Motto for Today: ‘A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.’

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

On this day, Dec.24………

1889 – A bicycle with a back-pedal brake was patented by Daniel Stover and William Hance of US.

1893 – Henry Ford completed his first useful gas motor. He and his wife tested the small one-cylinder engine in their kitchen. At the time Ford was chief steam engineer at the main Detroit Edison Company plant with responsibility for maintaining electric service in the city 24 hours a day. Because he was on call at all times, he had no regular hours and could experiment to his heart’s content. His wages barely paid for living expenses and for tools and materials for his tinkering. But his wife was cooperative and did not complain; she rather encouraged him. A later version of that engine with two cylinders powered Ford’s first automobile, his Quadricycle, when it took its inaugural drive on 4 Jun 1896. By 16 Jun 1903, he and eleven investors signed paperwork to incorporate the car-making Ford Motor Company.

1906 – Reginald A. Fessenden gave what is generally considered to be the first broadcast of entertainment by radio, as part of the ongoing promotion of the new system using his new alternator- transmitter.

1945 – A warning about Russian atomic bomb development was sent by an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Thomas P. Whitney wrote: “the U.S.S.R. is out to get the atomic bomb. This has been officially stated. The meagre evidence available indicates that great efforts are being made and that super-priority will be given to the enterprise.” It was only four months since two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan to end WW II.

1998 – A. B. Vajpayee, Indian Prime Minister, announces increased cash awards for Asian Games medalists.

2000 – Viswanathan Anand becomes the first Asian to win a world chess title in the world chess championship in Taheran.

Born….

1924 – Mohammed Rafi, singer.

1959 – Anil Kapoor, actor.

1988 – Piyush Chawla, cricketer.

RIP….

1524 – Vasco De Gama, Portuguese navigator who discovered India (died in Cochin).

1973 – E. V. Ramasami, founder of DMK party, prominent leader, great social worker and revolutionary freedom fighter.

1987 – Dr. M. G. Ramachandran, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He was posthumously awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’ by the President of India.

You may have known….
Due to earth’s gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters.

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