On this day, October the 19th, in the year of 1781, the American Revolutionary War, the war in which the 13 British American Colonies banded together against the British to gain independence as the United States of America, came to an end.

After years of combat, British General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis, Viscount Brome, Baron Cornwallis of Eye (Britannica) and his army were surrounded by American and French forces in Yorktown. With no other choice but death, he surrendered, effectively ending combat in the Revolutionary War and the Revolutionary War itself.

While the peace treaty for the war was signed in September of 1783 (Treaty of Paris [1783]), this event ended conflict between the American and the British (in regards to this war) and was seen as the end to the public at large.