This Day in History

On Oct. 19, 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value (its biggest daily percentage loss), to close at 1,738.74 in what came to be known as “Black Monday.”

On this date:

In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, adopted a declaration of rights and liberties which the British Parliament ignored.

In 1781, British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, as the American Revolution neared its end.

In 1814, the first documented public performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” took place at the Holliday Street Theater in Baltimore.

In 1944, the U.S. Navy began accepting black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

In 1960, the United States began a limited embargo against Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.

In 1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.

In 1982, automaker John Z. DeLorean was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, accused of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage his business. (DeLorean was acquitted at trial on grounds of entrapment.)

In 1994, 22 people were killed as a terrorist bomb shattered a bus in the heart of Tel Aviv’s shopping district.

In 2001, U.S. special forces began operations on the ground in Afghanistan, opening a significant new phase of the assault against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

In 2005, a defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture as his trial opened under heavy security in the former headquarters of his Baath Party in Baghdad.

In 2008, retired Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican who was President George W. Bush’s first secretary of state, broke with the party and endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president, calling him a “transformational figure” during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

In 2017, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House about a month after Hurricane Maria, described the situation in the island territory as “catastrophic.”