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Events, deaths, births, of 19 OCT
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On a 19 October:

2003Mother Teresa of Calcutta” Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu [26 Aug 1910 – 05 Sep 1997] is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2002
Human world chess champion Kramnik, with White, and computer program Deep Fritz, with Black, draw the last of the 8 games in their match of 04, 06, 08, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 19 October 2002, and thus draw the whole match with two wins each and four draws. Kramnik gets his guaranteed $600'000. The $400'000 which were in play are split between him and ChessBase, the makers of Fritz, who will donate their share to the European Youth Chess initiative. — 1. d4 – Nf6 / 2.c4 – e6 / 3.Nf3 – d5 / 4.Nc3 – c6 / 5.Bg5 – Be7 / 6.e3 – 0-0 / 7.Bd3 – Nbd7 / 8.0-0 – dxc4 / 9.Bxc4 – Nd5 / 10.Bxe7 – Qxe7 / 11.Rc1 – Nxc3 / 12.Rxc3 – e5 / 13.Bb3 – exd4 / 14.exd4 – Nf6 / 15.Re1 – Qd6 / 16.h3 – Bf5 / 17.Rce3 – Rae8 / 18.Re5 – Bg6 / 19.a3 – Qd8 / 20.Rxe8 – Nxe8 / 21.Qd2 draw. [final position >]MORE

2002 The Nice Treaty is a nice treaty, the majority of the Irish now agree. It updates the European Union and provides for the entry of new members was signed by all 15 present members, and ratified by the parliaments of 14 of them (France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland). But in the 15th member, Ireland, the constitution requires ratification by a plebiscite. It was held in June 2001, 35% of the electorate participated and 54% of that rejected the treaty. So the Irish government holds a second plebiscite today and, this time, of the 49% of the electorate which participates, 63% approve the treaty. It is expected that in December 2002 Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus will be invited to join the EU in 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are expected to enter the Union in 2007, assuming they complete economic and political reforms. Turkey is also interested in joining, but there is a question as to whether it is a European nation, and also its human rights violations are notorious.

2001
Modern art is really rubbish, or, at least, that is how, in London, Emmaruel Asare recently treated a work by Damien Hirst, news media report today. — DETAILS AT ART “4” OCTOBER
2000 La Organización para la Seguridad y Cooperación en Europa (OSCE) ofrece a Yugoslavia el reingreso en sus filas, ocho años después de su expulsión, en 1992.
2000 American Julia Child, 88, receives the Legion d'Honneur, for promoting French cuisine in the US with her 1961 book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and especially with her television show started in 1963.
1999 En España el escritor y académico Miguel Delibes recibe el Premio Nacional de Narrativa por su obra El hereje.
1999 El segundo y tercer banco español, el BBV y Argentaria, respectivamente, anuncian su fusión (BBVA) con el objetivo de competir con las grandes entidades financieras europeas.
1998 Microsoft antitrust suit begins. The US Justice Department alleged that Microsoft's business practices in regards to its operating system are predatory and anticompetitive and that Microsoft had unfairly pressured Internet companies to choose the Microsoft browser over Netscape's rival product. — Comienza el juicio contra Microsoft del magnate de la informática Bill Gates, acusado de prácticas monopolistas.
1998 En España Jon Juaristi, gana el Premio Nacional de Ensayo por su obra El bucle melancólico, un análisis critico del origen y desarrollo del nacionalismo vasco.
1997 El candidato socialista, Milo Djukanovic, resulta vencedor en la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales celebradas en la república yugoslava de Montenegro.
1990 El Soviet Supremo acepta la propuesta del presidente Mijaíl Sergeievich Gorbachov de introducir la economía de mercado.
1989 El escritor español Camilo José Cela Trulock, de 73 años, es galardonado con el premio Nobel de Literatura.

1989 The Guildford 4 are cleared after 14 years in prison
      The Guildford Four, convicted for the 1975 IRA bombings of public houses in Guildford and Woolwich, England, are cleared of all charges after fourteen years in prison. On October 5, 1974, an IRA bomb killed four in a Guildford pub frequented by British military personnel, and another bomb in Woolwich killed three. Under substantial political pressure, British investigators rushed to find suspects, and soon settled on Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill, two residents of Northern Ireland present in the area at the time of the terrorist attack.
      Under the new Prevention of Terrorism Act, British investigators were allowed to hold and interrogate terrorist suspects for five days without any hard evidence. Conlon and Hill, who were non-political petty criminals, were the first suspects held under the new law, and during their prison stay, investigators fabricated against them an IRA conspiracy that also implicated a number of their friends and family members.
      The British authorities forced the suspects to sign confessions under physical and mental torture, and in 1975, Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Paddy Armstrong, and Carole Richardson are sentenced to life in prison. Seven of their relatives and friends, called the Maguire Seven, are sentenced to lesser terms on the basis of questionable forensic evidence.
      In 1989, in the face of growing public protest and after the disclosure of exonerating evidence, including the admittance of guilt in the bombings by an imprisoned IRA member, the Guildford Four are cleared of all charges and released after fourteen years in prison. In the next year, a British appeals court also overturns the convictions of the Maguire Seven, who were jailed on the basis of forensic evidence that is shown to have no relevant scientific basis.
