41st year - Nr 134 Thursday, 14 May 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 134 Thursday, 14 May 2026

14 May / Today's 37 Events:

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(x) 383 years ago Thursday 14th of May 1643 5-year-old King of France and Navarre Louis XIV, originally Louis Dieudonné aka Le Roi du Soleil becomes King upon the death of his father Louis XIII in Paris, Île-de-France, France. Louis' reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in European history.

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(+) 194 years ago Monday 14th of May 1832 Burglar and murderer Charles Frederick Peace aka The Murderous Musician is born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

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(x) 170 years ago Wednesday 14th of May 1856 Start of the trial against 32-year-old Serial poisoner William Palmer aka The Prince of Poisoners in Old Bailey Criminal Court, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

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(+) 158 years ago Thursday 14th of May 1868 Physician and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld is born in Kołobrzeg, Województwo Zachodniopomorskie, Poland.

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(+) 129 years ago Friday 14th of May 1897 Musician Sidney Bechet is born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

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(-) 114 years ago Tuesday 14th of May 1912 Writer August Johan Strindberg dies of pneumonia and stomach cancer at the age of 63 in Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden.

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(x) 96 years ago Wednesday 14th of May 1930 Maria Budlick aka Maria Butlies is attacked by serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. She survived.

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(+) 95 years ago He Was Laying in a Room Thursday 14th of May 1931 Composer Alvin Lucier is born in Nashua, New Hampshire, United States.

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(-) 91 years ago Tuesday 14th of May 1935 Physician and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld dies of a heart attack at the age of 67 in Gloria Mansions I, 63 Promenade des Anglais, Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

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(+) 90 years ago He Was His Sister's Mandarin Duck Thursday 14th of May 1936 Singer-songwriter Bobby Darin, originally Walden Robert Cassotto aka The Dream Lover is born in East Harlem, New York, New York, United States. Darin was raised by his maternal grandmother Vivian Fern Walden aka Polly who he thought was his mother. Darin's birth mother Vanina Juliette 'Nina' Cassotto became pregnant with him in the summer of 1935 when she was 17. Presumably because of the scandalous nature of out-of-wedlock pregnancies in that era Nina and her mother hatched a plan to pass the baby off as her parents' child and for Nina to be passed off as his older sister. He allegedly chose the n ame Darin because he had seen a malfunctioning electrical sign at a Chinese restaurant reading "DARIN DUCK" rather than "MANDARIN DUCK".

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(x) 87 years ago Sunday 14th of May 1939 6-year-old Youngest confirmed mother in medical history Lina Medina, originally Lina Marcela Medina de Jurado gives birth to a son in Lima, Lima Metropolitana, Peru. Medina's son was named Gerardo after her doctor. He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a disease of the bone marrow.

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(-) 86 years ago Tuesday 14th of May 1940 Anarchist, political activist and writer Emma Goldman dies of complications from a stroke at the age of 71 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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(+) 82 years ago Sunday 14th of May 1944 Film director George Walton Lucas known for the Star Wars film series is born in Modesto, California, United States.

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(+) 74 years ago Wednesday 14th of May 1952 Musician David Byrne is born in Dumbarton, Scotland, United Kingdom.

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(+) 70 years ago Monday 14th of May 1956 Serial killer and cannibal Dorángel Vargas, originally José Dorángel Vargas Gomez aka El Comegente aka Hannibal Lecter of the Andes is born in Caño Zancudo, Mérida, Venezuela.

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(-) 67 years ago The Night was a Witch Thursday 14th of May 1959 Musician Sidney Bechet dies of lung cancer at the age of 62 in Garches, Île-de-France, France.

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(+) 64 years ago Monday 14th of May 1962 Kidnapper Wolfgang Přiklopil is born in Hainburg an der Donau, Niederösterreich, Austria.

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(x) 61 years ago Friday 14th of May 1965 Irena Szymańska is attacked by serial killer Zdzisław Marchwicki aka The Zagłębie Vampire in Będzin, Województwo Sląskie, Poland. Szymańska survived.

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(-) 58 years ago Tuesday 14th of May 1968 Mr Delisse is shot in the head by serial killer Nestor Pirotte aka Le Tueur Fou in Genval, Brabant-Wallon, Belgium. Pirotte, sentenced to death 13 years earlier, was out on parole.

