October 19


October 19 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 74 days remaining.

Events

   * 202 BC - Battle of Zama, resulting in the defeat of Carthage and
     Hannibal
   * 439 -- The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North
     Africa.
   * 1781 -- Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to George
     Washington and Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeure, Comte de Rochambeau
     at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the American Revolutionary War.
   * 1812 - Napoleon I of France retreats from Moscow
   * 1864 - Battle of Cedar Creek - Union Army under Philip Sheridan
     destroys Confederate Army under Jubal Early
   * 1864 - Confederate raiders launch an attack on St. Alban's, Vermont
     from Canada
   * 1873 -- Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers universities draft the
     first code of American football rules.
   * 1912 - Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire
   * 1933 - Germany withdraws from the League of Nations
   * 1944 - United States forces land in the Philippines
   * 1949 -- The Peoples Republic of China is formally proclaimed.
   * 1960 - Mauretania gains independence from France
   * 1973 -- President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn
     over the Watergate tapes.
   * 1982 - John DeLorean arrested for trafficking in cocaine
   * 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%.

Births

   * 1784 - John McLoughlin, Hudson's Bay Company Factor
   * 1885 - Charles Merrill, investment banker (+ 1956)
   * 1910 - Jean Genet, author (+ 1986)
   * 1918 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher
   * 1922 - Jack Anderson, political columnist
   * 1931 - John Le CarrŽ, novelist
   * 1932 - Robert Reed, actor (+ 1992)
   * 1935 - Tony Lo Bianco, actor
   * 1937 - Peter Max, pop artist
   * 1944 - Peter Tosh, musician
   * 1945 - Divine, actor (+ 1988)
   * 1945 - John Lithgow, actor
   * 1947 - Giorgio Cavazzano, comics artist and illustrator
   * 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
   * 1973 - Jeremy Jordan, actor, singer

Deaths

   * 1745 - Jonathan Swift, author
   * 1889 - King Louis of Portugal
   * 1943 - Camille Claudel, French sculptor
   * 1950 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet
   * 1973 - Walt Kelly, cartoonist
   * 1987 - Jacqueline Du Pre, cellist
   * 1988 - Son House, blues musician
   * 1994 - Martha Raye, comedienne, actress

Holidays

   * Roman Empire - Armilustrium in honor of Mars
   * Niue - Constitution Day in honour of the country's independence
     (self-governing in free association with New Zealand) in 1974.