Events on October 19 48
Year 1216
King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
Year 1386
The Universität Heidelberg holds its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
Year 1453
The Hundred Years' War ends with the French recapture of Bordeaux, leaving English control only on Calais
Year 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.
Year 1781
At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis hand over Cornwallis' sword and formally surrender to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.
Year 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.
Year 1813
The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.
Year 1822
In Parnaíba; Simplício Dias da Silva, João Cândido de Deus e Silva and Domingos Dias declare the independent state of Piauí.
Year 1864
Battle of Cedar Creek: A U.S. Army force under Philip Sheridan destroys a Confederate army under Jubal Early.
Year 1864
St. Albans Raid: Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
Year 1866
Austria cedes Veneto and Mantua to France, which immediately awards them to Italy in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice.
Year 1921
Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians are murdered in a Lisbon coup.
Year 1922
British Conservative MPs meeting at the Carlton Club vote to break off the Coalition Government with David Lloyd George of the Liberal Party.
Year 1935
The League of Nations places economic sanctions on fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia.
Year 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.
Year 1943
Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
Year 1944
A coup is launched against Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, beginning the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution
Year 1950
The People's Liberation Army takes control of the town of Chamdo; this is sometimes called the "Invasion of Tibet".
Year 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.
Year 1950
Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.
Year 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.
Year 1960
Cold War: The United States government imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.
Year 1973
President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
Year 1984
Roman Catholic priest from Poland, Jerzy Popiełuszko, associated with the Solidarity Union, is murdered by three agents of the Polish Communist internal intelligence agency.
Year 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.
Year 1987
The United States Navy conducts Operation Nimble Archer, an attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 2005
Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.
Year 2013
At least 105 people are injured in a train crash at the Once railway station in Buenos Aires.
Year ?
Second Punic War: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage.