Today October 19th in history click read more below to view detail events, deaths, births, Holidays and observances, and video clips in hisotry. Please comments, last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
202 BC – Hannibal Barca, leader of the invading Carthaginian army, is defeated by the Roman legions under Scipio Africanus in the Battle of Zama.
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.
1453 – The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.
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, Co. Wexford, Ireland, surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.
1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered to a Franco-American force led by George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, paving the way for the end of the American Revolutionary War.
1789 – Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
1812 – Napoleon I of France 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 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.
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 – Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
1921 – Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians are murdered in a Lisbon coup.
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 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1944 – United States forces land in the Philippines.
1950 – The military of the People s Republic of China takes control of the town of Chamdo in eastern Tibet.
1954 – First ascent of Cho Oyu
1960 – The United States government places an embargo on Communist 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 demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
1974 – Niue becomes self-govering colony of New Zealand
1976 – Battle of Aishiya in Lebanon.
1976 – The Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is placed on the List of Endangered Species.
1983 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and executed in a military coup d état led by Bernard Coard.
1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others die when their Tupolev 134 plane crashes 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%, 508 points. This is considered a Stock Market Crash.
1989 – Guildford Four convictions are quashed by the Court of Appeal – they had spent 15 years in prison through a miscarriage of justice.
2001 – SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en-route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sank in international waters with the loss of 353 people.
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 SPDC on charges of corruption.
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. Amidst corruption controversies hounding the Arroyo administration, a bomb explosion rocked Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati, which killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.
Births
1276 – Prince Hisaaki, Japanese shogun (d. 1328)
1433 – Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher (d. 1499)
1562 – Archbishop George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1633)
1582 – Dmitry Ivanovich, Russian Tsarevich (d. 1591)
1605 – Thomas Browne, English writer (d. 1682)
1610 – James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, English statesman and soldier (d. 1688)
1658 – Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1704)
1680 – John Abernethy, Irish Protestant minister (d. 1740)
1688 – William Cheselden, English surgeon and anatomist (d. 1752)
1718 – Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (d. 1804)
1720 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (d. 1772)
1721 – Joseph de Guignes, French orientalist (d. 1800)
1784 – James Henry Leigh Hunt, English Romantic critic, essayist, and poet (d. 1859)
1784 – John McLoughlin, Canadian fur trader (d. 1857)
1810 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, American abolitionist (d. 1903)
1850 – Annie Smith Peck, American mountaineer (d. 1935)
1851 – Empress Myeongseong, Empress of Korea (d. 1895)
1858 – George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (d. 1937)
1862 – Auguste Lumière, French inventor (d. 1954)
1873 – Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (d. 1925)
1873 – John Barton King, American cricketer (d. 1965)
1876 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player (d. 1945)
1882 – Umberto Boccioni, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1916)
1885 – Charles Merrill, American investment banker (d. 1956)
1895 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
1895 – Frank Durbin, last American veteran of the Battle of Verdun (d. 1999)
1896 – Bob O Farrell, American baseball player (d. 1988)
1897 – Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani scientist and scholar (d. 1994)
1899 – Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
1900 – Bill Ponsford, Australian cricketer (d. 1991)
1900 – Roy Worters, Canadian ice hockey goaltender (d. 1957)
1900 – Erna Berger, German soprano (d. 1990)
1901 – Arleigh Burke, American admiral (d. 1996)
1903 – Tor Johnson, Swedish wrestler and actor (d. 1971)
1907 – Roger Wolfe Kahn, American bandleader (d. 1962)
1908 – Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
1909 – Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer (d. 1981)
1909 – Marguerite Perey, French physicist (d. 1975)
1910 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1910 – Paul Robert, French lexicographer and publisher (d. 1980)
1913 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter (d. 1980)
1915 – Farid al-Atrash, Syrian composer, musician, and actor (d. 1974)
1916 – Jean Dausset, French immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1916 – Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1985)
1918 – Charles Evans, British mountaineer, leader of the expedition that made the first ascent of Kangchenjunga in 1955 (d. 1995)
1920 – Pandurang Shastri Athavale, Indian philosopher (d. 2003)
1922 – Jack Anderson, American journalist (d. 2005)
1926 – Joel Feinberg, American moral philosopher (d. 2004)
1926 – Arne Bendiksen, Norwegian singer and songwriter
1931 – John le Carré, English novelist
1932 – Robert Reed, American actor (d. 1992)
1936 – Tony Lo Bianco, American actor
1936 – James Bevel, American activist
1937 – Peter Max, American artist
1937 – Marilyn Bell, Canadian swimmer
1940 – Michael Gambon, Irish actor
1941 – Simon Ward, British actor
1942 – Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
1943 – Robin Holloway, British composer
1943 – Takis Ikonomopoulos, Greek footballer
1944 – Peter Tosh, Jamaican musician, political activist (d. 1987)
1944 – George McCrae, American soul singer
1945 – Divine, American actor (d. 1988)
1945 – Patricia Ireland, American attorney and feminist
1945 – John Lithgow, American actor
1945 – Jeannie C. Riley American country and gospel singer
1946 – Philip Pullman, English writer
1947 – Giorgio Cavazzano, Italian comic strip artist
1948 – Patrick Simmons, American musician
1949 – Lynn Dickey, American football player
1949 – Jamie McGrigor, British politician
1951 – Demetrios Christodoulou, Greek mathematical physicist, recipient of the Bôcher Memorial Prize
1952 – Verónica Castro, Mexican actress and singer
1954 – Joe Bryant, American basketball player
1954 – Sam Allardyce, English football manager
1954 – Deborah Blum, American writer
1955 – Melpo Kosti, Greek actress
1956 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 1993)
1956 – Bruce Weber, American Basketball Coach
1956 – Didier Theys, Belgian racing driver
1957 – Ray Richmond, American columnist and critic
1957 – Karl Wallinger, Welsh musician
1957 – Doug Kirby, American author and travel guide
1958 – Tiriel Mora, Australian actor
1958 – Lou Briel, Puerto Rican singer and actor
1960 – Jonathan FeBland, English musician and artist
1961 – Sunny Deol, Indian actor
1962 – Tracy Chevalier, American author
1962 – Evander Holyfield, American boxer
1963 – Prince Laurent of Belgium
1964 – Jorge Luis Gonzales, Cuban-born American boxer
1965 – Brad Daugherty, American basketball player
1965 – Ty Pennington, American television carpenter
1966 – Roger R. Cross, Jamaican-born actor
1966 – Jon Favreau, American actor, writer and director
1966 – Sinitta, American singer
1967 – Yoko Shimomura, Japanese composer
1967 – Amy Carter, daughter of US President Jimmy Carter
1969 – Trey Parker, American cartoonist and actor
1969 – Erwin Sánchez, Bolivian footballer
1969 – DJ Sammy, Spanish DJ
1969 – John Edward, American TV Psychic
1970 – Chris Kattan, American comedian and actor
1972 – Keith Foulke, American baseball pitcher
1972 – Pras, American musician
1973 – Hicham Arazi, Moroccan tennis player
1973 – Joaquin Gage, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Joy Bryant, American actress
1976 – Omar Gooding, American actor
1976 – Desmond Harrington, American actor
1976 – Dan Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Michael Young, baseball player
1977 – Louis-José Houde, Canadian stand-up comic
1977 – Jason Reitman, Canadian filmmaker
1977 – Raúl Tamudo, Spanish footballer
