March 28 : You can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

 On this day, 28 Mar...

1556 - Origin of Fasli Era, India. (Faṣlī era is a chronological system devised by the Mughal emperor Akbar for land revenue purposes in northern India, for which the Muslim lunar calendar was inconvenient. Faṣlī (“harvest”) is derived from the Arabic term for “division,” which in India was applied to the groupings of the seasons).

1797 - Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire received a patent for a washing machine.  (It is not possible to know exactly who invented the first washing machine and dryer. Some of the patents are so old that nothing is known about the original patent holder.The first British patent for a washing machine was issued in 1691. Not much is known about this machine or the creator. In Germany, Jacob Christian Schäffer published a design for a washing machine in 1767. In 1782 Henry Sidgier was issued a British patent for a rotating drum washer).

1866 - The first hospital-based ambulance went into service in the US. (The first recorded use of ambulances for emergency purposes dates back to Spain in 1487).  

1905 - The radio fax was patented in the U.S. by Cornelius Ehret of Rosemont, Pennsylvania. His device was called "a system for transmitting intelligence." However, faxing did not become a practical mode of communication until the 1920s, and high-speed faxes were not available until the 1940s.

1910 - The first seaplane took off from Martigues near Marseilles, France, designed by Frenchman Henri Fabre.

1922 - Bradley A. Fiske of Washington, D.C., patented a microfilm reading device.

1949 - Fred Hoyle unintentionally coined the term “Big Bang” as a household name, in a scripted radio broadcast on a BBC Programme. 

1977 - Morarji Desai forms government.

1996 - JKLF declared unlawful by Indian central govt.

1999 - Pakistan decides to ease visa restrictions for the aged, women and children from India in response to New Delhi's move towards visa relaxation for several categories of Pakistani nationals.

Born

1926 - Pahelam Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar, cricketer (Indian batsman & captain).

1948 - Moon Moon Sen, actor.

1975 - Sandhya Mridul. actor.

1975 - Akshaye Khanna, actor.

1976 - Chitrangada Singh, actor.

1978 - Nafisa Joseph, Miss India Universe,1997. (Joseph hanged herself in her flat in Versova on 29 July 2004. She was to marry businessman Gautam Khanduja in a few weeks' time, and it broke up). 

RIP

1645 - Har Govind Singh, Sikh Guru.

1943 - Sundara Sastri Satyamurti, an Indian independence activist and leading Congress politician of Madras Presidency.

1986 - Extremist Sikhs kill 13 Hindus in Ludhiana.

2006 – Bansi Lal, politician.

2012 - T. Damodaran, screenwriter of Malayalam cinema.

Titbits

2012 - The Mega Millions jackpot in the U.S. reaches a world record in lottery history - $500 million dollars.

You may have known...

Only 1% of the water on earth is fit for drinking. 

March 27 : Letting go means to come to the realisation that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.

On this day, 27 Mar...

1790 - The shoelace invented by Harvey Kennedy. (Perhaps Harvey invented a particular type of shoelace, but he did not "invent shoelaces". Like shoes, shoelaces have been around for thousands of years, long before names of inventors were ever recorded).

1841 - The first U.S. steam fire engine was tested at the City Hall in New York City. It was 14 feet long, weighed about 8 tons, and required two horses to pull it on level ground. A boiler was mounted on two small wheels at the front and two huge wheels in the rear. It was placed in service but subsequently abandoned as too heavy, and because of the sparks that were emitted from its stacks.

1849 - Joseph J. Couch received the first U.S. patent for a steam-powered percussion rock drill as “improved machinery for drilling rocks”.

1860 - M L. Byrn of New York City has issued a patent for an improved corkscrew - a “covered gimlet screw with a ‘T’ handle”. (After all, if it wasn’t for the invention of the corkscrew we’d be pulling corks out of those wine bottles with our teeth!)

1899 - Guglielmo Marconi transmitted across the English Channel from Boulogne, France, to Dover, England. Messages were exchanged over the 32 miles, and trials continued for several days, at a speed of up to fifteen words a minute. The success of Marconi's experiments made possible communications without expensive undersea cables.

1914 - 1st successful non-direct blood transfusion took place (in Brussels).

1933 - Polythene discovered by Reginald Gibson and Eric William Fawcett. (It was an accidental discovery. A team of chemists at a plant near Northwich were working on polymers when an experiment went strangely wrong. A white, waxy residue was produced - not the intended result - which turned out to be polythene).

1958 - CBS Laboratories announced a new stereophonic record that was playable on ordinary LP phonographs, meaning, monaural. In stereo, on the proper equipment, a new rich and fuller sound was heard. It eventually became a standard for record and equipment buyers.

1961 - The first mobile computer center, a UNIVAC Solid-State 90 computer loaded into a motor van, was used.

1968 - A patent application was filed for a “Wind-Propelled Apparatus” by Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer. It was the first U.S. patent for the Windsurfer sailboard: a surf-board with a sail on a mast articulated by a universal joint to the board.

1993 - Hari Singh from Haryana hijacks an IA plane, but surrenders after 8 hours.

1998 - Sildenafil citrate (marketed as Viagra) was the first oral pill to treat impotence, a dysfunction affecting millions of men in the U.S. It is reported to be its sixth-biggest drug product, with annual sales of about $2 billion.

1999 - World No. 2 Viswanathan Anand won the title with a round to spare in the rapid section of the Amber rapid and blindfold chess tournaments in Monte Carlo.

Born

1965 – Renuka Shahane, actor.

RIP

1552 - Guru Angad Dev, Sikh Guru.

1767 - Khanderao Holkar, one of the Generals in Peshwa kingdom.

