First Invictus Games Held. The international games bring together wounded armed forces personnel and veterans who compete in athletic competitions. The 2014 Invictus Games were held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England. 300 competitors from 13 countries participated in the games. The next games will take place in 2016.

Large Hadron Collider Goes Live. The world’s largest particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It is an 18-mile (27km) long experimental machine which passes through the French-Swiss border. The Collider was constructed to find the Higgs Boson particle, an elementary particle in physics.

Last Person to be Executed in France. Hamida Djandoubi was also the last person to be executed by a guillotine. Djandoubi was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 21-year old Elisabeth Bousquet.

Baghdad Conference Begins. The 5-day long conference in Iraq’s capital city ended with the creation of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an intergovernmental organization of oil-producing countries. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela were the original members of the group. Today, there are 13 members of the organization. OPEC is responsible for coordinating and unifying oil and gas policies in member states and for creating an efficient and fair system of production, sale, and investment in the petroleum industry.

Patent For Sewing Machine Awarded. The United States’ Patent Office awarded a patent for the first sewing machine with a lockstitch design to Elias Howe from Spencer, Massachusetts. While he had little success marketing his machine in the US, machines similar to his design became very successful, especially among women. The similarity of the machine sold by Isaac Singer, founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company to Howe’s machine prompted Howe to take Singer to court. He won the case.