July 14

• July 14, 1420
  Hussite forces under command of Jan Žižka defeat the forces of Emperor Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor at the Battle of Vítkov Hill, a part of the first anti-Hussite crusade, on the edge of the city of Prague
• July 14, 1520
  Hernando Cortes beats the Aztecs at the Battle of Otumba in Mexico
• July 14, 1683
  Turks lay siege to Vienna
• July 14, 1771
  Junípero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan friar, founds the Mission San Antonio de Padua in California
• July 14, 1789
  Citizens of Paris, France, storm the Bastille fortress used as a prison to hold political prisoners, beginning the French Revolution and building foundation to modern political structure
• July 14, 1795
  The Marseillaise, a song written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle to mobilize all the citizens to fight against the foreign invasion, is officially adopted as the French national anthem
• April 30, 1803
  The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and doubles the size of the country by Louisiana Purchase Treaty
• July 14, 1853
  Commodore Matthew Perry meets with the chief senior councillor in the Japanese government at ceremony at Kurihama, Japan, and presents a letter from former President Fillmore to Emperor Osahito requesting trade relations
• July 14, 1868
  Tape measure enclosed in a circular case is patented, by AJ Fellows, in Connecticut, United States
• July 14, 1877
  The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the world's first nationwide labor strike, begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia due to wage cuts and poor working conditions
• July 14, 1889
  A Congress of world Socialist parties selected May 1 as International Workers Day to support the United States labor struggle
• July 14, 1897
  Swede Saloman Andrée's and 2 accomplices, Knute Fraenkle and Nils Strindberg, in the Ornen balloon are forced down after 64 hours in the first expedition to fly by balloon across the North Pole
• July 14, 1914
  First patent for liquid-fueled rocket design is granted to American physicist Robert H. Goddard
• July 14, 1946
  American pediatrician Benjamin Spock publishes his book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, the best-selling book on infant and child care
• July 14, 1958
  King Faisal II, the last King of Iraq, is assassinated during the 14 July Revolution at Baghdad
• July 14, 1960
  Jane Goodall, an English primatologist and anthropologist, begins studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania
• July 14, 2007
  Following a presidential decree, Russia withdraws from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
• July 14, 2008
  The Dark Knight, one of the best superhero films based on the DC Comics character Batman, is released in New York