British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
The surrender ended the Siege of Yorktown, which began on September 28, 1781, in Virginia. American forces under George Washington and French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded the British army commanded by Charles Cornwallis. French naval control of the Chesapeake Bay prevented a reliable British evacuation or resupply.
After weeks of bombardment and the capture of key defensive positions, Cornwallis requested terms on October 17. The formal surrender took place two days later. Cornwallis himself did not attend the ceremony, citing illness; General Charles O'Hara surrendered the British force on his behalf.
Yorktown was the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War. Fighting and diplomatic negotiations continued elsewhere, but the defeat made a British victory in North America highly unlikely. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, nearly two years after the Yorktown surrender.