October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years). There are 74 days remaining until year’s end. (Illustration: “Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown,” John Trumbull, 1797.)

Today in History

• Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal Barca at the Battle of Zama, ending the Second Punic War (202 BCE)
• Carthage falls again when the Vandals under King Gaiseric conquer Roman territories in North Africa (439 CE)
• Lord Cornwallis formally surrenders to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia (1781 CE)
• Union General Philip Sheridan repulses a surprise attack by Confederate General Jubal Early at the Battle of Cedar Creek, ending the final Confederate invasion of the North (1864 CE)
• Max Planck discovers the law of black body emission, known as Planck’s Law (1900 CE)
• World War I: The First Battle of Ypres begins (1914 CE)
• Streptomycin, the first drug that could cure tuberculosis, is isolated for the first time by a graduate student at Rutgers University (1943 CE)
• The Chinese invade Tibet and capture the Tibetan army in the Battle of Chamdo, leading to the incorporation of Tibet into the People’s Republic of China (1950 CE)
• On “Black Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 508 points (22%), the largest one-day percentage decline in Dow Jones history (1987 CE)
• صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي (Saddam Hussein) goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity (2005 CE)

Birthdays

• Cassius Clay, emancipationist (1810)
• Auguste Lumière, first filmmaker (1862)
• Mordecai Brown, baseball player (1876)
• Charles Merrill, banker and Lynch partner (1885)
• Lewis Mumford, sociologist (1895)
• Tor Johnson, wrestler and Plan 9 from Outer Space star (1903)
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate (1910)
• Russell Kirk, conservative political theorist (1918)
• LaWanda Page, Sanford and Son co-star (1920)
• Jack Anderson, “Washington Merry-go-Round” journalist (1922)
• John le Carré (David Cornwell), espionage author (1931)
• Robert Reed, actor (1932)
• Peter Max, artist (1937)
• Michael Gambon, Dumbledore player (1940)
• Andrew Vachss, mystery writer (1942)
• L. E. Modesitt, Jr., science fiction and fantasy writer (1943)
• Peter Tosh, reggae artist (1944)
• Divine (Harris Milstead), drag queen (1945)
• John Lithgow, actor (1945)
• Jeannie C. Riley, “Harper Valley PTA” singer (1945)
• Philip Pullman, YA fantasy author (1945)
• Lynn Dickey, football player (1949)
• Grover Norquist, conservative activist (1956)
• Evander Holyfield, boxer (1962)
• Ty Pennington, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition host (1965)
• Jon Favreau, actor, director, producer (1966)
• Amy Carter, first daughter (1967)
• Trey Parker, South Park co-creator (1969)

Deaths

• King John, English monarch (1216)
• Jonathan Swift, author (1745)
• George Pullman, railroad sleeping car magnate (1897)
• Ernest Rutherford, physicist and Nobel laureate (1937)
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet (1950)
• George Wallace, Australian comedian (1960)
• Gig Young, actor (1978)
• Martha Raye, comedienne (1994)
• Glen Buxton, Alice Cooper guitarist (1997)
• Richard Blackwell, fashion critic (2008)
• Tom Bosley, actor (2010)

Holidays

• Armilustrium (ancient Rome)
• Bettara Ichi (べったら市), or Pickle Market Fair Holiday (Japan)
• Constitution Day (Niue)
• Feast of the Wicked Scam (informal)
• Mother Teresa Day (Albania)