Today in History: Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on September 14:

1901 – U.S. President William McKinley died from his wounds after being shot by an assassin on September 6. He was succeeded in office by Theodore Roosevelt.

1937 – Thomas Masaryk, Czech revolutionary leader who in 1918 became the country’s first president, died.

1939 - World’s 1st practical helicopter, the VS-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky takes (tethered) flight in Stratford, Connecticut.

1956 - IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, 1st commercial computer with a hard drive that uses magnetic disk storage, weighs over a ton.

1960 - Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

1975 – In Amsterdam, Rembrandt’s priceless painting “The Nightwatch” was slashed by an unemployed teacher with a knife.

1982 – Princess Grace of Monaco died in hospital after a car crash the previous day. Formerly American film actress Grace Kelly, she appeared in films including “High Noon”, “Dial M for Murder” and “High Society”.

1982 – Lebanese president-elect Bashir Gemayel was assassinated in a bomb explosion at his party headquarters in East Beirut.

1996 – Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk pardoned Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary for his role in the “killing fields” era of the 1970s.

1997 – American tightrope artist Jade Kindar-Martin sets world record with Frenchman Didier Pasquette as they complete 1000-foot long walk passing each other over River Thames.

2000 – The senior Chinese parliamentary official Cheng Kejie was executed for taking $5 million in bribes. He was the most senior Chinese official to be executed for corruption since 1949.

2001 – Ansett, Australia’s second biggest airline, collapsed, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and placing 60,000 jobs in jeopardy.

2006 – Andrei Kozlov, a respected first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, who fought to clean up Russia’s murky banking system, died from gunshot wounds after being ambushed by assassins in what police said was a contract “hit”. He was 41.

2020 - Astronomers report possible sign of life on Venus, after detecting phosphine in planets's atmosphere by telescope.

2021 - 1 in 500 Americans have died of COVID-19 as the nation's known death toll reaches 663,913 (Johns Hopkins).

(Reuters)