October 19 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 73 days remaining.

Events

300 BC-AD 1899

• 202 BC - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal.
• AD 439 - The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
• 1453 - The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.
• 1781 - Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the American Revolutionary War.
• 1812 - Napoleon I of France retreats from Moscow.
• 1813 - The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.
• 1864 - Battle of Cedar Creek - Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
• 1864 - Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
• 1873 - Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1900-1999

• 1912 - Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
• 1914 - The First Battle of Ypres begins.
• 1917 - Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
• 1933 - Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
• 1943 - Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
• 1944 - United States forces land in the Philippines.
• 1954 - First ascent of Cho Oyu
• 1960 - Mauretania gains independence from France.
• 1973 - President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
• 1982 - John De Lorean is arrested for trafficking in cocaine.
• 1983 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and executed in a military coup d'état led by Bernard Coard.
• 1985 - The first Blockbuster Video store opens in Dallas, Texas.
• 1986 - Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others died when their Tupolev 134 plane crashed into the Lebombo Mountains.
• 1987 - In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran's offshore oil platforms.
• 1987 - (Black Monday) Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%.
• 1989 - Guildford Four convictions are quashed by the Court of Appeal - they had spent 15 years in prison through a miscarriage of justice.
• 1991 - Paul Glover buys a samosa at the Farmers' Market with Half HOUR #751; the first use of Ithaca Hours.
• 1994 - New Zealand's Goodnight Kiwi airs for the last time.

2000-2099

• 2003 - Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
• 2004 - Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the Thai government on charges of corruption.
• 2004 - The WWE holds the first fully interactive pay-per-view Taboo Tuesday in the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Births

1700-1899

• 1784 - John McLoughlin, Hudson's Bay Company Factor
• 1873 - Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist
• 1885 - Charles Merrill, investment banker (d. 1956)
• 1899 - Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemalan writer (d. 1974)

1900-1999

• 1907 - Roger Wolfe Kahn, band leader (d. 1962)
• 1908 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer
• 1910 - Jean Genet, French author (d. 1986)
• 1916 - Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1994)
• 1918 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher
• 1931 - John le Carré, English novelist
• 1932 - Robert Reed, actor (d. 1992)
• 1937 - Peter Max, pop artist
• 1942 - Andrew Vachss, author and attorney
• 1944 - Peter Tosh, musician
• 1945 - Divine (Glen Milstead), actor (d. 1988)
• 1945 - John Lithgow, actor
• 1947 - Giorgio Cavazzano, comics artist and illustrator
• 1951 - Steve Pearson (photographer), in Mudgee NSW Aust
• 1951 - Patricia Ireland, President of the National Organization for Women
• 1962 - Evander Holyfield, boxing champion
• 1966 - Jon Favreau, actor, writer, director
• 1969 - Trey Parker, cartoonist, comedian, writer, actor
• 1972 - Pras, musician
• 1976 - Michael Young, American baseball player

Deaths

1100-1899

• 1187 - Pope Urban III
• 1745 - Jonathan Swift, Irish author
• 1889 - King Louis of Portugal

1900-1999

• 1943 - Camille Claudel, French sculptor
• 1950 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet
• 1956 - Isham Jones, jazz musician (b. 1894)
• 1973 - Walt Kelly, cartoonist
• 1983 - Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada
• 1987 - Jacqueline Du Pré, English cellist (b. 1945)
• 1988 - Son House, blues musician
• 1992 - Arthur Wint, Jamaican runner
• 1994 - Martha Raye, comedienne, actress

2000-2099

• 2003 - Faith Fancher, television journalist and breast cancer awareness activist
• 2003 - Michael Hegstrand, "Road Warrior Hawk"
• 2003 - Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian politician and president
• 2003 - Margaret Murie, "Mother of the modern conservationist movement"

Holidays

• Roman Empire - Armilustrium in honor of Mars
• Niue - New Zealand) in 1974.
• Mother Teresa Albania.

October 18 - October 20 - November 19 - September 19 - more historical anniversaries