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.