Historical Events on Sunday, 19th October

19/10/2025

Pieces of the French Crown Jewels are successfully stolen during a heist on the Louvre Museum in Paris..

The French Crown Jewels and Regalia comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal or Imperial power between 752 and 1870. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Emperor Napoleon. The set was finally broken up, with most of it sold off in 1885 by the Third Republic. The surviving French Crown Jewels, principally a set of historic crowns, diadems and parures, are mainly on display in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, France's premier museum and former royal palace, together with the Regent Diamond, the Sancy Diamond and the 105-carat (21.0 g) Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel, carved into the form of a dragon. In addition, some gemstones and jewels are on display in the Treasury vault of the Mineralogy gallery in the National Museum of Natural History.

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19/10/2019

Members of Parliament met at the House of Lords to discuss the United Kingdom's Brexit deal, this was the first Saturday sitting in Parliament since 3 April 1982 during the Falklands War.

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest extant institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 14th century.

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19/10/2013

One hundred and five people are injured in a train crash in Buenos Aires.

The Buenos Aires train crash occurred on October 19, 2013 when a passenger train failed to stop at a terminal station in Buenos Aires, Argentina, injuring 105 people. As of October 2013, the causes of the accident were under investigation.

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19/10/2012

A bomb explosion kills eight people and injures 110 more in Lebanon.

On 19 October 2012, Wissam al-Hassan, a brigadier general of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) and the head of its intelligence-oriented information branch, died along with several others killed by a car bomb in the Achrafieh district of Beirut. The killing of a senior figure closely linked with the anti-Assad camp in Lebanon led to immediate speculation that Syria, or its allies, were behind the attack in Beirut. Al-Hassan had also led the investigation that implicated Syria and its ally Hezbollah in the killing of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

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19/10/2005

Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003 during the United States-led invasion of Iraq. He previously served as the vice president from 1968 to 1979 and also as the prime minister from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. A leading member of the Ba'ath Party, he was a proponent of Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. The policies and ideologies he championed are collectively known as Saddamism, a right-wing variant of Ba'athism.

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Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.

Hurricane Wilma was the most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin and the second-most intense tropical cyclone in the Western Hemisphere, both based on barometric pressure, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Wilma's rapid intensification led to a 24-hour pressure drop of 97 mbar (2.9 inHg), setting a new basin record. At its peak, Hurricane Wilma's eye contracted to a record minimum diameter of 2.3 mi (3.7 km). In the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Wilma was the twenty-second storm, thirteenth hurricane, sixth major hurricane, and fourth Category 5 hurricane, and was the second costliest hurricane in Mexican history, behind Hurricane Otis in 2023.

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19/10/2004

Thirteen people are killed when Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Adair County, Missouri, while on approach to Kirksville Regional Airport.

Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 was a scheduled passenger flight from St. Louis to Kirksville, Missouri, United States. On October 19, 2004, the Jetstream 32 aircraft operating the flight crashed on approach to Kirksville Regional Airport as a result of pilot error, killing 13 of the 15 people aboard.

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19/10/2003

Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and a Catholic saint.

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19/10/2001

SIEV X, an Indonesian fishing boat en route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 migrants, sinks in international waters with the loss of 353 people.

SIEV X was the name assigned by Australian authorities to an Indonesian fishing boat carrying over 400 asylum seekers en route to Australia, which capsized in international waters with great loss of life on 19 October 2001. SIEV stands for Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel and is the acronym used by the surveillance authority for any boat that has entered Australian waters without prior authorisation. The X is a designation used where a tracking number has not yet been assigned, in accordance with Australian Government orders.

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19/10/1989

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.

The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly from Northern Ireland, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually overturned in 1989 and 1991 after long campaigns for justice, as were those of the Birmingham Six.

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19/10/1988

The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.

From October 1988 to September 1994 the British government banned broadcasts of the voices of representatives from Sinn Féin and ten other Irish republican and loyalist groups on television and radio in the United Kingdom. The restrictions, announced by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, on 19 October 1988, followed a heightened period of violence in the course of the Troubles, and reflected the UK government's belief in a need to prevent these groups from using the media for political advantage.

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19/10/1987

The United States Navy conducts Operation Nimble Archer, an attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.

Operation Nimble Archer was the 19 October 1987 attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces. The attack was a response to Iran's missile attack on MV Sea Isle City, a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at anchor off Kuwait, which had occurred three days earlier. The action occurred during Operation Earnest Will, the effort to protect Kuwaiti shipping amid the Iran–Iraq War.

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Black Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%, 508 points.

