October 19

### Up to 1900

- 202 BC – The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal.
- 439 – The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
- 1216 – King John of England dies. His nine–year–old son takes to the throne, becoming King Henry III of England.
- 1303 – Siegen, in Westphalia (in present–day Germany) is given city rights.
- 1386 – First lecture at the University of Heidelberg.
- 1453 – The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years' War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.
- 1466 – The Thirteen Years' War ended with the Second Treaty of Toruń. Gdansk Pomerania and Prussia as a whole was incorporated into Poland; the Teutonic Knights were allowed to rule its eastern part as Polish vassals.
- 1781 – Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the American Revolutionary War.
- 1789 – John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
- 1805 – Battle of Ulm in the Napoleonic Wars.
- 1812 – Napoleon I of France retreats from Moscow.
- 1813 – The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.
- 1845 – Opera Tannhäuser by Richar Wagner is first performed.
- 1864 – Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
- 1864 – Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
- 1866 – Austria hands over Veneto to France, which immediately gives it to Italy. Mantua also becomes part of Italy.
- 1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

### 1901 – 2000

- 1912 – Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1914 – The First Battle of Ypres begins.
- 1917 – Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
- 1921 – Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Joaquim Granjo is killed in a coup.
- 1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
- 1935 – Fascist Italy invades 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 Republic of China joins the Korean War.
- 1954 – First successful climb of Cho Oyu in the Himalayas.
- 1956 – The Soviet Union and Japan sign a joint declaration, officially ending the state of war between them.
- 1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
- 1973 – Heavy rain causes floods in south–eastern Spain, killing around 200 people.
- 1974 – Niue becomes a self–governing territory of New Zealand.
- 1982 – John De Lorean is arrested for trafficking in cocaine.
- 1983 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and executed in a military coup d'état led by Bernard Coard.
- 1985 – The first Blockbuster Video store opens in Dallas, Texas.
- 1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others died when their Tupolev 134 plane crashed 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) Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%.
- 1989 – Guildford Four convictions are quashed by the Court of Appeal – they had spent 15 years in prison through a miscarriage of justice.
- 1991 – An earthquake in northern India, of magnitude 7, kills 2,000 people.
- 1992 – German politicians Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian are found dead. It is believed that Bastian killed Kelly on October 1, before killing himself.
- 1994 – New Zealand's Goodnight Kiwi says good night for the last time.

### From 2001

- 2001 – SIEV-X sinks en route to Christmas Island
- 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 Thai government on charges of corruption.
- 2005 – The trial of Saddam Hussein, on charges of Crimes against Humanity, begins.
- 2005 – Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.
- 2007 – A bomb explosion occurs at a market in Makati, Philippines, killing 11 people.
- 2008 – In the US, former Republican United States Secretary of State Colin Powell announces that he intends to vote for Democrat candidate Barack Obama over John McCain in the November 4 Presidential election.
- 2012 – A bomb attack in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least 11 people, including the Lebanese army chief. The attack is believed to be linked to the conflict in Syria.
- 2015 – The Liberal Party of Canada wins an overall majority in Canada's general election, ending over nine years of Stephen Harper's Conservative government. Justin Trudeau is the designated Prime Minister of Canada.
- 2017 – A stick–shaped object called 'Oumuamua is discovered as it passes through the Solar System.
- 2018 – A train runs over a crowd celebrating a Hindu festival in Amritsar, India, killing at least 60 people.
- 2018 – Unmanned European–Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo is launched on a seven–year journey to the planet Mercury.
- 2018 – Saudi Arabia admits that the missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi died in its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
- 2019 – A dam collapses at a gold mine on the Seiba river in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, Russia, killing 15 people.
- 2019 – The House of Commons of the United Kingdom holds a Saturday sitting for the first time since 1982 because of the issue of Brexit.

