Independence
day
Niue 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 ParnaÃba; SimplÃcio Dias da Silva,
João Cândido de Deus e Silva and Domingos
Dias declare the independent state of PiauÃ.
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)
For details, contact Datacentre
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