Stay up to date with Classic Firearms

Trucker Driver and Cop

A truck driver was driving along on the freeway. A sign comes up that reads "Low bridge ahead!" Before he knows it, the bridge is right ahead of him and he gets stuck under the bridge. Cars are backed up for miles. 
Finally, a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks around to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?" 
The truck driver says, "No, I was delivering this bridge and ran out of gas."

1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown

On this day in 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis formally surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a French and American force at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing the American Revolution to a close.

Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army of around 5,000 men, to block Cornwallis’ escape from Yorktown by land. In the meantime, Washington’s 2,500 troops in New York were joined by a French army of 4,000 men under the Count de Rochambeau. Washington and Rochambeau made plans to attack Cornwallis with the assistance of a large French fleet under the Count de Grasse, and on August 21 they crossed the Hudson River to march south to Yorktown. Covering 200 miles in 15 days, the allied force reached the head of Chesapeake Bay in early September.

Meanwhile, a British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves failed to break French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes on September 5, denying Cornwallis his expected reinforcements. Beginning September 14, de Grasse transported Washington and de Rochambeau’s men down the Chesapeake to Virginia, where they joined Lafayette and completed the encirclement of Yorktown on September 28. De Grasse landed another 3,000 French troops carried by his fleet. During the first two weeks of October, the 14,000 Franco-American troops gradually overcame the fortified British positions with the aid of de Grasse’s warships. A large British fleet carrying 7,000 men set out to rescue Cornwallis, but it was too late.

On October 19, General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders. As the British and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British band played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.”

Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, the Patriot victory at Yorktown effectively ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Pariswas signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation after eight years of war.

How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. —2 Samuel 7:22

"I am Yahweh, who saved you out of Egypt. You must never have any other god, but me!" The Lord God Almighty at the beginning of the Ten Commandments reminded us of this central, seminal, and consummate truth. What else is there to say?

October 19th

1972 

• Otto Steffers, born in Louisville, Kentucky, field hockey defender 1996 Olympics

1962 

• Evander Holyfield, Atmore Ala, boxer, Olympic-bronze-1988, champ, 1990 - 1992

1947 

• Wilbert Hart, U.S. singer, Four Gents, Delfonics-Didn't I

1944 

• George McCrae, U.S. singer, Lead Me On, Rock Your Baby

1934 

• Dave Guard, born in San Francisco, California, singer, songwriter, recording artist, guitar and banjo player, founding member of The Kingston Trio

1922 

• Jack Anderson, born in Long Beach, California, journalist, Washington Post

1901 

• Arleigh Burke, born in Boulder, Colorado, admiral, U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations during President Eisenhower administration, served admirably in World War II and the Korean War

1868 

• Bertha Landes, 1st woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city, Seattle

1810 

• Cassius Marcellus Clay, Major General Union volunteers