Today’s Motto: ‘For a determined climber, every mountain peak is within reach’.

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

On this day, July 16……..
622 – Muslim Era begins – Muhammad begins flight from Mecca to Medina (Hijra). (The Hijra is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib. In June 622 CE, after being warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly left his home in Mecca to emigrate to Yathrib, 320 km north of Mecca, along with his companion Abu Bakr. Yathrib was renamed Madīnat an-Nabī, literally “the City of the Prophet”, but an-Nabī was soon dropped, so its name is “Medina”, meaning “the city”. The Hijra is also often identified erroneously with the start of the Islamic calendar, which was set to Julian 16 July 622).

1661 – 1st banknotes in Europe are issued by Bank of Stockholm.

1867 – Reinforced concrete was patented by F. Joseph Monier, a gardner in Paris, to reinforce garden tubs, beams and posts. The French inventor had found that the tensile weakness of plain concrete could be overcome if steel rods were embedded in a concrete member. The new composite material was called reinforced concrete. (William E. Ward builds the landmark building {1871-1875}, first in the U.S. to use reinforced concrete, in NY).

1867 – Ready-mixed paint. A patent for the first prepared, or “ready-mixed” paint in the U.S. was granted to D.R. Averill, of Ohio. In the nineteenth century, with the large-scale manufacture of linseed oil from the flax plant and pigment-grade zinc oxide were combined before the paint was marketed.

1905 – A decision to boycott British goods was taken at Bagarhat.

1926 – National Geographic takes 1st natural-colour undersea photos.

1929 – Indian Council of Agricultural Research, an autonomous apex national organisation which plans, conducts and promotes research, education, training and transfer of technology for advancement of agriculture and allied sciences, was established.

1935 – The first parking meters were installed in the Oklahoma City business district. Downtown workers were parking on streets, staying all day, and leaving few spaces for shoppers and visitors to the business district. Carl C. Magee’s invention related to “meters for measuring the time of occupancy or use of parking or other space, for the use of which it is desirous an incidental charge be made upon a time basis.”

1936 – 1st x-ray photo of arterial circulation, Rochester, NY.

1954 – French rule ends in Mahe. De facto power was transferred to the people and the Indian flag hoisted.

1969 – The Crew of Apollo XI, Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

1993 – Russia cancels cryogenic rocket deal with India.

1996 – The four basin states of Narmada valley – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra – reach agreement to raise the height of Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat to 436′ after which hydrological studies will be done for 5 years to decide whether the height should be raised to the awarded 455′.

2013 – 27 children are killed and 25 are hospitalised after eating lunch contaminated with insecticide in India. (The children aged four to 12 fell ill after consuming a lunch of rice, soybean and lentils in the school, at Mashrakh village in the district of Chapra, Bihar. The school provided free meals under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the world’s largest school feeding programme involving 120 million children).

2018 – 12 new moons discovered orbiting Jupiter bringing planet’s moon total to 79, by scientists at Carnegie Institution for Science.

Born….

1909 – Aruna Asaf Ali, social worker and freedom fighter.

1930 – Sachin Bhowmick, Bengal and Bollywood screenwriter (pic credit – Cinestaan).

1982 – Aamna Sharif, actor (Instagram photos).

1984 – Katrina Kaif, actor.

Titbits….
1439 – Kissing is banned in England (to stop germs from spreading).

You may have known….
Birds are immune to the heat of chilli peppers.

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