On This Day – May 14

• 1973 Skylab blasts off into orbit

  The United States’ first space station crashed back to Earth on July 11, 1979, four years ahead of schedule. In its six years of service, the laboratory was used for many biomedical and technological experiments.

• 1970 The Red Army Faction (RAF) begins operations

  The German left-wing activist group grew out of the peace and anti-imperialist movement of the 1960s. In reaction to the violent oppression by the German state, they later began operating as a terrorist cell and are responsible for several murders.

• 1955 The Warsaw Pact is established

  Eight communist bloc countries signed the mutual defense treaty, which played an important role during the Cold War as an antagonist of NATO.

• 1948 Israel becomes an independent state

  The announcement by Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, triggered a 10-month armed conflict known as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. It started the day after the proclamation as troops of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq invaded the young nation.

• 1796 The first smallpox vaccination is administered

  The British physician, Edward Jenner, successfully inoculated an 8-year-old smallpox patient using material from a cowpox lesion. The word “vaccine” is derived from the Latin word for cow (vacca).