Black Monday was a global, severe and largely unexpected stock market crash on Monday, October 19, 1987. Worldwide losses were estimated at US$1.71 trillion. The severity sparked fears of extended economic instability or a reprise of the Great Depression.

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19/10/1986

The president of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, along with 33 others, die when their aircraft crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.

On 19 October 1986, a Tupolev Tu-134 jetliner with a Soviet crew carrying President Samora Machel and 43 others from Mbala, Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo crashed at Mbuzini, South Africa. Nine passengers and one crew member survived the crash, but President Machel and 33 others died, including several ministers and senior officials of the Mozambican government.

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19/10/1974

Niue becomes a self-governing colony of New Zealand.

The Schedules of the Niue Constitution Act 1974 form the Constitution of Niue. It stipulates the make-up of the executive branch of the government, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The Niue Constitution Act 1974 is the supreme law of Niue; any other Niue law that is inconsistent with the Niue Constitution Act 1974 will be deemed to be invalid.

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19/10/1973

President Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.

Audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff surfaced during the Watergate scandal in 1973 and 1974, leading to Nixon's resignation.

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19/10/1960

The United States imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.

A United States embargo has prevented U.S. businesses and citizens from conducting trade or commerce with Cuban interests since 1960. Modern diplomatic relations are cold, stemming from historic conflict and divergent political ideologies. U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are comprehensive and impact all sectors of the Cuban economy. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. The U.S. government influences extraterritorial trade with Cuba. The embargo has faced international criticism for its adverse impact on Cubans, including by the United Nations who have formally condemned it intermittently since 1992.

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19/10/1956

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.

The Soviet Union did not sign the 1951 Treaty of Peace with Japan, which had re‑established peaceful relations between most other Allied Powers and Japan. On 19 October 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war and for the restoration of diplomatic relations between both countries. They also agreed to continue negotiations for a peace treaty. In addition, the Soviet Union pledged to support Japan for UN membership and to waive all World War II reparations claims. The joint declaration was accompanied by a trade protocol, which granted reciprocal most favored nation status and provided for the development of trade. Japan derived few apparent gains from the normalization of diplomatic relations. The second half of the 1950s saw an increase in cultural exchanges.

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19/10/1955

The General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union approves the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.

The Eurovision Song Contest was first held in 1956. Following a series of exchange broadcasts in 1954 through its Eurovision transmission network, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) commissioned an international song competition, from an idea proposed by Sergio Pugliese and developed by Marcel Bezençon, and originally based on the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy.

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19/10/1953

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is published.

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

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19/10/1950

China defeats the Tibetan Army at Chambo.

The Battle of Chamdo occurred from 6 to 24 October 1950. It was a military campaign by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to capture the Chamdo Region from a de facto independent Tibetan state. PRC victory led to the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.

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Korean War: The Battle of Pyongyang ends in a United Nations victory. Hours later, the Chinese Army begins crossing the border into Korea.

The Korean War was an armed conflict the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations led by the United States under the auspices of the United Nations Command (UNC). The conflict was one of the first major proxy wars of the Cold War and one of its deadliest conflicts on noncombatants, especially civilians. It is estimated that 1.5 to 3 million Korean civilians were killed during the war. The Korean War was the first time the United Nations Security Council authorized the use of force under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

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Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program.

The Point Four Program was a technical assistance program for "developing countries" announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address on January 20, 1949. It took its name from the fact that it was the fourth foreign policy objective mentioned in the speech.

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19/10/1948

Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation, a monument honoring three presidents of the United States, was dedicated at the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation is a monument located on the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. It is dedicated to and depicts the three presidents of the United States who were born in North Carolina—Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk. It was dedicated on October 19, 1948, in a ceremony where President Harry S. Truman gave the main address.

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19/10/1944

United States forces land in the Philippines.

The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the amphibious invasion of the island of Leyte in the Philippines by American forces and Filipino guerrillas under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur. The combined forces fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The operation, codenamed King Two, launched the Philippines campaign of 1944–45 for the recapture and liberation of the entire Philippine Archipelago and to end almost three years of Japanese occupation.

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A coup is launched against Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, beginning the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution.

Juan Federico Ponce Vaides was the acting President of Guatemala from 4 July 1944 to 20 October 1944. He was overthrown by a popular uprising on 20 October 1944 that began the Guatemalan Revolution.

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19/10/1943

The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Crete and sunk. Two thousand and ninety-eight Italian prisoners of war drown with it.

