On This Day: 14 May

Battle of Lewes: Henry III is defeated by the barons under Simon de Montfort		1264
Battle of Agnadello: the French army overcomes the Venetians		1509
The first permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia		1607
Henry IV of France is assassinated in Paris by fanatical monk Francois Ravaillac, and succeeded by Louis XIII		1610
Louis XIV becomes King of France, aged 4		1643
In the War of the Austrian Succession, a British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre		1747
The Oaks is run for the first time, at Epsom		1779
A Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia, to write a new Constitution for the United States – but is not yet quorate; George Washington presides		1787
Edward Jenner carries out the first successful smallpox vaccination		1796
Pasha Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli declares war on the USA		1801
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to find a route to the Pacific coast		1804
A ruling junta is created in Paraguay, and proclaims independence		1811
The Illustrated London News is published for the first time		1842
HMS Driver arrives at Spithead, becoming the first steamship to circumnavigate the world		1847
Nelson College and Nelson RFC contest the first game of rugby played in New Zealand		1870
Robert A. Chesebrough patents Vaseline		1878
The second modern Olympiad, and the first at which women competed, opens in Paris		1900
The Franco–British Exhibition opens at White City, London		1908
Charles Furnas, sitting alongside Wilbur Wright, becomes the first air passenger		1908
The Rockefeller Foundation begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller		1913
BBC broadcasts from Savoy Hill for the last time		1932
In Peru, five–year–old Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history		1939
Samuel Goldwyn buys out Chaplin, Fairbanks and Pickford and takes control of United Artists		1939
Local Defence Volunteer Force (later renamed the Home Guard) formed		1940
Israel proclaimed an independent state as the British mandate ends		1948
Atlantic Records is founded by Ahmet Ertegun, son of the Turkish ambassador to the USA		1948
The Tal–y–llyn Railway opens in Wales – the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers		1951
Knights of the Round Table – the first British–made Cinemascope film – is shown at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square		1954
The Warsaw Pact is signed by eight countries including the Soviet Union – placing all member countries under one military command		1955
Royal Navy frogman Commander Lionel 'Buster' Crabbe disappears while allegedly bugging visiting Soviet ships near Portsmouth		1956
Petrol rationing ends in the UK after five months, following the Suez Crisis		1957
The River Nile is diverted to allow the building of the next stage of the Aswan High Dam		1964
French workers support demonstrating students with a one–day strike		1968
Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others – a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction		1970
Skylab I – the USA's first space station – is launched at Cape Kennedy		1973
Chess first performed, in London		1986
Coup in Fiji against the influence of Indian immigrants in government		1987
Winnie Mandela is sentenced to six years' imprisonment for complicity in the kidnapping and beating of four youths. But she didn't go to prison, and the sentence was quashed in 1993		1991
President Chirac of France travels in the Channel Tunnel and lunches with the Queen on British beef, at the start of a state visit		1996
Popular unrest in Jakarta erupts in riots, leaving the city in a state of anarchy		1998
Scientists warn that a "second wave" of new variant Creuzfeld–Jakob Disease – the human variant of BSE of "mad cow disease" – could strike in a few years' time, and could be much more serious than the 99 cases discovered so far		2001
Piers Morgan, editor of the Daily Mirror, is sacked after publishing fake pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners (his employers saying that he had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax")		2004

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On This Day: 14 May