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.
1952		Devil's Island's penal colony is permanently closed.
1956		Incumbent US President Dwight D. Eisenhower & Vice President Richard Nixon renominated by Republican convention in San Francisco.
1962		OAS (Secret Army Organization) gunmen unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle; the incident inspires Frederick Forsyth's novel, The Day of the Jackal.
1962		The world's first nuclear-powered passenger-cargo ship, NS Savannah, completes its maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va., to Savannah, Ga.
1968		First papal visit to Latin America; Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota.
1969		Hurricane Camille hits US Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.421 billion in damages.
1971		Bolivian military coup: Col. Hugo Banzer Suarez ousts leftist president, Gen. Juan Jose Torres and assumes power.
1971		FBI arrests members of The Camden 28, an anti-war group, as the group is raiding a draft office in Camden, NJ.
1972		International Olympic Committee votes 36–31 with 3 abstentions to ban Rhodesia from the games because of the country's racist policies.
1975		US president Gerald Ford survives second assassination attempt in 17 days, this one by Sarah Jane Moore in San Francisco, Cal.
1983		Benigno Aquino, the only real opposition on Ferdinand Marcos' reign as president of the Philippines, is gunned down at Manila Airport.
1989		First complete ring around Neptune discovered.
1995		During 11-day siege at at Ruby Ridge, Id., FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi kills Vicki Weaver while shooting at another target.
2003		Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore suspended for refusing to comply with federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court building's lobby.
2005		Art heist: a version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2007		Most runs scored by any team in modern MLB history as the Texas Rangers thump the Baltimore Orioles 30-3.