7. The Battle of Yorktown (1781)
In 1781, during the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington, leading Continental Army troops, and French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau, laid siege to British General Lord Cornwallis’s army in Yorktown, Virginia. After weeks of bombardment and the arrival of French naval support, Cornwallis found his position untenable. On October 19, 1781, he surrendered approximately 8,000 soldiers, effectively ending major combat operations in the war. This defeat shocked Britain and reshaped global power dynamics (britannica.com).
