Events from the year 1914 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Woodrow Wilson (D-New Jersey) Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (D-Indiana) Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (Louisiana) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-Missouri) Congress: 63rd
Events
January–March
January 1 – The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line starts services between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, becoming the world's first airline to provide scheduled regular commercial passenger services with heavier-than-air aircraft, with Anthony Jannus (the first federally licensed pilot) conveying passengers in a Benoist XIV flying boat. Abram C. Pheil, mayor of St. Petersburg, is the first airline passenger, and over 3,000 people witness the first departure. January 5 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor. January 9 – The Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded at Howard University (a historically black university) in Washington, D.C. February 13 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
April–June
April 6 – The American Radio Relay League is founded. April 9 – Tampico Affair, involving U.S. Navy sailors in Mexico. April 11 – Alpha Rho Chi, a professional architecture fraternity, is founded in the Hotel Sherman in Chicago. April 14 – The city of Irving, Texas, is incorporated. April 18 – Eccles mine disaster April 20 Ludlow Massacre (Colorado Coalfield War (1913–14)): The Colorado National Guard attacks a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado, killing 24 people. President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to use military force in Mexico in reaction to the Tampico Affair. April 21 – United States occupation of Veracruz: 2,300 U.S. Navy sailors and Marines from the South Atlantic fleet land in the port city of Veracruz, Mexico, which they will occupy for over 6 months. The Ypiranga incident occurs when they attempt to enforce an arms embargo against Mexico by preventing the German cargo steamer from unloading arms for the Mexican government in the port. On April 22 Mexico for the time being ends diplomatic relations with the U.S. April 23 – The baseball stadium Weeghman Park, later known as Wrigley Field, opens in Chicago. May 14 – Woodrow Wilson signs a Mother's Day proclamation. June 1 – Woodrow Wilson's envoy Edward Mandell House meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
July–September
July 4 – Lexington Avenue bombing: 4 people are killed in New York City when an anarchist bomb intended to kill John D. Rockefeller explodes prematurely in the plotters' apartment. July 11 Baseball legend Babe Ruth makes his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox. USS Nevada, the United States Navy's first "super-dreadnought" battleship, is launched. Over 5,000 attend a rally in Union Square, Manhattan, called by the Anti-Militarist League to commemorate the anarchists killed in the July 4 Lexington Avenue bombing. July 18 – The Signal Corps of the United States Army is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time. August 1 – New York Stock Exchange closed due to war in Europe, where nearly all stock exchanges are already closed. August 4 – German troops invade neutral Belgium at 8:02 AM (local time). Britain declares war on Germany for this violation of Belgian neutrality. This move effectively means a declaration of war by the whole British Commonwealth and Empire against Germany. The United States declares neutrality. August 15 The Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the steamship U.S.S. Ancon. A dismissed servant kills seven people at architect Frank Lloyd Wright's studio and home, Taliesin in Wisconsin (including Wright's mistress, Mamah Borthwick), and sets it on fire. September 1 – The last known passenger pigeon "Martha" dies in the Cincinnati Zoo. September 26 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act. September 30 – The Flying Squadron is established to promote the temperance movement.