01011019 This Day In History, October 19

526 BC: Ahmose II, general, king of Egypt, member of the 26th dynasty, died. He seized the throne during a revolt against King Apries.

202 BC: The Battle of Zama during the Second Punic War; Roman legions (see also Legions Of Men And Angels) under the command of Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal Barca, leader Carthaginian army.

439: The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, took Carthage in north Africa.

1216: King John of England died at age 50. After being interdicted by Pope Innocent III, he surrendered England to the pope so that the national excommunication would be repealed. Innocent then gave England back to John in 1213 as a fief of the Roman Catholic Church. King John became the subject of one of William Shakespeare's plays. He was succeeded by his 9 year old son Henry.

1466: The Peace of Torun ended the war between the Teutonic Knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia (not to be confused with Russia; Prussia is in Germany).

1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella I of Castile. The Spanish monarchs are best-known to history as the sponsors of Christopher Columbus (see also Thanksgiving In History and Prophecy).

1739: England declared war on Spain over a borderline dispute in Florida. The war became known as the War of Jenkin's Ear because Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins.

1812: Napoleon began his retreat from Moscow.

1818: In the years following the War of 1812-12 (declared by U.S. President James Madison with the stated purpose to annex Canada), a treaty was signed by Canada and the U.S. to set the international border, west of the Great Lakes, at "the 49th parallel" (i.e. the latitude of 49 degrees north). That treaty, along with the already-established-by-war border east of the Great Lakes created the present-day boundary that has not been militarily-violated by either nation in nearly 200 years.

1827: During the Greek War of Independence, the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were destroyed by the British, French and Russians at the Battle of Navarino.

1935: The League of Nations imposed sanctions against Italy following its invasion of Ethiopia.

1949: The communist People's Republic of China was formally proclaimed.

1950: The North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured by U.N. troops.

1954: Britain and Egypt agreed to transfer control of the Suez Canal after more than 70 years of British control (see A History Of Jerusalem: The British Mandate).

1970: British Petroleum made the first major oil find in the British sector of the North Sea.

1973: U.S. President Richard Nixon rejected an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate criminal investigation tapes.

1993: South African President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2005: Amidst the over 200,000 Iraqi civilians killed and a million wounded (some independent estimates state that the civilian carnage was much higher) by the non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" invasion ordered by George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein went on trial in the destroyed city of Baghdad for "crimes against humanity." Saddam Hussein was found guilty and hung for his war crimes.

2005: Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.