1990 - Bus accidentally touches high voltage wire in Kharagpur; 21 dies.

2000 – Priya Rajvansh, actor.

You may have known...

Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and either the longest or second longest. Significantly, there are no bridges over the Amazon river.

March 26 : Often suffering is the strongest teacher.

On this day, 26 Mar...

1668 - England took control of Bombay.

1845 - Joseph Francis of New York City patented a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat.

1845 - A patent was awarded for an adhesive medicated plaster, predating the 'Band-Aid.' Drs. Horace Harrell and William H. Shecut developed a process in which rubber is dissolved in a solvent were then spread on fabric. They later sold the idea to Dr. Thomas Allcock who marketed it as Allcock's Porous Plaster.

1872 - Thomas J. Martin was awarded a patent for the fire extinguisher.

1885 - Commercial production began of George Eastman's flexible, paper-backed photographic film, the first continuous-strip negative able to be compactly spooled.

1885 - The first cremation in England took place at Woking, where a crematorium was built. The deceased was a Mrs. Jeannette C. Pickersgill, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles.

1895 - The Phantoscope, an early motion picture projector that enlarged film images for viewing by large groups, was patented by Charles Francis Jenkins. The Phantascope became the basis of Edison's Vitascope projector. (These developments owed much to George Eastman's invention of roll film, followed by transparency film, that enabled the same camera to take multiple photographs in a series).

1916 - Robert Stroud stabbed and killed a prison guard in Leavenworth Kansas. For this crime, he was imprisoned for life. While there, Stroud conducted and published important research on bird diseases, and became the "Birdman of Alcatraz," named after the prison where he spent his sentence.

1923 - BBC began its daily radio weather forecast.

1931 - New Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of British-Indies.

1934 - Driving tests introduced in Britain.

1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine to immunize people against polio.

1971 - Bangladesh (East Pakistan) declares its independence.

1974 - Gaura Devi, a peasant woman, gathered other women around her in a village in the Garhwal Himalayas and—by hugging trees and through other forms of defiance—together prevented loggers from felling trees. This act by illiterate tribal and village women to reclaim their traditional forest rights was a dramatic moment in the ‘Chipko Andolan’, a non-violent struggle. Hugging of trees—“chipko”—was one such novel means of protest.

1992 - Accord with Bangladesh on Tin Bigha. (The Tin or Teen Bigha Corridor is a strip of land belonging to India on the West Bengal–Bangladesh border which, in September 2011, was leased to Bangladesh so that it can access its Dahagram–Angarpota enclaves).

1996 - The 3-day old Hazratbal shrine crisis ends, as the militants holed up in the shrine come out of it.

1997 - Russia agrees to help India in developing a state-of-the-art integrated air defense system, even as the two agree to carry military cooperation into the 21st century during the visit of Prime Minister Deve Gowda.

2014 - Beijing issues air pollution warnings, advising limited outdoor activity as particulate concentration measures over 12 times the World Health Organization standard.

2015 - Shiite militia forces in Iraq boycott the fight against ISIS in Tikrit to protest U.S. airstrikes; the U.S. was responding to a request from the Iraqi government, but militias are concerned that the U.S. will receive credit for their work to date.

Born

1973 - Lawrence Edward Page, an American computer engineer who was a graduate student when he co-founded Google, Inc. with Sergey Brin while working in the same Ph.D. programme.

RIP

1814 - Joseph Ignace Guillotin, the French physician who promoted a law requiring the use of a “machine that beheads painlessly” as a humane mode for all executions. (The beheading device 'Guillotine' was named after him).

1990 - Maniben Patel, daughter of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

Titbits

1780 - 1st British Sunday newspaper appears (British Gazette and Sunday Monitor).

You may have known...

When you lie, your nose gets warm.

March 25 : Our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past.

On this day, 25 Mar...

1668 - 1st horse race in America takes place.

1807 - The world's first railway passenger service began in Wales, England. It had been built in 1804, originally to transport coal, iron-ore, and limestone. The rails were “L” shaped tram plates mounted on rough stone blocks. At first, passengers traveled in a four-wheeled horse-drawn “dandy.” Use of steam engines began in 1877. Double-decker electric cars powered by overhead cables were used from 2 Mar 1929. The original line was closed on 5 Jan 1960 and dismantled.

1843 - The Thames Tunnel in London, the world's first tunnel under a navigable river, was opened for pedestrians. A railway line through the tunnel opened on 7 Dec 1869, and it remains in use as the oldest part of the London Underground.

1857 - First photo of a solar eclipse was taken by Frederick Laggenheim.

1898 - Swami Vivekanand accepted Sister Nivedita as his disciple.

1911 - L D Swamikannu publishes "Manual of Indian Chronology" in Bombay. This gives a chronology of events in Bombay from 1661 to 1995.

1925 - The first public demonstration of his television system was held by John Logie Baird in London. It would be ten years before the introduction in Britain of televisions with the higher definition on 2 Nov 1936.

1954 - Production of color television sets began.

1954 - The first helicopter S-55 arrived ferried to Delhi. It was indeed a 'red letter day' in the history of IAF a befitting gift on its coming of age.

1970 - The prototype British-built airplane Concorde 002 made its first supersonic flight (1,127 kph). A few months earlier, the French prototype, Concorde 001, had broken the sound barrier on 1 Oct 1969. Mach 2 was achieved by Concorde 001 on 4 Nov 1970, and by Concorde 002, a few days later on 12 Nov 1970. The combined number of supersonic flights by the two aircraft reached 100 by Jan 1971.

1989 - India's first super-computer X-MP-14 of US make was dedicated to the nation.

