March 18: On this day, for the first time, a book fair was held at Pragati Maidan.

New Delhi: Books are said to be the best friend of man. There has never been a dearth of good writers in India and with the intention of making books from all over the world accessible to readers, the World Book Fair was organized for the first time in 1972 in India. More than 200 publishers participated in this fair organized from March 18 to April 4 at Pragati Maidan in the capital and the then President V.V. Giri inaugurated it. Since then, for more than fifty years, the fair is being organized with full grandeur.

In the past years, due to the outbreak of Kovid, the organization of the fair was hampered like all other activities. Talking about another incident, the day of 18th is also recorded in history as the birthday of Hindi film actor and producer Shashi Kapoor. Padma Bhushan and Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee Shashi Kapoor was born on March 18, 1938 in Kolkata. Shashi Kapoor acted in masala films on the one hand and supported the developing parallel cinema movement on the other. He gave a new dimension to Prithvi Theater for theater artists. Shashi Kapoor died on 4 December 2017.

The details of some other important events recorded on the date of March 18 in the history of the country and the world are as follows:- 1801: The first factory to make weapons was established in India. 1858: Rudolph Diesel, the discoverer of diesel engine was born 1914: Azad Hind Birth of army officer Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon.
1914: Birth of Nagendra Singh, former president of the International Court of Justice.
1915: Defense of India Act was approved.
1919: The Rowlatt Act was passed and it replaced the Defense of India Act passed in 1915. Through this, the work of crushing the civil and political rights of Indians was done.
1922: Mahatma Gandhi was sentenced to imprisonment.
1938: Birth of famous Hindi cinema actor Shashi Kapoor.
1940: Italy ruler Mussolini agreed to enter the war in talks with Hitler.
1944: The Azad Hind Army under the leadership of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose crossed the border of Burma and entered India.
1965: Russian cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first person to enter space.
1972: Beginning of the World Book Fair.
1980: Sociologist and psychologist Erich Fromm passed away.
2000: 230 people committed suicide in Uganda.
2020: After 14 more cases of corona virus infection were reported in different parts of the country, the number of people infected with this deadly virus increased to 151.