What happened on October 19 ?

202 BC - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal.

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 Toru?. Gdansk Pomerania and Prussia as a whole are incorporated into Poland; the Teutonic Knights are allowed to rule its eastern part as Polish vassals.

1469 - Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella 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).

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.

1789 - Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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 city; Simplício Dias da Silva, João Cândido de Deus e Silva, Domingos Dias declares the Independence of 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.

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.

1953 - Arthur Godfrey fires Julius LaRosa live on American national TV.

1954 - First ascent of Cho Oyu

1960 - The United States government decides to place an embargo on Communist Cuba.

1969 - The first Prime Minister of Tunisia for twelve years is appointed by President Habib Bourguiba. He is Bahi Ladgham, who would serve until 2 November 1970.

1973 - President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.

1974 - Niue becomes independent from New Zealand

1982 - John De Lorean is arrested for trafficking in cocaine (later acquitted).

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.

1994 - New Zealand's Goodnight Kiwi says good night for the last time.

1998 - The Earth Liberation Front sets fire to the Vail Mountain ski resort in Vail, Colorado, causing $12 million in damage.

2001 - SIEV-X sinks en route to Christmas Island

2003 - Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2003 - David Blaine finally ended his 44-day endurance stunt of being sealed inside a transparent case suspended 30 feet in the air over Potters Fields Park, located in London.

2004 - Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the Thai government on charges of corruption.

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.

2005 - The legendary Busch Memorial Stadium is closed and destroyed.