2008 - An influential group of Muslim theologians in India has denounced terrorism, saying it is against the teachings of Islam. Their thoughts were given at a meeting being held at an Islamic school. Scholars from around six thousand religious schools were attending the meeting.

Born

1948 - Farooq Shaikh, actor. Known for his effortless style of acting.

1967 – Colonel Vasanth Venugopal. An officer of Maratha Light Infantry, he was killed in action while preventing heavily armed infiltrators from crossing the Indian border at Uri, J&K. Was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest military decoration for peacetime gallantry. "I go where my men go", he had told his mother when she asked him if a Colonel should participate in all operations conducted by his men.

RIP

2014 - Nanda, actor. Nanda Karnataka knew monotony mousy as Nanda appeared in Hindi and Marathi films over a span of 30 years. She is best known for her performances in Chhoti Bahen, Dhool Ka Phool, Bhabhi, Kala Bazar, Kanoon, Hum Dono, Jab Jab Phool Khiley.

Titbits

2014 - Twelve-year-old Katie Francis from Oklahoma City broke the Girl Scout record for cookie sales. She sold 18,107 boxes of cookies over a total of seven weeks.

You may have known...

The average person grows 590 miles of hair in a lifetime.

March 24 : A leader is a product of his decisions and not a product of any circumstances.

On this day, 24 Mar...

1802 - Richard Trevithick took out his patent for the first full-sized road locomotive. He had demonstrated it to the public on 24 Dec 1801 with his cousin Andrew Vivian at the controls. It successfully carried a number of men up Beacon Hill, (UK) an event commemorated by the old Cornish song “Going up Camborne Hill” and marked by Trevithick's statute which stands outside Camborne library, gazing up that hill.

1882 - German scientist Robert Koch declared that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis. “Koch's postulates,” which now have been generalized are fundamental in the study of a cause of an infectious disease.

1898 - 1st automobile sold.

1906 - "Census of the British Empire" shows England rules 1/5 of the world.

1930 - Planet Pluto named.

1976 - Following advice from medical experts, President Ford called for the U.S. to give unprecedented swine flu vaccinations to the entire population. The nationwide vaccination effort, costing $ 135 million, began as a result of a novel virus that was first identified at Fort Dix and labeled a "killer flu." Experts compared it to the Spanish flu of 1918 and sounded the alarm of a possible major pandemic. (In fact, the virus never moved outside the Fort Dix area. Later research showed it would probably have been much less deadly than the Spanish flu).

1977 - Morarji Desai elected leader of Janata Party and sworn in as the Prime Minister. This was first non-Congress Government in India.

1977 - Ban on RSS and 26 other organizations lifted.

1990 - Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was withdrawn in toto from the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.

1993 - Six of Memon family escape to Karachi.

2008 - Bhutan holds it's first public election. The Bhutanese monarchy was established in 1907, unifying the country under the control of the Wangchuk family, hereditary governors. {On 21 April 2007, a mock election was held to prepare the population of Bhutan for the imminent change to democracy. These elections were held in all 47 National Assembly constituencies and at 869 polling stations with around 1,000 voters at each one of them}.

2012 - China announces its plan to phase-out the practice of taking and selling organs from executed prisoners.

2013 - In Paris, hundreds of thousands of people protest the legalization of same-sex marriage in France; the protest turns violent after access to the Champs-Elysees is denied.

Born

1775 - Muthuswami Dikshitar, poet, and composer, one of the Musical Trinity of Carnatic music. Tyagaraja and Syama Sastri are the other members of the Trinity. (Carnatic music was transmitted orally for hundreds of years. So students had to rely on a great guru to learn music).

1874 - Harry Houdini [Erich Weiss], Famous magician and escape artist.

1950 - Prahlad Kakar, Indian ad film director.

1979 - Emraan Hashmi, actor.

Titbits

1958 - Famous US singer Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761). He served two years in the army.

You may have known...

According to OECD, Australia and Portugal were among the top consumers of antidepressants, while Chile, South Korea, and Estonia consume the least.

March 23 : Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.

On this day, 23 Mar...

1794 - Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine.

1836 - Minting coins. The coin press was invented by Franklin Beale, who produced the first batch of coins for the U.S. Mint.

1839 - 1st recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] (Boston's Morning Post).

1840 - Englishman John William Draper took the first successful photo of the Moon. He made a daguerreotype, a precursor of the modern photograph.

1857 - The world's first passenger safety elevator went into service in a store at 488 Broadway and Broome Street in New York City. The safety elevator invented by Elisha Otis was powered by steam through a series of shafts and belts.

1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patented the first plans for a cable car system.

1861 - London's first tramcars began operating. An American, George Francis Train had obtained permission for a route about a mile in length running along Bayswater Road between Marble Arch and Notting Hill. The trams were horse-drawn carriages with steel wheels that ran on steel tracks laid in the street, thus making them easier to haul than on an uneven road surface. A pair of horses could pull them with twenty seated passengers and another twelve standing. Unfortunately, the flange of the rails which came above the road surface caused a hazard or damaged other vehicles catching their wheels in the track. Politically influential local residents also objected to the noise. The project was terminated by the authorities within six months.

1869 - Electric heaters. In 1869, an electrical resistance heater was patented by Leigh Burton.

1875 - The first sounding of the Mariana Trench was made by the British survey ship, H.M.S. Challenger, discovering part of the deepest known region of Earth’s oceans. {The Mariana Trench lies in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Mariana Islands, near Guam. Accurate measurements from the surface remain difficult, but in 2010, NOAA used sound pulses to record a 36,070-ft (10,994 m) depth in the Challenger Deep at its southern end}.

