March 05 : Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!

On this day, 05 Mar....

1223 BC - The oldest recorded eclipse occurred, according to one plausible interpretation of a date inscribed on a clay tablet retrieved from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria (as it is now). This date is favored by recent authors on the subject, although alternatively 3 May 1375 BC has also been proposed as plausible. Certainly, by the 8th century BC, the Babylonians were keeping a systematic record of solar eclipses, and possibly by this time they may have been able to apply numerological rules to make fairly accurate predictions of the occurrence of solar eclipses. The first total solar eclipse reliably recorded by the Chinese occurred on 4 June 180 BC.

1558 - The tobacco plant was introduced into Spain by the physician Francisco Fernandes, as a healing herb. He had been commissioned by Emperor Philip II to go to Mexico to investigate the products of the Empire. Cultivation in France may have started earlier, in 1556, with the importation of seed from Brazil by André Thévet. He claimed to have cultivated it at Angoulême before Jean Nicot sent the seed to François II. Yet it is Nicot, the French ambassador to Lisbon, whose name survives in the word nicotine. The habit of smoking tobacco was initiated from England from the example Sir Francis Drake later brought back (27 Jul 1586) from the American Indians. Ralph Lane, the first governor of Virginia has been credited as the first English tobacco pipe smoker.

1616 -The book by Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, was held to teach a false doctrine, altogether contrary to the Holy Scripture, that the earth moves and the sun are motionless. No person was to be permitted to hold or teach the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. This was decreed by the church authorities.  (When Galileo subsequently violated the decree, he was put on trial and held under house arrest for the final eight years of his life).

1830 - Limelight as a form of lighting was presented before scientists at the Tower of London, in a trial with two other lamp designs. Invented by Thomas Drummond in 1816, limelight used jets of oxygen to assist heating lime to incandescence. The more brilliant light was formed than by a flame alone. Limelight was adopted in lighthouses and for theatre stages. However, because it required constant tending, it was willingly replaced by newer inventions.

1851 - Geological Survey of India was established in Calcutta.

1857 - Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens.

1868 -  A stapler was patented in Birmingham, England by C.H. Gould.

1923 - 1st old age pension plans established in the U.S.

1926 - China asks for a seat in the Security Council.

1949 - The Jharkhand Party is founded.

1991 - U.S. patent was issued for a process turning garbage into fuel to microbiologist Lonnie. 

1993 - The government de-reserves the mining industry throwing it open to the private sector as well as to foreign investment.

1995 - India and China agree to open two new border points including Nathu La (Sikkim) to facilitate meetings between their military personnel.

1999 - The indigenously-built multi-barrel rocket launcher ''Pinaka'' is successfully test-fired at Chandipur-on-sea in Orissa.

1999 - Geet Sethi won the 1999 World matchplay billiards championship in Midsomer Norton.

Born

1911 - Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee, first Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force.

1913 - Gangubai Hangal, Hindustani classical singer.

1965 - Pargat Singh, hockey legend.

1976 - Abhishek Bachchan, actor.

RIP

1992 - Sunder, comedy actor.

1995 - Jalal Agha, a famous comedian, and character artist.

1996 - Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, playback singer of Telugu film industry.

You may have known....

The furthest manmade object is Voyager 1. It has messages for aliens on-board. In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 were launched. Their primary mission was to visit Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 continued onto Uranus and Neptune; Voyager 1 has now made its way into interstellar space. Voyager 1 is further away from Earth than the distance between the Sun and Pluto. Both crafts carry a golden record on board, which will act like a time-capsule of Earth. It has greetings from Earth as well as different kinds of music. It also has noises of rocket engines, the sea, people talking, animal’s sounds and lots of images. All of which sums up the Earth.

Economic news

5 Public sector banks including Canara bank and the unioun bank may face the Prompt corrective action (PCA) plan of RBI.It may cause these banks to recall Rs 150 billion AT-1 Bonds.

The SEBI plans to make it mandatory for listed companies to make the urgent disclosure about all major loan defaults.

The RBI has directed the foreign banks to mandatorily create sub-targets so that they lend a portion of loans to small and marginal farmers and micro-enterprises from April.

Govt asked Banks to files cases in NCLT against private power producers that inflated project costs to raise more debts.

According to Experts, the proposed watchdog , NFRA, for the auditing community will be effective only if it is kept independent from ICAI.