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(x) 56 years ago Thursday 14th of May 1970 36-year-old Journalist and leader of the Rote Armee Fraktion Ulrike Marie Meinhof assists with Gudrun Ensslin in the escape of Andreas Baader in Deutsches Zentralinstitut für Soziale Fragen, Miquelstraße 83, Dahlem, Berlin, Berlin, Germany. By following Baader in his jump through the window Meinhof gave up her intellectual fight and went in the underground. This event marks the official foundation of the Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe aka Rote Armee Fraktion.

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(x) 53 years ago Monday 14th of May 1973 Six members of the Alday family are raped, sodomised, beaten and shot dead by escaped prisoners Wayne Coleman, George Dungee and Carl and Billy Isaacs in Alday Farm, Donalsonville, Georgia, United States. The victims were Jerry Alday, his 25-year-old wife Mary, his father Ned, his brothers Chester and Jimmy, and uncle Aubrey. The fugitives were arrested a few days later in West Virginia.

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(+) 52 years ago Tuesday 14th of May 1974 Murderer Dominique Jerome Green is born in Houston, Texas, United States.

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(-) 50 years ago Friday 14th of May 1976 Samuel Dodd Stapleton is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Cook, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

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(-) 50 years ago Friday 14th of May 1976 Randall W. Reffett is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Cook, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

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(x) 49 years ago Saturday 14th of May 1977 Unknown Master’s ‘Heimkehr des Verlorenen Sohnes’ is attacked with acid by 40-year-old Serial art vandal Hans-Joachim Bohlmann in Aegidienkirche, Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

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(x) 45 years ago Thursday 14th of May 1981 51-year-old Serial killer David Joseph Carpenter aka The Trailside Killer ia arrested in his parents' home after a week of surveillance in San Francisco, California, United States.

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(x) 43 years ago He Had a Passenger Saturday 14th of May 1983 38-year-old Serial killer Randy Steven Kraft aka The Scorecard Killer is arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on the Interstate 5 Freeway in Mission Viejo, California, United States. In the passenger seat of Kraft's Toyota Celica Highway Patrol officer Sgt. Michael Howard discovered the body of 25-year-old Marine Terry Lee Gambrel, strangled with a belt and his hands had been bound with shoelace and his wrists bore evidence of welt marks.

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(-) 42 years ago Monday 14th of May 1984 SS Standartenführer Walter Rauff known for inventing the ‘Black Raven’ mobile gas chambers dies of lung cancer at the age of 78 in Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile. Rauff's funeral was attended by hundreds of old Nazis.

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(-) 41 years ago Tuesday 14th of May 1985 William Makato Doi is shot dead by serial killer Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker in Monterey Park, California, United States. Doi's 64-year-old wife Lillie was ferociously beaten but survived.

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(-) 39 years ago Thursday 14th of May 1987 Actress and pin-up model Rita Hayworth, originally Margarita Carmen Cansino aka The Love Goddess dies of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 69 in The San Remo, 145 Central Park West, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States. Hayworth lapsed into a semicoma in February 1987.

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(-) 37 years ago Sunday 14th of May 1989 Aline Peres is stabbed and choked to death by serial killer Francis Heaulme aka The Emmaus Murderer aka Le Routard du Crime in Plage du Moulin Blanc, Brest, Bretagne, France.

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(-) 35 years ago The Revolution Had Been Stolen Tuesday 14th of May 1991 Actress and wife of Mao Zedong Jiang Qing, originally Lǐ Shūméng aka Lan Ping aka Madame Mao commits suicide by hanging in her bathroom at the age of 77 in Beijing, Hebei, China. Qing's suicide not read "Chairman, your student and fighter is coming to see you!"

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(-) 33 years ago Friday 14th of May 1993 Gangster and gang leader Patrick Haemers aka Le Grand Blond commits suicide by hanging in his cell at the age of 41 in Prison de Forest - Berkendael, Avenue de la Jonction 52, Forest, Brussel, Brabant, Belgium. Haemers supposedly hanged himself on a 130-centimetre-high radiator.

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(-) 29 years ago Wednesday 14th of May 1997 Joan Brock is beaten and stabbed to death by serial killer Daniel Blank aka The Parish River Killer in LaPlace, Louisiana, United States.

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(-) 28 years ago They Flew Him to the Moon Thursday 14th of May 1998 Singer and actor Frank Francis Albert Sinatra aka Ol’ Blue Eyes aka The Voice dies of a heart attack at the age of 83 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States.

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27 years ago The Eyes had it Friday 14th of May 1999 A bored man with a half empty glass in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

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(-) 23 years ago Wednesday 14th of May 2003 Actor Robert Charles Langford Modini Stack dies of a heart attack at the age of 84 in Beverly Hills, California, United States.

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