Today's 19 October Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 19 October Major Events

202 BC Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending the Second Punic War
439 The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take the city of Carthage in North Africa
615 Pope Deusdedit [Adeodatus I] elected to succeed Boniface IV as Catholic Pope

1031 Abbot Humbert of Echternach Abbey opens the grave of Saint Willibrord, founder of the abbey in the 7th century

King John Dies

1216 King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry III

1298 Rindfleisch Persecutions: 140 Jews of Heilbron, Germany are murdered

Capture of Roger Mortimer

1330 17-year-old English King Edward III captures his mother's lover and the country's de facto ruler Roger Mortimer at Nottingham Castle (later has him hanged)

1453 French retake Bordeaux following the Battle of Castillon
1466 The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Second Peace of Thorn, Germany

Columbus Sights Isabela

1492 Christopher Columbus sights the island he names “Isabela,” believed to be present-day Fortune Island (Long Cay) in the Bahamas

1520 Ethiopian Emperor Dawit II receives a Portuguese diplomatic mission at his camp in the Ethiopian Highlands, who regard him as Prester John, the legendary king of a lost Christian nation
1576 Dutch provinces begin consultations about Spanish presence

1596 Spanish galleon San Felipe is shipwrecked in Urado on the Japanese island of Shikoku en route from Manila to Acapulco; the incident leads to the crucifixion of 26 Christians who become known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan

1630 The first General Court is held in Boston
1634 Beach Island in the North Sea is destroyed by a heavy storm flood

The Company that Ruled the Waves

1657 Oliver Cromwell grants the English East India Company a new unlimited charter, saving it from being broken up

1682 English Lord Shaftesbury flees to Holland
1722 French C. Hopffer patents the automatic fire extinguisher in England
1739 England declares war on Spain [Old system = October 30]
1765 Stamp Act Congress meets in New York City and writes the Declaration of Rights and Grievances

1781 British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 p.m., effectively ending the American Revolutionary War

1781 Edict of Toleration issued by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, providing limited freedom of worship for non-Roman Catholic Christians

Napoleon Retreats from Moscow

1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his Grande Armée begin their retreat from Moscow numbering just 100,000 (started campaign with 500,000)

1818 US Government and Chickasaw Indians sign a treaty
1822 In Parnaíba, Simplício Dias da Silva, João Cândido de Deus e Silva and Domingos Dias declare the independent state of Piauí

1847 Charlotte Brontë's novel "Jane Eyre" is published by Smith, Elder & Co. of London under her pen name "Currer Bell"

1853 First flour mill in Hawaii begins operations
1859 Wilhelm Tempel discovers a diffuse nebula around the Pleiades star Merope
1863 Battle of Buckland Mills, Virginia
1864 Approximately 25 Confederates make a surprise attack on St. Albans, Vermont
1864 Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, Union beats back Confederate attack
1864 US Brigadier General Emory Upton (25) is promoted to Major General
1870 British steamship SS Cambria is wrecked off the northwest of Ireland with the loss of 178 lives
1870 First African Americans (four) elected to the US House of Representatives
1879 Afghan Emir Mohammed Yakub is forced to resign

1888 Moshav Gedera is attacked by Arabs
1900 Painter Henry Ossawa Tanner wins the Medal of Honor at the Paris Exposition
1900 South African President of Transvaal Paul Kruger departs for Europe
1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont proves airships are maneuverable by circling the Eiffel Tower in his airship No. 6, winning the Deutsch Prize and 100,000 francs

Pomp & Circumstance March

1901 Edward Elgar's "Pomp & Circumstance March" premieres in Liverpool, England

1904 Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School under the superintendence of American C. A. O'Reilley

1911 The Royal Mint in London sends dies for the Canadian $1 coin to the Ottawa Branch
1912 Tripoli (Libya) passes from Ottoman to Italian control

Natal Indian Congress

1913 At a meeting of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in Durban, NIC secretaries M. C. Anglia and Dada Osman severely criticize Mahatma Gandhi and tender their resignations

1915 Russia and Italy declare war on Bulgaria
1915 US bankers arrange a $500 million loan to the British and French

Crete Government Recognized

1916 France extends formal recognition of the Provisional Government in Crete proclaimed by Eleftherios Venizelos

1917 US Army opens Love Field, a military airplane pilot training center, in Dallas, Texas
1919 Anna Howard Shaw becomes the first living female recipient of the US Distinguished Service Medal
1921 Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians are murdered in a Lisbon coup
1923 Bavarian government refuses to prohibit NSDAP newspaper Völkischer Beobachter

