Kolkata Mar 29 : On this day, that year will look into the important historical events, incidents and major happenings on that particular day of the year. As history keeps inventing itself, we are also keen to rekindle our past in order to keep our knowledge quotient high. Today in history, i.e. March 29, the following notable events took place:
1807:Vesta was discovered
Vesta was discovered by the German astronomer and physician Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807. It was the second largest and the brightest asteroid of the asteroid belt and the fourth such object to be discovered. Its name was given after the ancient Roman goddess of the hearth (the Greek Hestia). It revolves revolves around the Sun once in 3.63 years in a nearly circular moderately inclined (7.1°) orbit at a mean distance of 2.36 astronomical units.
1857: Revolt of Mangal Pandey
Mangal Pandey born July 19, 1827, Akbarpur was an Indian soldier whose attack on British officers on March 29, 1857, was the first major incident of what came to be known as the Indian, or Sepoy Mutiny. The uprising is often known as the First War of Independence. He died on April 8, 1857, Barrackpore.
1943: John Major was born
Sir John Major popularly known as John Major born on March 29, 1943, at London in England is a British politician and public official. Major who left his school at the age of 16 to help his family served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997. Major in his personal shared most of Thatcher’s conservative views, but, as prime minister, he showed himself to be more pragmatic and consensus-oriented in his approach.
1943: Laxman Nayak died
Laxman Nayak popularly known as Laxman Naik born on November 22, 1899, was a tribal civil rights activist of South Odisha in eastern India. Belonged to Bhumia tribe of Odisha, Nayak was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Responding to a Gandhi’s call, Nayak led a procession on August 21, 1942, and demonstrated peacefully in front of Mathili Police Station. However, police opened fore at the demonstrators killing 40 and injuring around 200 people. The administration implicated Nayak in a case of murder and pronounced death sentence to him on November 13, 1942. He was hanged on March 29, 1943, in Berhampur Jail.
1999: Chamoli earthquake
On this day, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake jolted the Chamoli district in Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand) in 1999 leaving around 103 dead and several injured. Over 2,000 villages were affected by the earthquake and approximately 50,000 houses were damaged. Mike Wooldridge, correspondent for the BBC News has reported that Chamoli district had suffered most damage and almost all the houses and shops built on slopes in the lower part of the town were destroyed.