1903 - The Wright brothers filed a U.S. patent for their method of controlling an airplane in flight. After three years experimenting with gliders, they were now building their powered Wright Flyer, which made its historic flight at the end of the year, on 17 Dec 1903. The patent was not issued until 22 May 1906. (Their claim was not the invention of the flying machine, but described the important new flight control technique of wing-warping).

1912 - The Dixie Cup was invented. {In the years leading up to the 20th century everyone drank at the public water barrel, well, pump, or spigot with a communal tin cup or common dipper. This sharing by both healthy and sick alike often was the source for spreading germs and disease. (The history of the Dixie Cup began when Lawrence Luellen first became interested in an individual paper drinking cup in 1907. The object was to dispense a pure drink of water in a new, clean, and the individual drinking cup)}.

1913 - Indian Muslim Conference passes a resolution demanding immediate self-government.

1940 - All-India-Moslem League calls for a Moslem homeland.

1942 - Second World War was turning against the British and they needed the help of the Indians. So Prime Minister Churchill sent a delegation under Sir Stafford Cripps (Cripps Mission) to hold talks with the Indian leaders on the future of the subcontinent in the UK, which could not take place because of the non-cooperation movement and they left after a fortnight. They submitted their report in April 1942 which was rejected by the Congress and Muslim League.

1942 - Japanese forces occupy Rangoon, the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.

1950 - The U.N. World Meteorological Organisation was established.

1983 - Dr. Barney C. Clark, the first recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah's Medical Centre after 112 days with the device. Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Centre said one day later that the death resulted from a massive circulatory collapse "resulting from a multitude of causes."

1986 - The first women's company of Central Reserve Police Force camp was raised in Durgapur.

1994 - Last day of Test cricket for Kapil Dev.

Born

1910 - Dr. Ram Manohar Hiralal Lohia was also known as "Dauntless Dr. Lohia", freedom fighter and socialist leader. He had founded Praja Socialist Party.

1968 - Atul Satish Wassan, cricketer.

1976 – Smriti Malhotra-Irani, politician.

RIP

1931 - Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru, and Sukhdev, great freedom fighters and revolutionaries, were hanged for assassination of Saunders, Assistant Superintendent of Police in the Central Jail at Lahore. Bhagat Singh and his associates showed no signs of any fear as they kissed the noose, chanting "Inquilab Zindabad".

1938 – Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, cricketer.

2000 - Udham Singh, hockey legend.

2010 – Kanu Sanyal. He was an Indian communist politician. In 1967, he was one of the main leaders of the Naxalbari uprising. He committed suicide by hanging at his residence on 23 March 2010.

You may have known...

The U.S. tops the list as the country with the highest calorie intake of any in the world. The average calorie consumption per day in the U.S. is 3,770 calories, followed by Austria with 3,760, and Italy with 3,660. (Average Indian takes around 2300 kilocalories).

March 22 : We become what we think about.

On this day, 22 Mar...

1739 - Nadir Shah entered Delhi. He gave the signal to one of his soldiers from Sunheri mosque.

1793 - Lord Cornwallis promulgated permanent settlement in Bengal and Bihar to fix the revenue amounts once and for all to be paid by the zamindars every year.

1857 - The first department store elevator for passengers was installed at E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City.

1895 - The first motion picture shown on a screen was presented by Auguste and Louis Lumière. An invited audience at 44 Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, viewed the film La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière.

1907 - The first internal combustion-powered cabs in London with taximeters began operating. The taximeter gave the cab its modern name. Its purpose was to indicate to both driver and passenger the distance traveled and so avoid arguments about payment due. The word derives from French taxe = price and Greek metron = measure. (The taximeter was invented by Wilhelm Bruhn in 1891).

1907 - Perturbed by a new law restricting Asiatic immigrants, Mohandas Gandhi, a young Indian attorney now living in South Africa, organized a campaign of civil disobedience to resist the statute. The Asiatic Registration Bill was considered by Gandhi unjust and discriminatory to the large Chinese and Indian populations.

1932 - Indian Muslims break with Great Britain.

1942 - Both Congress and Muslim League refused Cripps Mission offer. Congress adopts Quit India Resolution. Cripps Commission came to India which was preceded by Sir Stephard Crips to find out a political formula for transfer of power to Indians.

1946 - The first rocket built in the United States left the Earth's atmosphere, whereas Germany had launched a rocket the year before. The U.S. rocket was launched from White Sands, New Mexico, and attained an altitude of 50 miles.

1957 - National Calendar based on Saka Samvat was adopted by India. As per this calendar, the date of adoption was "Chaitra first, 1879 Saka along with Gregorian.

1960 - The first laser was patented by Arthur Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes under the title “Masers and Maser Communications System.”

1977 Indira Gandhi-led Indian National Congress party lost the 6th general election of India. She resigned as Prime Minister of India.

1985 -The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted and opened for signature. It entered into force on 22 Sep 1988.

RIP

1964 - 200 die in communal violence in the industrial towns of Jamshedpur and Rourkela.

2005 – Gemini Ganesan, actor. (Ramaswamy Ganesan, was known as the “King of Romance”, for his good-looking charm and on and off-screen romances. One of his daughters is the Bollywood star, Rekha).

Titbits

1903 - Niagara Falls runs out of water because of a drought.

1941 - Jimmy Stewart is inducted into the Army, becoming the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II.

You may have known...

An average Indian citizen's daily water requirement is 135 liters.

March 21 : The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.

On this day, 21 Mar...

1846 - Adolphe Sax applied for a French patent on his new instrument, the saxophone, which was granted on 22 Jun 1846.

