March 12 : If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake.

On this day, 12 Mar....

1755 - A steam engine was first reported used in America, at a copper mine It was imported from England by Josiah Hornblower and put to use pumping water from the mine of Colonel John Schuyler.

1789 - U.S. Post Office established.

1841 - The first U.S. patent for starch processing was granted to Orlando Jones of Middlesex, England. Previously it was extracted from corn. That shifted to rice. Corn starch is now used in deodorants, to heal diaper rash, and to thicken the gravy.

1889 - Almon B. Strowger of Kansas City patented the first automatic telephone exchange. Tradition gives that his inspiration came because a local telephone operator was his principal competitor's wife, and she would divert Strowger's clients to her husband. The first Strowger telephone exchange opened on 3 Nov 1892. This early system did not use a dial to enter the desired number. Instead, using three keys, one for each digit of a three-digit number, a subscriber pressed each key the appropriate number of times for each digit. The first dial phone was used in 1896.

1894 -The first bottles of Coca-Cola were sold. Coca-Cola was invented by Dr. John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist who created the formula in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard on 8 May 1886. He mixed a combination of lime, cinnamon, coca leaves, and the seeds of a Brazilian shrub to make the famous beverage. Carbonated water was introduced later to make the beverage as now familiar. Coca-Cola was originally used as a nerve and brain tonic and a medical elixir. Asa Candler owned the company, after Pemberton's death. On 31 Jan 1893, the famous Coca-Cola formula was patented. He also opened the first syrup manufacturing plant in 1884. He began large-scale bottling of Coca-Cola in 1899.

1923 - The Phonofilm, the first motion picture with a sound-on-film track was demonstrated at a press conference. It was developed (1920) by Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio tube (1907). Dancers and musicians were shown on the film with music but without voice dialogue.

1930 - Mohandas Gandhi begins 200m march protesting British salt tax.

1942 - British troops vacate the Andaman in Gulf of Bengal.

1967 - Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India for the second time after winning the General Elections.

1992 - India and the US decide to hold joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean.

1995 - Congress party in India loses elections.

1997 - Jaspal Rana equals world mark in standard pistol 25m (ISU) event in South Asian shooting in Delhi.

Born

1946 - Liza Minnelli, American singer/actor.

1959 — Lakshmi Rajagopalan, Carnatic vocalist.

1964 - Falguni Pathak, folk singer.

1984 - Shreya Ghoshal, singer.

You may have known....

Agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic fabric of India. Agriculture and allied sectors accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2009 and about 50% of the total workforce in India.