Historical Events on March 18.

1.  1792, 18th March: The Treaty of Seringapatam (also called Srirangapatinam or Srirangapatna), Ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Its signatories included Lord Cornwallis on behalf of the British East India Company, representatives of the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire, and Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore

2.  1801, 18th March: First Ordnance manufacturing factory established in India.

3.  1850, 18th March: American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.

4.  1922, 18th March: Mahatma Gandhi jailed for six years for the non-cooperation movement.

5.  1944, 18th March: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Sena entered the country through Burma and defeated the British on the Indian border.

6.  1965, 18th March: Alexei Leonov became the first astronaut to walk in 12 minutes into space.

7.  2008, 18th March: Ratan Tata, President of Tata Group, was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

8.  2008, 18th March: Sunil Bharti Mittal, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Enterprises, became the first Indian to join America’s Distinguished Entrepreneur Academy.

Famous Birthdays & Birth Anniversaries on March 18.

1.  1858: Rudolf Diesel, a German inventor, and mechanical engineer.

2.  1867: M. V. Dhurandhar, an Indian painter.

3.  1869: Neville Chamberlain, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

4.  1881: Waman Gopal Joshi, an Indian-Marathi journalist, playwright, and freedom fighter.

5.  1896: Kunji Lal Dubey, an Indian independence activist, lawyer, educationist, and politician.

6.  1938: Shashi Kapoor, an Indian actor and film producer.

Death Anniversaries of famous people on March 18.

1.  1947: William C. Durant, an American businessman, co-founded General Motors and Chevrolet. 

2.  2003: Adam Osborne, a Thai-English engineer, and businessman. He founded the Osborne Computer Corporation. 

18-March-1896

Pandit Kunjilal Dubey, freedom fighter, educationalist and politician, was born at Amgaon, District Narsinghpur.

18-March-1915

British Government approved Indian Security Act to have greater control on the Indian people.

18-March-1916

Pratapsinh Mathuradas Vissanji, great industrialist, was born at Bombay.

18-March-1919

Rowlatt Act, intended to perpetuate the extraordinary powers enjoyed by the Government under Lord Chelmsford during the war, provokes countrywide protests. This Rowlatt Act was forced instead of 1915 Indian Security Act which reduced freedom of Indian people.

18-March-1922

Mohandas K. Gandhi "Mahatma," the great spirit, sentenced by British authorities to six years in prison for sedition at Sabarmati. Gandhi was sentenced just eight days after he was arrested. The British acted hastily after government officials in London and India were criticized for not arresting him sooner. In London, the Secretary of State for India was forced to resign because of the controversy over Gandhi. In India, the arrests of Gandhi and other Indian nationalists had only increased sympathy for their cause.

18-March-1924

Madhusudhan Ramachandra Rege, cricketer (15 runs in only Test India v WI 1948-49), was born in Panvel, Maharashtra.

18-March-1938

Shashi Kapoor, famous film producer, director, actor and dramatist, was born in Calcutta. He has made sucessful films like Junoon, Kaliyug, Heat and Dust, etc.

18-March-1944

Subhash Chandra Bose formed Azad Hind Fauz and took control of Kohima-Imphal.

18-March-1944

Azad Hind Fauj entered India (Japanese army) from the border of Burma and invaded north eastern India.

18-March-1948

Socialist Party of India (SPI) disassociates itself from the Congress.

18-March-1948

Eknath Dhondu Solkar, cricketer (India 1969-77, brilliant short-leg fielder), was born in Bombay. He is recipient of Arjun Award (1973).

18-March-1953

Backward Classes Commission inaugurated.

18-March-1972

First Indian Book Fair was organised by National Book Trust in New Delhi.

18-March-1974

Buddhadev Basu, modern Bengali poet, story writer, playwright and critic, passed away.

18-March-1990

Devi Lal, Deputy PM, withdraws his resignation.

18-March-1991

West Bengal opts for assembly poll.

18-March-1992

Shreyanprasad Jain, famous philanthropist and industrialist, passed away.

18-March-1996

President confers gallantry awards on 65 personnel of the defence forces.

18-March-1997

Indo-Bangladesh friendship treaty, signed 25 years ago, expires.

18-March-1998

A.B. Vajpayee, the Prime Minister-designate, releases the 'national agenda for governance' in New Delhi. It is silent on the Ram temple issue, scrapping of Article 370 and a uniform civil code.