1988 South African anti-apartheid leader Sisulu wins $100'000 Human Rights prize
1988 Senate passes bill curbing ads during children`s TV shows
1988 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announces that it has decided to award the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly to the US's Leon Lederman (Batavia, Illinois), Melvin Schwartz (Mountain view, California), and Jack Steinberger (Geneva, Switzerland), for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino. MORE
1988 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announces that it has decided to award the 1988 Nobel Prize in chemistry jointly to West Germans Dr. Johann Deisenhofer (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Dallas, Texas), Professor Robert Huber (Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, DBR), and Dr. Hartmut Michel (Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik, Frankfurt/Main, DBR), for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center. MORE
1988 Britain bans broadcast interviews with IRA members.
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 Panic attack on Wall Street
      In 1987, the markets were enjoying a record-setting bull run, seemingly unbothered by occasional cocaine scandals or the arrest of Ivan Boesky. However, on "Black Monday," 19 October "panic selling" sends the Dow-Jones Industrial Average into a 508.32 fall, four times the previous record. After a day of frantic action, the markets had shed 23 percent of their total value. The staggering loss sent analysts scurrying to find a smoking gun--and they found several. Along with the usual suspects, inflation and rising interest rates, the announcement of a surprisingly steep trade deficit and news of an American attack against Iran were both blamed for Wall Street's woes. Some industry insiders looked even closer to home, speculating that the market's computerized trading system played a role in sparking the crash. Agile traders who bought at the low, made a tidy profit in the next few days.
1982 DeLorean ruined by arrest on drug charges.
     Maverick automobile executive John DeLorean is arrested in a Los Angeles, California, airport motel with a briefcase containing $24 million dollars worth of cocaine. According to authorities, DeLorean was attempting to make a mammoth drug deal in order to rescue his financially ailing company, the DeLorean Motor Company.
      John DeLorean began his automotive career with Packard in the 1950s, and was recruited to Pontiac in 1959. A rising star at Pontiac, DeLorean pioneered the successful GTO and Grand Prix, and by the late 1960s had risen to the top position in a company that was behind only Chevrolet and Ford in sales.
      In 1970, DeLorean was moved to become the youngest-ever general manager of Chevrolet, and by 1973 Chevy was selling a record three million cars and trucks, with DeLorean seeming a top candidate for General Motors' next presidency. But he had taken to hobnobbing with Hollywood stars. He dumped his first wife to marry Kelly Harmon, a 20-year-old model, only to divorce again and marry jet-setter Christina Ferrare. When DeLorean took to wearing bell-bottoms and had plastic surgery on his face, his new style did not find favor with the bigwigs at General Motors, and he was forced out in late-1973.
     As DeLorean left his $650'000 job at GM, he boasted that he was "going to show them how to build cars.” He later blasted GM in a bestselling book, On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors. DeLorean set out to build his own company and dream sports car. With Great Britain offering amazing incentives, and with money from celebrities such as Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr., he raised nearly $200 million in financing and formed the DeLorean Motor Company in 1974, building a car factory in Northern Ireland.      Interest in DeLorean's sleek and futuristic DMC-12 car was high, but the car had some problems, and, when a recession hit in 1981, the company was in serious financial trouble, failing to find additional investors.
     According to DeLorean's account, it was at this time that James Hoffman, an acquaintance in California who was actually a convicted felon-turned-government informant, told him he could find investors to save the company. Claiming that he didn't know it was a drug deal until it was too late, DeLorean said he was afraid to back out. Despite what many believed to be an open and shut case, which even included a videotape of the drug deal in which he remarked, "It's better than gold and just in the nick of time," the jury believed that DeLorean had been entrapped by the government. In 1984, even without his own testimony, he was acquitted.
      However, DeLorean's legal troubles didn't end there. In 1985, he was indicted for racketeering, fraud, and tax evasion, all of which he escaped with an acquittal. With less than 10'000 ever produced, the DeLorean sports car by 2000 had become a collector's car; with a large percentage of them still in operation.
1980 Steve McPeak rides 31-meter unicycle.
1980 El Gobierno griego acuerda ingresar en la estructura militar de la OTAN.
1977 Supersonic Concorde jet's 1st landing in NYC
1977 Adolfo Suárez González es elegido presidente de UCD (Unión del Centro Democrático) en el Congreso Constituyente de este partido político español.
1973 President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
1973 ENIAC patent overturned
      A federal judge overturned patents filed by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert on the electronic digital computer on 19 19 October73. Mauchly and Eckert had led the team that developed ENIAC, one of the world's first digital computers, in 1946. Their patent was challenged by Honeywell, which alleged that they had applied for the patent too late to qualify. The company also alleged that John Atanasoff, an engineer who developed a computer at Iowa State University in the late 1930s, was the true inventor of the electronic computer. The judge indeed ruled that Atanasoff, not Mauchly and Eckert, had invented the electronic computer.
1967 The Nobel Literature Prize is announced for Miguel Angel Asturias, on his 68th birthday, "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America" MORE
1967 La sonda estadounidense Mariner 5, lanzada para explorar el planeta Venus, pasa a 3990 km de su superficie.
1966 Gulf and Western Industries Inc. buys Paramount Pictures Corp. Gulf and Western, later renamed Paramount Communications, would eventually be bought by fellow media giant Viacom Inc.
1965 In Vietnam Communists attack the US Plei Me Special Forces camp.
1963 Finaliza la primera fase de las excavaciones de Numancia. El museo numantino cuenta ya con más de 14'000 objetos.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: US President Kennedy now knows that the Soviets are building bases in Cuba for nuclear missiles that could reach almost everywhere in the US. But the Soviets don't know that he knows, and the public knows nothing. To maintain secrecy Kennedy goes on a planned campaign trip to the Midwest. Before leaving, Kennedy meets with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who favor air strikes on Cuba rather than a blockade. But the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EX-COMM) cannot reach a consensus. So Kennedy asks his brother Bobby to continue the EX-COMM meetings to draw up full plans for both scenarios.
