Henry III (1207–1272) was King of England from 1216 until his death. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry assumed the throne when he was only nine in the middle of the First Barons' War. He was known for his piety, holding lavish religious ceremonies, giving generously to charities, and adopting Edward the Confessor as his patron saint. In 1230 he attempted to reconquer the provinces of France that had once belonged to his father, but the invasion was a debacle, and a revolt broke out in 1232. He invaded Poitou in 1242, leading to the disastrous Battle of Taillebourg. In 1258 a coalition of his barons seized power in a coup. Henry and the baronial government enacted a peace treaty with King Louis IX of France in 1259, under which Henry gave up his other lands in France in return for recognition as the rightful ruler of Gascony. In 1263 one of the more radical barons, Simon de Montfort, seized power, resulting in the Second Barons' War. At the Battle of Lewes in 1264, Henry was taken prisoner. His eldest son, Edward, defeated de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham the following year and freed his father. ( Full article...)

Northern rosella

• ... that the northern rosella (pictured) was previously known as the smutty rosella?
• ... that Australian surgeon Helen Sexton came out of retirement to open a field hospital in France during World War I?
• ... that the United States Coast Guard and China Coast Guard regularly deploy officers aboard each other's vessels as a part of United States–China security cooperation?
• ... that out of the thirteen Nippon Professional Baseball seasons that have included interleague play, the Pacific League has beaten the Central League in all but one?
• ... that Sheila Callender helped to establish the medical discipline of haematology?
• ... that blister coral was not recognised as a new species until 1971?
• ... that after Nagapattinam Member of Parliament S.G. Murugaiyan was killed in broad daylight, his party retained the seat in the subsequent 1979 by-election?
• ... that the discovery of a fossilized frog in the Caves of Kesh in 1901 disproved a common belief that the species was only introduced into Ireland in 1699?

George Saunders

• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (pictured) wins the Man Booker Prize.
• The Syrian Democratic Forces declare victory in the Battle of Raqqa.
• The first observation of a neutron star merger in gravitational waves as well as gamma rays, visible light, and other forms of electromagnetic radiation is announced.
• Sooronbay Jeenbekov is elected President of Kyrgyzstan in the first peaceful transfer of power after a full term in the country's history.
• Twin bombings kill at least 320 people in Mogadishu, Somalia.
• Flash floods and landslides from a tropical depression kill more than 50 people in Vietnam.

October 19

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull

• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis officially surrendered (pictured) to Franco-American forces under George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1914 – First World War: Allied forces engaged German troops in the First Battle of Ypres.
• 1944 – The Guatemalan Revolution began when a small group of army officers led by Francisco Javier Arana and Jacobo Árbenz launched a coup against the dictator Jorge Ubico.
• 1987 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 22.6% on Black Monday, the largest one-day percentage decline in Dow Jones history.
• 2005 – Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar.

John Juvenal Ancina (b. 1545) · Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (b. 1897) · Eleanor Norcross (d. 1923)