October 14
2017
14 October 2017 Mogadishu bombings
On October 14, 2017, a large explosives-laden truck detonated on Maka al-Mukarrama Road in central Mogadishu near the Safari Hotel and the K-5/Howlwadaag junction. The blast killed hundreds and injured many more, overwhelming hospitals and exposing deep vulnerabilities in Somalia’s urban security and emergency response. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility, calling it a suicide attack directed at government and security targets. Read more
1973
1973 Thai popular uprising
On October 14, 1973, weeks of student-led protests against decades of military-dominated government culminated in a dramatic confrontation around Bangkok’s Democracy Monument and Ratchadamnoen Avenue. After deadly clashes between demonstrators and security forces, the moral authority of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and public pressure forced the resignation and exile of the junta’s leaders and opened a brief period of political liberalization in Thailand. Read more
1952
Battle of Triangle Hill (Shangganling Campaign)
From 14 October to 25 November 1952, UN and Chinese forces fought a bitter, attritional struggle over Triangle Hill (Hill 598) and adjacent Sniper Ridge on the central Korean front. What began as a limited UN offensive—Operation Showdown—became a weeks‑long ordeal of artillery, tunnel fighting, and repeated assaults that left both sides bloodied, produced disputed casualty totals in the thousands, and offered little strategic gain even as it shaped later tactics and armistice politics. Read more
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1943
Sobibor uprising
On October 14, 1943, prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp in German‑occupied Poland carried out a carefully planned revolt. Led by inmate organizers Leon Feldhendler and Alexander (Sasha) Pechersky, they assassinated selected SS and auxiliary personnel, then launched a mass breakout through mined fences into the surrounding forests. The revolt broke the camp’s operation, saved hundreds from immediate death, and left a complex legacy of survival, loss, postwar testimony, and memory.
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1943
Second Schweinfurt Raid (Black Thursday)
On October 14, 1943, more than 200 U.S. Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses conducted a deep daylight raid against ball‑bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany. The formations penetrated well into the Reich without continuous long‑range fighter escort and were met with fierce Luftwaffe fighter attacks and heavy flak. Losses were severe — dozens of bombers lost or written off and many hundreds of aircrew killed, wounded, missing, or captured — while the industrial damage, though real, fell short of the decisive collapse planners had hoped to achieve. The mission forced a reckoning in Allied air doctrine and accelerated the drive for long‑range fighter escort.
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1942
Sinking of SS Caribou
On the night of October 14, 1942, the passenger‑vehicle ferry SS Caribou crossing the Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and Cape Breton was struck by a German U‑boat torpedo and sank rapidly in blackout conditions. Hundreds of passengers, crew and military personnel were aboard; rescue in freezing darkness pulled survivors from lifeboats and the water, while many more were lost. The sinking shook coastal communities, shaped wartime convoy and patrol responses, and remains a solemn memory in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
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1913
Senghenydd Colliery Disaster (Universal Colliery explosion)
On October 14, 1913, an underground explosion at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, South Wales, ripped through the mine and the village that depended on it. An initial ignition of firedamp—methane—spread as flame through fine coal dust, triggering a catastrophic series of blasts that killed 439 men and boys. Rescue teams fought toxic afterdamp and further explosions; a Board of Trade inquiry later blamed firedamp ignited and propagated by coal dust and criticized dust-control and operating practices. The disaster remains Britain’s worst mining accident and a turning point in debates over mine safety.
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