Today in History, 10/19

202 BC: Hannibal and Carthage are defeated at the Battle of Zarma.
1216: King John of England dies and is succeeded by his nine year-old son Henry.
1453: The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years' War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.
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.
1649: Wexford, Ireland, surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.
1789: Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
1812: Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow.
1864: Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.
1873: Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
1903: Tor Johnson is born. He was an Swedish wrestler who made a name in Hollywood playing giant mute guys in The Beast of Yucca Flats, The Unearthly and Plan 9 From Outer Space.

1914: The First Battle of Ypres begins.
1933: Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1943: Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1945: Divine is born Harris Glenn Milstead.1945: John Lithgow is born. Here he is in the "Nightmare at 60000 Feet" segment of the Twilight Zone Movie. Everybody hates that kid!

1960: The United States government places an embargo on Communist Cuba.
1969: Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park, is born.
1973: Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.