2015 – The first observation of gravitational waves was made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.
2007 – Financial crisis of 2007–2008: The Northern Rock bank experiences the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years.
1984 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
1975 – The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.
1969 – The US Selective Service selects September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date.
1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.
1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
1958 – The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.
1944 – World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.
1914 – HMAS AE1, the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.
1723 – Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena lays down the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.
1682 – Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, is founded.
Births
1995 – Deshaun Watson, American football player. Derrick Deshaun Watson (born September 14, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL).
1992 – Connor Fields, American cyclist. He represented the United States again at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the men's BMX event.
1991 – Dee Milliner, American football player. He played college football at Alabama, and was recognized as a consensus All-American in 2012.
1989 – Logan Henderson, American singer-songwriter. He played the role of Logan Mitchell on the Nickelodeon series, Big Time Rush, and is a former member of the Big Time Rush band.
1987 – Michael Crabtree, American football player. He played college football at Texas Tech, where he was a two-time unanimous All-American and twice won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best wide receiver.
1986 – Jonathan Monaghan, American director, producer, and screenwriter. Jonathan Monaghan (born September 14, 1986 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York) is an American computer animator and artist.
1985 – Delmon Young, American baseball player. Delmon Damarcus Young (born September 14, 1985) is an American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter for the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League.
1985 – Paolo Gregoletto, American bass player and songwriter. Paolo Francesco Gregoletto (born September 14, 1985) is an American musician and songwriter who is best known as the bassist of the heavy metal band Trivium.
1985 – Trevis Smith, American football player. Trevis Smith (born September 8, 1976) is a former football linebacker who played seven years with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
1983 – Frostee Rucker, American football player. Rucker has also played for the Cleveland Browns, Arizona Cardinals, and Oakland Raiders.
1983 – Josh Outman, American baseball player. He has pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics (2008-2009, 2011), Colorado Rockies (2012-2013), Cleveland Indians (2014), and New York Yankees (2014).
1982 – SoShy, French-American singer-songwriter. SoShy (born Deborah Sarah Epstein; September 14, 1986), is a French singer, songwriter, actress, DJ and model.
1978 – Danielle Peck, American singer-songwriter. Danielle Marie Peck (born September 14, 1978) is an American country music artist.
1974 – Chad Bradford, American baseball player. Chadwick Lee Bradford (born September 14, 1974) is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) relief pitcher.
1973 – Nas, American rapper. Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (/nɑːˈsɪər/; born September 14, 1973), known professionally as Nas (/nɑːz/), is an American rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, and investor.
1973 – Terrell Fletcher, American football player. Terrell Antoine Fletcher (born September 14, 1973) is a former American football running back in the National Football League, spending his entire 8-year professional football career as running back for the San Diego Chargers.
1972 – Notah Begay III, American golfer. Since 2013, Begay has served as an analyst with the Golf Channel and NBC Sports.
1971 – Christopher McCulloch, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter. Christopher McCulloch (born September 14, 1971), also known by the pseudonym Jackson Publick, is an American comic book and television writer, director, storyboard artist, and voice actor known for his work on several Tick properties and for the animated television series The Venture Bros.
1971 – Jeff Loomis, American guitarist and songwriter. Jeff Loomis (born September 14, 1971) is an American musician, best known for his role as lead guitarist in the progressive metal band Nevermore.
1971 – Kimberly Williams-Paisley, American actress, director, and producer, was nominated for several awards and its sequel, Father of the Bride Part II (1995). Throughout her acting career, she has guest-starred on TV shows including Tales From The Crypt, George Lopez and Less Than Perfect.
1970 – Ben Garant, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Robert Ben Garant (born September 14, 1970) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, actor and comedian.
1970 – Craig Montoya, American singer-songwriter and bass player. Craig Aloysius Montoya (born September 14, 1970) is the bassist of Castella and Tri-Polar and former bassist of Everclear.
1968 – Michelle Stafford, American actress, producer, and screenwriter. In 2013, Stafford created and starred in her own comedy web series, The Stafford Project.
1964 – Faith Ford, American actress. She is known for her roles as Corky Sherwood on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown, for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and as Hope Shanowski on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith.
1962 – Bonnie Jo Campbell, American novelist and short story writer. Norton and Company.
1962 – Tom Kurvers, American ice hockey player and sportscaster. Thomas James Kurvers (born September 14, 1962) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who currently serves as the interim general manager for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL).
