9 March in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 9 March is the birth anniversary of Navalram Laxmiram Pandya, Maharaja Dr Karan Singh, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shashi Tharoor, and Naveen Jindal.
9 March is also observed as the death anniversary of Zaverchand Kalidas Meghani, Devika Rani Chaudhuri, Joy Mukherjee, and Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi.
Birth Anniversary
9 March in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Navalram Laxmiram Pandya (9 March 1836 – 7 August 1888), a Gujarati critic, playwright, poet, essayist, editor, and educationist. His writings covered numerous areas, including philosophy, patriotism, reformation, education, journalism, grammar, and literature. He was born on 9 March 1836 in Surat, British India.
Maharaja Dr. Karan Singh, an Indian politician, philanthropist, and poet. He is the son of the late Maharaja Hari Singh. He worked closely with Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel during his teenage. In 1967, he became the youngest ever union cabinet minister in the government of Indira Gandhi. He was the Prince regent of Jammu and Kashmir until 1952. Following which at age 21 years old, Karan Singh served as the first Head of State of Jammu and Kashmir from 1952 to 1965. He was born on 9 March 1931 in Cannes, France.
Ustad Zakir Hussain, an Indian tabla virtuoso, composer, music producer, and film actor. He is the eldest son of legendary tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1988, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002, by the Government of India. He was also awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1990, given by the Sangeet Natak Academy, India’s National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. In 1999, he was awarded the United States National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship, the highest award given to traditional artists & musicians. He was born on 9 March 1951 in Mumbai, India.
Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician, writer, and former international diplomat. He served as a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is affiliated with Indian National Congress (INC). He was formerly Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and contested for the post of Secretary-General in 2006. In 2019, Shashi Tharoor received the Sahitya Academy Award for his book An Era of Darkness in a non-fiction category in the English language. He was born on 9 March 1956 in London, UK.
Naveen Jindal, an Indian industrialist, and a member of the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha. He is an active campaigner for population stabilization, women’s empowerment, environmental conservation, health, and education. As an acknowledgment of Jindal’s support to his alma mater, the University of Texas at Dallas renamed its School of Management to Naveen Jindal School of Management in 2011. He was born on 9 March 1970 in Hisar, India.
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Death Anniversary
9 March in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Zaverchand Kalidas Meghani (28 August 1896 – 9 March 1947), an Indian poet, writer, social reformer, and freedom fighter. He is a well-known name in the field of Gujarati literature. Mahatma Gandhi spontaneously gave him the title of ‘Raashtreeya Shaayar’. His poems are taught as a part of the syllabus in Gujarat Board Schools (GSEB). He died on 9 March 1947.
Devika Rani Chaudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), an actress in Indian films. She was active during the 1930s and 1940s. She was also known as Devika Rani. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani had a successful film career for almost a decade. She was the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. She died on 9 March 1994.
Bezawada Gopala Reddy (5 August 1907 – 9 March 1997), an Indian politician. He was also the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and also served as Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Both Gopal Reddy and his wife studied at Santiniketan. It was during this time that Gopal Reddy took a liking for Tagore’s works and translated many of his books into Telugu. He died on 9 March 1997 at an age of 89.
Joy Mukherjee (24 February 1939 – 9 March 2012), an Indian film actor and director. He had numerous remarkable works to his credit. Joy debuting with the blockbuster hit Love in Simla in 1960 and the golden jubilee hit Love in Tokyo in 1966. Joy Mukherjee died on 9 March 2012 in Mumbai’s Leelavati Hospital, exactly two weeks after his 73rd birthday.
Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi (1 April 1977 – 9 March 2015), an Indian American neurosurgeon and writer. His book When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir about his life and illness with stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House in January 2016. It was on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list for multiple weeks. He died on 9 March 2015 at an age of 37.
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Notable events on 9 March in Indian and World history
9 March 1923 – Walter Kohn an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
9 March 1934 – Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, was born.
9 March 1947 – Keri Hulme, a New Zealand novelist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
9 March 1961 – The Soviet Union launched the Korabl-Sputnik 4 (Also known as Sputnik 9) that carried a dog named Chernushka, some mice, frogs, and, for the first time into space, a guinea pig. All were successfully recovered.
9 March 1983 – Ulf Svante von Euler a Swedish physiologist, pharmacologist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
9 March 1996 – India won the World Cup Quarter Final match in Bangalore against Pakistan (Wills World Cup).
9 March 2007 – Rosy Afsari – an actress in the Bangladeshi film industry – died.
9 March 2018 – Supreme Court said individuals have a right to die with dignity, in a landmark verdict that permits the removal of life-support systems for the terminally ill or those in incurable comas. Passive euthanasia, as it is called, will apply only to a terminally ill person with no hope of recovery.
9 March 2022 – No Smoking Day
Every second Wednesday of March, No Smoking Day is celebrated. The day is intended to be a time when people can reach out to friends or family members suffering from nicotine addiction. The first national no-smoking day was celebrated in the Republic of Ireland on Ash Wednesday in 1984 when the ruling clergy decided that it would be good for people to give up cigarettes for Lent.
Read More: Important Days and Dates in March 2022