Today in History

1350		John II, also known as John the Good, succeeds Philip VI as king of France.
1485		Henry Tudor defeats Richard III at Bosworth. This victory establishes the Tudor dynasty in England and ends the War of the Roses.
1642		Civil war in England begins as Charles I declares war on Parliament at Nottingham.
1717		The Austrian army forces the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans.
1777		With the approach of General Benedict Arnold's army, British Colonel Barry St. Ledger abandons Fort Stanwix and returns to Canada.
1849		The Portuguese governor of Macao, China, is assassinated because of his anti-Chinese policies.
1911		The Mona Lisa, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, is stolen from the Louvre in Paris, where it had hung for more than 100 years. It is recovered in 1913.
1922		Michael Collins, Irish politician, is killed in an ambush.
1942		Brazil declares war on the Axis powers. She is the only South American country to send combat troops into Europe.
1945		Soviet troops land at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula in China.
1945		Conflict in Vietnam begins when a group of Free French parachute into southern Indochina, in repsonse to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
1983		Benigno Aquino, the only real opposition on Ferdinand Marcos' reign as president of the Philippines, is gunned down at Manila Airport.