Today in History

45BC – 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 – The site of Alice Springs in 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, left, accuses Adolf Hitler of breaking his word after German troops crossed the Czech frontier.

1959 – An uprising begins in Tibet against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama flees the capital in disguise.

1969 – Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel.

1973 – A 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. 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.