### Up to 1900

- 1276 – Prince Hisaaki, Japanese shogun (d. 1328)
- 1433 – Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher (d. 1499)
- 1562 – Archbishop George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1633)
- 1582 – Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsarevich of Russia (d. 1591)
- 1605 – Thomas Browne, English writer (d. 1682)
- 1610 – James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, English statesman and soldier (d. 1688)
- 1658 – Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1704)
- 1688 – William Cheselden, English surgeon and anatomist (d. 1752)
- 1718 – Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (d. 1804)
- 1720 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and anti–Slavery activist (d. 1772)
- 1748 – Martha Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1782)
- 1774 – José de Fabrega, Panamanian military (d. 1844)
- 1784 – John McLoughlin, Hudson's Bay company trader (d. 1857)
- 1784 – James Henry Leigh Hunt, English Romantic critic, essayist and poet (d. 1859)
- 1789 – Theophilos Kairis, Greek priest and revolutionary (d. 1853)
- 1795 – Pedro Blanco Soto, Bolivian general and politician (d. 1829)
- 1810 – Cassius Clay, American abolitionist (d. 1903)
- 1814 – Theodoros Vryzakis, Greek painter (d. 1918)
- 1827 – Charles Cordier, French sculptor (d. 1902)
- 1851 – Empress Myeongseong of Korea (d. 1895)
- 1856 – Edmund Beecher Wilson, American biologist (d. 1939)
- 1858 – George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (d. 1937)
- 1862 – Auguste Lumière, one of the inventors of cinema (d. 1954)
- 1868 – Bertha Knight Landes, American politician (d. 1943)
- 1871 – Luigi Albertini, Italian politician and publicist (d. 1941)
- 1872 – Jacques E. Brandenberger, Swiss chemist (d. 1954)
- 1873 – Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (d. 1925)
- 1876 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 1945)
- 1876 – Mihkel Pung, Estonian politician (d. 1941)
- 1882 – Umberto Boccioni, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1916)
- 1884 – Eugen Habermann, Estonian architect (d. 1944)
- 1885 – Charles Merrill, American investment banker (d. 1956)
- 1895 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
- 1897 – Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani scientist and scholar (d. 1994)
- 1899 – Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemalan writer (d. 1974)
- 1900 – Erna Berger, German soprano (d. 1990)

### 1901 – 1950

- 1907 – Roger Wolfe Kahn, band leader (d. 1962)
- 1908 – Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
- 1909 – Stein Grieg Halvorsen, Norwegian theatre actor (d. 2013)
- 1910 – Jean Genet, French writer (d. 1986)
- 1910 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian physicist (d. 1995)
- 1913 – Vinícius de Moraes, Brazilian poet and songwriter (d. 1980)
- 1913 – Haxhi Lleshi, Albanian military and politician (d. 1998)
- 1914 – Juanita Moore, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1915 – Farid al-Atrash, Syrian composer, musician and actor (d. 1974)
- 1916 – Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1994)
- 1916 – Jean Dausset, French immunologist (d. 2009)
- 1917 – Walter Munk, Austrian–born American oceanographer (d. 2019)
- 1918 – Robert Schwarz Strauss, American politician and diplomat (d. 2014)
- 1920 – Pandurana Shastri, Indian philosopher (d. 2003)
- 1921 – George Nader, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1995)
- 1924 – Lubomir Strougal, former Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
- 1925 – Czeslaw Kiszczak, former Prime Minister of Poland (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Bernard Hepton, English actor (d. 2018)
- 1925 – Emilio Eduardo Massera, Argentine naval officer and member of the Military Junta (d. 2010)
- 1926 – Arne Bendiksen, Norwegian singer and songwriter (d. 2009)
- 1926 – Marjorie Tallchief, American ballerina
- 1927 – Pierre Alechinsky, Belgian artist
- 1931 – Manolo Escobar, Spanish singer and actor (d. 2013)
- 1931 – John le Carré, English novelist (d. 2020)
- 1931 – Rubens de Falco, Brazilian actor (d. 2008)
- 1932 – Robert Reed, actor (d. 1992)
- 1934 – William Frates, American military veteran and radiologist (d. 2019)
- 1934 – Yakubu Gowon, former President of Nigeria
- 1935 – Don Ward, Canadian–American ice hockey player (d. 2014)
- 1935 – Agne Simonsson, Swedish footballer
- 1936 – Sylvia Browne, American author (d. 2013)
- 1937 – Peter Max, American pop artist
- 1938 – Eugenio Montejo, Venezuelan poet (d. 2008)
- 1940 – Michael Gambon, Irish–British actor
- 1940 – Rosny Smarth, 8th Prime Minister of Haiti
- 1941 – Pepetela, Angolan writer, politician and activist
- 1941 – Simon Ward, English actor (d. 2012)
- 1942 – Andrew Vachss, writer and attorney
- 1943 – Takis Ikonomopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1944 – Pepetela, Angolan writer, politician and activist
- 1944 – Peter Tosh, Jamaican musician (d. 1987)
- 1945 – Divine, actor (d. 1988)
- 1945 – John Lithgow, American actor
- 1945 – Angus Deaton, Scottish–American economist
- 1945 – Gloria Jones, American singer and songwriter
- 1945 – Patricia Ireland, American attorney and feminist
- 1946 – Bob Holland, Australian cricketer (d. 2017)
- 1946 – Philip Pullman, English writer
- 1946 – Jürgen Croy, East German footballer
- 1947 – Giorgio Cavazzano, comics artist and illustrator