1960 France grants Mauritania independence
1960 Martin Luther King Jr arrested in Atlanta sit-in
1960 The US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba — EE.UU. somete a Cuba a un embargo comercial.
1960 España ingresa en la IDA (International Development Association).
1960 Canada and the United States agree to undertake a joint Columbia River project to provide hydroelectric power and flood control.
1958 Brussels world's fair closes
      In Brussels, Belgium, the first world's fair held since before World War II closes its doors, after nearly 42 million people have visited the various exhibits. Officially called the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, the fair's overall theme was "A World View, A New Humanism.” As such, the fair was supposed to celebrate the universality of the human condition and encourage dialogue and peaceful relations among the nations of a world only recently torn asunder by war, and now caught in the clutches of the Cold War.
      Officials in the United States, however, saw the fair as something quite different: An opportunity to promote America's particular "world view," and to meet the Soviets head-on in the continuing propaganda battle for the "hearts and minds" of the world's people. The fair, therefore, became a showplace for the American and Soviet ways of life, and their exhibition halls became the headquarters for this battle.
      The adversarial context was accentuated by the fact that the US and Soviet exhibition halls were located directly across from one another. The Soviet exhibit centered on the technological and scientific accomplishments of the communist state. A replica of Sputnik I, the unmanned satellite put into orbit by the Soviets in 1957, was the centerpiece of the imposing exhibition hall. The United States decided on a different tack, and focused on the everyday life of Americans. Mock voting booths were set up; beautiful women showed off the latest fashions; home furnishings and appliances were in abundance; and a typical American "Main Street" was constructed. It probably came as something of a shock to both US and Soviet officials when Czechoslovakia won first place for best exhibition hall.
1956 Se firma el acuerdo que pone fin al estado de guerra entre Japón y la URSS.
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.
1953 1st jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service.
1951 US Pres Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany.
1950 UN forces entered Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea
1949 The People's Republic of China is formally proclaimed.
1947 El partido RPF, encabezado por Charles-André de Gaulle, vence claramente en las elecciones municipales de Francia.
1944 US forces land in Philipines
1943 Allies meet in Moscow
      During World War II, the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers begins in Russia. Delegates from the USS.R. meet with representatives from the Allied nations of Great Britain, the US, and China, in an attempt to hammer out a greater consensus on war aims, and to improve the rapidly cooling relations between the Soviet Union and its allies. The four powers agree to collaborate on surrender terms for the enemy, and recognize the need for an effective international organization to prevent future wars.
1942 The Japanese submarine I-36 launches a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. The pilot and crew report on the ships in the harbor, after which the aircraft is lost at sea.
1939 Traité franco-anglo-turc
1936 HR Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" beats 2 other reporters in a race around the world on commercial flights, by 18« days
1935 No real help for Ethiopia from League of Nations.
      The League of Nations votes to impose deliberately ineffectual economic sanctions against Fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia. Steps that would impede the progress of the invasion, such as banning the sale of oil to Italy and closing the Suez Canal, were not taken, out of fear of igniting hostilities in Europe. In the first loss of Ethiopian independence in its long history, tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed as the Italian army employed poison gas and other modern atrocities to suppress the country. By the end of 1936, the Italian conquest of Ethiopia was complete. Ethiopia's leader, Emperor Haile Selassie, went into exile but returned in 1941, when British and Ethiopian troops liberated the country. Ignoring the British occupation authorities, Selassie quickly organized his own government.
1935 La Longue Marche des communistes chinois s'achève.         ^top^
      Après avoir parcouru douze mille kilomètres à travers la Chine, les communistes atteignent le Chen-si (ou Shaanxi). Dans cette province isolée du nord-ouest, ils échappent aux attaques du parti rival du Kuomintang et de son chef, Tchang Kaï-chek. Mais de 130.000 au départ, un an plus tôt, ils ne sont plus que 30'000. La faim et la guerre contre les troupes du Kuomintang ont eu raison des autres.
      C'est au cours de la Longue Marche que Mao Tsé-toung (ou Mao Zédong) s'impose comme le leader des communistes chinois. Il se fait élire président du Comité central du Parti Communiste Chinois en février 1935. Au risque de mécontenter les alliés soviétiques, ce fils de riche paysan cultive l'idée que les révolutionnaires chinois doivent s'appuyer en priorité sur la paysannerie misérable des campagnes plutôt que sur la classe ouvrière des villes. Il fait valoir les échecs des soulèvements ouvriers à Canton, en 1926, ou encore à Shanghai, en 1927 (le roman d'André Malraux, La Condition Humaine, retrace cet événement).
      Une fois en sécurité au Shaanxi, Mao consolide les bases de son parti en introduisant la révolution dans les campagnes. En 1945, sitôt après la défaite de l'envahisseur japonais, il reprendra le combat contre Tchang Kaï-chek et l'obligera à se réfugier à Taiwan. Le 1er octobre 1949, triomphal, il proclamera à Pékin la République populaire de Chine.
1934 Mao Zedong y sus seguidores abandonan Kiang-si e inician la "larga marcha" a través de China.
1915 US recognizes Carranza against Pancho Villa
      The United States recognizes General Venustiano Carranza as the president of Mexico, and imposes an embargo on the shipment of arms to all Mexican territories except those controlled by Carranza. The year before, Carranza, along with revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, led a successful revolt against the regime of Victoriano Huerta. After the victory, the two leaders became rivals and Villa, the weaker of the pair, fled into the mountains. Despite US military support for Carranza, Villa continues his resistance throughout the next year, and in 1916 the US launches a punitive expedition against him in northern Mexico. Like Carranza, the US force fails to capture the elusive revolutionary, but in 1917 the new government of Adolfo de la Huerta drafts a reformist constitution, and Villa agrees to retire from politics. The government pardons Villa in 1920, but three years later he is assassinated at Parral.