1961 – Wendy Thomas, American businesswoman. Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas-Morse (born September 14, 1961) is the daughter and fourth child of American businessman Dave Thomas, the founder of the fast food brand Wendy's.
1960 – Melissa Leo, American actress. She is the recipient of several acting awards, including an Academy Award, an Emmy Award (Primetime), a Golden Globe Award, two Critics' Choice Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
1958 – Beth Nielsen Chapman, American singer-songwriter. Beth Nielsen Chapman (born September 14, 1958 in Harlingen, Texas) is an American singer and songwriter who has written hits for country and pop music performers.
1957 – Tim Wallach, American baseball player and coach. A five-time All-Star, Wallach excelled as an offensive and as a defensive player, winning 2 Silver Slugger Awards and 3 Gold Glove Awards.
1955 – Edu Manzano, American-Filipino actor and politician. Eduardo Barrios Manzano (born September 14, 1955) is an American-born Filipino actor, comedian, politician, television personality and United States Air Force veteran.
1955 – Steve Berlin, American saxophonist, keyboard player, and producer. Berlin (born September 14, 1955, Philadelphia) is an American saxophonist, keyboardist and record producer, best known as a member of the rock group Los Lobos and, before that, Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs, the Blasters, and the Flesh Eaters.
1954 – Barry Cowsill, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2005). Barry Cowsill (September 14, 1954 – c.
1954 – David Wojnarowicz, American painter and photographer (d. 1992), was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist and AIDS activist prominent in the New York City art world. He incorporated personal narratives affected by both his struggle with AIDS as well as his political activism in his art until his death from the disease in 1992.
1953 – Tom Cora, American cellist and composer (d. 1998), was an American cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, Butch Morris, and The Ex, and was a member of Curlew, Third Person and Skeleton Crew.
1950 – John Steptoe, American author and illustrator (d. 1989), was an author and illustrator for children’s books dealing with aspects of the African-American experience. He is best known for Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, which was acknowledged by literary critics as a breakthrough in African history and culture.
1950 – Mike Nifong, American lawyer and politician. Michael Byron Nifong (born September 14, 1950) is a disbarred North Carolina attorney.
1949 – Ed King, American guitarist and songwriter (Strawberry Alarm Clock, Lynyrd Skynyrd), was an American musician. He was a guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock and guitarist and bassist for the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1987 to 1996.
1949 – Fred "Sonic" Smith, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1994), was an American guitarist, best known as a member of the influential and political Detroit rock band, the MC5. At age 31, he married and raised a family with poet and fellow rock musician, Patti Smith.
1949 – Steve Gaines, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1977), was an American musician. He is best known as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter with rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1976 until his death in the October 1977 airplane crash that claimed other band members and crew.
1948 – Marc Reisner, American environmentalist and author (d. 2000), was an American environmentalist and writer best known for his book Cadillac Desert, a history of water management in the American West.
1947 – Jon Bauman, American singer. Jon "Bowzer" Bauman (born September 14, 1947) is an American musician, best known as a member of the band Sha Na Na, and game show host.
1946 – Jim Angle, American soldier and journalist. James Leslie Angle, II (born September 14, 1946 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American journalist and former television reporter for Fox News.
1946 – Wolfgang Sühnholz, German-American soccer player and coach, was an American soccer coach and player from Germany.
1944 – Joey Heatherton, American actress, singer, and dancer. She performed for over a decade on USO tours presented by Bob Hope, and starred in several feature films including My Blood Runs Cold (1965) and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977).
1942 – Oliver Lake, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer. During the 1960s Lake worked with the Black Artists Group in St.
1941 – Alex St. Clair, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2006). Clair (born Alexis Clair Snouffer; September 14, 1941 – c.
1941 – Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, American civil rights activist. She is known for taking part in sit-ins, being the first white to integrate Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi and joining the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, joining Freedom Rides, and being held on death row in Parchman Penitentiary.
1939 – DeWitt Weaver, American golfer, was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders from 1951 to 1960.
1937 – Renzo Piano, Italian architect and engineer, designed The Shard and The New York Times Building. Renzo Piano OMRI OMCA (/piˈɑːnoʊ/ pee-AH-noh, Italian: ; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect.
1936 – Ferid Murad, American physician and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate. Ferid Murad (born September 14, 1936) is an Albanian American physician and pharmacologist, and a co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1936 – Lucas Samaras, Greek-American painter and photographer. Lucas Samaras (born September 14, 1936) is a Greek-American artist.
1936 – Walter Koenig, American actor, producer, and screenwriter. Walter Marvin Koenig (/ˈkeɪnɪɡ/; born September 14, 1936) is an American actor, writer, teacher, and director known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5.
1934 – Don Walser, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006), was an American country music singer. He was known as a unique, award-winning yodeling "Texas country music legend."
1934 – Kate Millett, American author and activist (d. 2017), was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended Oxford University and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors after studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford.
1933 – Harve Presnell, American actor and singer (d. 2009). He began his career in the mid-1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States.
1930 – Allan Bloom, American philosopher and academic (d. 1992), was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève.
1930 – Eugene I. Gordon, American physicist and engineer (d. 2014). He was Director of the Lightwave Devices Laboratory of Bell Labs.
1928 – Jay Cameron, American reed player and saxophonist (d. 2001), was an American jazz reed player, with an emphasis in baritone saxophone. He was born in New York City and died in San Diego, California.
1927 – Edmund Szoka, American cardinal (d. 2014), was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was President Emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President Emeritus of the Governorate of Vatican City State, having previously served as Bishop of Gaylord from 1971 to 1981 and Archbishop of Detroit from 1981 to 1990.
1927 – Gardner Dickinson, American golfer (d. 1998), was an American professional golfer.
1927 – Jim Fanning, American-Canadian baseball player and manager (d. 2015). William James Fanning (September 14, 1927 – April 25, 2015) was an American-Canadian catcher, manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball.
1927 – Martin Caidin, American author and screenwriter (d. 1997), was an American author and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.
1926 – Richard Ellsasser, American organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1972), was an American concert organist, composer, and conductor, who was primarily active during the 1940s, 50's and 60's. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 14, 1926, the young Ellsasser was a musical prodigy who studied piano and organ, first with his father, and later with Winslow Cheney and Albert Riemenschneider.
1924 – Jerry Coleman, American baseball player and manager (d. 2014). Gerald Francis Coleman (September 14, 1924 – January 5, 2014) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman for the New York Yankees and manager of the San Diego Padres for one year.
1924 – Patricia Barringer, American baseball player and accountant (d. 2007), was an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ballplayer. Listed at 5' 7", 145 lb., she batted and threw right handed.
1922 – Frances Bergen, American model and actress (d. 2006), was an American actress and fashion model. She was the wife of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the mother of actress Candice Bergen and film and television editor Kris Bergen.
1921 – Constance Baker Motley, American lawyer, judge, and politician (d. 2005), was an African-American civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, state senator, and Borough President of Manhattan, New York City. She was the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
1921 – Paul Poberezny, American pilot and businessman, founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (d. 2013), was an American aviator, entrepreneur, and aircraft designer. He founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in 1953, and spent the greater part of his life promoting homebuilt aircraft.
1920 – Alberto Calderón, Argentinian-American mathematician and academic (d. 1998), was an Argentinian mathematician. His name is associated with the University of Buenos Aires, but first and foremost with the University of Chicago, where Calderón and his mentor, the analyst Antoni Zygmund, developed the theory of singular integral operators.
1920 – Lawrence Klein, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013). Lawrence Robert Klein (September 14, 1920 – October 20, 2013) was an American economist.
1919 – Kay Medford, American actress (d. 1980). For her performance as Rose Brice in the musical Funny Girl and the film adaptation of the same name, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
1918 – Cachao López, Cuban-American bassist and composer (d. 2008), was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga (improvised jam sessions).
1916 – Eric Bentley, English-American singer, playwright, and critic. He is also a member of the New York Theater Hall of Fame, recognizing his many years of cabaret performances.
1914 – Clayton Moore, American actor (d. 1999), was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character the Lone Ranger from 1949–1951 and 1954–1957 on the television series of the same name and two related movies from the same producers.
1914 – Mae Boren Axton, American composer and educator (d. 1997), was known in the music industry as the "Queen Mother of Nashville." She co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit single "Heartbreak Hotel" with Tommy Durden. She worked with Mel Tillis, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Eddy Arnold, Tanya Tucker, Johnny Tillotson, and Blake Shelton.
1913 – Rubby Sherr, American physicist and academic (d. 2013), was an American nuclear physicist who co-invented a key component of the first nuclear weapon while participating in the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. His academic career spanned nearly eight decades, including almost 40 years working at Princeton University.