1877 - Louis Pasteur began work on virulent anthrax bacteria in his laboratory at Lille, France, spurred by a devastating outbreak of anthrax, a disease fatal to cattle and sheep. By 1881, he prepared a vaccine and tested it on 5 May 1881. Cows and sheep inoculated with the vaccine were immunized and survived, while an untreated control group died. He later produced an effective rabies vaccine

1921 - Indian National Congress decided it's Flag.

1925 - The Butler Act became state law in Tennessee that prohibited “the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof ... that it shall be unlawful ... to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” Within a few months, John Scopes became a willing defendant in the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which began 10 Jul 1925, and received world attention as the statute was tested. He was convicted and fined $100, which was overturned on appeal. However, the statute was not repealed until 17 May 1967.

1957 - India's national calendar came into force. (The Indian national calendar, sometimes called the Saka calendar, is the official civil calendar in use in India. It is used, alongside the Gregorian calendar, in news broadcasts by All India Radio and in calendars and communications issued by the Government. The Saka calendar is also used in Java and Bali among Indonesian Hindus.

1971 - Gavaskar scores the first of his 34 Test tons, 116 at Georgetown.

1977 - Internal Emergency, promulgated on June 25, 1975, withdrawn by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

1979 - Morarji Desai, PM, inaugurated the Backward Classes Commission in New Delhi.

2010 - China's state media has attacked Google for having what it said were 'intricate ties' with the U.S. government. The Xinhua news agency has said that Google provides U.S. intelligence agencies with a record of its search engine results. It also accused Google of trying to change Chinese society by imposing American values on it.

Born

1916 - Ustad Bismilla Khan, clarionett Master.

1978 - Rani Mukherjee, film actress.

RIP

1995 - Bomb attack on the train in Assam; 27 soldiers killed.

1997 - Seven Kashmiri Pandits gunned down by militants in Sangrampura.

You may have known...

Over 40 billion work hours are lost each year in Africa to the need to fetch drinking water.

March 20 : Good leaders never give or take any excuse.

On this day, 20 Mar...

1800 - Volta announces his battery.

1815 - Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule.

1883 - Jan Matzeliger was issued his first U.S. patent for his shoe “Lasting-Machine”. It significantly increased the output of finished shoes compared to usual handwork.

1916 - Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity was published as an academic paper. This theory accounted for the slow rotation of the elliptical path of the planet Mercury, which Newtonian gravitational theory failed to do. Fame and recognition came suddenly in 1919 when the Royal Society of London photographed the solar eclipse and publicly verified Einstein's general theory of relativity. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his photoelectric law and work in the field of theoretical physics, but such was the controversy still aroused by this theory on relativity that these were not specified in the text of the award.

1920 - A story was printed regarding the return of the Treaty of Versailles which was returned to President Wilson. It had failed Senate ratification four times the night before.

This treaty was intended to mark the official end of World War I, even though a majority of the fighting had stopped in 1918. This was probably one of the most controversial documents created within the 20th Century and was signed between Allied and Associated forces of World War I and Germany.

1934 - The first test of a practical radar apparatus was made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Kiel Harbour, Germany, Chief of the German Navy Signals Research Department.

1945 - British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma from the Japanese. The Japanese had captured Mandalay in May 1942.

1954 - 60,000 Viet Minh with heavy artillery surround 16,000 French troops, but the French held out for a further 6 weeks before being overcome by the greater numbers and defeated.

1959 - For the first time, officials of the Indian government confirmed reports of widespread resistance to the Chinese occupying forces in Tibet. Open warfare erupted in the capital city of Lhasa.

1965 - Venkataraghavan takes 8-72 vs New Zealand at Delhi.

1977 - Premier Indira Gandhi loses election .

1993 - Memon brothers, the prime suspects in the Bombay bomb blasts, escape from Dubai.

1997 - Maharashtra (like H.P.) proposes to make caring for aged parents mandatory.

1999 - Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain complete non-stop balloon circumnavigation around the world. (They had set off from Switzerland on March 1st, 1999 traveling 45,755 kilometers lasting 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes and landing in Egypt on 20th March 1999).

Born

1951 - Madan Lal, cricketer, Indian medium pacer in the 70's

1952 - Anand Armitraj, tennis player.

1966 - Alka Yagnik, singer.

1987 - Kangna Ranaut, actor. (Anurag Basu spotted her having coffee in a Mumbai cafe and signed her up for the movie "Gangster").

RIP

1351 - Mohammed ibn-Tughluq, sultan of Delhi.

1727 - Sir Isaac Newton. English physicist and mathematician who made seminal discoveries in several areas of science, and was the leading scientist of his era. His study of optics included using a prism to show white light could be split into a spectrum of colors. The statement of his three laws of motion is fundamental in the study of mechanics. He was the first to describe the moon as falling (in a circle around the earth) under the same influence of gravity as a falling apple, embodied in his law of universal gravitation.

1925 - Lord Curzon, served as Viceroy and Governor General of India. (He came close to becoming prime minister in 1923, his aristocratic past militated against him.

1968 – Ghulam Mohammed, composer. He is most remembered for his work in musical-hit films like Mirza Ghalib (1954 – national award) ), Shama (1961) and Pakeezah(1972).

2000 - Unidentified militants gun down 35 Sikhs in the south Kashmir village of Chatti Singhpora in one of the worst incidents of violence in the State.

Titbits

1966 - The World Cup was stolen while on display at Westminster Hall in London. (The World Cup was on the show prior to the start of the World Cup tournament in Britain later in the year. It was found 1 week later in an in South London garden wrapped in a newspaper. England did go on to win the World Cup later in the year beating West Germany in the final).

1974 - Princess Anne and husband Captain Mark Phillips escape a kidnapping attempt as they were returning to Buckingham Palace.

