Today in history

1485 - England’s King Richard III is killed fighting against overwhelming odds at the Battle of Bosworth, ending War of the Roses.

1642 - English Civil War begins when King Charles I brands Parliament and its soldiers as traitors. The war lasts until 1651.

1654 - Jacob Barsimson, said to be first Jewish immigrant to America, lands at New Amsterdam.

1784 - Vincent Lunardi makes England’s first hot-air balloon flight, accompanied by a cat and dog.

1911 - Leonardo da Vinci painting Mona Lisa is stolen from Louvre Museum in Paris, France. It is recovered in Italy in 1913.

1941 - Nazi troops reach outskirts of Soviet city of Leningrad in World War II.

1955 - A US Navy patrol plane with 16 men aboard is shot down off mainland China, by Chinese Communist aircraft.

1981 - A Taiwanese domestic jetliner explodes in mid-air and bursts into flames, killing all 110 people on board.

1994 - Ernesto Zedillo, rolling up a commanding presidential victory in Mexico, vows to stick to the freemarket course set by his predecessor.

1996 - Monsoon rains and a snowstorm sweep across the Himalayas during a Hindu pilgrimage to a mountain temple, killing more than 200. Tens of thousands are stranded.

2006 - A Russian passenger jet crashes in Ukraine during a thunderstorm just minutes after sending a distress signal, killing all 170 people on board, including dozens of children.

2007 - Fourteen US soldiers are killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashes during a night mission in northern Iraq.

2008 - Columns of Russian tanks roll out of key positions deep inside Georgia as a promised pullback begins.

2010 - All 33 Chilean miners trapped deep underground for 17 days are found alive. A probe sent some 688 metres deep into the collapsed mine early in the morning comes back with a handwritten note: ‘‘All 33 of us are fine in the shelter.’’

2013 - Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak is released from prison and transported to a military hospital in a Cairo suburb where he will be held under house arrest.

2014 - 10 Australian rugby league players accept a 3-month ban in an end to the supplements saga.

2015 - An al-shabaab suicide bomber attacks a Somali military training base in Kismayu with at least 16 people dead. Today’s Birthdays: Claude Debussy, French composer (1862-1918); Dorothy Parker, US writer/poet (1893-1967); Tori Amos, US singer (1963-).