Discover what happened in India on this day
At least 40 persons are killed and over 300 injured in an earthquake which hit Jabalpur city.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, great social reformer, lawyer and politician and founder of Brahmo Samaj, was born at Radhanagar in Hooghly district, Bengal.
Suniti Chaudhary, revolutionary freedom fighter, was born at Kumilla. She was one of the accused in the famous Chargaon ammunition plot and assassination of General Lemen, Inspector General of Dhaka.
M. S. Shivsankaraiyah, cricket test umpire for 3 tests from 1974-77, was born at Andhra Pradesh.
Jnanpeeth Award was instituted and the first award was given in 1965. This award is given for the best creative literary writing by any Indian citizen in any of the languages included in the VIII Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The award carries a cash price of Rs 2.5 lakh, a citation and a bronze momento.
IRBM 'Agni' Missile launched successfully from Chandipur, Orissa.
Karnataka special task force guns down Veerappan's brother and righthand man Arjunan.
Erapalli Anantrao Srinivasarao Prasanna, cricketer (one of India's big four spinners, Right-arm Off-break Bowler), was born at Bangalore. He is also the receipent of Arjun Award (1968) and Padmashree (1970).
Lord Brabourne laid the foundation stone of Brabourne Stadium in Bombay.
Sher Shah Sur died. He was fatally wounded in an explosion on Kalanjara fort while preparing for an attack. He introduced the new silver rupee-coin "Rupiya" based on ratio of 40 copper coin pieces (paisa) per rupee and built several roads including the longest road of India known as Grand Trunk Road (now Natioinal Highway-2).
Sonia unanimously elected Congress President by the Working Committee. She, however, declined the offer.
Congress (I) suffers reverses in the by-elections.
United Front prime ministerial candidate H.D. Deve Gowda unanimously elected leader of the Front's parliamentary party.