March 23 also marks the 43rd anniversary of a student protest against the BSPP government inspired by the centenary of Thakhin Kodaw Hmaing’s birth.

On this day in 1956, seventh-grader Harry Tan was shot dead by police in the country’s first of many brutal crackdowns on student protests in post-independence Myanmar.

This day 46 years ago saw the death of the most important promoter of Myanmar literature of the century and the first Burmese principal at Rangoon University, U Pe Maung Tin.