TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: OCT 19
1216 King John of England dies at Newark and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
1298 Rindfleish-140 Jews of Heilbron Germany are murdered
1466 The peace of Torun ends the war between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia.
1739 England declares war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins.
1781 British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 pm, ending the US Revolutionary War
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte’s French forces began their retreat out of Russia after a month of chasing the retreating Russian army.
1814 In Baltimore, MD, the first documented performance of “The Defence of Fort McHenry” with music took place at the Holliday Street Theatre. The work was later published under the title “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
1818 US & Chicasaw Indians sign a treaty
1848 John “The Pathfinder” Fremont moves out from near Westport, Missouri, on his fourth Western expedition–a failed attempt to open a trail across the Rocky Mountains along the 38th parallel.
1917 The first doughnut is fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I.
1942 The Japanese submarine I-36 launches a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. The pilot and crew report on the ships in the harbor, after which the aircraft is lost at sea.
1943 Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University
1944 The U.S. Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).
1949 The People’s Republic of China is formally proclaimed.
1954 Egypt and Britain conclude a pact on the Suez Canal, ending 72 years of British military occupation. Britain agrees to withdraw its 80,000-man force within 20 months, and Egypt agrees to maintain freedom of canal navigation.
1960 The United States imposes a partial embargo on goods exported to Cuba.
1973 President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
1983 The Senate passed a bill (78–22) making Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, birthday a public holiday.
1987 Black Monday: Stock markets around the world crash, including the Dow Jones stock index, which falls 508.32 points (22%), 4½ times the previous daily record
1987 In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U. S. navy disables three of Iran’s offshore oil platforms.
1988 Senate passes bill curbing ads during children`s TV shows
1989 The U.S. Senate rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that barred the desecration of the American flag.
2005 Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s trail for crimes against humanity begins in Baghdad.
2015 US scientists from University of California find evidence life on earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million earlier than previously thought
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
