Motto for Today: ‘Time does not change things; courageous leaders with initiative do so’.

This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History!  

On this day, 06 August ….

1753 – Professor Georg Richmann of St. Petersburg, Moscow, was killed by his experiment with lightning. Richmann attached a wire to the top of his house and led it down to an iron bar suspended above “the electric needle” and a bowl of water partly filled with iron filings. It was reported that during a storm, Richmann was struck while about a foot from the bar, and closely observing the needle. “A globe of blue and whitish fire about four inches diameter” from the bar struck Richmann’s forehead” with “an explosion like that of a small cannon.” His assistant, M. Sokolaw, who survived, was thrown to the floor feeling blows on his back. He found marks of burning hot wire fragments on the back of his clothes.

1890 – The electric chair was used for the first time. William Kemmler was executed with 1,300 volts of alternating current in New York State for murdering a woman with an axe.

1926 – 20-year-old Gertrude Ederle made history and rocketed to international stardom when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel, then considered one of the toughest endurance tests in the world She beat the fastest man’s existing record by nearly two hours.

1930 – Norwegian explorers discovered the debris of the earliest balloon expedition to the North Pole. They also found the remains of a balloonist, diaries and photos. (On 11 July 1897, Dr. Salomon August Andrée of Sweden and two companions had left Danes Island, Spitsbergen in a balloon, Eagle, which he had built himself, hoping to drift over the North Pole. This was the first attempt by air to explore the Arctic. Nothing was heard of them for 33 years. The diaries recorded that just two days after their launch, an emergency landing on ice had been made. They eventually met their end in the bitter cold on the island, still hundreds of kilometres from the North Pole).

1998- The Maharashtra Government rejects the Srikrishna Commission findings on the 1992-93 communal riots and the serial blasts in Mumbai, but agrees to act on the panel’s suggestions to refurbish the police force. (The report had heavily indicated the ruling alliance).
2019 – A quarter of humanity is running out of water with 17 countries under extreme water stress including Cape Town, Los Angeles and Bangalore, according to report by the World Resources Institute.

Born….

1881 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin.

1960 – Vishal Bhardwaj, screen writer.

RIP….

1925 – Surendra Nath Banerjee. He was one of the founders of modern India and proponent of autonomy within the British Commonwealth. He was President of Indian National Congress twice, in 1895 at Pune and in 1902 at Ahmedabad.

You may have known….

The leech has 32 brains. 

Good morning. Have a nice day.
                                                                                                  {Compilation credits– Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}