On This Day: November 14th

Alexander the Great is crowned pharaoh of Egypt.

Pesäpallo, the Finnish version of baseball developed by Lauri Pihkala, is played for the first time at Kaisaniemi Park in Helsinki.

The Provisional National Assembly of the new republic of Czechoslovakia meets to devise a constitution.

The Joensuu City Hall, designed by Eliel Saarinen, was inaugurated in Joensuu, Finland.

Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first takeoff from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia, taking off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.

Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.

Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.

Napoleonic Wars: At the Battle of Smoliani, French Marshals Victor and Oudinot are defeated by the Russians under General Peter Wittgenstein.

James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.

German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope.