15 March - Waldemar Haffkine was born in 1860

 

Waldemar Haffkine, born on 15 March 1860, was a bacteriologist from the Russian Empire. He emigrated and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed an anti-cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully in India. He is recognized as the first microbiologist who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. He tested the vaccines on himself. Lord Joseph Lister named him "a saviour of humanity".

He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in Queen Victoria's 1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours. The Jewish Chronicle of that time noted "a Ukraine Jew, trained in the schools of European science, saves the lives of Hindus and Mohammedans and is decorated by the descendant of William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great."[3]

In his final years Haffkine became more religious, becoming an advocate and philanthropist for Orthodox Jewish causes and a supporter of Zionism.

15 March - World Consumer Rights Day

 

Every year 15th March is celebrated as the World Consumer Rights Day.

World Consumer Rights Day was inspired by President John F Kennedy, who sent a special message to the US Congress on 15th March 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so. The consumer movement first marked that date in 1983 and now uses the day every year to mobilise action on important issues and campaigns.

World Consumer Rights Day is an annual international event that signifies celebration and solidarity in the international consumer movement, demanding that, consumer rights are to be respected and protected. The event also gives a chance to protest against the market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights.


The theme of the 2023 edition of the Day is “Empowering Consumers through Clean Energy Transitions.”

15 March - Osmania University postage stamp released 1969

 

Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 29 August 1917.It is the third oldest university in southern India, and the first to be established in the erstwhile Kingdom of Hyderabad.It was the first Indian university to have Urdu as a medium of instruction but with English as a compulsory subject.As of 2012, the university hosts 3,700 international students from more than 80 nations.

The O.U. is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 300,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. The Osmania Medical College was once a part of the O.U. System.However, it is now under the supervision of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences

The university postage stamp released by the government of India on 15 March 1969