Motto for Today: ‘A smart person knows how to talk. A wise person knows how to listen.’

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

On this day, Oct.19…

1722 – Frenchman C Hopffer patents fire extinguisher.

1774 – Members of the Council and the Judge of Supreme Court of England came to improve the management in India.

1914 – US post office first used an automobile to collect & deliver mail.

1919 – First Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a woman. (Instituted on 6 September 1886, DSO is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and British Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service to officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. The first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886).

1943 – Streptomycin is Discovered.

1952 – Alain Bombard, a 27-yr-old French biologist and physician, left the Canary Islands, beginning a single-handed sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to test his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive without provisions. He speared fish with a home-made harpoon and netted surface plankton. He drank seawater, limited to occasional sips. His Zodiac inflatable boat, l’Hérétique, was just 4.5 m long and fitted with a sail. Bombard began with almost no provisions and his only navigation instrument was a sextant. He reached Barbados 65 days later on 23 Dec 1952, having lost about 25-kg in weight.

1970 – Privy purses and privileges of former Indian rulers abolished.

1973 – A US Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and belatedly credited physicist John Atanasoff with developing the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or the ABC.

1986- Allan Border scores the 1,000,000th run in all test cricket (vs India in Bombay).

1990 – The Government of India under an ordinance puts forward a three-point formula for Ayodhya issue: (i) to acquire the land (ii) other land may be given for building temple except the disputed one (iii) the issue may be referred to Supreme Court for speedy solution.

2003 – Mother Teresa of Calcutta is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Born….

1910 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, mathematician and Nobel Laureate.

1929 – Balbir Singh, India field hockey player (Olympic gold 1948-56).

1954 – Priya Tendulkar, actor.

1956 – Sunny Deol, actor.

1961 – Shiamak Davar, singer.

RIP….

2006 – Srividya, actor.

2011 – George Varghese Kakkanadan, Malayalam short story writer and novelist.

You may have known….

The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent.

Good morning. Have a nice day !

{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}