Ten reasons why October 19 was a very bad day, (or a good day, depending on whose side you are on.) Certainly it was a very consequential day.
- 202 BC Scipio Africanus and his Roman legions defeat Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. Game over for the Carthaginian Empire.
- 439 Vandal barbarians take Carthage. Persecution of Catholics ensues.
- 1812 Napoleon begins his disastrous retreat from Moscow. His Grande Armée will be destroyed on their way back.
- 1914 First Battle of Ypres. 10 million German and Allied soldiers square off. (see illustration above)
- 1921 Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Granjo murdered in a coup.
- 1933 Nazi Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
- 1943 The merchant ship Sinfra is sunk off the coast of Crete. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown or are shot by their German guards.
- 1950 The Chinese Communist conquest of Tibet begins.
- 1950 500,000 Chinese Communist “volunteers” pour across the Yalu River to join in the Korean War and save North Korea from a U.N. army.
- 1984 Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, who had been working with the Solidarity trade union movement, is murdered by the Polish secret police.