Important Events From This day in History – 14 May

Today in History

• 1973 Skylab blasts off into orbit

  On July 11, 1979, four years ahead of schedule, the United States’ first space station crashed back to Earth. The laboratory was used for many biomedical and technological experiments during its six-year tenure.

• 1970 The Red Army Faction (RAF) begins operations

  The German left-wing activist group arose from the 1960s peace and anti-imperialist movement. In response to the German state’s violent oppression, they later became a terrorist cell and are responsible for several murders.

• 1955 The Warsaw Pact is established

  Eight communist bloc countries signed the mutual defense treaty, which played an important role during the Cold War as an antagonist of NATO.

• 1948 Israel becomes an independent state

  The announcement by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion triggered the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, a 10-month armed conflict. Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, and Iraq launched an invasion of the young nation the day after the proclamation.

• 1796 The first smallpox vaccination is administered

  Edward Jenner, a British physician, successfully inoculated an 8-year-old smallpox patient with material from a cowpox lesion. The term “vaccine” comes from the Latin word for “cow” (vacca).