Random News and Notes 19 October
On this date:
- 1216 – King John of England dies at Newark and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
- 1448 – The Ottoman Sultan Murat II defeats Hungarian General Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia.
- 1466 – The peace of Torun ends the war between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia.
- 1469 – Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile in Valladolid, thus beginning a cooperative reign that would unite all the dominions of Spain and elevate the nation to a dominant world power.
- 1739 – England declares war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins.
- 1781 – Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va. Cornwallis surrenders 7,157 troops, including sick and wounded, and 840 sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had been light on both sides. The Revolutionary War is effectively ended.
- 1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte begins his retreat from Moscow.
- 1864 – At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va., a narrow victory helps the Union secure the Shenandoah Valley.
- 1914 – The German cruiser Emden captures her thirteenth Allied merchant ship in 24 days.
- 1914 – Near the Belgian city of Ypres, Allied and German forces begin the first of what would be three battles to control the city and its advantageous positions on the north coast of Belgium during the First World War.
- 1917 – The first doughnut is fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I.
- 1942 – The Japanese submarine I-36 launches a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. The pilot and crew report on the ships in the harbor, after which the aircraft is lost at sea.
- 1949 – The People’s Republic of China is formally proclaimed.
- 1950 – The North Korean capital of Pyongyang is captured by U.N. troops.
- 1954 – Egypt and Britain conclude a pact on the Suez Canal, ending 72 years of British military occupation. Britain agrees to withdraw its 80,000-man force within 20 months, and Egypt agrees to maintain freedom of canal navigation.
- 1960 – Canada and the United States agree to undertake a joint Columbia River project to provide hydroelectric power and flood control.
- 1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes.
- 1985 – The first Blockbuster video-rental store opens, in Dallas, Texas.
- 1987 – In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U. S. navy disables three of Iran’s offshore oil platforms.
- 1987 – The largest-ever one-day percentage decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow dropped 508 points—22.6 percent
- 1988 – British government bans TV and radio interviews with members of Irish political group Sinn Fein and 11 paramilitary groups.
- 1989 – The 1975 conviction of the Guilford Four overturned by British courts; the 4 men had been convicted in the 1974 Guilford pub bombings.
- 2003 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II for her work among “the poorest of the poor” in India.
We start in DC where a National Guardsman was shot overnight. Around 11 p.m. Sunday in D.C.’s Barracks Row area, seven or eight Guardsmen on patrol in the area stepped in to break up a brawl. A suspect fired at them after ignoring orders, wounding one in the leg; the troops returned fire, hitting him in the abdomen. Both survived with non-life-threatening injuries, and the suspect is in custody.
This incident followed a violent weekend in D.C. with multiple shootings, including a deadly triple shooting on Connecticut Avenue.
A Florida judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of Raul Castro. The state warrant charges the 95-year-old Castro with no-bond conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the February 24, 1996, downing of two humanitarian planes, killing Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña, and Armando Alejandre Jr. Florida claims jurisdiction due to Cuban spies in Miami and Key West who relayed flight details beforehand.
Attorney General James Uthmeier called it a ‘communist conspiracy’ and plans a Monday press conference, while Florida seeks Castro’s extradition if he’s arrested elsewhere. This state action follows May’s federal indictments and years of family efforts for justice.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has recalled about 1.58 million pounds of ready-to-eat items like hot dogs, bacon, deli meats, and sausages produced at the Kayem Foods Inc. Chelsea, Mass. facility from March 31 to Oct. 7, 2026, due to temperature abuse in a warehouse cooler. The products, marked with specific establishment numbers, went to stores and foodservice nationwide. Products from the following brands are included in the recall:
- Kayem
- Genoa
- Al Fresco
- Triple M
- McKenzin Country Classics
- Deutschmacher
- Jordan’s
- Essem
- Winnisimmet
The recalled products can be identified by the following establishment numbers, according to the announcement:
- EST. M/P 7839
- EST. P 20935A
- EST. M 9520
You can find the numbers inside the USDA mark of inspection.
The FSIS urges those who purchased the recalled products not to consume them. Instead, customers should either throw away the products or return them to the location where they were originally purchased.
There is an update on the lead story from yesterday. It turns out the incident that claimed the lives of the four Canadian troopers was not an explosion as initially reported, but rather a wind driven wildfire caused by high explosive ordnance of some type. Sergeant Morgan Wong, Private Shaun Farrell, Private Aidan Goulding, and Private Hayden Lykkemark were killed in the fire and 39 others, with 19 in critical condition, were injured.
Until Valhalla
In another sad note, the USAF had identified the Airman who fell to his death during a rappelling demo in the Alamo Dome Saturday as Tech. Sgt. Ian Patterson, a Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) instructor assigned to the 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2, at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. According to the Air Force, In 2022, he was named the Air Force Special Warfare Enlisted Instructor of the Year at the Headquarters Air Force level.
Until Valhalla.
The Supreme Court declined to review former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s revocation of 2024 plea deals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsawi, and Walid bin Attash, the men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks. The deals would have traded guilty pleas for life sentences, but Austin pulled them back, arguing the decision belonged to him.
A federal appeals court backed the government, and now pretrial steps can advance toward a 2028 military trial at Guantanamo Bay where prosecutors may seek execution.
Austin was a POS DEI hire that didn’t belong anywhere near the job, but he did get one thing right; pulling that deal.