Today in history
45 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeiians at the battle of Munda in Spain. The Pompeiians, led by two sons of Pompey the Great, lose more than 30,000 men.
461 - Death, according to the legend, of St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland.
1776 - American revolutionaries under George Washington force British to evacuate Boston, Massachusetts.
1813 - Prussia’s Frederick William III declares war on France.
1871 - Site of Alice Springs in central Australia is selected by John Ross.
1912 - Lawrence Oates, English polar explorer with Robert Scott’s doomed expedition to the Antarctic, leaves the tent on his 32nd birthday saying: ‘‘I am just going outside, and may be some time.’’ He never returns.
1939 - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain accuses Adolf Hitler of breaking his word after German troops crossed the Czech frontier.
1959 - A major uprising begins in Tibet against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama flees the capital in disguise.
1969 - Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel.
1973 - Cambodian Air Force officer steals plane and bombs presidential palace in Phnom Penh, missing President Lon Nol, but killing at least 20 people.
1992 - A car bomb explodes outside the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people.
1998 - Catholics hold the first St Patrick’s Day in Belfast, a traditionally Protestant town.
1999 - Six International Olympic Committee members are expelled from the IOC in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.
2003 - President George W Bush orders Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq with his sons by 4.15am on March 20 or face the might of the US military.
2004 - A car bomb shatters a fivestorey hotel housing foreigners in central Baghdad, killing 27 people.
2008 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces the wreck of HMAS Sydney has been found.
2015 - Masa Vukotic, a 17-year-old schoolgirl, is stabbed to death in a frenzied attack in a Melbourne park. Sean Christian Price, 31, later pleads guilty to her murder; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party wins the country’s election after a tight race that had put his lengthy rule in jeopardy.
2016 - China says an independent Hong Kong as ‘‘impossible’’, while pro-democracy movements gain traction in the territory.
Today’s birthdays:
Edmund Kean, British actor (1787-1833); Kate Greenaway, English illustrator (1846-1901); Billy Corgan, US rock singer of The Smashing Pumpkins (1967-) Justin Hawkins, British musician (1975-)