On this day: Highland Clearances in Sutherland 15 March The Ides of March - anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC. 1603: Samuel de Champlain, French navigator and explorer, sailed for the New World. 1776: United States Congress resolved that authority of British Crown should be suppressed. 1814: Highland Clearances began in Sutherland. 1877: Australia beat England at Melbourne in first cricket Test match. 1886: Opening of Glasgow's Queen Street low-level system, the first of the city's three undergrounds. 1892: The first escalator, the Reno Inclined Elevator, was patented by Jesse Reno - and installed at the Old Iron Pier on Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, four years later. 1909: Selfridge's, "the world's most beautiful store," opened in Oxford Street, London. 1916: US force of 12,000 soldiers under General Pershing was ordered to Mexico to capture revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. 1943: Japanese planes attacked Darwin, Australia. 1949: Clothes rationing ended after eight years. 1956: My Fair Lady opened on Broadway with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. The title was adapted from the Cockney pronunciation of Mayfair. 1962: US military training personnel in South Vietnam exchanged fire with Communist guerrilla forces. 1985: The first internet domain name was registered (symbolics.com). 1988: Israeli authorities imposed travel ban on Palestinians in occupied territories. 1990: Ignoring worldwide appeals for clemency, Iraq hanged Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft for alleged spying. 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union. 1994: Britain faced a rift with Europe over voting rights which could block unacceptable EU legislation. 1995: The Rail Regulator said it was not up to British Rail to axe the Anglo-Scottish sleeper, after BR had said it would end most of the overnight services and all Motorail trains from May. 2004: French president Jacques Chirac signed the law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools, commonly known as the headscarf ban. Eva Longoria, actress, 38; Isobel Buchanan, Scottish soprano, 59; Very Reverend John B Cairns, Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1999-2000, 71; Ry Cooder, blues-folk guitarist, 66; David Cronenberg, film director, 70; Prof Emeritus Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith CBE, architect and conservationist, 86; Ian Ferguson, Scottish footballer, 48; Robert Nye, novelist, poet and critic, 74; Ben Okri OBE, author, 54; Sylvester Stallone, actor, 67. Births: 1767 Andrew Jackson, seventh US president; 1779 Viscount Melbourne, Whig statesman and prime minister; 1900 Frances Partridge, Bloomsbury group diarist; 1918 Earl Haig of Bemersyde OBE, artist, Deputy Lieutenant of Ettrick and Lauderdale (and Roxburghshire) 1977-93. Deaths: 44BC Julius Caesar; 459 Attila the Hun; 1975 Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate; 1983 Dame Rebecca West, novelist; 1984 Tommy Cooper, comedian; 1997 Fred Zinnemann, film director; 1998 Dr Benjamin Spock, child care expert; 2003 Dame Thora Hird, actress.