1991 - Michael Jackson signs $65M 6 album deal with Sony records.

You may have known...

The average distance that women in developing countries walk to collect water per day is four miles and the average weight that women carry on their heads is approximately 44 pounds.

March 19 : Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

On this day, 19 Mar...

1800 - Electric eels were captured by Alexander von Humboldt from swamps near a river in South America. During their scientific investigation of the behavior of the eels, the scientist received massive electric shocks. Humboldt reported a severe lack of feeling in his joints for the better part of a day after standing directly on an electric eel. They learned that horses had been killed by them. Humboldt published an article Observation on the Electric Eel of the New World in 1808.

1827 - Charles Darwin made his earliest scientific discovery, at age 18. He dissected some specimens of a barnacle-like marine organism, the polyzoan Flustra. Thus he began what became a lifelong interest in natural history.

1915 - Pluto photographed for 1st time (although unknown at the time).

1942 - FDR orders US men between 45 & 64 to register for non-military duty.

1945 - Adolf Hitler issues "Nero Decree" to destroy all German factories.

1954 - A sled powered by six rockets with a human rider reached 421 mph, running on heavy rails mounted in concrete at Air Force Base, Alamogordo, US. It was the effects of braking from such speed that was being studied, to simulate the effects on pilots bailing out of airplanes traveling at supersonic speeds. By year's end, on 10 Dec 1954, further tests increased to a land record speed of 632 mph.

1954 - The first helicopter S-55 arrived at Bombay by sea.

1958 - The London Planetarium, Britain's first, opened in the west wing of Madame Tussaud's. It is one of the world's largest. The site used was that of the former Cinema and Restaurant added in 1929, that had been destroyed by a German bomb in 1940.

1972 - India and Bangladesh sign friendship treaty.

1998 - BJP-led coalition government is sworn in. Atal Behari Vajpayee became the second time Prime Minister of India.

1999 - The banned Maoist Communist Centre kills 34 Bhumihars at Senari village in Jehanabad district in Bihar.

Born

1936 - Satydev Dubey, stage artist.

1939 - Abbas Ali Baig, cricketer (Indian bat, 112 on debut v England, 1959).

1952 - Mohan Babu, actor.

1984 - Tanushree Dutta, actor.

RIP

1982 - Acharya J. B. Kripalani, writer, nationalist, parliamentarian, founder of Kissan Mazdoor Dal and president of Indian National Congress in 1946.

1992 – Rahi Masoom Raza, writer.

1998 – EMS Namboodiripad, first Chief Minister of Kerala.

2009 – Verma Malik, poet.

Titbits

1831 - 1st U.S. bank robbery (City Bank, New York/$245,000).

You may have known...

At any one time, it is estimated that half the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne diseases.

March 18 : Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

On this day, 18 Mar...

1919 - Rowlatt Act, intended to perpetuate the extraordinary powers enjoyed by the Government under Lord Chelmsford during the war, provokes countrywide protests. This Rowlatt Act was forced instead of 1915 Indian Security Act which reduced freedom of Indian people.

1922 - British magistrates in India sentence Mohandas K. Gandhi to 6 years in prison for disobedience.

1931 - 1st electric shavers go on sale in the U.S. from Schick.

1944 - Azad Hind Fauj entered India (Japanese army) from the border of Burma and invaded northeastern India.

1965 - Voskhod 2 was launched into space carrying Aleksey Leonov and Pavel Belyayev aboard. On the second orbit, Leonov left the spacecraft through the airlock while still tethered to the vessel. He was the first man to climb out of a spacecraft in space.

1967 - The biggest oil spill ever, at that time, affected Great Britain and France when the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on Pollard's Rock between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly. The rocks ripped open six of the ship’s 18 cargo tanks that morning, and by evening there was an eight-mile oil slick leaking from it. Attempts to refloat the ship failed and one member of the salvage team died. With no prior incident of such a huge disaster to guide clean up efforts, bombs and napalm were tried to cause the oil to burn, then detergents which emulsified the oil, but were themselves highly toxic to all marine and shore life. Eventually, all 120,000 tons of crude oil being shipped from Kuwait were released as the ship broke apart. Damage to ecosystems lasted decades. Some lessons were learned.

1998 - A.B. Vajpayee, the Prime Minister-designate, releases the 'national agenda for governance' in New Delhi. It is silent on the Ram temple issue, scrapping of Article 370 and a uniform civil code.

Born

1858 - Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, a German engineer who invented the internal-combustion engine that bears his name.

1879 - Cluny MacPherson, a Canadian doctor, and inventor of the gas mask.

1938 - Shashi Kapoor, film producer, director, actor, and dramatist.

1946 - Navin Nischol, actor.

1948 - Eknath Solkar, cricketer, India 1969-77, brilliant short-leg fielder.

1963 - Ratna Pathak, actor.

Titbits

1987 - Sunil Gavaskar ends his Test career with an innings of 96 v Pak.

2014 - In the U.S., today's Mega Millions multistate lottery drawing has two winning tickets; the $400 million jackpot is the third largest in the game's history.

You may have known...

There are 1.6 million deaths per year attributed to dirty water and poor sanitation.

March 17 : Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration.

On this day, 17 Mar....

1768 - William Cookworthy obtained a British patent for his process to take local china clay and manufacture fine white porcelain. This was significant because he could produce hard paste porcelain to compete in quality as finished goods imported from China. This eliminated the need to import the china clay, previously obtained from either China or America. His years of experimenting to improve the manufacturing process from the clay to the finished product established the porcelain industry in Britain.