1978 – Enrique Bernoldi, Brazilian race car driver
1978 – James Roberts, British Ice Hockey Player
1978 – Zakhar Dubenskiy, Russian footballer
1978 – Henri Sorvali, Finnish musician
1979 – Brian Robertson, American trombonist
1979 – José Luis Parejita López, Mexican footballer
1980 – Benjamin Salisbury, American actor
1981 – Heikki Kovalainen, Finnish race car driver
1982 – Gonzalo Pineda, Mexican footballer
1989 – Miroslav Stoch, Slovakian footballer
1990 – Janet Leon, member of Swedish all-girl group Play
Deaths
727 – Saint Frideswide
1187 – Pope Urban III
1216 – King John (b. 1167)
1432 – John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English politician (b. 1392)
1587 – Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1541)
1608 – Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (b. 1551)
1636 – Marcin Kazanowski, Polish politician
1682 – Thomas Browne, English writer (b. 1605)
1723 – Godfrey Kneller, German-born painter (b. 1646)
1745 – Jonathan Swift, Irish author (b. 1667)
1790 – Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1724)
1813 – Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince and Marshal of France (friendly fire) (b. 1763)
1842 – Aleksey Koltsov, Russian poet (b. 1808)
1851 – Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte (b. 1778)
1856 – William Sprague III, American politician from Rhode Island (b. 1799)
1889 – King Louis of Portugal (b. 1838)
1897 – George Pullman, American inventor and industrialist (b. 1831)
1901 – Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish financier and industrialist (b. 1829)
1918 – Harold Lockwood, American actor (b. 1887)
1936 – Lu Xun, Chinese writer (b. 1881)
1937 – Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1871)
1943 – Camille Claudel, French sculptor (b. 1864)
1945 – Plutarco Elías Calles, President of Mexico (b. 1877)
1950 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet (b. 1892)
1956 – Isham Jones, American musician (b. 1894)
1960 – George Wallace, Australian vaudevillian and film comedian (b. 1895)
1964 – Nettie Palmer, Australian poet and essayist (b. 1885)
1970 – Lázaro Cárdenas, President of Mexico (b. 1895)
1973 – Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (b. 1913)
1978 – Gig Young, American actor (b. 1913)
1983 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1944)
1985 – Alfred Rouleau, French Canadian businessman (b. 1915)
1986 – Dele Giwa, Nigerian journalist
1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique (b. 1933)
1987 – Jacqueline Du Pré, English cellist (b. 1945)
1987 – Hermann Lang, German race car driver (b. 1909)
1988 – Son House, American musician (b. 1902)
1994 – Martha Raye, American comedian and actress (b. 1916)
1995 – Don Cherry, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1936)
1997 – Glen Buxton, American guitarist (b. 1947)
1999 – Nathalie Sarraute, Russian-born French writer (b. 1900)
1999 – James C. Murray, American politician (b. 1917)
2000 – Hortense Ellis, Jamaican reggae singer (b. 1941)
2003 – Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (b. 1925)
2003 – Margaret Murie, American conservationist (b. 1902)
2003 – Road Warrior Hawk, American professional wrestler (b. 1960)
2005 – Dallas Cook, American musician (Suburban Legends) (b. 1982)
2005 – Corinne Lévesque, wife of Quebec premier René Lévesque (b. 1943)
2006 – James Glennon, American cinematographer (b. 1942)
2007 – Dr. Randall Forsberg, American nuclear freeze advocate (b. 1943)
2007 – Michael Maidens, English footballer with Hartlepool United (b. 1987)
2007 – Jan Wolkers, Dutch writer (b. 1925)
2008 – Mr. Blackwell, American fashion critic (b. 1922)
2008 – Rudy Ray Moore, American comedian and actor (Dolemite) (b. 1937)
Holidays and observances
Roman festivals – Armilustrium in honor of Mars
Roman Catholic Saints – Saints Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and Companions; Saint Frideswide
Also see October 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Albania – Mother Teresa Day.
Brazil – Independence Day of State of Piauí
Niue – Constitution Day in honour of the country s independence (self-governing in free association with New Zealand) in 1974.
French Republican Calendar – Tomate (Tomato) Day, twenty-eighth day in the Month of Vendémiaire
Aaron, a saint of the Coptic Church
Hindu Festivals, Concluding of Navratri Festival of India. It is a nine day festival attributed to the Goddess Durga, the Supreme-Divine manifested in form of Mother. The 10th day, Hindus celebrate Dasara, the mark of Lord Rama s victory over demon Ravana – Goddess Durga Day.
