October 19
Events
Pre-1600
- 202 BC - Second Punic War: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage.
- 439 - The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
- 1386 - The Universität Heidelberg holds its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
- 1453 - Hundred Years' War: Three months after the Battle of Castillon, England loses its last possessions in southern France.
- 1466 - The Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Order 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.
- 1579 - James VI of Scotland is celebrated as an adult ruler by a festival in Edinburgh.
- 1596 - The Spanish ship San Felipe runs aground on the coast of Japan and its cargo is confiscated by local authorities.
1601–1900
- 1649 - New Ross town in Ireland surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.
- 1662 - An English Buccaneer force led by Royal Navy commodore Christopher Myngs launches an attack on Santiago de Cuba which is subsequently sacked.
- 1781 - American Revolutionary War: The siege of Yorktown comes to an end.
- 1789 - John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
- 1791 - Treaty of Drottningholm, between Sweden and Russia
- 1805 - War of the Third Coalition: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to Napoleon at the Battle of Ulm.
- 1812 - The French invasion of Russia fails when Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow.
- 1813 - War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon is forced to retreat from Germany after the Battle of Leipzig.
- 1847 - The novel Jane Eyre is published in London.
- 1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Cedar Creek ends the last Confederate threat to Washington, DC.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Confederate agents based in Canada rob three banks in Saint Albans, Vermont.
- 1866 - In accordance with the Treaty of Vienna, 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.
- 1900 - Max Planck discovers Planck's law of black-body radiation.
1901–present
- 1912 - Italo-Turkish War: Italy takes possession of what is now Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1914 - World War I: The First Battle of Ypres begins.
- 1921 - The Portuguese Prime Minister and several officials are murdered in the Bloody Night coup.
- 1922 - British Conservative MPs vote to terminate the coalition government with the Liberal Party.
- 1935 - The League of Nations places economic sanctions on Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia.
- 1936 – New York World-Telegram reporter Herbert Ekins won a race against two other New York newspaper journalists to travel around the world on commercial airline flights. He accomplished the feat in 18 ½ days. His opponents were New York Evening Journal reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, who finished in second place, and New York Times reporter Leo Kieran.
- 1943 - The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Crete and sunk. Two thousand and ninety-eight Italian prisoners of war drown with it.
- 1943 - Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
- 1944 - United States forces land in the Philippines.
- 1944 - A coup is launched against Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, beginning the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution.
- 1948 - Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation, a monument honoring three presidents of the United States, was dedicated at the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- 1950 - China defeats the Tibetan Army at Chambo.
- 1950 - Korean War: The Battle of Pyongyang ends in a United Nations victory. Hours later, the Chinese Army begins crossing the border into Korea.
- 1950 - Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.
- 1953 - Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is published.
- 1955 - The General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union approves the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.
- 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.
- 1960 - The United States imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.
- 1973 - President Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
- 1974 - Niue becomes a self-governing colony of New Zealand.
- 1986 - The president of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, along with 33 others, die when their aircraft crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.
- 1987 - The United States Navy conducts Operation Nimble Archer, an attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
- 1987 - Black Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%, 508 points.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2001 - SIEV X, an Indonesian fishing boat en route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 migrants, sinks in international waters with the loss of 353 people.
- 2003 - Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
- 2004 - Thirteen people are killed when Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Adair County, Missouri, while on approach to Kirksville Regional Airport.
- 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.
- 2012 - A bomb explosion kills eight people and injures 110 more in Lebanon.
- 2013 - One hundred and five people are injured in a train crash in Buenos Aires.
- 2019 - Members of Parliament met at the House of Lords to discuss the United Kingdom's Brexit deal, this was the first Saturday sitting in Parliament since 3 April 1982 during the Falklands War.
- 2025 - Pieces of the French Crown Jewels are successfully stolen during a heist on the Louvre Museum in Paris..
Births
Pre-1600
- 879 - Yingtian, empress of the Khitan Liao Dynasty
- 1276 - Prince Hisaaki of Japan
- 1433 - Marsilio Ficino, Italian astrologer and philosopher
- 1507 - Viglius, Dutch politician
- 1545 - John Juvenal Ancina, Italian Oratorian and bishop
- 1582 - Dmitry of Uglich, Russian crown prince and saint
1601–1900
- 1605 - Thomas Browne, English physician and author
- 1609 - Gerrard Winstanley, English Protestant religious reformer
- 1610 - James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, English-Irish general, academic, and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
- 1613 - Charles of Sezze, Italian Franciscan friar and saint
- 1658 - Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- 1676 - Rodrigo Anes de Sá Almeida e Meneses, 1st Marquis of Abrantes, Portuguese diplomat
- 1680 - John Abernethy, Irish minister
- 1688 - William Cheselden, English surgeon and anatomist
- 1718 - Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, French general and politician, French Secretary of State for War
- 1720 - John Woolman, American-English preacher, journalist, and activist
- 1721 - Joseph de Guignes, French orientalist and sinologist
- 1784 - Leigh Hunt, English poet and critic
- 1789 - Theophilos Kairis, Greek priest and philosopher
- 1810 - Cassius Marcellus Clay, American journalist, lawyer, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Russia
- 1814 - Theodoros Vryzakis, Greek painter
- 1826 - Ralph Tollemache, English priest
- 1850 - Annie Smith Peck, American mountaineer and academic
- 1858 - George Albert Boulenger, Belgian-English zoologist and botanist
- 1862 - Auguste Lumière, French director and producer
- 1868 - Bertha Knight Landes, American academic and politician, Mayor of Seattle
- 1873 - Jaap Eden, Dutch speed skater and cyclist
- 1873 - Bart King, American cricketer
- 1876 - Mordecai Brown, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1876 - Mihkel Pung, Estonian lawyer and politician, 11th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1879 - Emma Bell Miles, American writer, poet, and artist
- 1882 - Umberto Boccioni, Italian painter and sculptor
- 1885 - Charles E. Merrill, American banker and philanthropist, co-founded Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
- 1895 - Frank Durbin, American soldier
- 1895 - Lewis Mumford, American historian, sociologist, and philosopher
- 1896 - Bob O'Farrell, American baseball player and manager
- 1897 - Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani chemist and scholar
- 1899 - Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan journalist, author, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1900 - Erna Berger, German soprano and actress
- 1900 - Bill Ponsford, Australian cricketer and baseball player
- 1900 - Roy Worters, Canadian ice hockey player