1911 – William H. Armstrong, American author and educator (d. 1999), was an American children's author and educator, best known for his 1969 novel Sounder, which won the Newbery Medal.
1910 – Lehman Engel, American composer and conductor (d. 1982). Lehman Engel (born September 14, 1910, Jackson, Mississippi; died August 29, 1982, New York City) was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.
1909 – Stuff Smith, American violinist (d. 1967), was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for the song "If You're a Viper" (the original title was "You'se a Viper").
1907 – Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (d. 1986), was a Russian, Estonian poet and literary critic; in his later years an American scholar of Russian literature.
1902 – Alice Tully, American soprano and philanthropist (d. 1993), was an American singer of opera and recital, music promoter, patron of the arts and philanthropist from New York. She was a second cousin of the American actress Katharine Hepburn.
1898 – Hal B. Wallis, American film producer (d. 1986). He is best remembered for producing Casablanca (1942), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and True Grit (1969), along with many other major films for Warner Bros. featuring such film stars as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, and Errol Flynn.
1898 – Lawrence Gellert, Hungarian-American musicologist and song collector (d. 1979), was a music collector, who, in the 1920s and 1930s, amassed a significant collection of field-recorded African-American blues and spirituals and also claimed to have documented black protest traditions in the South of the United States.
1880 – Archie Hahn, American sprinter, football player, and coach (d. 1955), was an American track athlete and is widely regarded to be one of the best sprinters in the early 20th century. He is the first athlete to win both 100m and 200m race at the same Olympic.
1879 – Margaret Sanger, American nurse and activist (d. 1966), was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
1872 – John Olof Dahlgren, Swedish-American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1963). Dahlgren (September 14, 1872 – February 11, 1963) was an American corporal serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Boxer Rebellion who received the Medal of Honor for bravery.
1869 – Kid Nichols, American baseball player and manager (d. 1953). Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols (September 14, 1869 – April 11, 1953) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played for the Boston Beaneaters, St.
1867 – Charles Dana Gibson, American illustrator (d. 1944). He was best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century.
1860 – Hamlin Garland, American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer (d. 1940), was an American novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, Georgist, and psychical researcher. He is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers.
1857 – Julia Platt, American embryologist and politician (d. 1935), was an American embryologist, politician and mayor.
1736 – Robert Raikes, English philanthropist, founded Sunday school (d. 1811), was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman, noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. He was educated at The Crypt School Gloucester.
1721 – Eliphalet Dyer, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (d. 1807), was a lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Windham, Connecticut. He was a delegate for Connecticut to many sessions of the Continental Congress.
1643 – Jeremiah Dummer, American silversmith (d. 1718), was an important colonial figure for New England in the early 18th century. His most significant contributions to American history were his A Defense of the New England Charters and his role in the formation of Yale College.
Deaths
2015 – Fred DeLuca, American businessman, co-founded Subway (b. 1947)
2014 – E. Jennifer Monaghan, English-American historian, author, and academic (b. 1933)
2014 – Tony Auth, American illustrator (b. 1942)
2011 – Malcolm Wallop, American politician (b. 1933)
2009 – Henry Gibson, American actor and (b. 1935)
2009 – Jody Powell, American diplomat, White House Press Secretary (b. 1943)
2009 – Patrick Swayze, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1952)
2008 – Hyman Golden, American businessman, co-founded Snapple (b. 1923)
2006 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-American bodybuilder and actor (b. 1926)
2005 – Robert Wise, American director and producer (b. 1914)
2005 – William Berenberg, American physician and academic (b. 1915)
2003 – Garrett Hardin, American ecologist and author (b. 1915)
2003 – Jerry Fleck, American actor and director (b. 1947)
2003 – John Serry, Sr., American accordion player and composer (b. 1915)
2002 – LaWanda Page, American actress (b. 1920)
2001 – Dorothy McGuire, American actress (b. 1918)
2000 – Beah Richards, American actress (b. 1920)
1995 – Maurice K. Goddard, American colonel and politician (b. 1912)
1992 – August Komendant, Estonian-American engineer and academic (b. 1906)
1991 – Julie Bovasso, American actress and playwright (b. 1930)
1991 – Russell Lynes, American historian, photographer, and author (b. 1910)
1986 – Gordon McLendon, American broadcaster, founded the Liberty Broadcasting System (b. 1921)
Remind me of this day