Milestone day for me...

Courtsey my Central Office posting and the well wishes & support of seniors and colleagues, I managed to have an audience of 1 hr 20 mts with the MD, DMD, one President, one GE and the Strategic Head of the bank.

It may seem normal to many but for a lad of Rourkela with modest beginnings, it is a milestone.

Today in history @ 12 Mar

Famous birthdays

a. German physicist Gustav Kirchoff (b. 1824). contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He coined the term black-body radiation in 1862, and at least two different sets of concepts are named "Kirchhoff's laws" after him. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after him and his colleague, Robert Bunsen.

b. Famous Indian playback singer Shreya Ghoshal (b. 1984). She has received four National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards including five for Best Female Playback Singer, nine Filmfare Awards South, three Kerala State Film Awards, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and many other awards. 

c. Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat Gianni Agnelli (b. 1921). As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research. He was the richest man in modern Italian history.

d.  Russian, Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology Vladimir Vernadsky (b. 1863).

e.  First Chief Minister of Maharashtra after the division of Bombay State and the fifth Deputy Prime Minister of India Yashwantrao Chavan (b. 1913). He advocated social democracy in his speeches and articles and was instrumental in establishing co-operatives in Maharashtra for the betterment of the farmers.

Famous death anniversaries

a. German-born diarist Anne Frank (d. 15-Feb. or 15-Mar 1945 aged 15). One of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis; English: The Secret Annex), in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's most widely known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

b. American-born violinist and conductor Menuhin Yehudi (d. 1999). He had one of the longest and most distinguished careers of any violinist of the 20th century. Throughout the last twenty years of his life, Yehudi Menuhin continued to engage in every aspect of musical work. As a performer, a conductor, a teacher, and a spokesperson, he spent his seventies and eighties as one of the most active musicians in the world. He was a constant contributor to religious, social, and environmental organizations throughout the world.  

c. German industrialist, engineer and inventor Robert Bosch (d. 1952). He is the founder of Robert Bosch GmbH (world's largest supplier of automotive components measured by 2011 revenues).

d. American entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse Jr. (d. 1914).  He invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, gaining his first patent at the age of 19. 

e. Serbian American physicist and physical chemist Mihajlo Pupin (d. 1935). is best known for his numerous patents, including a means of greatly extending the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils (of wire) at predetermined intervals along the transmitting wire (known as "pupinization"). Pupin was a founding member of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) on 3 March 1915, which later became NASA.[5] In 1924, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography.

f. Swiss mathematician Johann Jakob Balmer (d. 1898). He discovered a formula basic to the development of atomic theory. In 1885 Balmer announced a simple formula representing the wavelengths of the spectral lines of hydrogen - the Balmer series.

Famous events of the day

a. 1894 Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

b. 2011 A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.