On what date did the British surrender at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown?

The British surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

The Yorktown campaign brought American and French forces together against the British army commanded by Charles Cornwallis in Virginia. George Washington led the Continental Army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau and a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse helped surround the British position.

Cornwallis requested capitulation terms on October 17 after the allied forces captured key outer defenses and intensified their bombardment. Negotiations followed, and the surrender ceremony took place two days later. Cornwallis did not attend, citing illness; his deputy, Charles O’Hara, represented the British army.

Yorktown was the last major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War. Fighting at sea continued, and the final peace settlement came with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Yorktown is therefore often called the decisive victory of the Revolution, rather than the formal end of the war.