What happened on 19 September?

11 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1893 New Zealand grants women the vote A petition with nearly 32,000 signatures — a quarter of the country's adult women — makes New Zealand the first self-governing nation to give women the vote in parliamentary electi
2. 1692 Giles Corey is pressed to death The 81-year-old farmer refuses to enter a plea — by some accounts to keep his estate from forfeiture — and the court applies the medieval remedy: heavy stones piled on his chest ov
3. 1777 Battles of Saratoga American victory over Burgoyne's army; turning point of the war; persuades France to enter as American ally.
4. 1356 Battle of Poitiers (1356) Black Prince captures King John II of France in another disastrous French defeat to the longbow-and-dismounted-men-at-arms tactic.
5. 1918 Battle of Megiddo (1918) Allenby's offensive collapses the Ottoman position in Palestine.
6. 1796 Washington's Farewell Address Declining a third term, Washington warns the republic against faction, sectional rivalry and permanent foreign alliances — still read aloud in the Senate every year.
7. 1870 Siege of Paris (1870-71) Prussian forces besiege and starve Paris into surrender, ending the Franco-Prussian War.
8. 1985 Mexico City earthquake A magnitude-8.0 quake devastates Mexico City, killing thousands and exposing government failures that energised civil society.
9. 1793 Britain's invasion of Saint-Domingue Britain spends five years and perhaps 15,000 dead — mostly to yellow fever — trying to seize the world's richest colony and restore slavery in it. Toussaint's army grinds the redco
10. 1881 Presidency of Chester A. Arthur Signed Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1883).
11. 1952 Chaplin barred from the United States Sailing to London for the premiere of Limelight, Chaplin learns his re-entry permit has been revoked amid McCarthy-era suspicion; he settles in Switzerland.