Today’s Motto: ‘A leader Visualised the impossible’

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

On this day, 23 Jan….

Today is the Vasant Panchmi, the  Birthday of  Devi Saraswati, the Goddess of  Knowledge &  Sangeet !
1565 – Battle of Talikota: This decisive battle between the Deccan Sultanates and the Vijayanagara Empire led to the fall of the Vijayanagara capital and a major shift in South Indian history.

1909 – 1st radio rescue at sea.

1920 – The beginning of air transport and airmail services in India.

1957 – V.K. Krishna Menon’s Longest UN Speech: Indian diplomat V.K. Krishna Menon delivered an unprecedented eight-hour speech at the UN Security Council, defending  India’s position on Kashmir.

1964 – The first animal to human heart transplant (of a chimpanzee) was made. Being too small to maintain independent circulation the recipient died after 90 minutes.
1965 – The Durgapur Steel Plant began operations.

1977 – Janta Party was formed  on the advice of  Lok Nayak Jayprash Narain to fight Lok Sabha  elections after the Emergency  was expected to be lifted. As per  Constitution of India,  the imposition of  Emergency in the country could be  done for 6 months at a time or renewed  for a further period of 6 months.  It was  done 3 times. Janta Party had  old Congress Party leadeers like Moraji Desai,  Charan  Singh,  CPI  and  other Leftist groups,  Bhartiya Jan Sangh and other right wing groups, Swatantra Party and some South Indian  political outfits, yet it   an unrecognised political party. It formed  a Govt. in May 1977  under Desai as PM.  Currently,  Navneet Chaturvedi is the  party president since November 2021.

1978 – The motto “Shastra se Shakti” (Strength though arms) in Hindi written in Devenagiri script was approved by the President of India, as the motto of the Army Ordnance Corps.The original corps motto of the Ordnance corps was “Usa Tela Tananti” found in the arms of the board of  Ordnance. This was translated to mean “To the thunder his arms”.

1997 – 50,000 miners in Orissa lose jobs as 57 mines are closed down.

1997 – Statue of Netaji  Subhash Bose unveiled inside Parliament House.                                                      2002 – Reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, and subsequently murdered

2023 – The “Iconic Events Week”, as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration, concluded in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands with 21 unnamed islands named after Param Vir Chakra recipients.

Born…. 1897 – Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, one of India’s most influential freedom fighters. He is renowned for forming  Azad Hind Fauz, the Indian National Army (INA) and his iconic slogan, “Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom”.  A great nationalist leader and freedom fighter, was born at Cuttack. At the age of 23, he was ranked fourth in the I.C.S. Examination in London. He joined  Congress Party  for struggle against British rule in India and also became Congress President in 1938  despite party’s supreme leader,  MK  Gandhi opposing his support for  violent means  for  Freedom.  He was imprisoned but escaped  clandestinely to Kabul, Moscow, Germany for getting support from Russia and Germany in  war against the British.  He went  to Japan to raise Azad Hind Fauz  with support from uncle Rash Behari Bose  the fought against the British with his Azad Hind Fauj in the second World War. He was declared Prime Minister-in-exile when he captured  Andeman-Nicobar  and other areas of British controlled areas.   He was rumoured to have died in an aeroplane accident in Japan on Augiust 18, 1945, though it was never confirmed.  He’s believed to have stayed underground ever after this  incident.

1915 – Kamal Nayan Bajaj, famous industrialist and socialist freedom fighter, who supported Congress Party during Freedom struggle. He took over  Bajaj Automobiles from his father Jamnalal Bajaj  and expanded his business to cotton  ginning, real estate,  trading etc.  His son Rahul  took the Bajaj group to rank at No. 10 among Forbe’s 100 top industries  list,  and  has a networth of  $23.4 Billion as on Oct. 09, 2024.

1927 – Balasaheb Thackrey, Shiv Sena chief. A cartoonist, writer,  thinker,  socisal reformer who founded Shiv Sena to fight underworld  black money and crime in  Bombay (Maharashtra) and founded Shiv Sena, a political party . Later he became a champion of Hindu revivalism.

1950 – Richard Gilliand. Popular American actor, knownn for roles in Airplane II, Sequel, Designing Women, CBS Summer Playhouse etc. (pic credit- Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)

RIP….  1975 – Omeo Kumar Das, one of the great patriots of Assam, freedom fighter, journalist and became a minister in 1970s . He was a Gandhian  and was also named Lok Nayak. He translated Gandhi Ji’s autobiography “My Experiments with Truth” in Assamese language. He was honored with Padam Bhushan in 1963.

2021 – Larry King. American author, actor, TV host. He won 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and  10 Cable ACE awards. He hosted The Larry King Radio Show from 1985 to 2010.  (pic credit-punhng.com).                                                                                                                                             You may have Known:…. Indian cinema (specifically  Bollywood) is the largest film industry in the world by the number of films produced annually, often producing well over 1,000 films per year across various languages. This far exceeds Hollywood’s output which  organises Academy  awards for Oscars,  in Los Angeles, America (a 1999 award clip).

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