Today is the 203rd day of 2019. There are 162 days left in the years.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1992: Medellin drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar slips past scores of guards at his luxury, custom-built prison and walks to freedom. He dies in a shoot-out with police the following year.

OTHER EVENTS

1298: William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance against English rule, uses extra-long spears against mounted soldiers at the Battle of Falkirk. The new fighting tactic is depicted in the 1995 movie Braveheart .

1620: Exiled British Pilgrims set out from Holland for the New World on their ship Speedwell, which leaks so badly they return to England and transfer to the Mayflower.

1793: Scottish fur trader and explorer Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Canadian Pacific coast, becoming the first to cross the North American continent north of Mexico.

1933: US aviator Wiley Post completes first solo airplane flight around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

1943: Allied forces led by General George S Patton capture Palermo, Sicily, in World War II.

1962: Algeria declares Independence following protracted war of secession from France.

1968: Israeli airliner, bound for Israel from Rome with 48 people aboard, is hijacked and diverted to Algeria.

1971: Last US infantry units pull out of South Vietnam’s northern border area.

1973: Soviet space probe begins six-month journey toward Mars.

1976: Japan completes its World War II reparations payments with a final payment to the Philippines.

1981: Turkish extremist Mehmet Ali Agca is sentenced in Rome to life in prison for shooting Pope John Paul II.

1988: Car loaded with bombs blows up near Syrian military intelligence base in west Beirut, killing seven people and wounding 48.

1994: Citing an economic crisis, Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera suspends constitutional rights.

2003: US forces attack a home in Mosul, Iraq, killing former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s two sons Uday and Qusay.

2005: Multiple predawn bombings targeting several hotels kill at least 88 in the Egyptian tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheik in the Sinai Peninsula.

2007: Turkey’s Islamic-rooted ruling party wins parliamentary elections, taking at least 331 of 550 seats, despite warnings from the secular Opposition that the Government is a threat to secular traditions.

2011: A home-grown, right wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik sets off a car bomb explosion that ripped open buildings in the heart of Norway’s Government quarter in Oslo, then goes to a summer camp dressed as a police officer and guns down youths as they ran and even swam for their lives. At least 77 people are killed in the Nordic nation’s worst violence since World War II.

2014: A Hamas rocket explodes near Israel’s main airport, prompting a ban on flights from the US and many from Europe and Canada.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Alexander Calder, US sculptor (1898-1976); Licia Albanese, Italian-born soprano (1913-2014); George Clinton, US singer (1941- ); Alex Trebek, Canadian game show host of Jeopardy! (1940- ); Danny Glover, US actor (1947- ); Willem Dafoe, US actor (1955- ); David Spade, US actor/comedian (1964- ); Rhys Ifans, Welsh actor (1967- ); Rufus Wainwright, US-Canadian rock singer (1973- )

— AP