NOW & THEN
19 OCTOBER
AD439: Carthage, the Phoenician city, was devastated by Vandals who captured and used it as their capital until it was retaken by Belisarius in 533.
1512: Martin Luther became a doctor of theology.
1722: English chemist French C Hopffer patented the first fire extinguisher.
1781: The American Revolutionary War ended following British General Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown.
1812: Napoleon’s army began the retreat from Moscow.
1845: Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhauser premiered in Dresden.
1864: The Battle of Cedar Creek took place during the American Civil War, with General Sheridan victorious over Confederates.
1872: The world’s largest gold nugget, the Holtermann Nugget, was found at Hill End, New South Wales, Australia.
1901: Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March premiered in Liverpool.
1954: Britain and Egypt signed their agreement concerning the Suez Canal base.
1960: United States placed embargo on shipments to Cuba.
1960: Martin Luther King was arrested while taking part in a sit-in at a lunch counter in Atlanta.
1963: Sir Alec Douglas-home became Conservative prime minister.
1968: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco began collecting tolls, but only for southbound vehicles.
1973: Libya, angered by US’S Middle East policy, ordered halt of all oil shipments to US and almost doubled prices.
1977: South Africa banned black protest groups, closed leading black newspaper in the country and arrested editor and other black people in raids.
1982: Delorean sports car plant closed in Northern Ireland with the loss of 1,500 jobs as its proprietor, John de Lorean, was arrested on drug charges in Los Angeles.
1986: Australian Allan Border scored the one-millionth run in Test cricket, against India in Bombay.
1987: Black Monday on Wall Street as market fell by 22 per cent, its worst drop in history. On the London Stock Exchange shares lost 10 per cent.
1989: The Guildford Four – Paddy Armstrong, Gerard Conlon, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson – were freed by the Appeal Court in London after serving 14 years in jail for pub bombings.
1989: The £600,000 damages award to Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire ripper Peter Sutcliffe, against Private Eye was overturned on appeal.
1993: Benazir Bhutto, ousted from power three years earlier, was elected prime minister of Pakistan for the second time.
2003: Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
2005: Saddam Hussein went on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2007: Benazir Bhutto escaped unhurt when 140 of her followers died in a suicide attack on the former Pakistan prime minister’s cavalcade hours after she returned to Karachi after spending eight years in exile.
BIRTHDAYS
David Cornwell (John le Carré), author, 88; Phil Davies, rugby player and coach, 56; Sir Michael Gambon CBE, actor, 79; Evander Holyfield, former world heavyweight boxing champion, 57; John Lithgow, actor, musician, comedian, singer, 74; Lord (Bill) Morris of Handsworth, trade unionist, 81; Sinitta, singer, 56; Jon Favreau, actor and director, 53; Sam Allardyce, football manager and former player, 65; Heikki Kovalainen, racing driver, 38; Dan Woodgate, drummer (Madness), 59; Keith Reid, songwriter (Procul Harum), 73; Floyd Mayweather snr, boxer and boxing trainer, 67; George Mccrae, soul singer, 75;
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1862 Auguste Lumière, moving picture and colour photography pioneer; 1941 Simon Ward, actor; 1944 Peter Tosh, reggae musician.
Deaths: 1216 John, King of England 1199-1216; 1745 Jonathan Swift, satirist (Gulliver’s Travels); 1875 Sir Charles Wheatstone, pioneer of telegraphy; 1897 George Pullman, manufacturer of rail carriages; 1937 Lord Rutherford, founder of modern atomic theory; 1987 Jacqueline du Pré, cellist; 2014 Lynda Bellingham OBE, actress and TV panellist.