October 19 in History

Historical Events on October 19

202 BC

Second Punic War: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage.
439

The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
1216

King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
1386

The Universität Heidelberg holds its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
1453

The Hundred Years' War ends with the French recapture of Bordeaux, leaving English control only on Calais
1466

The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Second Treaty of Thorn.
1469

Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile, a marriage that paves the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.
1512

Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
1649

New Ross town, County Wexford, Ireland, surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.
1781

At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis hand over Cornwallis' sword and formally surrender to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.
1789

John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
1805

Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Ulm; 30,000 prisoners are captured and 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers.
1812

Napoleon Bonaparte retreats from Moscow.
1813

The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.
1822

In Parnaíba; Simplício Dias da Silva, João Cândido de Deus e Silva and Domingos Dias declare the independent state of Piauí.
1864

Battle of Cedar Creek: A U.S. Army force under Philip Sheridan destroys a Confederate army under Jubal Early.
1864

St. Albans Raid: Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
1866

Austria cedes Veneto and Mantua to France, which immediately awards them to Italy in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice.
1900

Max Planck discovers the law of black-body radiation (Planck's law).
1912

Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
1914

The First Battle of Ypres begins.
1921

Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians are murdered in a Lisbon coup.
1922

British Conservative MPs meeting at the Carlton Club vote to break off the Coalition Government with David Lloyd George of the Liberal Party.
1933

Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1935

The League of Nations places economic sanctions on fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia.
1943

The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Souda Bay, Crete, and sunk; 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown with it.
1943

Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1944

United States forces land in the Philippines.
1944

A coup is launched against Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, beginning the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution
1950

The People's Liberation Army takes control of the town of Chamdo; this is sometimes called the "Invasion of Tibet".
1950

The People's Republic of China joins the Korean War by sending thousands of troops across the Yalu River to fight United Nations forces.
1950

Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.
1956

The Soviet Union and Japan sign a Joint Declaration, officially ending the state of war between the two countries that had existed since August 1945.
1960

Cold War: The United States government imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.
1973

President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
1974

Niue becomes a self-governing colony of New Zealand.
1984

Roman Catholic priest from Poland, Jerzy Popiełuszko, associated with the Solidarity Union, is murdered by three agents of the Polish Communist internal intelligence agency.
1986

Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others die when their Tupolev Tu-134 plane crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.
1987

The United States Navy conducts Operation Nimble Archer, an attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
1987

Black Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%, 508 points.
1988

The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.
1989

The convictions of the Guildford Four are quashed by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, after they had spent 15 years in prison.
2001

SIEV X, an Indonesian fishing boat en route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks in international waters with the loss of 353 people.
2003

Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
2005

Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2005

Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.
2012

A bomb explosion kills eight people and injures 110 people in Beirut, Lebanon.
2013

At least 105 people are injured in a train crash at the Once railway station in Buenos Aires.

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