Timeline December 1914

Events in December 1914 10

• 1838 – 1914 John Muir (1838-1914) Died 24 December 1914, aged 76 A Scottish-born naturalist and writer, Muir was a tireless advocate for wilderness preservation in the United States and co-founded the Sierra Club. His writing and lobbying helped establish Yosemite and other national parks. He is often called the father of the American national park system.
• 1914 Military intelligence in Cairo Cairo, Egypt Commissioned without training and posted to the Arab Bureau, making maps and interrogating prisoners. He was disliked by regular officers for his scruffiness and his certainty.
• 1914 Battle of the Falkland Islands Royal Navy destroys the German East Asia Squadron A British squadron sent to avenge the defeat at Coronel caught and sank most of Admiral Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron off the Falkland Islands. Von Spee and both his sons were killed. The battle ended the threat German surface raiders posed to Allied shipping in the South Atlantic and Pacific.
• 1914 The Battle of the Falkland Islands South Atlantic The Royal Navy hunted down and destroyed the squadron that had won at Coronel five weeks earlier.
• 1914 – 1996 Dorothy Lamour (1914-1996) American actress and singer, the sarong-clad star of the Road to... films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.
• 1914 Dorothy Lamour born in New Orleans Dorothy Lamour is born in New Orleans.
• 1914 – 2000 Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) Died 2 January 2000, aged 85 Patrick O'Brian wrote the Aubrey-Maturin novels, a twenty-book sequence set in the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars and admired for its historical detail and prose. Long a cult favourite, the series found a wide readership in the 1990s. After his death it emerged that his "Irish" background was largely invented.
• 1914 Christmas truce on the Western Front Enemy soldiers briefly cease fire and fraternise in no man's land In several sectors of the Western Front, German and British troops spontaneously stopped fighting, exchanged gifts, and reportedly played football in no man's land. Officers on both sides moved quickly to end the unofficial ceasefire and prevent it recurring. It became one of the most retold episodes of the entire war.
• 1914 The Christmas Truce Western Front Along stretches of the line men climbed out of the trenches, exchanged cigarettes and buried their dead. Commanders on both sides made sure it did not happen again.
• 1914 – 2008 Richard Widmark (1914-2008) Died 24 March 2008, aged 93 American film actor who made his memorable debut as a giggling killer in Kiss of Death and went on to a decades-long career in Hollywood. He worked with directors including John Ford and Elia Kazan.