On this day, Oct. 19 …
1987: The stock market crashes as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value (its biggest daily percentage loss), to close at 1,738.74 in what came to be known as “Black Monday.”
Also on this day:
- 1765: The Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, adopts a declaration of rights and liberties which the British Parliament ignored.
- 1781: British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown, Va., as the American Revolution nears its end.
- 1814: The first documented public performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” takes place at the Holliday Street Theater in Baltimore.
- 1944: The U.S. Navy begins accepting black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).
- 1960: The United States begins a limited embargo against Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.
- 1977: The supersonic Concorde makes its first landing in New York City.
John Z. DeLorean answers reporters’ questions at his news conference in New York on Feb. 19, 1982. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
- 1982: Automaker John Z. DeLorean is arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, accused of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage his business. (DeLorean would be acquitted at trial on grounds of entrapment.)
- 2001: U.S. special forces begin operations on the ground in Afghanistan, opening a significant new phase of the assault against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
- 2005: A defiant Saddam Hussein pleads innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture as his trial opens under heavy security in the former headquarters of his Baath Party in Baghdad.
- 2008: Retired Gen. Colin Powell, who was President George W. Bush’s first secretary of state, broke with the Republican party and endorses Democrat Barack Obama for president, calling him a “transformational figure” during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
- 2014: Peyton Manning breaks Brett Favre’s NFL record of 508 touchdown career passes as he throws four TD passes in Denver’s 42-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
- 2017: Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, meeting with President Trump at the White House about a month after Hurricane Maria, describes the situation in the island territory as “catastrophic”; Trump rates the White House response to the disaster as a “10.”
- 2018: In the first federal case alleging foreign interference in the 2018 midterm elections, U.S. authorities accuse a Russian woman of helping oversee the finances of a sweeping effort to sway American public opinion through social media. In addition, U.S. intelligence agencies assert that Russia, China, Iran and other countries are engaged in continuous efforts to influence American policy and voters in the upcoming elections and beyond.