1914 The German cruiser Emden captures her thirteenth Allied merchant ship in 24 days.
1912 Tripoli (Libya) passes from Turkish to Italian control
1902 Ramón Menéndez Pidal pronuncia su discurso de ingreso en la Real Academia Española, contestado por su maestro don Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo.
1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont proves airship maneuverable by circling Eiffel Tower — Santos-Dumont consigue el premio Deutsch a la Meurthe por su viaje de ida y vuelta en dirigible entre Saint-Cloud y la torre Eiffel.
1888 Moshav Gederah is attacked by the Arabs
1876 El gobierno español de Nicolás Avellaneda aprueba la ley de inmigración.
1876 Coronación de Carlos I de Portugal.
1872 World's largest gold nugget (215 kg) found in New South Wales
1870 1st (4) blacks elected to US House of Reps
1869 Construction begins on the Sutro Tunnel in Virginia City, Nevada
      The famous Prussian-born mining engineer, Adolph Sutro, begins work on one of the most ambitious western engineering projects of the day: a four-mile-long tunnel through the solid rock of the Comstock Lode mining district. One of the richest silver deposits in the world, the Comstock Lode had been discovered by prospectors in 1859, and it quickly became the focus of the most intensive mining activity in the West. But as miners sank shafts ever deeper into the rock in search of more silver and gold, they began to encounter large amounts of water that had to be pumped to the surface at great expense. If only some means could be found to drain the water horizontally, the mining companies would save a fortune.
      Adolph Sutro's tunnel was intended to do just that. Sutro-who had already demonstrated his technical brilliance by inventing a new way to extract silver from waste rock-proposed to blast a large horizontal tunnel right through the rock of the neighboring Mt. Davidson and straight into the heart of the Comstock mine. Mine water would thus drain through the tunnel without need for expensive pumps, and the mining companies would also be able to use the tunnel to move men and ore in and out of the mine, greatly reducing transportation costs. While all involved agreed that technically Sutro's tunnel would be a boon to the Comstock, progress on the project was continually slowed down by resistance from some of the major mining interests who feared that Sutro would use his tunnel to take control of the entire lode. Only after securing European capital was Sutro able to complete the $5-million project in 1878.
      Every bit as successful as promised, the Sutro tunnel drained some two million gallons of water from the mines per year and greatly reduced transportation costs. Unfortunately, by 1878, the richer sections of the Comstock Lode had been tapped out, and the mine had begun to steadily decline in profitability. Sutro, though, succeeded in selling his tunnel in 1879 at a fantastic profit. He moved to San Francisco where he became one of the city's largest landowners as well as the city's mayor from 1894 to 1896.
1868 Se establece en España la peseta como unidad monetaria.
1864 Battle of Cedar Creek (Belle Grove), Virginia, Union beats back Conf attackers. a narrow victory helps the Union secure the Shenandoah Valley.
1864 Approximately 25 Confederates enter Vermont from Canada and raid the town of St. Albans. They rob banks, loot, and attempt to set fire to the town before being chased back into Canada. A judge in Canada would release the raiders, creating a minor diplomatic crisis between the United States and Britain, but the British paid reparations to the town of St. Albans and the matter was resolved without further conflict.
1863 Cavalry engagement known as the Buckland Races, Virginia
1849 Conjura en Madrid contra el Gobierno del general Narváez, sustituido durante un sólo día por el conde Cleonard. El acontecimiento se conoció como "ministerio relámpago".
1848 John "The Pathfinder" Fremont moves out from near Westport, Missouri, on his fourth Western expedition--a failed attempt to open a trail across the Rocky Mountains along the 38th parallel.
1818 US and Chicasaw Indians sign a treaty
1812 Napoléon begins retreat from Moscow
      One month after Napoléon Bonaparte's massive invading force entered a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army, with no means to survive the coming Russian winter, is forced to begin a hasty retreat out of Russia.
      During the disastrous invasion, Napoléon was forced to contend with a bitter Russian army in perpetual retreat. Refusing to engage Napoléon's superior army in a full-scale confrontation, the Russians burned everything behind them as they retreated deeper and deeper into Russia. On September 14, Napoléon arrived in Moscow hoping to find supplies, but instead found the population evacuated, the city burning, and the Russian army retreated again. During Napoléon's ensuing retreat, his army suffers continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. When the decimated French army finally escapes Russia, it numbers less than 10'000, suffering a loss of over 400'000 men during its disastrous invasion of Russia.
     Following the rejection of his Continental System by Czar Alexander I, French Emperor Napoleon I invaded Russia with his Grande Armée on 24 June 1812. The enormous army, featuring more than 500'000 soldiers and staff, was the largest European military force ever assembled to that date. During the opening months of the invasion, Napoleon was forced to contend with a bitter Russian army in perpetual retreat. Refusing to engage Napoleon's superior army in a full-scale confrontation, the Russians under General Mikhail Kutuzov burned everything behind them as they retreated deeper and deeper into Russia. On September 7, the indecisive Battle of Borodino was fought, in which both sides suffered terrible losses. On 14 September, Napoleon arrived in Moscow intending to find supplies but instead found almost the entire population evacuated, and the Russian army retreated again. Early the next morning, fires broke across the city set by Russian patriots, and the Grande Armée's winter quarters were destroyed. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving army out of Moscow.
