Today’s Motto: ‘True leadership is judged by decisions made under conditions of uncertainty’

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

On this day, 21 Oct…..
(Police Commemoration Day, observed to honor the police personnel who were ambushed by Chinese troops at Hot Springs in Ladakh).  

1816 – The Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by the Rev Hutchings. It is the oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia.

1918 – Margaret Owen sets world typing speed record of 170 wpm for 1 min. (From the 1920s through the 1970s, typing speed {along with shorthand speed} was an important secretarial qualification and typing contests were popular and often publicized by typewriter companies as promotional tools. As of 2005, writer Barbara Blackburn was the fastest alphanumerical English language typist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records – her top speed was 212 wpm. Current online records of sprint speeds on short text selections are 290 wpm, achieved by Guilherme Sandrini, on typingzone.com, and 256 wpm (a record caught on video), achieved by Sean Wrona, on TypeRacer. Note: For the purpose of typing measurement, each word is standardized to be five characters or keystrokes long in English, including spaces and punctuation. For example, the phrase “I run” counts as one word, but “rhinoceros” and “let’s talk” both count as two. (pic credit-oz.typewriter.b;logspot.com). 

1919 – First woman in British House of Lords was Nancy WL Astor. She remained  a member from 1919 to 1943.   Born in Virginia America, she married a British  Waldor Astor and was elected to the Unionist Party,  now called Conservative Party (pic credit-wikipedia.com).

1934 – Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan and his friends established the ‘Congress Socialist Party’. Acharya Narendra Dev was its President and JP was its Gen. Secretary (pic credit-iasexpress.net).

1943 – Azad Hind Government was established in Singapore and Netaji Subhashchandra Bose was elected as its national leader.  It was supported by Singapore and Govt. of Japan.

1947 – The office of Controller of Military Accounts (Pensions), Lahore was bifurcated and the pension work relating to Indian nationals was transferred to Allahabad.

1950 – Chinese forces occupy Tibet, deposing  Dalai Lama and  capturing protesters.. Dalai Lama had to flee to India later, to save himself from  arrest and execution.

1954 – Government of India and France sign an agreement for the de-facto transfer of the French settlement of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe to the Indian Union. (The merger took place on November 1).

1989 – Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha and Harminder Singh alias Jinda sentenced to death for the murder of former Army Chief Gen. A. K. Vaidya.

1990 – Doordarshan starts afternoon news bulletins at 2 p.m. (Hindi) and 3 p.m. (English) of 7.5 minutes duration on week days and 5 minutes on Sundays.

2000 – Seema Antil becomes the first Indian ever to win a global title by bagging a Gold medal in disc throw in the World Junior Athletic Championship in Santiago.

Born…. 1833 -Alfred Nobel, legendary Swedish engineer, scientist, inventor and industrialist, who made huge money in manufacturing  explosives viz.,  Dynamite, Gelignite, Bellistite  but later bequeethed all his money (Swedish Koroner 31,225,000)  to a Trust which set up 5 Nobel Prizes in world  Peace, Chemistry, Physics,  Medicine, Literature etc.  He had  registered about 355 patents on his inventions.

1938 – Helen,  Rangoon (Burma)  born actress, known for  many popular sensuous cabaret  dances, song sequences like Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo,  and more,  began her career thru’ films Awara (1951),  Howrah Bridge (1958) and appeared in over 500 films over 70 years. She did cabaret dances for Gumnaam, Teesri Manzil, Chhote Sarkar, Sachchai, Don, My Life Partner, Lahun Ke do Rang,  Sholey  etc. She was awarded Padma Shri and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement award and Raj Kapoor  Award etc. She married film story and  scriptwriter Salim Khan of Salim-Javed duo and is the other of  veteran Salman Khan, Sohail, Arbaaz Khan and Alvira Khan Agnihotri.

1980 – Kim Kardishian – American  celebrity, socialite, TV show host and business woman. Se has launched famous brands like Skims, Dash and ShoeDazzle etc. She has written some novels and married 3 times;  including   with Kanye West 2014-22 (pic credit-animalia-life.c;ub) 

Tidbits –– 1. 1858 – In Paris, the Can-Can is first performed. (It is a high-energy and physically demanding music hall dance, traditionally performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings. The main features of the dance are the lifting and manipulation of the skirts, with high kicking and suggestive, provocative body movements).

2.  2019 – World’s oldest natural pearl, 8,000 years old, is discovered during excavations at Marawah Island near Abu Dhabi, UAE. 2.

RIP….  You may have known….   As of 2024, approximately 37% of India’s population lives in urban areas and about 63% lives in rural areas. The 2011 census showed that 31.16% were in urban areas and 68.84% in rural areas, while recent estimates and projections show an increasing trend of urbanisation.                                                                                                                                                                  {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}