On this date
In 1781, American forces in the Revolutionary War, backed by a French fleet, began their successful siege of Yorktown, Va.
In 1892, the first nighttime football game took place in Mansfield, Pa., as teams from Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary played under electric lights to a scoreless tie.
In 1920, eight members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. (All were acquitted at trial, but all eight were banned from the game for life.)
In 1928, Scottish medical researcher Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic.
In 1939, during World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a treaty calling for the partitioning of Poland, which the two countries had invaded.
In 1991, jazz great Miles Davis died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 65.
In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord at the White House ending Israel’s military occupation of West Bank cities and laying the foundation for a Palestinian state.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush urged Congress to pass a $700 billion rescue plan for beleaguered financial companies.
Five years ago: House Republicans demanded a one-year delay in major parts of the nation’s new health care law and permanent repeal of a tax on medical devices as the price for preventing a partial government shutdown threatened for Oct. 1. (Senate Democrats rejected the plan.)
One year ago: The Trump administration said its relief efforts in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria were succeeding, though people on the island said help was scarce and disorganized.