AL Prohibits Boxing

1923 MLB's American League president Ban Johnson persuades team owners to prohibit boxing in their ballparks, citing "unsavory characters" associated with the sport

1924 General Christian Workers' Union demands an 8-hour workday in Belgium
1925 Italian army takes control of Somalia
1926 John C. Garand patents a semi-automatic rifle

Expulsion of Trotsky

1926 Russian Politburo expels Leon Trotsky and his followers

1930 Jules Ladoumègue runs a world record 1,000 m in 2:23.6
1932 Austria forbids demonstrations by Nazis and anti-fascists
1932 British government signs trade agreement with Soviet Union

1932 Jimmie Foxx wins the AL MVP, and Chuck Klein wins the NL MVP
1933 Berlin Olympic Committee votes to introduce basketball in 1936

Red Army Reaches Shanxi

1935 Mao Zedong's Red Army reaches Shanxi in Northern China

1936 H.R. Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" beats two other reporters in a race around the world on commercial flights by 18½ days

Goering Begins Plunder

1939 Hermann Goering announces that the 'Office of the Four-Year Plan' will seize all Polish and Jewish property in Nazi occupied areas [1]

1941 First woman jockey in North America, Anna Lee Wiley, in Mexico
1943 Conference of foreign ministers in Moscow
1943 Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey
1944 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies back to London from Moscow
1944 Canadian troops liberate Aardensburg, Netherlands
1944 US forces land in the Philippines
1944 US Navy says Black women can join WAVES
1947 De Gaulle's RPF wins French municipal elections
1949 A's trade second baseman Nellie Fox to the White Sox for Joe Tipton
1950 Bird Building at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is dedicated in Cleveland, Ohio
1950 UN forces enter Pyongyang, capital of North Korea
1951 US President Harry Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
1952 Alain Bombard departs from the Canary Islands on his solitary journey across the Atlantic Ocean with almost no provisions and only a sextant for navigation to test his theory that a shipwrecked person can survive
1953 Dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury is published in the US
1953 First jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service
1953 Singer Julius LaRosa is fired on TV by Arthur Godfrey
1954 Egypt and Great Britain sign a treaty; British troops depart
1954 First ascent of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8,201 meters
1954 KAKE TV channel 10 in Wichita, KS (ABC) begins broadcasting

1958 Stirling Moss wins the season-ending Moroccan Grand Prix at Ain-Diab, but fellow Brit Mike Hawthorn takes the World Drivers' Championship from Moss by just 1 point by finishing second; he becomes the first British world champion

1958 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1959 Florence Henderson joins Today Show panel
1959 William Gibson's "Miracle Worker" premieres in NYC
1960 France grants Mauritania independence
1960 KWCS (now KOOG) TV channel 30 in Ogden, UT (IND) begins broadcasting

1960 US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba
1962 US performs a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1964 American sprinter Edith McGuire runs an Olympic record of 23.0 to win the women's 200 m gold medal in Tokyo; minor place medalists Irena Szewińska of Poland and Australian Marilyn Black both record 23.1
1964 In a blanket finish in the 80 m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics, Germany's Karin Balzer and Teresa Cieply of Poland both record 10.5 seconds, with Pam Kilborn of Australia at 10.6; Balzer is awarded the gold medal
1964 Tamara Press of the Soviet Union wins the women's discus with an Olympic record throw of 57.27 m in Tokyo, the first of two gold medals at the Games (shot put)
1966 Bobby Orr makes his NHL regular-season debut for the Boston Bruins against the Detroit Red Wings
1966 USSR performs a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeastern Kazakhstan
1967 Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the USSR sets the long jump record at 27.39 ft (8.35 m)
1967 Mariner 5 makes a flyby of Venus
1968 American swimmer Jan Henne, with a time of 1:00.0, leads an American sweep of the women's 100 m freestyle medals at the Mexico City Olympics; teammates Susan Pedersen and Linda Gustavson both swim 1:00.3 for minor medals
1968 Australian swimmer Michael Wenden sets a world record of 52.2 seconds to win the men's 100 m freestyle gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
1968 Derry Citizens' Action Committee, formed on October 9, stages an illegal sit-down at Guildhall Square as part of a large civil disobedience campaign
1968 Golden Gate Bridge charges tolls only for southbound vehicles
1968 New Zealand scores an upset victory in the men's coxed four rowing final at the Mexico City Olympics, beating the favored East German crew by 2.58 seconds and winning the first rowing gold medal for the Kiwis
1968 West Germany beats Australia by just 0.9 seconds to win the men's eights rowing gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
1969 Oakland's Daryle Lamonica passes for 6 touchdowns against Buffalo (50-21)

