Today’s Motto: ‘Bad luck is only an excuse for failure to deal with the problems of life’

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

On this day,  May 13…………

1648 – Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.

1796 – English physician Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to an eight-year-old boy James Phipps, with material from the sores of dairymaid Sarah Nelmes who had a mild case of cowpox. A few weeks later, on 1 Jul, he subsequently tested the boy’s resistance to smallpox, by inoculating Phipps with smallpox virus. Fortunately, the immunisation had been successful. This tested a conventional wisdom he had heard that those who had survived cowpox seemed to be immune to the deadly smallpox disease (pic credit-historyofvaccines.org).

1850 – The first U.S. patent for a dishwashing machine was issued to Joel Houghton of Ogden, NY, for an “Improvement in Machines for Washing Table Furniture”.

1856 – Charles Darwin began writing his book, The Origin of Species, sitting in the study of his country home in Down, England.

1862 – Swiss watchmaker Adolphe Nicole patented the chronograph, which was able to give split-second timing of sports events (pic credit-joseartgallery.com).

1878 – The name Vaseline was registered as a trademark for the petroleum jelly developed by an English-born chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough. He began, in 1859, with an interest in the petroleum oil boom, and travelled to Pelsylvania, where oil strikes began, to enter that business. Once there, his chemist’s curiosity was caught by a pasty residue that stuck to driller’s rods and clogged their pumps. Workers had found it was practical to use on burns and cuts to promote healing. Cheseborough returned to Brooklyn and spent years experimenting to extract and purify the useful ingredient he called “petroleum jelly.” Manufacturing from 1870, he received a patent on the product on 4 Jun 1872.

1879 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.                                                                                                                                                1952 – The Rajya Sabha holds its first sitting.

1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

1954 – President  of India issues an order extending application of Indian Constitution to Kashmir with the concurrence of the State government.

1955 – The Warsaw Pact is established.

1973 – Skylab launched, 1st Space Station (pic credit-Britannica).

1986 – Netherlands Institute for War Documentation publishes Anne Frank’s complete diary.

1905 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Indian politician, freedom fighter and  5th President of India between 1974-77.

1916 – VM Salgaonkar. Leading Indidustrialist and philanthropist of Goa.                  1993 – Morgan Wallen, American singer born in Tennesse state. Sang rural and folk songs and enthralled his millions fans.  Net worth is $  35 million in 2024.     1969 – Assaduddin Owaisi. Famous Muslim politician  and 5 time Member of Parliament from Hyderabad. He heads the party AIMIM  (All India  Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen). He has been critic of BJP-NDA govt since 2014 but has recently praised PM Modi’s Operation Sindoor as revenge for Pahalgam carnage of  28 innocent Hindu tourists. His brother is more venoouus on Hindus and right wing politicians.

RIP….  You may have known….       Emus cannot  walk backward.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}