Constitution Day in Andorra

 

Observed in the Principality of Andorra on March 14 annually, Constitution Day is a public holiday that commemorates the constitutional referendum held on this day in Andorra on March 14, 1993. The first Constitution of Andorra was approved by 74.2% of voters in the country on this date and became the country’s first constitution.

This constitution contained 107 articles and included a universal declaration of human rights. Under this constitution, all people in Andorra are equal under the law, and it forbids not only torture and other cruel forms of punishment but also the death penalty as well.

in 1913, Mumbai GPO completes its construction

The Mumbai General Post Office (GPO) has a historic connection to 13 March, as the construction of its iconic heritage building was completed on 13 March 1913. 

Key Facts About the Building

• Architectural Significance: Designed by British architect John Begg in 1902, the structure is a masterpiece of Indo-Saracenic architecture.
• Design Inspiration: It is modelled after the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, Karnataka, and features the second-largest dome in India.
• Construction: Work began on 1 September 1904 and took over eight years to complete at a total cost of ₹1,809,000.
• Materials: The exterior prominently uses black basalt with dressings of yellow Kurla stone and white stones from Dhrangdra.

 

William Henry Bragg's Death Anniversary

William Henry Bragg, who passed away on 12 March 1942, in London, United Kingdom, aged 79,was a British physicist. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, Bragg spent 23 years teaching at the University of Adelaide in Australia, before returning to the University of Leeds in 1909.  There, working with his son William Lawrence, he invented the X-ray spectrometer in 1912, which allowed them to measure the wavelengths of X-rays. X-rays had only been discovered in 1895, and scientists were not entirely sure that they were electromagnetic waves like light and radio waves. The Braggs showed that they are, and that if you bounce X-rays off solid crystals at very slight angles, then the waves are reflected at different angles, depending on their wavelength, which one could now measure. 

The pioneer British scientist in solid-state physics was a joint winner (with his son Sir Lawrence Bragg) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915 for his research on the determination of crystal structures. The Braggs remain the only father-son Nobel Laureates.  He was knighted in 1920.

Sir Alexander Fleming's Death Anniversary

 

Sir Alexander Fleming, who passed away on 11 March 1955, aged 73, in London, England, was a Scottish physician and microbiologist. He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases”. This was the first antibiotic substance discovered. His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens has been described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease".

He also discovered the enzyme lysozyme from his nasal discharge in1922, and along with it a bacterium he named Micrococcus lysodeikticus, later renamed Micrococcus luteus. Fleming was knighted for his scientific achievements in 1944. In 1999, he was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20^th century. In 2002, he was included in the BBC’s television poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, and in 2009, he was also voted third “greatest Scot” in an opinion poll conducted by STV, behind only Robert Burns and William Wallace.

 

Kusumāgraj's Death Anniversary

Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, popularly known by his pen name, Kusumāgraj, who passed away on 10 March 1999, aged 87, in Shirwade Wani, Nashik, Maharashtra, India, was a Marathi poet, playwright, novelist and short story writer, who wrote of freedom, justice and emancipation of the deprived.

In a career spanning five decades starting in India's pre-independence era, he wrote 16 volumes of poems, three novels, eight volumes of short stories, seven volumes of essays, 18 plays and six one-act plays. His works like the Vishakha (1942), a collection of lyrics, inspired a generation into the Indian freedom movement, and is today considered one of the masterpieces of Indian literature.

He was the recipient of the 1974 Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi for Natsamrat, Padma Bhushan (1991) and the Jnanapith Award in 1987.

He also served as the President of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Margao in 1964.

Amerigo Vespucci's Birth Anniversary

Amerigo Vespucci, born on 9 March 1454, in Florence, Italy, was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the term "America" is derived. Between 1497 and 1504, Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery, first on behalf of Spain and then for Portugal.

in 1618, Third Law of Planetary Motion discovered

On March 8, 1618, Johannes Kepler discovered his Third Law of Planetary Motion, often called the Law of Harmonies. 

This breakthrough provided the mathematical link between a planet's distance from the Sun and the time it takes to complete an orbit. Kepler famously described the moment as an "epiphany" after nearly a decade of gruelling calculations.