Motto for Today: ‘Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.’

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

On this day, Jan.28……

1846 – Battle of Aliwal, Brits beat Sikhs in Punjab.
1878 – The first commercial telephone exchange in the U.S. was installed at New Haven, Connecticut, and served 21 subscribers connected by a single strand of iron wire. For the first six weeks, the exchange was not operated at night. Instead of “hello,” the first experimental shout was “Ahoy, ahoy.”
1896 – The first speeding fine was handed out to a British motorist Walter Arnold for being caught doing 8 mph in a 2 mph built up zone.
1911 – The famous Hope diamond, once worn by Marie Antoinette, was bought this night for over $300,000 by Ned McLean, son of John McLean. Walnut-sized and exquisitely blue in color, the 44.5-carat stone stems from India. Its owners included Louis XIV, Louis XVI, and a London banker named Hope. A sinister history of ill luck, madness, and violent death clings to the unique gem.
1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
1935 – Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.
1950 – Supreme Court of India was inaugurated. It commenced its sittings in a part of the Parliament House and moved into the present building in 1958.
1960 – The first wire photograph transmitted by radio waves bounced off the moon was sent between Hawaii and Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Navy, using 84-ft diameter parabolic antennas.
2010 – Five murderers of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh hanged: Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruq Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Major Bazlul Huda and Lieutenant Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed.

2013 – ‘Hareetz’, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, publishes a story in which Israel admits it has administered birth-control injections to Ethiopian Jewish immigrants, without fully educating recipients of its effects.

Born….1865 – Lala Lajpat Rai ‘Punjab Kesari’, great valiant freedom fighter, social reformer, humanitarian and lawyer.
1899 – General (Later Field Marshall) K.M. Cariappa, first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
1925 – Raja Ramanna, scientist and fourth President of Indian Atomic Energy Commission.
1986 – Shruti Haasan, actor.
RIP….
1984 – Sohrab Meherwanji Modi, famous drama and film producer, director and actor.
Titbits….
1887 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world’s largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.
You may have known….
Tigers have such powerful legs that even after death, they can sometimes remain standing!

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