19 October 2024 (MIA)

 

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 held its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.

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 handed over Cornwallis’ sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau.

1789 – Chief Justice 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: Union Army 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 – Venice, Annexation of Veneto and Mantua to Italy, at Hotel Europa, Austria hands over Veneto to France, which hands it immediately over to Italy.

1900 – Max Planck discovers the law of black-body radiation (Planck’s law).

1904 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O’Reilley.

1912 – Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

1914 – The First Battle of Ypres begins.

1917 – The Love Field in Dallas is opened.

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.

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.

1969 – The first Prime Minister of Tunisia in twelve years, Bahi Ladgham, is appointed by President Habib Bourguiba.

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.

1976 – Battle of Aishiya in Lebanon.

1984 – Roman Catholic priest from Poland, Jerzy Popiełuszko, associated with the Solidarity Union, was 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.

2004 – Care International aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq.

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.

2007 – Philippines: A bomb explosion rocked Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati. The blast killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.

2012 – A bomb explosion kills eight people and injures 110 people in Beirut, Lebanon.

2013 – At least 105 people were injured in a train crash at the Once railway station in Buenos Aires.

2015 – Canadian federal elections: Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party win a majority with 184 seats.

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

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

2020 – Belgium officials say country facing a “tsunami” of COVID-19 cases amid new restrictions and figures it has third-highest number of Covid-related deaths per 100,000 people globally

2020 – Irish government moves country to highest level of COVID-19 protective measures amid rising cases.

2021 – Moscow’s mayor orders unvaccinated people over 60 years to stay home for four months amid a worsening COVID-19 crisis.