July 14 belongs to Leo Coll
Historical events & facts — July 14
What happened on July 14?
On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress used as a prison that symbolised monarchical absolutism. Although there were only seven prisoners inside, the fall of the Bastille triggered the French Revolution and marked the end of the Ancien Régime. July 14 has been celebrated ever since as Bastille Day, the national holiday of France.
On July 14, 1965, NASA's Mariner 4 space probe made the first flyby of Mars at a distance of 9,846 kilometres, transmitting the first 21 close-up photographs of the Martian surface. The images revealed an arid, crater-covered planet with no obvious signs of life, disappointing those who had hoped to find Martian canals or vegetation.
On July 14, 1958, General Abd al-Karim Qasim led a coup in Iraq that overthrew and killed King Faisal II and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said, ending the Hashemite monarchy and proclaiming the Republic of Iraq. The July Revolution radically transformed Iraqi politics and marked the beginning of decades of instability that would culminate in Saddam Hussein's regime.
Notable birthdays — July 14
Famous people born on July 14
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism.
Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the Ustaše in 1929 and was dictator of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state built out of parts of occupied Yugoslavia by the authorities of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, from 1941 to 1945.
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the greatest and most important filmmakers in the history of cinema, most notably as a prominent figure of both European film industry and Swedish cinema. His films have been described as "profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul."
Leon Garfield
Leon Garfield FRSL was a British author. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespeare: The Animated Tales for television. His retellings of Shakespeare for young readers were published as Shakespeare Stories.
Geoffrey Wilkinson
Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson FRS was a Nobel laureate English chemist who pioneered inorganic chemistry and homogeneous transition metal catalysis.
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