      During the disastrous retreat, Napoleon's army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. Stalked by hunger and the deadly lances of the Cossacks, the decimated army reached the Berezina River late in November but found its route blocked by the Russians. On 26 November, Napoleon forced a way across at Studienka, and when the bulk of his army passed the river three days later, he was forced to burn his makeshift bridges behind him, stranding some 10'000 stragglers on the other side. From there, the retreat became a rout, and, on 08 December, Napoleon left what remained of his army to return to Paris with a few cohorts. Six days later, the Grande Armée finally escaped Russia, having suffered a loss of more than 400'000 men during the disastrous invasion.
1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown
      At 14:00 British General Charles Cornwallis, first Marquess and second Earl Cornwallis viscount Brome baron Cornwallis of Eye [31 Dec 1738 – 05 Oct 1805] surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing to an end the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. Two weeks before, US and French forces under George Washington [12 Feb 1732 – 14 Dec 1799] encircled Cornwallis's troops at the strategic site of Yorktown, and commenced siege operations against the massive British force. With the army of Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier marquis de Lafayette [06 Sep 1757 – 20 May 1834] to the west, US forces to the south and east, and a French naval fleet under François-Joseph-Paul marquis de Grasse-Tilly comte de Grasse [13 Sep 1722 – 11 Jan 1788] dominating the Virginia shore, Lord Cornwallis had no choice but to surrender his 9000 soldiers after enduring eight days of heavy bombardment. Although skirmishes and limited military actions continued in the colonies for over a year, Washington had achieved the inconceivable with victory at Yorktown — he had won US independence from one of the most powerful nations on earth.
Decisive American victory: Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-US force, effectively bringing an end to the US War of Independence.
      Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the US War of Independence. In 1776, he drove General George Washington's Patriots forces out of New Jersey, and in 1780 he won a stunning victory over General Horatio Gates' Patriot army at Camden, South Carolina. Cornwallis' subsequent invasion of North Carolina was less successful, however, and in April 1781 he led his weary and battered troops toward the Virginia coast, where he could maintain seaborne lines of communication with the large British army of General Henry Clinton in New York City. After conducting a series of raids against towns and plantations in Virginia, Cornwallis settled in the tidewater town of Yorktown in August. The British immediately began fortifying the town and the adjacent promontory of Gloucester Point across the York River.
     George Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with a US army of about 5000 men, to block Cornwallis' escape from Yorktown by land. In the meantime, Washington's 2500 soldiers in New York were joined by a French army of 4000 men under the Count de Rochambeau. Washington and Rochambeau made plans to attack Cornwallis with the assistance of a large French fleet under the Count de Grasse, and on 21 August they crossed the Hudson River to march south to Yorktown. Covering more than 300 km in 15 days, the allied force reached the head of Chesapeake Bay in early September.
      Meanwhile, a British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves failed to break French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes on September 5, denying Cornwallis his expected reinforcements. Beginning 14 September, de Grasse transported Washington and Rochambeau's men down the Chesapeake to Virginia, where they joined Lafayette and completed the encirclement of Yorktown on September 28. De Grasse landed another 3000 French soldiers carried by his fleet. During the first two weeks of October, the 14'000 Franco-American soldiers gradually overcame the fortified British positions with the aid of de Grasse's warships. A large British fleet carrying 7000 men set out to rescue Cornwallis, but it was too late.
      On 19 October, General Cornwallis surrenders 7087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate, and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he does not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O'Hara, carries Cornwallis' sword to the American and French commanders. As the British and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British bands played the song "The World Turned Upside Down."
      Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, the Patriot victory at Yorktown effectively ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on 03 September 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation after eight years of war.
1765 Stamp Act: Congress met in NY, wrote decl of rights & liberties
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.
1706 En el marco de la Guerra de Sucesión de España se subleva Menorca, en favor del archiduque Carlos de Austria. El levantamiento quedó sofocado por los partidarios de Felipe V.
1573 Felipe II firma las patentes e instrucciones por las que releva al duque de Alba de su cargo de gobernador y en su lugar nombra a Luis de Requesens.
1466 The peace of Torun ends the war between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia.
1448 The Ottoman Sultan Murat II defeats Hungarian General Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia.
0615 St Deusdedit I begins his reign as Pope.
0439 The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
--125 -BC- Origin of Era of Tyre
TO THE TOP
Deaths which occurred on a 19 October:
2003 Three Israelis, ambushed by Palestinians close to Road 60, near the Jewish enclave settlement Ofra and the Arab village Ein Yabrud, in the West Bank near Ramallah. One Israeli is wounded.
2003 Alija Izetbegovic, born on 08 August 1925, former President of Bosnia who declared independence on 06 April 1992, which precipitated a devastating 42-month war against the 2/3 Muslim and Croat majority by the 1/3 Serb minority, backed by Serbia. — more
2001 Basim Salim Alembasher, 13, Palestinian, by a shell, fired by Israeli troops stationed at “Nevi Dekalim” enclave settlement. This happened near the “Altofah” roadblock, west of Basim's home in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Some reports say that Basim was playing with a recently fired unexploded shell, when it exploded.
2001 Saed Abdulkader Alaqra, 24, Palestinian, hit in the chest and the abdomen by heavy machinegun fire from Israeli soldiers stationed in the “Albaloa” area, north to Ramallah, where Alaqra was in front of his residence.
2001 Marim Sabiah, 28, Abad Abu Sarur, 25, and Musa Abu Abid, 22, Palestinians, by gunfire from Israeli troops invading Bethleem.
2001: 374 of 418 on board refugee boat sinking in Indonesia.
