On This Day: 19 October

19 October in world history

• 2025Pieces of the French Crown Jewels are successfully stolen during a heist on the Louvre Museum in Paris..
• 2013British YouTube collective the Sidemen were formed as a Rockstar Games Social Club group in Grand Theft Auto Online.
• 2005Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar (26.05 inHg).
• 2005Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
• 1988The British government restricted the broadcast of the voices of representatives from Sinn Féin and several Irish republican and loyalist paramilitary groups on television and radio.
• 1987Iran–Iraq War: U.S. Navy forces destroyed two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in response to an Iranian missile attack on a Kuwaiti oil tanker three days earlier.
• 1965Vietnam War: The Siege of Plei Me began with the first major confrontation between soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army and the U.S. Army.
• 1956The Soviet Union and Japan sign a Joint Declaration, officially ending the state of war between the two countries that had existed since August 1945.
• 1943World War II: Allied aircraft sank the German cargo ship Sinfra, killing mostly Italian POWs.
• 1936New 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 Dor
• 1922British Conservative MPs vote to terminate the coalition government with the Liberal Party.
• 1914World War I: The First Battle of Ypres begins.
• 1900Max Planck discovers Planck's law of black-body radiation.
• 1813War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon is forced to retreat from Germany after the Battle of Leipzig.
• 1781American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1662An English Buccaneer force led by Royal Navy commodore Christopher Myngs launches an attack on Santiago de Cuba which is subsequently sacked.
• 1596The Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on the Japanese island of Shikoku, and its cargo confiscated by the local daimyo.
• 1469Ferdinand 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.

Born on 19 October

• 1973Hicham Arazi, Moroccan tennis player
• 1962Evander Holyfield, American boxer and actor
• 1961Sunny Deol, Indian actor and producerIndia
• 1920Pandurang Shastri Athavale, Indian activist, philosopher, and spiritual leader (died 2003)India
• 1920LaWanda Page, American actress (died 2002)
• 1910Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-American astrophysicist, astronomer, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995)India

Died on 19 October

• 2011Kakkanadan, Indian author (born 1935)India
• 1983Maurice Bishop, Aruban-Grenadian lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Grenada (born 1944)
• 1945Plutarco Elías Calles, Mexican general and politician, 40th President of Mexico (born 1877)
• 1945N. C. Wyeth, American painter and illustrator (born 1882)

Frequently asked questions

What happened on 19 October in history?

2025: Pieces of the French Crown Jewels are successfully stolen during a heist on the Louvre Museum in Paris.. 2013: British YouTube collective the Sidemen were formed as a Rockstar Games Social Club group in Grand Theft Auto Online. 2005: Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar (26.05 inHg). 2005: Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

Which famous people were born on 19 October?

Hicham Arazi, Moroccan tennis player (1973); Evander Holyfield, American boxer and actor (1962); Sunny Deol, Indian actor and producer (1961); Pandurang Shastri Athavale, Indian activist, philosopher, and spiritual leader (died 2003) (1920).

Which day is observed on 19 October?

Constitution Day, in honor of the country's independence (self-governing in free association with New Zealand) in 1974. (Niue); Oxfordshire Day.