15 March in Indian and World History
15 March in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 15 March is the birth anniversary of Guru Hanuman, Kanshi Ram, Sunetra Gupta, and Sandeep Unnikrishnan.
15 March is also observed as the death anniversary of Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, Radha Krishna Choudhary, Govindan Aravindan, Rahi Masoom Reza, Sarla Thukral, Kallam Anji Reddy, and Narayan Desai.
Birth Anniversary on 15 March
15 March in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Guru Hanuman (15 March 1901 – 24 May 1999), was a legendary wrestling coach of India who coached many medal-winning wrestlers. He was awarded the prestigious Dronacharya Award in 1987, the highest recognition for a sports coach in India, and the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award, in 1983. The Guru Hanuman Akhada has been responsible for training some of the best-known wrestlers from India including Dara Singh, Guru Satpal, Sushil Kumar, and Virender Singh. Guru was born Vijay Pal Yadav on 15 March 1901 in Rajasthan, India.
Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), was an Indian politician and social reformer. He is known as Bahujan Nayak. He worked for the upliftment and political mobilization of the Bahujans, the backward or lower caste people including untouchable groups at the bottom of the caste system in India. He handed over the leadership to his protégé Mayawati who has served four terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He was born on 15 March 1934 in Punjab, British India.
Sunetra Gupta, is a novelist, British-Indian infectious disease epidemiologist, and a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. Gupta writes in Bengali and English. In October 2012 her fifth novel, So Good in Black, was longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her novels have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Southern Arts Literature Prize, shortlisted for the Crossword Award, and longlisted for the Orange Prize. She was born on 15 March 1965 in Kolkata, India.
Sandeep Unnikrishnan (15 March 1977 – 28 November 2008), was an officer in the Indian Army serving in the elite Special Action Group of the National Security Guards. Sandeep joined the National Defence Academy (India) (NDA), Pune, Maharashtra in 1995. He was martyred in action during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was consequently awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, on 26 January 2009 by President Pratibha Patil. The Mother Dairy Double Road in Bangalore, a 4.5 km road from Federal-Mogul on Doddaballapur Road to MS Palya junction, within Yelahanka New Town, was renamed Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan Road in his honor. He was born on 15 March 1977 in Kerala India.
Read More: 14 March in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary on 15 March
15 March in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu (15 October 1869 – 15 March 1941), was an Indian artist and filmmaker who was widely regarded as a pioneer of Telugu cinema. He produced silent Indian films and talkies. The Raghupati Venkaiah Award is an annual award incorporated into the Nandi Awards. It is considered Telugu cinema’s highest award to recognize people for their lifetime achievements and contributions to the Telugu film industry. He died on 15 March 1941 at the age of 71.
Radha Krishna Choudhary (15 February 1921 – 15 March 1985), was a historian, thinker, and writer. He has contributed to the historical and archaeological studies of Bihar as well as to Maithili literature. He published numerous original research on the history of Bihar and was acclaimed as a researcher. He was a professor at Ganesh Dutt College, Begusarai, Bihar, and was a noted educationist. His languages of choice for academic works were Hindi and English, and for literary work was Maithili. He died on 15 March 1985 at the age of 64.
Govindan Aravindan (23 January 1935 – 15 March 1991), was an Indian film director, screenwriter, musician, cartoonist, and painter. He was one of the pioneers of parallel cinema in Malayalam and is considered one of the greatest filmmakers in India. He also occasionally directed music for other filmmakers. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1990. He died on 15 March 1991 at the age of 56.
Rahi Masoom Reza (1 August 1927 – 15 March 1992), was a poet. He wrote in Urdu and Hindi. He won the Filmfare Best Dialogue Award for the hit film Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki in 1979, followed by Mili and Lamhe, which he won posthumously. He died on 15 March 1992 in Ghazipur, India.
Sarla Thakral (8 August 1914 – 15 March 2008), was the first Indian woman to fly an aircraft. She earned an aviation pilot license in 1936 at the young age of 21 and flew a Gypsy Moth solo. Later, she joined the Mayo School of Art where she was trained in the Bengal School of Painting, obtaining a diploma in fine arts. She died on 15 March 2008.
Kallam Anji Reddy (1 February 1939 – 15 March 2013), is an Indian entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry. He was the founder-chairman of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which he established in 1984, and chairman of Dr Reddy’s Foundation (DRF), the corporate social responsibility arm of the group, established in 1996. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri in 2001 and later with the Padma Bhushan in 2011 for his contribution to the Indian pharmaceutical industry. He died on 15 March 2013 at the age of 74.
Narayan Desai (24 December 1924 – 15 March 2015), an Indian Gandhian and author. Desai was accorded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati in 1993 for the biography of his father Mahadev Desai. Earlier, Narayan’s book about his childhood reminiscences of Gandhi too had won the Sahitya Academy Award. He was awarded the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1999. He died on 15 March 2015 at Mahavir Trauma Centre, Surat.
Read More: 13 March in Indian and World History
Notable events on 15 March in Indian and World History
15 March 1830 – Paul Heyse a German writer, translator, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
15 March 1848 – National Day of Hungary and marks the anniversary of the start of the 1848 Revolution against the Austrian Empire. It is one of three national holidays in Hungary.
15 March 1920 – E. Donnall Thomas an American physician, medical researcher, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
15 March 1930 – Shadi Abdel Salam, an Egyptian film director, screenwriter, and costume designer, was born.
15 March 1930 – Zhores Alferov a Russian physicist, academic, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
15 March 1941 – Tomris Uyar – a Turkish writer and translator – was born.
15 March 1943 – Third Battle of Kharkiv: The Germans retake the city of Kharkiv from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
15 March 1945 – Soviet forces begin an offensive to push Germans from Upper Silesia.
15 March 1950 – The Planning Commission was established. It aimed to make an assessment of the material, capital, and human resources of India, including technical personnel, and investigate the possibilities of augmenting those related resources that are found to be deficient in relation to the nation’s requirements. In 2014, the Narendra Modi government decided to wind down the Planning Commission. It was replaced by the newly formed NITI Aayog to better represent the present needs and aspirations of the people of India.
15 March 1959 – Ben Okri, a Nigerian-born British writer, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
15 March 1962 – Arthur Compton an American physicist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
15 March 2004 – John Pople a British theoretical chemist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
15 March 2019 – Hong Kong protests started. It was also called the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. It was instigated after the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders Amendment bill by the Hong Kong government. The bill would have allowed extradition to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong did not have extradition agreements, including mainland China and Taiwan.
15 March Historical Significance
March 15th holds significant historical importance due to several notable events that have occurred on this date. One of the most famous is the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. Caesar, the Roman dictator, was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Brutus, marking a pivotal moment in Roman history and ultimately leading to the downfall of the Roman Republic. Additionally, March 15, 1493, is noteworthy as the date when Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the New World, bringing news of his discoveries. This event had profound implications for European exploration and the subsequent colonization of the Americas. Moreover, March 15, 1820, saw the adoption of the Maine-Missouri Compromise in the United States, which aimed to maintain the balance of power between free and slave states. This compromise helped delay the outbreak of the Civil War for several decades. These events highlight the diverse historical significance of March 15th across different cultures and time periods.
Important Days of 15 March in History
World Consumer Rights Day: This day is dedicated to raising awareness about consumer rights and advocating for fair and sustainable practices in the marketplace.
International Day of Action for Rivers: It’s a day to celebrate the world’s rivers and to advocate for their protection and sustainable management.
World Sleep Day: This day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good sleep and the prevention and management of sleep disorders.
Ides of March: Historically, this day gained significance due to its association with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, marking a turning point in Roman history.
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