Reuters historical calendar - March 12

LONDON, Mar 11 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 12 since 1900: 1913 - Canberra became the capital of Australia.

1925 - Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen died. Known as the father of modern China, he became its first provisional president from 1911-1912.

1933 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the first of his ''fireside chats'' on radio.

1938 - German troops invaded Austria.

1940 - Finland signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ending a 14-week war.

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

1955 - Charlie Parker, US jazz saxophonist, died.

1966 - Indonesia's congress stripped Dr Sukarno of all powers including the title of president. General Suharto became acting president until after general elections in 1968.

1979 - Grenada's Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy and his government were overthrown and replaced by Maurice Bishop of the New Jewel Movement.

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

1999 - Sir Yehudi Menuhin, US-born violinist and music teacher, died in Berlin.

2000 - Pope John Paul asked forgiveness for the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church, including its treatment of Jews, heretics and women.

2002 - The UN Security Council passed a US-drafted resolution referring for the first time to a Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel.

2003 - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in front of the main government building in Belgrade.

2005 - China accepted the resignation of Hong Kong's unpopular chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, after he was made a vice-chairman of an advisory body to parliament.

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