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October 19
202 BC. The Battle of Zama. One of the greatest military leaders in history, Scipio Africanus, defeats another of the greatest military leaders in history, Hannibal, on his home ground near Carthage. This forces CArthage to sue for peace, and effective ends the Second Punic War.
1453. The French take Bordeaux, mercifully bringing the Hundred Years' War to a close, and leaving the English with only Calais in their possession.
1469. Ferdidand of Aragorn marries Isabella of Castille, paving the way for their unification into Spain.
1781. Representatives of Lord Cornwallis, who pled sickness, turn over Cornwallis's sword and formally surrender to George Washington and the French Comte de Rochambeau. And, of course, we celebrate this seminal event by playing rock-paper-scissors. (yes, not really, but...)
1813. The Battle of Leipzig. In a battle involving an estimated 600,000 men, making it the largest in European history prior to WWI, the forces of the Sixth Coalition decisively defeat Napoleon. Combined with his losses in the failed invasion of Russia the prior year, Napoleon, he is flung back into France, and within a year will be forced to abdicate and exiled to the island of Elba.
1864. The Battle of Cedar Creek. An impressive Union victory by General Philip Sheridan over the forces of Confederate Jubal Early ends for the rest of the war any threat by the South to Washington DC or the Shenendoah Valley, and brings some measure of revenge for the North in the Shenendoah, where the Confederacy had repeatedly inflicted humiliating defeats upon them.
1873. Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers draft the first rules for American football.
1944. MacArthur returns. American forces land in the Philippines.
1987. Black Monday. The Dow Jones falls 22% in one day, the largest one day percentage decline in history.
2005. Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
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