Sinfra was a cargo ship built in 1929 as Fernglen by Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Oslo, Norway, for a Norwegian shipping company. The ship was sold to Swedish owners in 1934 and to a French company in 1939, on the last occasion having her name changed to Sinfra.

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Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.

Streptomycin is an antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium complex, endocarditis, brucellosis, Burkholderia infection, plague, tularemia, and rat bite fever. For active tuberculosis it is often given together with isoniazid, rifampicin, and pyrazinamide. It is administered by injection into a vein or muscle.

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19/10/1936

New York World-Telegram reporter Herbert Ekins won a race against two other New York newspaper journalists to travel around the world on commercial airline flights. He accomplished the feat in 18 ½ days. His opponents were New York Evening Journal reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, who finished in second place, and New York Times reporter Leo Kieran.

The New York World-Telegram, later known as the New York World-Telegram and The Sun, was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.

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19/10/1935

The League of Nations places economic sanctions on Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia.

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to May 1936. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Italian Invasion, and in Italy as the Ethiopian War. It is seen as an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers and the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations before the outbreak of World War II.

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19/10/1922

British Conservative MPs vote to terminate the coalition government with the Liberal Party.

Liberal David Lloyd George formed a coalition government in the United Kingdom in December 1916, and was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George V. It replaced the earlier wartime coalition under H. H. Asquith, which had been held responsible for losses during the Great War. Those Liberals who continued to support Asquith served as the Official Opposition. The government continued in power after the end of the war in 1918, though Lloyd George was increasingly reliant on the Conservatives for support. After several scandals including allegations of the sale of honours, the Conservatives withdrew their support after a meeting at the Carlton Club in 1922, and Bonar Law formed a government.

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19/10/1921

The Portuguese Prime Minister and several officials are murdered in the Bloody Night coup.

Bloody Night is the name by which the radical revolt that took place in Lisbon, on the night of 19 October 1921, became known. During the day, a coup led António Granjo's government to resign, but President António José de Almeida resisted appointing the rebels' government. During the night, a riot led by a "ghost truck" led by Abel Olímpio resulted in five people associated with the Sidonist regime being killed and one being gravely injured.

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19/10/1914

World War I: The First Battle of Ypres begins.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

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19/10/1912

Italo-Turkish War: Italy takes possession of what is now Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

The Italo-Turkish War, also known as the Turco-Italian War, was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captured coastal areas of the Ottoman Tripolitania Vilayet, of which the main sub-provinces were Fezzan, Cyrenaica, and Tripoli itself. These territories became the colonies of Italian Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, which would later merge into Italian Libya.

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19/10/1900

Max Planck discovers Planck's law of black-body radiation.

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German theoretical physicist. He won the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the services he rendered to the advancement of physics by his discovery of energy quanta."

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19/10/1866

In accordance with the Treaty of Vienna, Austria cedes Veneto and Mantua to France, which immediately awards them to Italy in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice.

The 1866 Treaty of Vienna was an agreement signed on 3 October 1866 and ratified on 12 October by the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire that concluded the hostilities of the Third War of Italian Independence, a theatre of the concurrent Austro-Prussian War.

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19/10/1864

American Civil War: The Battle of Cedar Creek ends the last Confederate threat to Washington, DC.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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American Civil War: Confederate agents based in Canada rob three banks in Saint Albans, Vermont.

The St. Albans Raid was the northernmost land action of the American Civil War. Taking place in St. Albans, Vermont, on October 19, 1864, it was a raid conducted out of the Province of Canada by 21 Confederate soldiers who had recently failed in engagements with the Union Army and evaded subsequent capture in the United States. The mission of the raid was to rob banks to raise money, and to trick the Union Army into diverting troops to defend their northern border against further raids. The Confederates obtained the money, killed a local, set the town on fire, and escaped back to Canada.

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19/10/1847

The novel Jane Eyre is published in London.

Jane Eyre is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published in January 1848 by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.

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19/10/1813

War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon is forced to retreat from Germany after the Battle of Leipzig.

The Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813 at Leipzig, Saxony. The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I, Karl von Schwarzenberg, Gebhard von Blücher and Swedish Crown Prince Charles John, decisively defeated the Grande Armée of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops, as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine. The battle was the culmination of the German campaign of 1813 and involved about 560,000 soldiers, 2,200 artillery pieces, the expenditure of 400,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and 133,000 casualties. This made it the largest of the battles during the Napoleonic Wars and, arguably, the deciding battle of the wars.

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19/10/1812

The French invasion of Russia fails when Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow.