     A worn-out pump draining water from their leaky Indonesian boat breaks down in the Indian Ocean. As the wooden vessel fills with water, dozens of men bailed frantically, some with their bare hands. 200 persons, mainly terrified women and children are trapped in the overcrowded hold. The boat sinks in 10 minutes as heavy rain fell on the otherwise placid sea. Most of those who manage to get off the boat drown after floating for hours. Of the 418 people aboard — mostly refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries — only 44 survive the disaster.
        News of the tragedy would only be made public three days later. Most of the immigrants were Iraqis, but that there were also Afghans, Palestinians, and Algerians on board. On 18 October 2001 the vessel had sailed from a fishing port in southern Sumatra after the refugees had paid $4000 each for the journey. At about 14:00 the hull sprang a hole. The mechanic could not fix it and the boat sank.
      Thousands of migrants head for Australia every year from Southeast Asia. Leaky, unseaworthy vessels overloaded with passengers and cargo routinely leave Indonesian ports without working radios or enough lifejackets.
      On the day the ship sailed 21 passengers asked to get off and were put ashore on an Indonesian island. Early in the morning of 19 October, the captain announced that the engine had stopped and the ship was taking on water.
      Maritime disasters, with large loss of life, are common in Indonesia. Sea safety is often lax and shipping laws are ignored and rarely enforced. Criminal gangs with links to corrupt Indonesian authorities routinely pack hundreds of people into leaky fishing boats for the one-way run to the nearest Australian territorial waters, about 350 km south of Java.
      In April 2000, up to 350 asylum seekers were feared drowned off northern Australia, although their deaths were never confirmed. In December 2000, unconfirmed reports said that two boats carrying up to 163 persons sank in bad weather en route to Australia's Ashmore Island.
      Indonesia does not have a coast guard. Its navy is badly equipped and has minimal search-and-rescue capability. The heartless Australian government has recently tried to crack down on asylum seekers from the Middle East as well as Central and South Asia. Australia has demanded that Indonesia do more to stop the migrants, and has refused to let many land on its territory, transferring them to neighboring Pacific island states for processing.
2001 Digna Ochoa, leading Mexican human rights lawyer, murdered. This would increase the pressure on President Fox to demonstrate that he is committed to human rights. In early November 2001, he would at long last grant a pardon to peasant ecologists Rodolfo Montiel, 46, and Teodoro Cabrera, 55, who had been in prison for more than two years. Digna Ochoa had defended them and accused the army of forcing false confessions out of them through torture.
2000 Four persons and a suicide bomber who detonates the explosives he is wearing, near the town hall of Colombo, Sri Lanka. 23 others are injured. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are probably responsible.
1999 Russian planes destroy Chechen military convoy, killing 40 (CNN)
1994 23 personas muertas y 20 heridas por un atentado suicida de Hamas en Tel Aviv contra un autobús urbano.
1988 Car bomb kills 7 Israelis, wounds 11 near Lebanon border
1986 Samora Moisés Machel, militar y político, presidente de Mozambique.
1983 Maurice Bishop, prime minister of Grenada, and others, murdered in coup.
1970 Lázaro Cárdenas, político y militar mexicano.
1954 Max “Mopp” Oppenheimer, German artist born on 01 July 1885.
1949 Más de 4000 muertos y de 100'000 personas sin hogar a causa de los fuertes temporales que cayeron sobre Guatemala.
1945 Newell Convers Wyeth, born on 22 October 1882, US painter famous for his illustrations of Treasure Island and Robin Hood. He dies together with his grandson when the car he is driving is struck by a train. — MORE ON WYETH AT ART “4” OCTOBER with links to images.
1943 Some 40 Japanese soldiers as North Borneo revolts
      Local Chinese and native Suluks rise up against the Japanese occupation of North Borneo. The revolt, staged in the capital, Jesselton, resulted in the deaths of 40 Japanese soldiers. The Japanese had begun scooping up islands in the Dutch East Indies in late 1941. Kuching, on the northern coast of Borneo, was taken in December; January of '42 saw the fall of Brunei Bay and Jesselton, also in North Borneo. The British and Dutch forces on the islands were dealt swift and severe blows. Attempts by the Allies to hold on to other islands in the region--Malaya, Sumatra, and Java--began shortly thereafter, with British General Archibald Wavell commanding a unified force of British, Dutch, and Australian soldiers. It was a disastrous failure.
      The treatment of Allied and civilian prisoners in the Japanese-controlled islands was horrendous, with hundreds dying of disease and starvation. The rebellion of Chinese settlers and native Suluks in the Borneo capital of Jesselton, although delivering a blow to the Japanese to the tune of 40 dead occupying soldiers, was dealt with quickly and brutally. The Japanese destroyed dozens of Suluk villages, rounded up and tortured thousands of civilians, and executed almost 200 without trial. In one extreme example of cruelty, several dozen Suluk women and children had their hands tied behind them and were hanged from their wrists from a pillar of a mosque. They were then shot down by machine-gun fire. North Borneo would not be liberated until 1945, mostly the work of Australian forces. The next year, it would be made a colony of Britain. That region of Borneo controlled by the Dutch was given sovereignty in 1949 after a rebellion by Indonesian forces.
