Today’s Motto: ‘A goal without a plan is nothing more than a wish’

On this day, 25 Sep….

1493 – Christopher Columbus (Italian sailor)   sails with 17 ships on 2nd voyage to America. Inspired by Marco Polo  and Spanish, Portugese  sea  adventures for international trade and  occupation, he discovered America  and  did voyages to China, India, Japan. He was asked by his rulers to   register slaves for  farm labour and other chores   (pic credit-www.britannica.com). 

1820 – Francois Arago announced that a copper wire between the poles of a voltaic cell, could laterally attract iron filings to itself. His discovery came in the same year that Oersted discovered that an electric current flowing in a wire would deflect a neighbouring compass needle. Arago in the same publication described how he had successfully succeeded in causing permanent magnetism in steel needles laid at right angles to the copper wire. Arago and André-Marie Ampère, discussed and experimented with forming the copper wire into a helix to intensify the magnetising action. However, it was not until 1825 that the electromagnet in its familiar form was invented by William Sturgeon (pic credit-wikipedia.com).

1829 – 1st British bus service started by George Shillibeer in London. Though proper rules for bus  transport were finalised in 1986.

1878 – Writing against the use of tobacco, the senior physician to the Metropolitan Free Hospital wrote in The Times newspaper in Britain. Dr. Charles Drysdale pointed to “the enormous consumption of tobacco in all European states.” He estimated that £15,000,000 was spent annually in Great Britain on tobacco. He concluded “that  the usetobacco is one of the most evident of all the retrograde influences of our time.”

1947 – The state of Jammu Kashmir accedes to Indian Union after   Maharaja Hari Singh   signs  the Document of  Accession after Pakistani forces attacked KJashmir and occupied  large part of J&K (now called POK).

1965 – Beatle cartoon show begins in the U.S.1984 – Indian Army withdraws from the Golden Temple; repair of Akal Takht is completed.

2000 – A Delhi Court dismisses applications of three of the 17 accused seeking dropping of proceedings against them in the sensational Coomar Narain espionage case which hit the headlines and rattled the Rajiv Gandhi Government in 1985.

Born….  1914 – Chadhary Devi Lal, Freeedom fighter  and Haryana’s strongman  who became Chief Minister twice in 1977-79 and 1987 -89. Was offered  PM post after Rajiv Gandhi  but refused  and  became Dy. Prime Minister under  VP Singh  (Dec. 1989- Aug.  1990   and Chandrasekhar. (Nov. 1990-June 1991)    Left Congress in 1977 and joined Janata Party and  later formed his own political parties  Lok Dal and Indian National Lok Dal.  Credited to have started  Old Age Pension in Haryana in 1987 (pic credit-fityclub).

1916 – Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay, great litterateur, philosopher and social worker. He was President of Bhartiya Jan Sangh, an ideologue of  the right wing political party, though he  agreed with  Gandhi/Congress’  Swaraj,  Sarvodaya and socialist ideals. He died in a train accident  on Mughalsarai Station (now renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyay Rly. Stn.).

1920 – Satish Dhawan, Srinagar born,  Indian aerospace engineer and Chairman of ISRO. He was a mathematician and  did  experiments  with  Fluid  Dynamics.He  was  also  Director  of IISc. He led India’s Satellite Devlopmemt  plans  between  1972-84,  followed  by  Dr. APJ  Kalam. Dr. Kalam appreciated his leadership in owning failures and crediting his team for successes. (Cryogenic Satish Dahavan-I engine- pic credit-thehansindia.com)

1939 – Feroz Khan, Bollywood  actor, producer.  Known for films like Jaansheen, Prem Agan, Apraadh, Dharmatma, Qurbani, Welcome etc. He won 2 Filmfare awards and a Lifetime Achievment award. His younger brother  Sanjay Khan and son Fardeen Khan are also  known in  Hindi  film indiustry.

1946  – Bishan Singh  Bedi,  popular Indian  Spinner and  aggressive batsman (mighty slow left-armer 1966-79). He  played  67  Tests and has taken  266  wickets.  Part of famous Indian Spin Quartet (comprising  BS Chandrasekhar, EAS Prasanna,  Srinivas Venkatraghavan and himself), Bedi was also  Captain  of Indian Test team in 22 matches. He was awarded  Padma Shri  (1970)  and CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award in 2004.

1977 – Divya Dutta, Ludhiana born  Punjabi and Hindi  actor, model. She has acted Bhag Milkha Bhag,  Badlapur, Lootera,  Veer Zara, Baghvan etc. She haas won a National Film award and a Filmfare OTT award (pic credit-PTI).

You may have known…. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh consistently rank among the top states in terms of college density in recent  years.                                                                                                                                      {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}