### 1951 – 1975

- 1951 – Demetrios Christodoulou, Greek physicist
- 1952 – Peter Bone, English politician
- 1953 – Sylvie Bermann, French diplomat
- 1953 – Lionel Hollins, American basketball player and coach
- 1954 – Sam Allardyce, English football manager
- 1954 – Joe Bryant, American basketball player
- 1954 – Ken Stott, Scottish actor
- 1955 – LaSalle Ishii, Japanese television personality, actor and director
- 1956 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 1993)
- 1956 – Didier Theys, Belgian racing driver
- 1956 – Sunny Deol, Indian actor and director
- 1957 – Karl Wallinger, Welsh singer-songwriter, musician and producer
- 1958 – Lou Briel, Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, pianist, producer and actor
- 1958 – Michael Steele, American journalist and politician
- 1959 – Nir Barkat, Israeli politician
- 1959 – Martin Kusch, German philosopher
- 1960 – Jennifer Holliday, American actress and singer
- 1962 – Evander Holyfield, American boxing champion
- 1962 – Tracy Chevalier, American author
- 1963 – Prince Laurent of Belgium
- 1964 – Jorge Luis González, Cuban–born American boxer
- 1965 – Ty Pennington, American TV carpenter
- 1966 – Jon Favreau, American actor, writer, director
- 1966 – Sinitta, American–British singer
- 1967 – Amy Carter, daughter of Jimmy Carter
- 1969 – DJ Sammy, Spanish DJ
- 1969 – Erwin Sánchez, Bolivian footballer
- 1969 – Trey Parker, American cartoonist, comedian, writer, actor
- 1969 – Dieter Thomas, German ski jumper
- 1969 – Caroline Catz, English actress
- 1970 – Nouria Mérah-Benida, Algerian runner
- 1971 – David Wagner, German–American footballer and coach
- 1972 – Pras, musician
- 1973 – Joaquin Gage, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1973 – Hicham Arazi, Moroccan tennis player

### From 1976

- 1976 – Paul Hartley, Scottish footballer
- 1976 – Desmond Harrington, American actor
- 1976 – Michael Young, American baseball player
- 1977 – Habib Beye, Senegalese footballer
- 1977 – Jason Reitman, American writer and director
- 1978 – Ruslan Chagaev, Uzbekistani boxer
- 1979 – Brian Robertson, American trombonist (Suburban Legends)
- 1979 – Lei Jia, Chinese singer
- 1981 – Heikki Kovalainen, Finnish racing driver
- 1982 – Louis Oosthuizen, South African golfer
- 1982 – Gillian Jacobs, American actress
- 1982 – Gonzalo Pineda, Mexican footballer
- 1983 – Vladimir Gabulov, Russian footballer
- 1983 – Cara Santa Maria, American journalist
- 1983 – Rebecca Ferguson, Swedish singer
- 1983 – Adrie Visser, Dutch cyclist
- 1984 – Saki Fujita, Japanese voice actress
- 1985 – Kevin O'Connor, Irish footballer
- 1988 – Dot Rotten, English rapper and musician
- 1989 – Miroslav Stoch, Slovakian footballer
- 1990 – Janet Leon, Swedish singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1990 – Ciara Renée, American actress and singer
- 1991 – Cotton Dixon, American singer and pianist
- 1992 – Kim Ji-won, South Korean actress
- 1993 – Abby Sunderland, American sailor
- 2004 – Abilass Jeyarajah, Sri Lankan tsunami survivor