1942 Jan Trampota, Czech artist born on 21 May 1889.
1937 Ernest Rutherford, físico británico, Premio Nobel de 1908.
1914 Julio Argentino Roca, militar y político argentino.
1913 Alejandro Pidal y Mon, político y escritor español.
1897 Anton Müller, Austrian artist born on 29 June 1853.
1890 Sir Richard Francis Burton, viajero, escritor y filólogo inglés.
1890 Emile Mathieu, mathematician
1878 Bienaymé, mathematician
1875 Sir Charles Wheatstone, físico e inventor británico.
1864 Rebs and Yanks at Battle of Cedar Creek
      Union General Philip Sheridan averts a near disaster in the Shenandoah Valley when he rallies his troops after a surprise attack by General Jubal Early and scores a major victory that almost destroys Early's army. Through the summer of 1864, Early moved his army with impunity around the Shenandoah and surrounding area. General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant dispatched Sheridan to take care of Early's army, which was distracting Grant and preventing him from applying the full pressure of the Union army on the forces of Robert E. Lee around Petersburg, Virginia. Sheridan performed his task well, defeating Early at Winchester, Fischer's Hill, and Tom's Brook. By mid-October, Sheridan's troops were busy destroying the rich harvest of the Shenandoah to deny food supplies to Lee's army. Sheridan departed for a military conference in Washington. Before he returned, Early launched a devastating attack on the surprised Yankees. Throughout the morning of 19 October the Rebels drove the Union troops back more than three miles. By late morning, Early slowed the attack despite the urgings of General John B. Gordon, who insisted that Early press his assault to achieve total destruction of the Federal force. Returning from Washington, Sheridan heard the battle from Winchester and began a furious, 12-mile ride to the front. Along the way, he met his straggling troops and retreating soldiers and turned them back toward the battle for a counterattack. This effort, which was later called "Sheridan's ride," became legendary. After Early cut off his assault, an eerie silence settled on the battlefield. Sheridan orchestrated his counterattack by 4 p.m., and it was devastating. The Yankees tore through the Confederate lines and sent Early's army in retreat. Sheridan lost 5,500 out of 31,000 troops. Early lost almost 3000 of the 22'000 men in his command, but nearly all of the Confederate artillery was captured in the Union counterattack. It was the last major battle in the campaign, and Early was never able to mount a serious offensive again.
1785 Jean Hugues Taraval, French artist born on 27 February 1729. — more
1781 Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va. Cornwallis surrenders 7157 troops, including sick and wounded, and 840 sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had been light on both sides. The Revolutionary War is effectively ended.
1758 Masucco Agostino Masucci (or Masucco), Italian artist born in 1691.
1745 Jonathan Swift, in Dublin, satirist         ^top^
     Born in Dublin on 30 November 1667, he was an Irish author and Anglican dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin (from 1713), the foremost prose satirist in the English language.
SWIFT ONLINE:
  • Gulliver's Travels
  • Gulliver's Travels
  • A Modest Proposal
  • A Tale of a Tub
  • The Lady's Dressing Room
  • The Battle of the Books, and Other Short Pieces
  • A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue
  • 1609 Jacob Arminius, 49, the Dutch theologian who lent his name to the beliefs (known today at Arminianism) which oppose the major tenets of Protestant Reformed (Calvinist) theology.
    1586 Danti, mathematician
    1553 Bonifazio Veronese de Pitati, Italian artist born in 1487.
    1298 Rindfleish--140 Jews of Heilbron Germany are murdered
    1216 King John of England dies at Newark and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
    Births which occurred on an 19 October:
    1944 Wellington Moreira Franco, político y sociólogo brasileño.
    1935 Jakubu Gowon, político y militar nigeriano.
    1931 David Cornwell, later known as spy novelist John Le Carré, in Poole, England.
          Le Carré's father was a charming, dishonest con man who ran up millions of dollars in debt, snookered friends and family on phantom deals, and spent time in jail for embezzlement. Charismatic and delightful company, Ron Cornwell kept up an extravagant show of wealth and sent his two sons, Anthony and David, to an upper-class boarding school. David went abroad at age 16 to study German. He became involved in the British intelligence service in Austria before attending Oxford. After Oxford, he taught French and Latin at Eton, then joined the British Foreign Service in West Germany in 1959. Meanwhile, he married, had three sons, and wrote about his experiences in the foreign service.
          He published his first spy novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961. The novel, like his second, A Murder of Quality (1962), featured spy George Smiley. After the success of his third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963), which was made into a movie in 1965, Cornwell quit his government job to write full time.
          Cornwell's 1974 bestseller, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the first of a trilogy including The Honorable Schoolboy (1977) and Smiley's People (1980), also featured George Smiley. His 1986 novel, A Perfect Spy, was the first of his novels not submitted to the British government for approval and possible censorship, which had previously been required of him, given his former intelligence status. It was also the one that most closely paralleled Cornwell's own life: The plot featured a charming con man as the protagonist's father.
         Other Le Carré books are -- Single & Single -- The Tailor of Panama -- The Little Drummer Girl -- Our Game -- The Russia House -- The Naive and Sentimental Lover -- The Night Manager -- The Secret Pilgrim -- The Looking Glass War -- The Tailor of Panama.
    1927 Pierre Alechinsky, Belgian artist. — MORE ON ALECHINSKY AT ART “4” OCTOBER with links to images.
    1916 Jean Dausset, inmunólogo y biólogo francés, Nobel de Medicina de 1980.
    1910 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, in Lahore (then India, now Pakistan), US mathematician, astrophysicist, who was the co~laureate of the 1983 Nobel Physics Prize, for formulating the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars. He is the author of An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure (1939), Principles of Stellar Dynamics (1942), Radiative Transfer (1950), Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability (1961), The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes (1983). — MORE ON HIS NOBEL PRIZE
    1909 Leopoldo Panero, poeta español.
    1908 El marido de su viuda, de Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, se estrena en el teatro Príncipe Alfonso.
