Today in History: October 14, Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 14, the 287th day of 2026. There are 78 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 rocket engine-powered aircraft over a California desert, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier. In 2012, Yeager marked the 65th anniversary of that flight by breaking the sound barrier anew at age 89, this time in the backseat of an F-15.

Also on this date:

In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

In 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I. (Mary was beheaded in February 1587.)

In 1910, aviator Claude Grahame-White flew his biplane over Washington, D.C., and landed it on West Executive Avenue, next to the White House.

In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1964, in one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, American Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota, won the 10,000-meter race at the Tokyo Summer Games, setting a new Olympic record.

In 1981, the new president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak (HOHS’-nee moo-BAH’-rahk), was sworn in to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.

In 1986, Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2008, a grand jury in Orlando, Florida, returned charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter against Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. (She was acquitted in July 2011.)

In 2012, skydiver Felix Baumgartner became the first human to reach supersonic speeds in a free fall, leaping from a helium-balloon capsule 24 miles up in Earth's stratosphere. Baumgartner reached a record 843.6 mph speed before his parachute opened and he landed safely in the New Mexico desert.

In 2017, a truck bombing in the heart of Mogadishu killed more than 500 people in the capital of Somalia. A U.N. envoy to the nation, long reeling under decades of violence by warring factions, called it the deadliest terrorist attack ever in Africa.

In 2024, a SpaceX rocket launched NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to determine whether conditions there could support life; the spacecraft will arrive in 2030.

Today’s Birthdays: Former White House counsel John W. Dean III is 88. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren is 87. Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner is 79. Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel is 70. Musician Thomas Dolby is 68. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is 65. Actor Steve Coogan is 61. TV host Stephen A. Smith is 59. Country singer Natalie Maines (The Chicks) is 52. Actor Chang Chen is 50. Singer Usher is 48. Actor-comedian Jay Pharoah is 39. Actor Rowan Blanchard is 25.