October 19th 1781: Cornwallis surrenders
On this day in 1781 in Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War, British commander Cornwallis formally surrendered to George Washington. Thus, the Siege of Yorktown was a decisive victory for the American forces and their French allies, and was the last major battle of the war. Cornwallis’s surrender led to the opening of peace negotiations and the Treaty of Paris was reached in 1783, which ended the war between Britain and the United States and preserved American independence.