The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812, was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of forcing the Russian Empire to comply with the continental blockade of the United Kingdom. Widely studied, Napoleon's incursion into Russia remains a focal point in military history, recognized as among the most devastating military endeavors to ever unfold. In the span of less than six months, the campaign claimed the lives of around a million soldiers and civilians.

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19/10/1805

War of the Third Coalition: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to Napoleon at the Battle of Ulm.

The Battle of Ulm on 16–19 October 1805 was a series of skirmishes, at the end of the Ulm Campaign, which allowed Napoleon I to trap an entire Austrian army under the command of Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich with minimal losses and to force its surrender near Ulm in the Electorate of Bavaria.

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19/10/1791

Treaty of Drottningholm, between Sweden and Russia

Treaty of Drottningholm (1791) was a treaty signed between Sweden and Russia on the 19th of October 1791, which aimed to establish a long lasting peace and also acting as an alliance between them which was directed against Revolutionary France.

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19/10/1789

John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.

John Jay was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the second governor of New York. Jay directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.

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19/10/1781

American Revolutionary War: The siege of Yorktown comes to an end.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

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19/10/1662

An English Buccaneer force led by Royal Navy commodore Christopher Myngs launches an attack on Santiago de Cuba which is subsequently sacked.

Buccaneers were privateers and pirates operating in the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established as early as 1625 on northwestern side of Hispaniola after the devastations of Osorio, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688, during a time when governments in the Caribbean area were not strong enough to suppress them. Martinique was a home port for French buccaneers as well as pirates like Captain Crapeau.

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19/10/1649

New Ross town in Ireland surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.

New Ross is a town in southwest County Wexford, Ireland, on the River Barrow on the border with County Kilkenny, 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Waterford. In 2022, it had a population of 8,610, making it the fourth-largest town in the county.

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19/10/1596

The Spanish ship San Felipe runs aground on the coast of Japan and its cargo is confiscated by local authorities.

On October 19, 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on Urado in Kōchi on the Japanese island of Shikoku en route from Manila to Acapulco. The local daimyo Chōsokabe Motochika seized the cargo of the richly laden Manila galleon, and the incident escalated to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruling taikō of Japan. The pilot of the ship suggested to Japanese authorities that it was Spanish modus operandi to have missionaries infiltrate a country before an eventual military conquest, depicting the Spanish campaigns in the Americas and the Philippines in this way. This led to the crucifixion of 26 Christians in Nagasaki, the first lethal persecution of Christians by the state in Japan. The executed were later known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan.

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19/10/1579

James VI of Scotland is celebrated as an adult ruler by a festival in Edinburgh.

James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603, until his death in 1625. Though he long attempted to get both countries to adopt a closer political union, the kingdoms of Scotland and England remained sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries and laws; they were ruled by James in personal union.

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19/10/1512

Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology.

Martin Luther was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.

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19/10/1469

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.

Ferdinand II was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504. He reigned jointly with Isabella over a dynastically unified Spain; together, they are known as the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand is considered the de facto first king of Spain, and was described as such during his reign, even though, legally, Castile and Aragon remained two separate kingdoms until they were formally united by the Nueva Planta decrees issued between 1707 and 1716.

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19/10/1466

The Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Order ends with the Second Treaty of Thorn.

The Thirteen Years' War, also called the War of the Cities, was a conflict fought in 1454–1466 between the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and the State of the Teutonic Order.

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19/10/1453

Hundred Years' War: Three months after the Battle of Castillon, England loses its last possessions in southern France.

The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and was triggered by a claim to the French throne made by Edward III of England. The war grew into a broader military, economic, and political struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides. The periodisation of the war typically charts it as taking place over 116 years. However, it was an intermittent conflict which was frequently interrupted by external factors, such as the Black Death, and several years of truces.

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19/10/1386

The Universität Heidelberg holds its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.

Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest university and one of the world's oldest surviving universities; it was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire after Prague (1347) and Vienna (1365). Since 1899, it has been a coeducational institution.

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19/10/0439

The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.

Gaiseric, also known as Geiseric or Genseric was king of the Vandals and Alans from 428 to 477 AD. He ruled over the Vandal kingdom and played a key role in the decline of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century.

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01/01/1970

Second Punic War: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage.[citation needed]

The Second Punic War was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Italy and Iberia, but also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and, towards the end of the war, in North Africa. After immense materiel and human losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were once again defeated. Macedonia, Syracuse and several Numidian kingdoms were drawn into the fighting, and Iberian and Gallic forces fought on both sides. There were three main military theatres during the war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success before moving into Italy; and Africa, where Rome finally won the war.

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