Events of the day
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.
1216 – King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
1386 – The Universität Heidelberg held its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
1466 – The Thirteen Years War 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 (Doctor in Biblia).
1649 – New Ross town, Co. Wexford, Ireland, surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.
1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis' sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.
1789 – Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grand Army of Napoleon at the Battle of Ulm. 30,000 prisoners are captured and 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers.
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; Simplício Dias da Silva, João Cândido de Deus e Silva and Domingos Dias declare the independent state of Piauí.
1864 – Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys a Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
1864 – St. Albans Raid – Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
1866 – Venice - Annexion of Veneto and Mantua to Italy - At Hotel Europa, Austria hands over Veneto to France, which hands it immediately over to Italy.
1900 – Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission (Planck's law).
1904 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
1912 – Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
1914 – The First Battle of Ypres begins.
1917 – The 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 People's Liberation Army takes control of the town of Qamdo; this is sometimes called the "Invasion of Tibet".
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.
1950 – Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.
1954 – First ascent of Cho Oyu.
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.
1959 – The first discothèque opens, the Scotch-Club in Aachen, Germany.
1969 – The first Prime Minister of Tunisia in twelve years, Bahi Ladgham, is appointed by President Habib Bourguiba.
1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
1974 – Niue becomes a self-governing colony of New Zealand.
1976 – Battle of Aishiya in Lebanon.
1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others die when their Tupolev 134 plane crashes 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 - the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%, 508 points.
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 asylum seekers, sinks in international waters with the loss of 353 people.
2003 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
2004 – Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the State Peace and Development Council on charges of corruption.
2004 – Care International aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq.
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.
2007 – Philippines: A bomb explosion rocked Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati. The blast killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.

Holidays and observances

Armilustrium (Roman Empire)
Christian Feast Day:
Aaron (Coptic Church)
Frideswide
Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, and Companions
October 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day, in honor of the country's independence (self-governing in free association with New Zealand) in 1974. (Niue)
Mother Teresa Day (Albania)

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