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1990 - Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was withdrawn in toto from the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.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