Today’s Motto: ‘I talk to myself, because I like dealing with a better class of people’

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

On this day, Oct.31……..

1778 – The first British patent for a mortise lock was issued to Robert Barron. He devised a double-acting tumbler system lock with greater security than the single acting tumbler lock used until that time. (Without knowing it, Barron reinvented the ancient Egyptian lock which had gravity tumbler pins).

1815 – English chemist, Sir Humphry Davy of London patented the miner’s safety lamp (pic credit-CosmoTales).

1876 – Cyclone hits Bengal centered near Bakarganj (now in Banlgadesh), about 200,000 die.

1888 – Pneumatic bicycle tyres were patented by Scottish inventor, John Boyd Dunlop.

1951 – The zebra crossing was first introduced in Slough, Berkshire, England. The crossings existing then were marked by metal studs in the road. Those on foot could see them clearly but the motorist felt the familiar bumps only in the seconds before he or she collided with a pedestrian. Other things were tried but nothing had the visual impact of the broad white and black stripes across the road at a zebra crossing.

1956 – An airplane landed at the South Pole for the first time.

1962 – Krishna Menon, Defence Minister, resigns in the wake of Chinese attack on India.

1984 – 66-year old Indira Gandhi, India’s four-time prime minister, was gunned down by two members of her personal security guard as she walked from her home to her office in New Delhi. (One may call it a premonition, because a day earlier while in Orissa, Indira Gandhi had said, “I am alive today, I may not be there tomorrow . . . I do not care whether I live or die . . . I have lived a long life and I am proud that I spent the whole of my life in the service of my people . . . I shall continue to serve till my last breath and when I die, every drop of my blood will strengthen India and keep a united India alive.”)-(Photo credit-Hindustan Times)

1984 – Rajiv Gandhi sworn in as Prime Minister by Giani Zail Singh, President of India, at New Delhi. He held this office till December 1, 1989.

1992 – The Vatican admitted erring for over 359 years in formally condemning Galileo Galilei for entertaining scientific truths such as the Earth revolves around the sun, which the Roman Catholic Church long denounced as anti-scriptural heresy. After 13 years of inquiry, the Pope’s commission of historic, scientific and theological scholars brought the pope a “not guilty” finding for Galileo.

2000 – Chhattisgarh, the 26th State of Indian Union came into being.

2000 – The Income Tax Department ‘indicts’ five cricketers – Kapil Dev, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Nikhil Chopra and Ajay Sharma – for tax evasion and concealment of income earned through ‘dubious sources’.

2003 – The U.S. Food and Drug administration released a summary of a draft report concluding that cloned farm animals and their offspring pose little scientific risk to the food supply.

2018 – World’s biggest statue, the Statue of Unity at 182 m is unveiled of Indian independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat state.

Born….

1875 – Vallabhbhai Zaverbhai Patel, ‘Iron man of India’. He was also the first Deputy Prime Minister of India. (His father had served in the army of the Rani of Jhansi against Britishers).

1895 – C.K. Nayudu, first Indian cricket Test captain Also called the ‘Great Grandfather of India Cricket’.

1927 – Narindar Singh Kapani, Indian-American physicist who is widely acknowledged as the father of fibre optics. He coined the term fibre optics for the technology transmitting light through fine glass strands in devices from endoscopy to high-capacity telephone lines that has changed the medical, communications and business worlds. (While growing up in Dehradun in northern India, a teacher informed him that light only travelled in a straight line. He took this as a challenge and made the study of light his life work, initially at Imperial College, London. On 2 Jan 1954, Nature published his report of successfully transmitting images through fibre optical bundles. The following year he went to the U.S. to teach. He holds over 100 patents).

1943– G Madhavan Nair, Former chairman ISRO,  space scientist.

RIP….

1975 – Sachin Dev Burman, celebrated music director. Awarded Filmfare and Sangeet Natak Academy Awards.

You may have known….

Egyptian siblings Mohamed and Huda Shehata boast a combined height of 13 feet 7 inches – taller than an African elephant – and are still growing.

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