How many days and weeks until December 14th?

Prince Albert died at Windsor Castle on December 14th 1861, aged forty-two, of an illness diagnosed at the time as typhoid fever. Victoria was forty-two herself. She wore mourning for the remaining thirty-nine years of her life, kept his rooms exactly as he had left them with hot water carried up each morning, and withdrew so completely from public life that republican sentiment in Britain reached a level it has not touched since. The Royal Albert Hall, the Albert Memorial and a great deal of South Kensington are the consequence.

Roald Amundsen and four companions reached the South Pole on December 14th 1911, having travelled on skis behind dogs. They left a small tent, a Norwegian flag and a courteous letter addressed to Scott, who arrived thirty-four days later and found it waiting.

On December 14th 1918 Britain held the first general election in which women could vote, those over thirty who met a property qualification, and the first in which they could stand for Parliament. The count was held back until December 28th so that the votes of servicemen still in France could be brought home.

The handbag that carries the name of Jane Birkin — actress and singer, and the object’s reluctant muse — is one she is said to have found too heavy. She left Marylebone, where she had been born on December 14th 1946, for Paris in her early twenties.

Born on December 14th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Jane Birkin and Michael Owen — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a December 14th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — turquoise or lapis lazuli for the stone, Sagittarius for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

December birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual December birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

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Sagittarius constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Sagittarius for a December 14th birthday.

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Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the December birthstone and the narcissus or holly — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on December 14th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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