What Happened on May 14

Historical Events

1804 – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson sets out from St Louis for Pacific Coast
1913 – Frans Hals museum opens in Haarlem, Netherlands
1945 – Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injects misdiagnosed cancer patient Albert Stevens (CAL-1) with 131 kBq (3.55 µCi) of plutonium without his knowledge. Stevens lives another 20 years, surviving the highest known accumulated radiation dose in any human
1975 – US forces raid Cambodian island of Koh Tang to free Mayaguez ship
1989 – Final TV episode of “Family Ties” airs on NBC with a 36 million audience
1990 – Dow Jones average hits a record 2,821.53

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Famous Birthdays

1867 – Kurt Eisner, German socialist politician, revolutionary and journalist (President of the People’s State of Bavaria 1918-19), born in Berlin, Prussia (d. 1919)
1883 – Jan Olieslagers, Belgian aviation and motorcycle pioneer (WWI flying ace, Antwerp Devil), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1942)
1922 – Agha Hasan Abedi, banker
1933 – Lajos Kovacs, Hungarian actor (Wings of Desire)
1933 – John Mortimore, cricketer (England off-spinner 1959-64)
1972 – Mark Ruskell, England-born Scottish politician

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Famous Deaths

1470 – Charles VIII of Sweden, King of Sweden (1448–57, 1464–65 and 1467-70) and Norway (1449–50), dies at 60
1565 – Nicolaus von Amsdorf, German reformation theologist, dies at 81
1574 – Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru, dies at 95
1864 – William N Green Jr, Union brigadier general, dies
1945 – Heber J. Grant, 7th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dies at 88
2006 – Lewis “Lew” Anderson, American actor and musician (The Howdy Doody Show), dies of prostate cancer at 84

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