Motto for Today: ‘Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.’

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

On this day, Oct.26……..

1492 – Lead pencils 1st used. (Modern pencils owe it all to an ancient Roman writing instrument called stylus? Scribes used this thin metal rod to leave a light, but readable mark on papyrus {an early form of paper}. Other early styluses were made of lead, which is what we still call pencil cores, even though they actually are made of non-toxic graphite. But pencil history doesn’t stop there… Graphite came into widespread use following the discovery of a large graphite deposit in Borrowdale, England in 1564).

1858 – A U.S. patent was issued for cycling reheated water in a washing machine, to Hamilton E. Smith of Philadelphia. His invention was an improvement for washing machines in which a reciprocating plunger acts on clothes in a tub.

1863 – Worldwide Red Cross organized in Geneva. (The Red Cross idea was born in 1859, when Henry Dunant, a young Swiss man, came upon the scene of a bloody battle in Solferino, Italy, between the armies of imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian alliance. Some 40,000 men lay dead or dying on the battlefield and the wounded were lacking medical attention).

1916 – Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control).

1947 – In a letter sent to Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu & Kashmir, the then Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten accepted the accession with a remark, “it is my government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Jammu and Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader the question of the State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people.” In the immediate aftermath of India’s independence, three rulers had still not merged their territories with India despite Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel’s untiring efforts. These were: the Nawab of Junagadh, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir. The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India would become one of the most significant events in the politics and history of the subcontinent).

1950 – Mother Teresa established her Mission of Charity in Calcutta.

1952 – Pakistan’s first Test cricket win vs India. Fazal Mahmood took 12 wkts .

1962 – After Chinese attack, Emergency and Defence of India Ordinance was declared for the first time in India by the President.

1962 – JFK warns Russia that the USA will not allow Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba.

1984 – Baby Fae became the first new-born recipient of a cross-species heart transplant. Dr. Leonard L. Bailey, a heart surgeon at Loma Linda University Medical Center, California, transplanted a walnut-sized young baboon heart. By 1977, three such animal-heart transplants into adults had provided less than four days of life at best. Bailey believed the infant’s underdeveloped immune system would be less likely to reject alien tissue, and a new drug cyclosporine would help. Baby Fae lived 20 days before complications caused her death.

2013 – In an effort to repair strained relations after news reports cite the U.S. spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, President Barack Obama congratulates the Chancellor on the formation of her new cabinet, and invites her to Washington.

2015 – World Health Organization classifies processed meat as carcinogenic (having the potential to cause cancer).

2019 – Raid by US Special Forces kills ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.
Born….

1886 – Godavarish Mishra, famous Oria poet, playwright and patriot.

1974 – Ravina Tandon, actor.

RIP….

1972 – Igor I. Sikorsky, was a Russian-born U.S. pioneer in aircraft design who is best known for his successful development of the helicopter.

1990 – V. Shantaram, veteran film producer, director and Dadasaheb Phalke awardee.

You may have known….
Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.

Good morning. Have a nice day!

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