This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History!
On this day, Oct. 21……..
1824 – In Yorkshire, England, Joseph Aspdin, a stone mason, patented Portland cement, made by burning finely pulverized lime and clay at high temperatures in kilns. Thus, Aspdin had made a manufactured counterpart to natural or Roman cement – a crude formulation of lime and volcanic ash used as early as 27 BC.
1854 – Florence Nightingale with a staff of 38 nurses is sent to the Crimean War.
1895 – Liquid air for refrigeration and other purposes largely produced by machinery, invented by Carl Linde.
1943 – In a dramatic moment in India’s freedom struggle, Congressman and ant-British warrior, Subhas Chandra Bose—‘Netaji’ to his followers—announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore. Bose was convinced that an armed struggle against the mighty British was the only way to throw them out. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Bose saw an opening to put pressure on the British. But since the Congress foreign policy was clearly in sync with Nehru’s and Gandhi’s belief that opposition to British rule in no way meant supporting Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan, Bose found himself alone. Forced to resign, he remarked that he was “opposed to Hitlerism whether in India, within the Congress or any other country”. In fact, Bose had few illusions about Nazi Germany, but he believed in the pragmatic political theory that an ‘enemy’s enemy is my friend’. Similarly, he had nothing against the British people; his opposition was limited to British imperialism.
1945 – French Women vote for the first time.
1947 – The office of Controller of Military Accounts (Pensions), Lahore was bifurcated and the pension work relating to Indian nationals was transferred to Allahabad.
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.
1983 – David, the “the boy in the bubble,” underwent a bone marrow transplant operation in the hope that it could help him develop the immunity he had lacked all his life. He was born with a genetic disease, severe combined immune deficiency, (SCID). Thus, David Vetter spent his life protected, but isolated, in a sterile plastic “bubble.” The hope was that the bone marrow from his sister (four years older) would stimulate the growth of his immune system. The marrow was treated to cleanse it of germs, and was transferred in a fluid through a vein into David’s bloodstream. Sadly an undetected Epstein Barr virus remained in it despite the treatment. By New Year’s Day, he had a temperature of 99.5°F, indicating the onset of illness. Less than two months later, he died of Burkitt’s lymphoma.
1996 – Japan gets non-permanent seat in Security Council after a contest with India.
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.
2013 – The Parliament of Canada confers Honorary Canadian citizenship on women’s rights and education activist Malala Yousafzai.
Born….
1931 – Shammi Kapoor, actor.
1833 – Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and inventor who invented dynamite and other more powerful explosives. He amassed a fortune, much of which he left in a fund to endow the annual prizes that bear his name. First awarded in 1901, these prizes were for achievements in the areas of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. The sixth prize, for economics, was instituted in his honour in 1969.
1937 – Farooq Abdullah, politician.
1944 – Kulbhushan Kharbanda, actor.
1967 – Ashwini Nachappa, athlete.
RIP….
2012- Yash Chopra, Bollywood director and producer.
You may have known….
The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armour raised their visors to reveal their identity.
{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}
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