Local
2022: New Town emerges national winner in two key categories — Digital City and Smart Waste Disposal and Clean City — at the seventh Smart Cities India Expo 2022 held in Delhi from March 23 to 25. The contest was organised by India Trade Promotion Organisation, an enterprise under the ministry of commerce and industry, and was supported by the ministry of housing and urban affairs.
National
Queen Avantibai Lodhi
1858: Queen Avantibai Lodhi takes her life with her own sword in a battle on March 20. Avantibai had assumed power of Ramgarh, in what later becomes Madhya Pradesh, after the king fell ill. When the British tried to undermine her authority, she ordered farmers to disobey them, a move that soared her popularity. During the 1857 rebellion, she inspired neighbouring states to unite against the British and used guerilla warfare to fend them off. But when faced with certain defeat in battle, she chose to sacrifice her life.
1839: Jamsetji Tata is born on April 3 to a Parsi family of priests in what is later Gujarat. The first in his family to get into business, he founds India’s largest conglomerate company, the Tata Group. Starting out in the textile industry, he expands into steel, power, hospitality etc.
Jamsetji Tata
His Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay is India’s first hotel with electricity. The city of Jamshedpur, which he founds, is later renamed in his honour.
1913: The governor of Bombay, George Clarke, lays the foundation stone of the Gateway of India on March 31.
Gateway of India
The site of the arch-monument used to be a fishing ground previously and some land must be reclaimed for the structure and a sea wall built. The monument is built to commemorate the arrival of the first British monarch in India, George V, in 1911. The Gateway is completed in 1924.
Global
1989: An oil supertanker Exxon Valdez spills some 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the sea, off the Gulf of Alaska. The March 24 accident happens due to human errors on the ship and has devastating effects on the environment, wildlife, fishing industry and the economy. More than a lakh seabirds, 2,000 otters, hundreds of seals and bald eagles, and 22 killer whales die immediately.
1990: Namibia gains independence from South Africa on March 21. South Africa had been occupying the region since 1915 and had tried to incorporate Namibia into its territory, but faced international pressure to give up control.
In 1966, the United Nations revoked South Africa’s mandate, leading to a period of struggle for freedom. In 1990 Samuel Nujoma becomes first President of independent Namibia.
1962: Child prodigy Kim Ung-Yong is born in South Korea. By the time he is a year old, Kim learns both the Korean alphabet and 1,000 Chinese characters.
Kim Ung-Yong
At age three, he solves calculus problems and publishes a best-selling book of his essays in English and German, calligraphy and illustrations. But when he studies engineering and chooses teaching as a career, Korean society labels him a “failed genius”. Kim rejects this and insists he is happy with his life.
Sports
1905: French author Jules Verne dies of stroke-related complications at the age of 77, on March 24. He is remembered for his best-seller science fiction novels Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).
Jules Verne
Verne becomes the second most-translated author in the world, after Agatha Christie and before Shakespeare. 2005 was declared Jules Verne Year in France on the occasion of his death centenary.
1958: West Indies cricketer Garfield (Gary) Sobers scores his first Test century in a match against Pakistan in Jamaica. On March 1, he scores 365 not out, setting a record for the highest individual score in an innings.
Garfield (Gary) Sobers
The past record had stood for two decades (England’s Len Hutton had scored 364 runs against Australia), and Sober’s record stands for more than 30 years, till fellow West Indian Brian Lara scores 375 in 1994.
1995: Mexican-American singer Selena is shot dead on March 31, at the age of 23. Selena was instrumental in bringing Tejano music (Mexican and US fusion) into the mainstream. Her killer, Yolanda Saldívar, was the manager of her boutique but was fired for embezzling money.
Selena
George W. Bush, the then-governor of Texas and later US President, declares her birthday as Selena Day in the state and the name “Selena” ranks as one of the most popular names for newborn girls in 1995. Even Selena Gomez, who grows up to become a successful actress and singer, is named after her.