202-B.C. Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending the Second Punic War
1781-British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 p.m., effectively ending the American Revolutionary War
1926-Russian Politburo throws out Leon Trotsky and his followers
1943-Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey
1983-U.S. Senate establishes Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, observed on the third Monday in January (on or near his January 15 birthday)
1987-Black Monday: Stock markets around the world crash, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which falls 508.32 points (22%), 4½ times the previous daily record
2015-Scientists from the University of California find evidence that life on Earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million years earlier than previously thought
2021-Moscow's mayor orders unvaccinated people over 60 years to stay home for four months amid a worsening COVID-19 crisis