    1903 Delsarte, mathematician
    1901 Arleigh A Burke US, admiral (WW II)
    1899 Miguel Angel Asturias Guatemala, poet/novelist/diplomat (Nobel 1967 announced on his birthday). He died on 09 June 1974.MORE ON HIS NOBEL PRIZE
    1895 Lewis Mumford cultural historian/city planner/writer, social critic (The City in History)
    1895 Bram van Velde, Dutch artist who died in 1981.
    1885 Charles Edward Merrill, founder (on 03 January 1914, as Charles E. Merrill & Co.) and a directing partner of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane (as it was called at the time of his death), investment banking and brokerage firm. He also started the magazine Family Circle, distributed in chain stores. Merrill died on 06 October 1956.
    1882 Umberto Boccioni, Italian futurist painter and sculptor who died on 16 August 1916. — MORE ON BOCCIONI AT ART “4” OCTOBER with links to images.
    1882 Vincas Kreve-Mickievicius Lithuania, poet/philologist/playwright,
    1862 Auguste Lumière, French chemist, made 1st movie (Workers Leaving Lumière Factory)
    1858 Alice Josephine McLellan Birney, child welfare worker whose ideas evolved into the PTA
    1842 Bartolomé Robert Yarzabal, médico y político español.
    1840 Hjalmar “Magnus” Munsterhjelm, Swedish French artist who died on 02 April 1905. —
    1833 Adam Lindsay Gordon, Australian poet. GORDON ONLINE: Ashtaroth: A Dramatic Lyric, Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes, Poems, Sea Spray and Smoke Drift
    1817 Tom Taylor, British playwright whose play Our American Cousin was being performed at Ford's Theater when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
    1795 Morin, mathematician
    1784 Leigh Hunt, English journalist, essayist, poet and political radical. (Lord Byron)
    1779 Pedro Velarde y Santiyán, militar español, héroe del 2 de Mayo.
    1767 Karl Gotthard Grass, Serb artist who died on 03 August 1814.
    1754 Jean-Baptiste Regnault, French baron, artist who died on 12 November 1829. — MORE ON REGNAULT AT ART “4” OCTOBER with links to images.
    1741 François Choderlos de Laclos, à Amiens, auteur de Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
    1720 John Woolman, American Quaker reformer. His Journal, written from 1756-72, greatly influenced 19th century abolitionists.
    1633 Benedetto Gennari Jr., Italian Britishified artist who died on 09 December 1715. — MORE ON GENNARI AT ART “4” OCTOBER with links to images.
    1605 Thomas Browne British writer
    THOMAS BROWNE ONLINE:
  • Christian Morals
  • The Garden of Cyrus
  • Hydriotaphia: Urn Burial
  • Pseudodoxia Epidemica
  • Religio Medici
  • Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend
  • Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend
  • 1562 George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury. A recognized leader of the English Calvinists, Abbot also demonstrated Puritan sympathies, and took a leading part in translating the 1611 King James Version of the Bible.
    Holidays Mauritania : Independence Day (1960) / Virginia : Yorktown Day (1781)

    Religious Observances RC : St Peter of Alcantara, confessor/mystic / RC : G Lalemand, Garnier, Chabanel, R Goupil & J Laliande, canonized / RC : SS Antony Daniel, Gabriel Lalemand & N Amer martyrs / RC : SS John de Brebeuf & Isaac Jogues, priests / RC : St Paul of the Cross (opt) / Ang : Commem of Hanry Martyn, Priest, & Missionary to India & Persia / Santos Pedro de Alcántara, Pablo de la Cruz, Juan de Brebeuf, Aquilino, Isaac, Pelagia y Laura. / Saint René Goupil, chirurgien et Jésuite, partit au Québec afin d'évangéliser les Hurons. Le missionnaire est torturé et décapité en 1642, sous les yeux de son compagnon d'infortune, Isaac Jogues. Canonisé en 1930, René Goupil est le saint patron du Canada.

    PERGUNTA:
    Como é que o Tarzan conseguia estar sempre barbeado?
    Thoughts for the day: 1. “By following the good, you learn to be good.” [and vice versa]
    2. “By leading the good, you learn to be good.”
    [or else they don't follow you]
    3. “By following the good, you learn to be one of the few.”
    4. “By following the good, you learn to be a good follower.”
    5. “By following the good, you learn to walk the straight and narrow.”
    6. “By following the good, you learn where they're going.”
    7. “By following the good, you learn to pounce on them at the right moment.”
    8. “By following the good, you learn to go through the eye of a needle.”
    9. “By following the good follower, you learn to go in circles.”
    [and vice versa]
    10. “By following the good, you learn to go off the beaten track.”
    11. “By following the bad, you learn why you should've followed the good.”
    12. “By following the goad, you learn to avoid the goad.”
    13. “By following de Gaulle, you learn to be a Free French.”
    14. “By following the goal, you learn that they keep moving it.”
    15. “By following the god, you learn that it's not God.”
    16. “By following the goat, you learn what's good for a kid.”
    17. “By following the groove, you learn that you have no originality.”
    18. “By following the ghat, you learn to bathe in the Ganges.”
    19. “By following the ghoul, you learn to rob graves.”
    20. “By following the goose, you learn what's good for the gander.”
    [and vice versa]
    21. “By following in goose-step, you learn to be a good German.”
    22. “By following the goods, you learn to catch the thief.”
    TO THE TOP
    PLEASE CLICK HERE TO WRITE TO “HISTORY 4 2DAY”
    http://www.jcanu.hpg.ig.com.br/history/h4oct/h4oct19.html
    http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/all42day/history/h4oct/h4oct19.html
    http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/history/h4oct/h4oct19.html
    http://www.ifrance.com/ojourdui/history/h4oct/h4oct19.html
    updated Sunday 19-Oct-2003 22:43 UT
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