1969 Scottish Matra-Ford driver Jackie Stewart finishes 4th in the season-ending Mexican Grand Prix to win his first F1 World Drivers' Championship by 26 points over Jacky Ickx of Belgium

1970 Amdahl Corp forms in Sunnyvale, California
1970 John Frazier kills Ohta and declares World War III has begun
1971 A group of Northern Ireland Members of Parliament begins a 48-hour hunger strike against the policy of internment
1971 Last issue of "Look" magazine is published
1972 Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig speaks at a meeting of right-wing Members of Parliament at Westminster, saying, "We are prepared to come out and shoot and kill"

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

1973 Columbia Records releases "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," the ninth studio album by Neil Diamond; the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album becomes more popular than the film itself

1973 OPEC oil embargo on the United States begins as participating nations cease oil exports to the US and start a series of production cuts [1]

Photograph

1973 Ringo Starr releases the music single "Photograph" in the UK

1973 Saudi Arabia, Libya, and other Arab states proclaim an embargo on oil exports to the United States
1974 NBA Detroit Pistons beat Trail Blazers in Portland (next win 6-1-90)
1974 NHL Detroit Red Wing Mickey Redmond scores his first hat trick against the Washington Capitals
1974 Niue becomes self-governing in association with New Zealand
1974 Virginia Slims Circuit WTA Tour Tennis Championship, Los Angeles Sports Arena; Australian Evonne Goolagong wins her first title, defeating American Chris Evert 6-3, 6-4; Billie Jean King and Rosemary Casals win doubles
1975 Cleveland Browns' Don Cockroft kicks a club record of five field goals
1976 Battle of Aishiya, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War

Ford Signs Copyright Revision

1976 US President Gerald Ford signs the first major revision of copyright law since 1909

1977 Corpse of kidnapped West German business executive Hanns Martin Schleyer is discovered
1977 Supersonic jet Concorde makes its first landing in New York City, a passengerless test flight by Air France, two days after the US Supreme Court overrules local authorities' ban [1]
1980 Steve McPeak rides a 101 ft 9 in (31 m) tall unicycle
1981 LA Dodgers beat Montreal Expos for the NL pennant

Nobel Prize in Physics

1981 Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur Schawlow win the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on lasers

1982 Automaker John DeLorean is arrested on cocaine charges and is found not guilty
1983 Grenadian Army General Hudson Austin forms a "revolutionary council"
1983 NHL Philadelphia Flyers begin 13-game winning streak
1983 Space Shuttle Columbia moves to Orbiter Processing Facility
1983 US Senate establishes Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, observed on the third Monday in January (on or near his January 15 birthday)
1986 USSR expels five US diplomats
1987 Black Monday: Stock markets around the world crash, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which falls 508.32 points (22%), 4.5 times the previous daily record
1987 US warships destroy two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf
1987 Woody Woodward resigns as NY Yankees general manager, Lou Piniella is named general manager, and Billy Martin is named NY Yankees manager for the fifth and final time
1988 Britain bans broadcast interviews with IRA members
1988 Car bomb kills seven Israelis and wounds 11 near the Lebanon border
1988 Roxette releases "Look Sharp!" album
1988 South African anti-apartheid leader Sisulu wins $100,000 Human Rights Prize
1988 Three Americans win the Nobel Prize in Physics, and three West Germans win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1988 US Senate passes a bill curbing ads during children's TV shows
1989 Astor Piazzolla and William Finn's musical "Dangerous Games" premieres at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City
1989 British Court of Appeal overturns the convictions of the Guildford Four, who were unjustly sentenced to life imprisonment in October 1975
1989 USSR performs a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeastern Kazakhstan

