Motto for Today: ‘In shaping your destiny, you are your own architect.’

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

On this day, Apr.07……

1541 – Father Francis Xavier, Spanish founder of the Jesuits, and three friends became the first Roman Catholic missionaries to travel to India.

1818 – British Government imposed ‘State Prisoners Regulation III -1818’ for detention and deportation of political prisoners and revolutionaries without any trial. (This black act was in force till 1947 when India got independence).

1827 – John Walker, an English pharmacist, recorded his first sale of the friction matches he invented the previous year.

1896 – Inventor Simon Lake was issued a U.S. patent for his “Submarine Locomotive”, which he designed with underwater salvage operations in mind. It was fitted with traction wheels to travel the water-bed, and a crane hoist at the front. He improved his design with a later patent issued on 20 Apr 1897. On 16 Dec 1897 he demonstrated submarine Argonaut.

1923 – The first operation to remove a brain tumour under local anaesthetic (cocaine on the patient’s scalp) was performed at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.

1934 – Mahatma Gandhi suspended his campaign of civil disobedience.

1948 – World Health Organization formed by U.N.

1983 – It was reported that a human skeleton, believed to be perhaps a Neanderthal up to 80,000 years old, had been brought to the Smithsonian for study. It had been discovered in Feb 1982, face down, at Wadi Kubbaniya in southern Egypt.

1997 – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan finalize preparations for a new trade bloc called ‘Growth Quadrangle’.

2000 – The Delhi police unearth a multi-crore cricket betting and match fixing racket involving five South African cricketers, including the captain Hansie Cronje. A Delhi-based Indian operator Rajesh Kalra put behind bars.

2003 – U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s regime falls two days later.

2013 – China reports it will open the South China Sea’s Paracel Islands to tourism before the May Day holiday. Vietnam voices strong opposition to this move, as ownership of the Islands is in dispute.

Born….

1770 – William Wordsworth, English poet laureate.

1920 – Ravi Shankar (Bhattacharya), renowned Sitar player.

1926 – Prem Nazir, star of Malayalam cinema. (photo credit-OnManorama)

1942 – Jeetendra Kumar, Bollywood actor.    (photo credit-Filmfare.com)

1954 – Jackie Chan, Hong Kong martial arts actor.

1962 – Ram Gopal Varma, Screenwriter.

RIP….

1860 – William Keith Kellogg, an American industrialist and philanthropist who founded (1906) the W.K. Kellogg Company to manufacture cereal products as breakfast foods.

1947 – Henry Ford, inventor and automobile manufacturer who first experimented with internal combustion engines while he was an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company.

You may have known….

Bats can swim.

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