### Up to 1900

- 727 – Frithuswith, English saint (b. 650)
- 1187 – Pope Urban III
- 1216 – King John of England (b. 1167)
- 1587 – Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1541)
- 1619 – Fujiwara Seika, Japanese philosopher and educator (b. 1561)
- 1682 – Thomas Browne, English writer (b. 1605)
- 1723 – Godfrey Kneller, German–born painter (b. 1646)
- 1745 – Jonathan Swift, Irish writer (b. 1667)
- 1790 – Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1724)
- 1813 – Jozef Poniatowski, Polish prince and Marshal of France (b. 1763)
- 1815 – Paolo Mascagni, Italian physician (b. 1755)
- 1842 – Aleksey Koltsov, Russian poet (b. 1808)
- 1851 – Marie Thérèse of France (b. 1778)
- 1856 – William Sprague, American politician (b. 1799)
- 1860 – Ang Duong, Cambodian King (b. 1796)
- 1889 – King Louis of Portugal (b. 1838)
- 1890 – Richard Francis Burton, British explorer (b. 1821)
- 1893 – Lucy Stone, American activist (b. 1818)
- 1897 – George Pullman, American engineer and businessman (b. 1831)

### 1901 – 2000

- 1901 – Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish financier and industrialist (b. 1829)
- 1905 – Virgil Earp, American Western figure (b. 1843)
- 1911 – Eugene Burton Ely, American aviator (b. 1886)
- 1912 – Julius Maggi, Swiss businessman (b. 1846)
- 1918 – Harold Lockwood, American actor (b. 1887)
- 1921 – Antonio Joaquim Granjo, Prime Minister of Portugal
- 1936 – Lu Xun, Chinese writer (b. 1881)
- 1937 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist (b. 1871)
- 1940 – Umberto Caligaris, Italian footballer (b. 1901)
- 1940 – Emilio Comici, Italian climber and cave explorer (b. 1901)
- 1943 – Camille Claudel, French sculptor (b. 1864)
- 1945 – Plutarco Elias Calles, President of Mexico (b. 1877)
- 1950 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet (b. 1892)
- 1955 – Carlos Davila, Chilean politician, diplomat and journalist (b. 1887)
- 1956 – Isham Jones, American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter (b. 1894)
- 1964 – Sergey Biryuzov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1904)
- 1969 – Lacey Hearn, American sprinter (b. 1881)
- 1970 – Lázaro Cárdenas, President of Mexico (b. 1895)
- 1978 – Gig Young, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1983 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1944)
- 1984 – Jerzy Popieluszko, Polish priest, supported the Solidarity movement (b. 1947)
- 1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique (b. 1933)
- 1987 – Jacqueline du Pré, British cellist (b. 1945)
- 1994 – Martha Raye, American actress (b. 1916)
- 1995 – Don Cherry, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1936)
- 1997 – Glen Buxton, American guitarist (b. 1947)
- 1999 – Nathalie Sarraute, French novelist (b. 1900)

### From 2001

- 2002 – Nikolay Rukavishnikov, Russian physicist and cosmonaut (b. 1932)
- 2003 – Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina (b. 1925)
- 2003 – Road Warrior Hawk, American professional wrestler (b. 1957)
- 2005 – Ryan Dallas Cook, American trombonist (Suburban Legends) (b. 1982)
- 2008 – Gianni Raimondi, Italian tenor (b. 1923)
- 2009 – Joseph Wiseman, Canadian actor (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Howard Unruh, American murderer (b. 1921)
- 2010 – Tom Bosley, American actor (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Fiorenzo Magni, Italian cyclist (b. 1920)
- 2014 – Lynda Bellingham, Canadian–English actress (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Etienne Mourrut, French politician (b. 1939)
- 2014 – John Holt, Jamaican singer (b. 1947)
- 2014 – Gloria Casarez, American civil rights activist (b. 1971)
- 2014 – Stephen Paulus, American composer (b. 1949)
- 2014 – Raphael Ravenscroft, British saxophonist (b. 1954)
- 2015 – Ali Treki, Libyan diplomat (b. 1938)
- 2016 – Yvette Chauviré, French ballerina (b. 1917)
- 2017 – Umberto Lenzi, Italian film director (b. 1931)
- 2018 – Takanobu Hozumi, Japanese actor (b. 1931)
- 2018 – Osamu Shimomura, Japanese biochemist, Nobel Prize for Chemistry winner (b. 1928)
- 2018 – Diana Sowle, American actress (b. 1930)
- 2019 – Erhard Eppler, German politician (b. 1926)
- 2019 – Salvador Giner, Spanish sociologist (b. 1934)
- 2019 – Ishmael Levenston, Saban politician (b. 1940)
- 2019 – Joseph Lombardo, American mafioso (b. 1929)
- 2019 – Alexander Volkov, Russian tennis player (b. 1967)

## Observances

- Constitution Day (Niue)
- Mother Teresa Day (Albania)