October 19: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

Thieves disguised as construction workers stole over $100 million in Napoleonic jewels from the Louvre Museum in a daylight heist.

Within just eight minutes, two thieves used a furniture lift to access an upper-floor window, cut through it, smash their way into display cases, and return to their two accomplices. The four then escaped on mopeds, but not for long; six days later, two of the thieves had already been arrested.

A remake of the American horror slasher movie “Halloween” was released starring Jamie Curtis.

Uganda Ministry of Health announced they were under an outbreak of a Marburg virus, a virus similar to Ebola.

University of California scientists found evidence that life on Earth probably began 4.1 billion years ago.

Previous estimations were 300 million years earlier than this. This discovery means life may have started on Earth soon after it was formed.

NASA launched its IBEX satellite from the Stargazer mother ship launch pad above the Marshall Islands.

The primary purpose of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) was to use energetic neutral atoms to take photos of the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. It was launched using a Pegasus XL launch vehicle, a special type of rocket launched from the air, as opposed to a launchpad on the ground, hence why the Stargazer mother ship was required.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was tried for his crimes against humanity.

Cher’s “Believe” was released and became the Billboard 1999 Song of the Year.

The album featured some of her most famous singles, such as "Believe" and "Strong Enough."

The 1991 Best Picture, “Dances With Wolves,” premiered in Washington, D.C.

It was directed by and starred Kevin Costner and co-starred Mary McDonnell.

A bill to recognize Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday as a national holiday passed the US Senate.

Martin Luther King Jr. was known for his civil rights movement between 1955 and 1968 before he was assassinated.

Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US, isolated Streptomycin, which became the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis (TB).

Max Planck proposed Planck’s Law, a new law of physics for black-body radiation.

Napoleon was forced to retreat from Germany after the Battle of Leipzig.

The American Revolutionary War hostiles ended after the British conceded at Yorktown.

At 2:00 pm, under General Charles Cornwallis, the British forces signed the terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau.

German professor Martin Luther became a doctor when he was awarded his Doctor of Theology from the University of Wittenberg, Germany.

Germany’s oldest university, and one of the world’s oldest surviving universities, The Universität Heidelberg, held a lecture for the first time.