TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – OCT 19
1216 King John of England dies at Newark and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
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.
1765 In the U.S., The Stamp Act Congress met and drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.
1781 British General Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown at 2 pm; US Revolutionary War ends
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.”
1864 At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va., a narrow victory helps the Union secure the Shenandoah Valley.
1917 The first doughnut is fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I.
1926 Russian Politburo throws out Leon Trotsky and his followers
1943 Streptomycin is Discovered. The miracle antibiotic that became the first line of offense against tuberculosis in the mid 20th century was isolated for the first time
1944 The U.S. Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).
1947 The Federal Works administrator has said the minimum wage of 40 cents per hour is obsolete and should be changed to 75 cents per hour.
1950 The North Korean capital of Pyongyang is captured by U.N. troops.
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 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested along with 50 other people for violating Georgia’s newly enacted anti-trespass law after staging a sit-in protest at eight stores in downtown Atlanta.
1969 U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew referred to anti-Vietnam War protesters “an effete corps of impudent snobs.”
1973 President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
1982 John DeLorean is arrested in an airport motel with a briefcase containing $24 million dollars worth of cocaine. He had headed up the DeLorean Motor Company and built one of the coolest looking sports cars
1983 The Senate passed a bill (78–22) making Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, birthday a public holiday.
1987 Black Monday: Dow Jones stock index falls 508.32 points (22%), 4½ times the previous daily record
1988 A bill passed by the senate limits the number of ads that can be shown during children’s TV programs.
1989 The 1975 conviction of the Guilford Four overturned by British courts; the 4 men had been convicted in the 1974 Guilford pub bombings.
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
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