Dances with Wolves

1990 "Dances with Wolves," directed by Kevin Costner and starring Kevin Costner and Mary McDonnell, premieres in Washington, D.C. (Academy Award for Best Picture 1991)

1990 Helsinki Citizens' Assembly forms in Prague
1991 Longest NCAA football game (3:52) as Rhode Island beats Maine 52-30 (6 OT)
1991 Lonnie Glieberman purchases the Ottawa Rough Riders from the CFL
1993 UN authorizes arms, military and police supply embargo against Haiti
1994 160 people are killed in fighting in Chechnya
1994 Palestinian bomb attack on a bus in Tel Aviv kills 22
1998 The Earth Liberation Front sets fire to Vail Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado, causing $12 million in damage

Believe

1999 Cher releases the single "Believe" (Billboard Song of the Year, 1999; Grammy Award Best Dance Recording, 2000)

2001 SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en route to Christmas Island carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks, killing 353

2004 Care International aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq
2004 Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the SPDC on charges of corruption
2005 Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb

Trial of Saddam Hussein

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

2007 Bomb explosion rocks Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati, Philippines, killing 11 and injuring more than 100 people
2007 Patrick Kane scores his first NHL goal against José Théodore of the Colorado Avalanche

The Union

2010 Decca Records releases "The Union," a collaborative album between Elton John and Leon Russell, in the US, and it becomes the highest-charting album for both artists in over 30 years

2012 Eight people are killed and 78 injured by a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon
2013 11 people are killed in a plane crash in Namur, Belgium
2013 16 people are killed and 30 are wounded by a suicide bombing in Beledweyne, Somalia
2014 A functioning human intestine is generated in a laboratory from stem cells in the United States

Liberals Win Election

2015 Canadian federal elections: Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party wins a majority with 184 seats

2015 Scientists from the University of California find evidence that life on Earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million years earlier than previously thought

Third Trump-Clinton Debate

2016 In the third US Presidential debate, Donald Trump notably refuses to say if he will accept the result of the election during a debate with Hillary Clinton at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Ardern Forms Coalition

2017 New Zealand Labour Party forms a coalition government led by Jacinda Ardern (37), the youngest New Zealand leader in 161 years

2017 Outbreak of the Marburg virus is declared by Uganda's Ministry of Health
2018 "Halloween" film reboot starring Jamie Lee Curtis makes a record $77 million for a horror film with a female lead, the biggest debut for any film with a female lead over 55 in the US

State of Emergency

2019 Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declares a 15-day state of emergency following widespread and violent protests over an increase in public transport costs

2019 Sunnyside, Queens, New York City: Intersection of 46th Street and Skillman Avenue named "Ethel Plimack Way" in honor of a longtime resident [1]

Letwin Amendment

2019 UK Parliament votes for the Letwin amendment in a special Saturday sitting, forcing Boris Johnson to ask the EU for an extension and delaying the vote on his Brexit deal

2020 Belgian officials say the country is facing a "tsunami" of COVID-19 cases amid new restrictions and report it has the third-highest number of COVID-related deaths per 100,000 people globally
2020 Irish government moves country to highest level of COVID-19 restrictions amid rising cases
2020 Ming handscroll painting “Ten Views of Lingbi Rock” by Wu Bin sells for 512.9 million yuan ($77 million) at auction in Beijing, setting a new world record for a classical Chinese work
2020 Peru announces the rediscovery of a 37-meter figure of a cat, a geoglyph outline in the Nazca Desert, completed between 500 BC and 200 AD
2020 US charges six Russian military officers with a massive cyber-attack intended to disrupt the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2017 French presidential election, and Ukraine's power grid
2021 Moscow's mayor orders unvaccinated people over 60 years old to stay home for four months amid a worsening COVID-19 crisis
2022 Massachusetts names Podokesaurus holyokensis ("swift-footed lizard of Holyoke") as the official state dinosaur [1]
2022 Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola faces his brother, San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola, in the first MLB playoff sibling pitcher-batter battle; Austin goes 1-for-2 with a rally-starting RBI in an 8-5 win at Petco Park in San Diego

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

2024 39th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & The Gang, Ozzy Osbourne, A Tribe Called Quest, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick, and Norman Whitfield

2024 Israeli airstrike on Gaza city of Beit Lahia kills at least 87 people [1]