March 29 : Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

On this day, 29 Mar...

845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, who collect a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

1561 - Akbar attacked on Malwa at Sarangpur and defeated Bajbahadar.

1798 - Republic of Switzerland forms.

1849 - Britain formally annexes Punjab after the defeat of Sikhs. (ANNEXATION OF PUNJAB to British dominions in India in 1849 by Lord Dalhousie, the British governor general, which finally put an end to the sovereignty of the Sikhs over northwestern India, was the sequel to a chain of events that had followed the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ten years earlier. Internal dissensions and treachery had caused the defeat of the Sikh army at the hands of the British in the first Anglo Sikh war (1845-46). When on 16 December 1846, the Lahore Darbar was forced to sign the treaty of Bhyrowal (Bharoval), the kingdom of Punjab was made a virtual British protectorate).

1857 – Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company's rule in India. It inspired the long War of Independence termed as Sepoy Mutiny by the British.

1886 - The first batch of Coca-Cola was brewed over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. John Pemberton had created the concoction as a cure for "hangover," stomach ache and headache. He advertised it as a "brain tonic and intellectual beverage," and first sold it to the public a few weeks later on 8 May. Coke contained cocaine as an ingredient until 1904 when the drug was banned. {Dr John created a flavored syrup, took it to his neighborhood pharmacy, where it was mixed with carbonated water and deemed “excellent” by those who sampled it. Dr. Pemberton’s partner Frank M. Robinson named the beverage “Coca-Cola” (the name refers to two of its original ingredients: kola nuts, a source of caffeine, and coca leaves. The current formula of Coca-Cola remains a trade secret) as well as designed the trademarked, distinct script, still used today. One of the most famous advertising slogans in Coca-Cola history “The Pause That Refreshes” first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1929. The theme of pausing with Coca-Cola refreshment is still echoed in today’s marketing}.

1903 - Regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi’s wireless. On 30 Mar 1903, The Times in London became the first newspaper to establish an ongoing arrangement with the Marconi Telegraph Company for the regular transmission of news between the United States and the UK).

1942 - Britain offered dominion status to India after the war if it cooperated now.

1970 - Union Government revises the percentage of reservation in service for SC\STs from 12.5% to 15%. Orders to be effective from 25 March.

1973 - U.S. troops leave Vietnam.

1977 - Smoking risk. An analysis was publicly announced of greater risk of death when birth-control pills were used by women smokers over age 30. The combined effects of cigarette smoking and pill use seemed “synergistic” and to be more dangerous for that age group than the use of any other contraceptive measure. (Pill use by non-smokers indicated no unreasonable risk).

1980 - The first transplant of a human fingernail was accomplished on a 12-year-old boy's thumb, using one of his own toenails. Dr. Guy Foutcher performed the surgery in Strasbourg, France.

Born

1816 - The 10th Dalai Lama.

1869 - Sir Edwin Lutyens, Builder of Rashtrapati Bhavan and England's most outstanding architect of his time.

1929 – Utpal Dutt, actor, director, and playwright.

1987 – Ananya, actor.

RIP

1990 - Adoor Bhasi, Malayalam film actor.

Titbits

1848 - Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam.

You may have known...

The earth's rotation is slowing at 17 milliseconds per hundred years. In 14o million years the length of a day will have increased to 25 hours.