Today in history

44 BC — Roman dictator Julius Caesar is assassinated by conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius.

1877 — The first cricket Test between Australia and England is played in Melbourne. The home side wins by 45 runs.

1883 — Irish-american terrorists attempt to blow up the offices of The Times in London.

1892 — The first escalator, the Reno Inclined Elevator, is patented by Jesse W Reno of New York.

1903 — British conquest of northern Nigeria is complete.

1907 — The first female members of parliament are elected in Finland when 19 constituencies return women.

1951 — The Persian parliament votes unanimously to nationalise the oil industry.

1971 — The US TV network CBS drops the Ed Sullivan Show after 23 years.

1988 — Israeli authorities impose travel ban on Palestinians in occupied territories.

1994 — Inmates seize a Roman Catholic cardinal, two bishops and 15 other people in a prison uprising in Brazil.

1998 — Child care guru Benjamin Spock dies in San Diego, aged 94.

1999 — Rosemary Nelson, one of Northern Ireland’s best known Catholic human rights lawyers, is killed by a car bomb.

2002 — A Brisbane Supreme Court jury finds Robert Long guilty of setting fire to a hostel in June 2000 that killed 15 young backpackers.

2008 — Queenslanders vote in historic council elections that cut the number of local government authorities from 157 to 73.

2010 — Suspected drug gangsters chase down and open fire on two white SUVS carrying families of US consular employees from a children’s party, killing three adults and and injuring two children in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez.

2013 — US announces plans to spend $US1 billion to add 14 interceptors to an Alaska-based missile defence system, responding to what it sees as faster-thananticipated North Korean progress on weapons and missiles.

2016 — Belgian police searching for those responsible for the November 2015 Paris bombings raid an apartment in Brussels. One suspect is killed and four police wounded; after winning the key Florida primaries, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton become the likely Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. Marco Rubio, one of Trump’s rivals, pulls out of the contest.

Today’s Birthdays: Mike Love, US pop musician of Beach Boys fame (1941-); Eva Longoria, US actress (1975-); will.i.am, American singer (1975-)