1769 - To establish the English Mill's Cloth companies, East Indian Company imposed various restrictions on weavers of Bengal to destroy textile industry in Bengal , which was meant to destroy the Indian cloth and 'malmal' industry.

1782 - Salby (Salbai) Treaty was signed between East India Company and Marathas. The Company acquired guarantees that the Marathas would defeat Hyder Ali of Mysore and retake territories in the Carnatic. The Marathas also guaranteed that the French would be prohibited from establishing settlements on their territories. In return, the British agreed to pension off their protégé, Raghunath Rao, and acknowledge Madhavrao II as peshwa of the Maratha Empire.

1845 - Stephen Perry, owner of Messrs Perry and Co,. patented the use of India rubber for use as springs in bands, belts, etc., and also the manufacture of elastic bands by slicing suitable sizes of vulcanised India rubber tube. (In the early 19th century, sailors brought home items made by Central and South American natives from the sap of rubber trees).

1898 - The first practical submarine was demonstrated by John Holland off Staten Island in New York for 100 minutes. Holland's sub was not the first underwater boat, but is credited as the first practical one.

1901 - A showing of seventy-one Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

1955 - Indian Standard's Institute started working to control the quality of Indian products and the ISI mark was issued to quality products.

1959 - Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India.

Born

1962 - Kalpana Chawla, scientist.

1979 - Sharman Joshi, actor.

1990 - Saina Nehwal, badminton star.

RIP

1527 - Rana Sangram Singh, King of Mewad, fought Babur near Kanwa at Agra and lost the battle and died thereafter. He had vowed not to enter Chittogarh without a victory.

1989 - Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, president of Lok Dal (B) and former Union Minister.

You may have known....

90 percent of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers and streams without any treatment.

March 16 : Pearls don't lie on the seashore. If you want one, you must dive for it.

On this day, 16 Mar....

1527 - Rana Sangram Singh, King of Mewad, attacked Mughal Emperor Babur near Kanwa at Agra.

1830 - London's re-organized police force (Scotland Yard). It is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, the territorial police force responsible for policing most of London. The name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard.

1844 - A U.S. patent for "a new and Improved Harpoon for the Destruction and Taking of Whales" was issued to Albert Moor of Hampden Maine.

1867 - Joseph Lister, applying Louis Pasteur's idea that the micro-organisms causing gangrene might be controlled with chemical solutions, used solution of carbolic acid (phenol), on surgical incisions, and applied to dressings. Lister found that this procedure substantially reduced the incidence of gangrene.

1926 - Robert Goddard launches 1st liquid fuel rocket, goes 184' (56 meters).

1955 - President Eisenhower upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war.

1960 - In New York, a car was displayed with a battery recharged by solar cells.

1997 - The first batch of three Russian-made Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft reaches India.

1998 - Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.

1999 - The Shiromani Akali Dal creates a record by unanimously electing Bibi Jagir Kaur Begowal as the first woman president of the SGPC.

1999 - Amarjeet Kaypee of Haryana, during an innings of 148 against Madhya Pradesh in the super-league match at Rajnandgaon, overtook Ashok Malhotra's 7,274 runs and became the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy.

2012 - Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first cricketer to score 100 international centuries.

Born

1556 - Amarsingh, Rajput king of Mewar.

1599 - Shahaji Raje Bhosale, father of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

1901 — Potti Sreeramulu, who later undertook a fatal fast for the formation of Andhra.

1910 - Iftikhar Ali Khan, cricketer (Nawab of Pataudi). He was a member of the English squad during the infamous ‘Bodyline’ series who later captained the Indian cricket team.

1971 - Rajpal Yadav, actor.

RIP

1945 - Ganesh Damodar Savarkar, who was a revolutionary and brother of Swatantriya Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Titbits

1968 - General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

You may have known....

The lowest point on land is in the Dead Sea between Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank. The surface of this super-salty lake is 1,388 feet below sea level.

March 15 : You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down.

On this day, 15 Mar....

44 - BC Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.

1564 - Akbar removed 'Jeziya' or toll-tax for his non-Muslim subjects. In India, Islamic rulers Qutb-UD-DIN Aibak imposed jizya on non-Muslims first time which was called kharaj-o-jizya. After Akbar abolished it, Jizya was re-introduced by Aurangzeb in the 17th century. (Jizya or jizyah is a per capita yearly tax historically levied by Islamic states on certain non-Muslim subjects 'Dhimmis' permanently residing in Muslim lands under Islamic law. The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount. Jizya rate was usually a fixed annual amount depending on the financial capability of the payer. Historically, the jizya tax has been understood in Islam as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, for the permission to practise a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as material proof of the non-Muslims' submission to the Muslim state and its laws. Jizya has also been understood by some as a ritual humiliation of the non-Muslims in a Muslim state for not converting to Islam, while others argue that if it were meant to be a punishment for the dhimmis' unbelief then monks and the clergy wouldn't have been exempted).

1892 - An escalator design was patented in the U.S. by inventor Jesse W. Reno of New York City. It had a conveyor belt that moved people up a 25-degree slope. The first escalator-type patent issued in the U.S. on 9 Aug 1859 had steps mounted on an inclined endless belt or chain. The Otis Elevator Company registered the U.S. trademark Escalator on 29 May 1901. Otis manufactured their first escalator in 1900 which they had exhibited at the Paris Exposition in that year, and then installed at the Gimbal Brothers store in Philadelphia in 1901.

1907 - Finland is 1st European country to give women the right to vote.

1937 - 1st blood bank forms (Chicago, Illinois, US).

1946 - British Prime Minister Clement Attlee agrees with India's right to independence.

1950 - India's Planning Commission Day.

