Today in History March12 1496The Jews are expelled from Syria. 1507Cesare Borgia dies while fighting alongside his brother, the king of Navarre, in Spain. 1609The Bermuda Islands become an English colony. 1664New Jersey becomes a British colony. 1789The United States Post Office is established. 1809Great Britain signs a treaty with Persia forcing the French out of the country. 1863President Jefferson Davis delivers his State of the Confederacy address. 1879The British Zulu War begins. 1884Mississippi establishes the first U.S. state college for women. 1894Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time. 1903The Czar of Russia issues a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout the land. 1909British Parliament increases naval appropriations for Great Britain. 1911Dr. Fletcher of the Rockefeller Institute discovers the cause of infantile paralysis. 1912Juliet Low founds the Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia. 1917Russian troops mutiny as the "February Revolution" begins. 1930Gandhi begins his march to the sea to symbolizes his defiance of British rule in India. 1933President Paul von Hindenburg drops the flag of the German Republic and orders that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side. 1933President Roosevelt makes the first of his Sunday evening fireside chats. 1938German troops enter Austria without firing a shot, forming the anschluss (union)of Austria and Germany. 1939Pius XII is elected the new pope in Rome. 1944Great Britain bars all travel to neutral Ireland, which is suspected of collaborating with Nazi Germany. 1945Diarist Anne Frank dies in a German concentration camp. 1959The U.S. House of Representatives joins the Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii. 1984Lebanese President Gemayel opens the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war. 1985The United States and the Soviet Union begin arms control talks in Geneva. 1994The Church of England ordains women priests. Born on March 12 1554Richard Hooker, English theologian (Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity). 1858Adolph Simon Ochs, publisher ofThe New York Times. 1862Jane Delano, nurse, teacher, founder of the Red Cross. 1890Vasav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer. 1922Jack Kerouac, American novelist (On the Road). 1928Edward Albee, American dramatist (Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf). 1946Patricia Hampl, poet and memoirist (A Romantic Education,Virgin Time).