Today:
202 BC: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions led by Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leading to the end of the Second Punic War.
439: The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, capture Carthage in North Africa.
1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile in Valladolid, Spain, laying the foundation for the unification of Spain.
1781: British General Lord Cornwallis formally surrenders to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the American Revolutionary War.
1812: Napoleon Bonaparte begins his army’s catastrophic retreat from Moscow during the French invasion of Russia.
1914: The First Battle of Ypres begins in western Flanders, Belgium, marking the start of a long and brutal series of battles on the Western Front in World War I.
1943: Streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers Albert Schatz, Elizabeth Bugie, and Selman Waksman at Rutgers University.
1985: The very first Blockbuster video rental store opens in Dallas, Texas.
1987: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 508 points, or 22.6%, in a single day, an event known as “Black Monday.”
2005: The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity begins in Baghdad.