1957 - Britain becomes the 3rd nation to explode a nuclear bomb.

1969 - Indian Navy's first Helicopter Squadron was commissioned in Goa.

1998 - Mr. Vajpayee is appointed Prime Minister. The number of MsP supporting the formation of a government by the BJP stands at 264 in a house of 539, just short of the working majority of 270. However, the President sees the figure as crossing the half-way mark as the Telugu Desam decides to remain neutral. Earlier, the Congress (I) conveys to the President its decision not to stake claim to form a government.

Born

1901 - Guru Hanuman, the pioneer, and contributor of wrestling in India. He was bestowed with the Padamshri in 1983. His pupil Satpal and Kartar Singh won Gold Medals in Asian Games.

1934 - Kanshi Ram, Indian Dalit leader.

1943 - Sahib Singh Verma, politician.

1976 - Abhay Deol, actor.

1984 - Honey Singh, singer.

RIP

1992 - Dr. Rahi Masum Raza, film screenplay, story and dialogue writer.

You may have known....

For ' Varuna Yajna Hindu priests sit inside barrels containing water as they perform special prayers in order to appease Varun.

March 13 : Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.

On this day, 13 Mar....

1781 - English astronomer William Herschel detected Uranus in the night sky, but he thought it was a comet. It was the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope.

1852 - Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly.

1877 - The first U.S. patent for earmuffs was issued to teen-aged Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine. While trying out a new pair of ice-skates one winter, he experienced stinging ears and solved his problem with beaver fur pads on a wire frame. By his mid-twenties, he had a factory and 11 workers producing in his hometown of Farmington producing 50,000 earmuffs yearly. His distribution grew to 400,000 pairs in 1936, the year he died. (He patented many other inventions. In 1977, Maine's legislature declared 21 Dec, the first day of winter, as the annual Chester Greenwood Day. His hometown celebrates with a parade in early December, although the Greenwood Ear Protector factory is now a laundry).

1878 - The Vernacular Press Act was passed which subsequently made the Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta an English newspaper.

1894 - J L Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate.

1930 - The discovery of a ninth planet was announced by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory. It is only one-tenth as large as Earth and four thousand million miles away. The planet was named Pluto on 24 May 1930.

1935 - Driving tests introduced in Great Britain.

1938 - Hitler merged Austria in Germany.

1940 - Michael O' Dyer, former Governor of Punjab, was shot by Udham Singh in Caxton Hall at point-blank range in full view of a large gathering in London.

1963 - Indian Government announced 'Arjun Awards' to boost the morale of various sports personalities.

1989 - The first straw-fired thermal power plant was laid in Jakhari village of Punjab.

1997 - Sister Nirmala Joshi, 63, is chosen to succeed Mother Teresa as the Superior-General of Missionaries of Charity.

2000 - Parliament approves TRAI Bill seeking to bifurcate it into a Tribunal and a Regulator, with the Rajya Sabha passing the measure by a voice vote.

2003 - The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.

2012 - A Harvard Medical School study claims that red meat increases the risk of death and has additional negative health implications.

2013 - Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis.

Born

1980 - Varun Gandhi, politician.

1984 - Geeta Basra, actor.

RIP

1800 - Nana Phadanvis (Balaji Janardan Bhanu), veteran leader of Peshwa Kingdom.

1842 - English soldier and inventor of the Shrapnel shell, a spherical case designed to explode in midair, spreading its content of small lead musket balls to injure enemy soldiers over a wide area. He affected other improvements infuses, ammunition and small arms. He also prepared important artillery range tables and originated the brass tangent slide to improve the sighting of guns. Incorporating his idea of the parabolic chamber, howitzers and mortars were operated more efficiently.

1940 - Michael O' Dyer, former Governor of Punjab, was shot by Udham Singh in Caxton Hall at point-blank range in full view of a large gathering in London.

You may have known....

Most of India is chiefly dependent on monsoon rains for the purpose of irrigation. If monsoon fails the Indian economy suffers a huge setback and more than that there is unrest.

March 14 : Spoon feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.

On this day, 14 Mar....

1794 - Eli Whitney was issued a U.S. patent for his cotton gin. His invention replaced much processing by hand labor and revolutionized the textile industry. Cotton became commercially important in the southern US, with a resulting demand for slaves to tend the fields and harvest the cotton crops.

1839 - Sir John Herschel referred to “photography” in a lecture to the Royal Society—possibly the first use of the word.

1899 - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was issued a U.S. patent for his invention of his “Navigable Balloon,” the rigid airship, known as the Zeppelin. The overall cylindrical shape with rounded ends was covered with a cotton shell, framed with aluminum struts, wire-braced and contained a number of independent hydrogen balloons used for lift.

1913 - John D. Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation.

1931 - The first US motion picture theatre built especially for rear projection of the movie was opened in New York City.

1993 - India seeks Interpol's assistance in investigating the sources of bomb blasts in Bombay.

1998 - Sonia Gandhi takes over as the Congress(I) president from Sitaram Kesri.

Born

1879 - Albert Einstein. A German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

1949 - Farida Jalal, actor.

1965 - Aamir Khan, actor, director and producer (Lagaan, PK).

RIP

1883 - Karl Marx, great journalist, chief editor, writer and social worker.

1932 - George Eastman. American inventor and industrialist who was a pioneering manufacturer of photographic materials, including rolled film and the Kodak camera.

1963 - Jainarain Vyas, freedom fighter, leader, social reformer, patriot and a noble son of India.

You may have known....

Considering the importance of rains and given that we have 330 million Gods, we have one rain God as well. Varun dev is considered God of rains and whenever the monsoon is weak Varuna Yajna is performed to please God of rains.