ON THIS DAY OCTOBER 19

202 BC At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage.

1216 England’s King John of England dies of dysentery at Newark-on-Trent, having lost his crown jewels just days before in The Wash. He is succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Henry.

1453 The Hundred Years’ War ends with the French recapture of Bordeaux, leaving the English in control of only Calais.

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.

1653 Cattle-herd David Jansz is murdered at the Cape by a group of Strandlopers (a Khoi-Khoi tribe), led by interpreter Herry who takes off with almost all of the cattle. He is banished to Robben Island for this – and escapes.

1781 British forces surrender at Yorktown, ending the US Revolutionary War.

1856 The longest bareknuckle fight occurs when James Kelly and Jack Smith fight for 6h15m in Melbourne, Australia.

1913 At a meeting of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in Durban, NIC secretaries MC Anglia and Dada Osman severely criticise Mahatma Gandhi and tender their resignations.

1925 The discovery of sea-shells in Algeria proves the Sahara was partially submerged.

1950 In response to UN forces entering Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, the People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War by sending thousands of troops across the Yalu River.

1952 Alain Bombard departs from the Canary Islands on a solitary journey across the Atlantic ocean with almost no provisions and only a sextant for navigation to test his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive.

1986 Mozambique President Samora Machel and 33 others die when their plane crashes in the Lebombo Mountains.

1986 Allan Border scores cricket’s

1 000 000th Test run.

1989 The convictions of the Guildford Four are quashed after they had spent 15 years in prison for bombings carried out by the IRA. 2003 Mother Teresa is beatified.

2005 Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

2014 A working human intestine is generated in a laboratory from stem cells in the US.

2015 US scientists find evidence that life on earth began 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million earlier than was thought. | THE HISTORIAN