Missouri traveling up the Missouri River on a mission to explore and map the newly acquired western territory of the United States. The group consisted of around 30 members, including soldiers, interpreters, scouts, and others. Expand +

The 1904 Summer Olympics are held in St. Louis, Missouri. The first Olympics hosted in the United States and the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded. The event was originally awarded to the city of Chicago but was changed to St. Louis, where the World’s Fair called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was to be taking place, in order to avoid the possibility of conflicting athletic competitions. 
Due to the cost and difficulty in traveling, only 12 countries participated across the 95 events with over half of the events being contested only by U.S. athletes which accounted for 523 of the 630 total athletes. More

Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, at midnight May 14. just before the expiration of the British mandate in Palestine—precipitating the first  Arab-Israeli war. The UN General Assembly had adopted the resolution to partition Palestine on 29 November 1947 and Britain had announced the termination of its Mandate for Palestine, effective on 15 May 1948. Ben-Gurion became Israel’s first premier. More 

The Warsaw Treaty Organization (also known as the Warsaw Pact), a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries. The Soviet Union formed this alliance as a counterbalance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a collective security alliance concluded between the United States, Canada and Western European nations in 1949. More

Abraham Fortas, becomes the first member of the U.S. Supreme Court to resign under threat of impeachment. Fortas faced serious accusations of impropriety after revelations about his financial dealings with financier Louis Wolfson and the existence of a contract in which Fortas was to receive $20,000 annually from Wolfson, ostensibly for consultancy services during a time when Wolfson was under federal investigation for stock manipulation. The Justice Department investigated Fortas at the behest of President Richard Nixon. Attorney General John N. Mitchell pressured Fortas into resigning. More

Skylab, America’s first space station, Skylab, is launched. Three, three-man crews occupied the Skylab workshop for a total of 171 days and 13 hours. It was the site of nearly 300 scientific and technical experiments, including medical experiments on humans’ adaptability to zero gravity, solar observations and detailed Earth resources experiments. Skylab is no longer in space. After completing its missions, Skylab re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke apart, with debris falling in Western Australia in 1979. More