Monday, March 12 1799 - In the war of the Second Coalition, Austria declared war on France.

1814 - British troops under Wellington captured Bordeaux in France.

1849 - In India, the Sikhs surrendered to the occupying British forces at Rawalpindi.

1854 - Britain and France concluded an alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the Crimean War.

1868 - Britain annexed Basutoland (Lesotho).

1907 - At Toulon, France, the battleship Iena exploded killing at least 118 men.

1913 - Canberra became the capital of Australia when the foundation stone of the Federal Parliament Building was laid.

1925 - Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-Sen died. Known as the father of modern China, he became its first provisional president for a short time (1911-1912).

1938 - One day after Artur Seyss-Inquart became chancellor of Austria, German troops invaded.

1940 - Finland signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ending the 14-week war which the Russians won by sheer weight of numbers.

1945 - Anne Frank, the Dutch teenager who kept a diary of her wartime experiences, died in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. She was 15.

1966 - The Indonesian Congress stripped Dr. Sukarno of all powers including the title of president. General Suharto became acting president until after general elections in 1968.

1968 - Mauritius became an independent member of the British Commonwealth after having been occupied by British forces since 1810.

1971 - Syrian premier Hafez al-Assad was elected president in a national referendum.

1978 - In the first round of French parliamentary elections, the left claimed an absolute majority for the first time in French history.

1979 - In Grenada, prime minister Erik Gairy and his government were overthrown and replaced by Maurice Bishop of the New Jewel Movement.

1990 - Mongolia's ruling politburo resigned and communist leader Zhambyn Batmunkh proposed amending a constitutional clause guaranteeing the party's "leading role".

1992 - The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius became a republic, dropping its links with the Britain 24 years to the day after independence.

1993 - Nearly 200 people were killed when up to 13 bombs went off across the city of Bombay in India, including the stock exchange.

1999 - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first former members of the Soviet bloc to join NATO.

2000 - In one of the most significant acts of his papacy, Pope John Paul asked forgiveness for the many past sins of his Church, including its treatment of Jews, heretics and women.