May 14 in history — What Happened Today in History

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction.

Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle.

Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike.

Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.

Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.

World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands, is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center.

Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.

The Constitution of the Philippines is ratified by a popular vote.

Five unarmed civilians are killed in the Ådalen shootings, as the Swedish military is called in to deal with protesting workers.

Mrs Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf's earliest and best-known novels, is published.

Cape Town Mayor, Sir Harry Hands, inaugurates the two-minute silence.

The May 14 Revolt takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.

Governor of New York William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.

Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games.

The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.

The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.

The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.

Boshin War: The Battle of Utsunomiya Castle ends as former Tokugawa shogunate forces withdraw northward.

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces drive Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi in the Battle of Jackson.

Mindon Min is crowned as King of Burma in Mandalay, Burma.

The first edition of The Illustrated London News, the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine, is published.

The Treaties of Velasco are signed in Velasco, Texas.

The Battle of Stillman's Run, the first battle of the Black Hawk War, is fought.

Paraguay: Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia start actions to depose the Spanish governor.

William Clark and 42 men depart from Camp Dubois to join Meriwether Lewis at St Charles, Missouri, marking the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's historic journey up the Missouri River.

Kristina Mladenovic, French tennis player

Rob Gronkowski, American football player

François Steyn, South African rugby player

Clay Matthews III, American football player

Dustin Lynch, American singer-songwriter

Sam Perrett, New Zealand rugby league player

Zack Ryder, American wrestler

Gary Ablett, Jr., Australian footballer

Olly Murs, English singer-songwriter

Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and businessman, co-founder of Facebook

Anahí, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Frank Gore, American football player

Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwean cricketer

Micheál O'Brien, Irish footballer and hurler (born 1923)

Stanton J. Peale, American astrophysicist and academic (born 1937)

Franz Wright, Austrian-American poet and translator (born 1953)

Jeffrey Kruger, English-American businessman (born 1931)

Emanuel Raymond Lewis, American librarian and author (born 1928)

Morvin Simon, New Zealand historian, composer, and conductor (born 1944)

Wayne Brown, American accountant and politician, 14th Mayor of Mesa (born 1936)

Arsen Chilingaryan, Armenian footballer and manager (born 1962)

Asghar Ali Engineer, Indian author and activist (born 1939)

Ray Guy, Canadian journalist (born 1939)

Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian author and screenwriter (born 1931)

Mario Trejo, Argentinian poet, playwright, and journalist (born 1926)

Frank J. Dodd, American businessman and politician, president of the New Jersey Senate (born 1938)