Motto for Today: ‘We are our own choices.’

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

On this day, Jan.13…….

1840 – A postal scale was registered by R.W. Winfield, of Birmingham. This “candlestick” pattern of spring scale was introduced at the same time as the penny post.

1863 – The first U.S. patent for a chenille manufacturing machine was issued to William Canter of New York City, who made the first such machine in the U.S. (Chenille is a tufty, velvety cord or yarn, used for trimming furniture and made into carpets or clothing. Chenille is the French word for caterpillar whose fur the yarn is supposed to resemble).

1906 – 1st radio set advertised (Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American) claimed to receive signals up to one mile.

1908 – Henry Farman, an English-born Frenchman, flew the first one-kilometre circuit. The entire flight lasted 28-sec, and covered the prescribed kilometre. (Although the Wrights may have accomplished this at an earlier date, this was the first such flight in front of official witnesses).

1930 – The comic strip “Mickey Mouse” 1st appears.

1942 – The first use of an ejection seat to save a pilot was made at the height of World War II. Schenk ejected and landed safely.

1957 – The Wham-O Company developed the first frisbee. A representative of the company got the idea for the product when he saw some truck drivers from the Frisbee Pie Co. of Connecticut showing Yale students how to throw pie pins in the air.

1967 – Samachar Bharti inaugurated in New Delhi.

1976 – The first machine for reading printed matter aloud was given its first public demonstration, by its inventor, Raymond Kurzwell. Using a camera with a computer, pages of printed matter could be scanned, the letters analysed, and reproduced in synthesized English speech at 150 words per minute.

2011 – In South Korea, 1.4 million domestic pigs are buried alive to combat an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

2020 – Oldest material existing on earth at 7.5 billion years old revealed by scientists studying the Murchison meteorite that fell to earth in Australia in 1960s.

Born…. 1926 – Shakti Samanta, film director.

1938 – Shivkumar Sharma, famous Santoor player.

1949 – Rakesh Sharma, first Indian cosmonaut (Soyuz T-11) to go in space.

1978 – Ashmit Patel, actor.

RIP….

1974 – Saraswatibai, famous music expert and classical singer.

1985 – Madan Puri, actor.

2013 – Rusi Surti, Indian cricketer. (Rusi Framroze Surti played in 26 Tests from 1960 to 1969).

You may have known….

Hedgehogs in warmer climates practise a summer form of hibernation called estivation.

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