202 BC – Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending 2nd Punic War
1781 – British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 pm, ending the US Revolutionary War
1926 – Russian Politburo throws out Leon Trotsky and his followers
1914 – During World War I, the First Battle of Ypres began in western Flanders; the Allies and Germans settled into the trench warfare that would characterize the remainder of the war on the Western Front.
1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University
1987 – Black Monday: Stock markets around the world crash, including the Dow Jones stock index, which falls 508.32 points (22%), 4½ times the previous daily record
2003 – Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa, who had won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her charity work.
2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity
2015 – US scientists from University of California find evidence life on earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million earlier than previously thought
2019 – UK parliament votes for the Letwin amendment in a special Saturday sitting, which forces Boris Johnson to ask the EU for an extension and delays vote on his Brexit deal
2020 – Argentina becomes the fifth country in the world to record over 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases with the death toll at 26,716
Births & Deaths:
1897 – American industrialist George M. Pullman, inventor of the Pullman sleeping car used on railroads, died.
Film & TV:
1988 – US Senate passes bill curbing ads during children’s TV shows
Music:
1975 – “A Chorus Line”, held record longest-running Broadway show (6,137 performances), premieres on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in New York
Sport:
1957 – Montreal Canadien Maurice “Rocket” Richard, becomes the 1st NHLer to score 500 goals
