Today’s Motto: ‘All our goals are on the other side of fear’

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

On this day, 25 Dec….

1 – 1st Christmas, according to calendar-maker Dionysus Exiguus. (Earliest possible date, Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th was in 337. 1st definite date Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th was in 352). It is believed Santa Claus visits  your homes and brings  lovely Gifts for kids and families.

597 – England adopted the Julian calendar.                                                                                                          1741 – The Centigrade temperature scale was devised by astronomer Anders Celsius.

1771 – Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II sat on the throne of Delhi under the protection of the Marathas (Bajirao Maratha-I).

1927 – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his followers publicly burned copies of the Manusmriti in Mahad, Maharashtra. This act was a landmark protest against the text’s justification of caste-based discrimination and untouchability.

1947 – The plebiscite in Junagadh  princely  state overwhelmingly favored merging with India, nullifying the Nawab’s controversial accession to Pakistan.

1968 – Kilavenmani Massacre: A tragic event in Tamil Nadu where 42 Dalit labourers were burnt alive in their huts following a dispute over wages with local landlords.

1999 –The hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft with 187 passengers on board lands near Abu Dhabi after several hops.

2000 – A.B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister, launches a Rs.60,000 crore ”Gram Sadak Yojana” for linking all villages and the “Antyodaya Anna Scheme” for providing cheap food-grains.

2021 – German Scientists record the Coldest Temperature,(-273.15 degrees C  -459.67 degree Fahrenheit), at Bose-Einstein Condensate labs. It’s  a measure of molecular vibration — the more a collection of molecules moves, the higher the collective temperature. Absolute zero, then, is the point at which all molecular motion stops.  Scientists have even developed a special scale for extremely cold temperatures, called the Kelvin scale, where zero Kelvin corresponds to absolute zero. Earlier -271.8 degree C was recorded by Japanese scientist in 1989. (pic credit-fineartamerica.com).

Born…. 1861 – Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, a lawyer,  freedom fighter and educationist, popularly called Mahamana. Born in  Prayagraj (earlier Allahabad), a  Sanskrit scholar and  co-founder of Banaras Hindu University in 1916. He was editor of  The Hindustan weekly and Indian Union and  Chairman of Board of  The Directors of  Hindustan Times and  Congress President four times. He fought the case of  177 freedom fighters convicted to be hanged in Chauri-Choura case  and got them acquitted in 1922. In 1932 he launched Swadeshi  Aandolan advocating Buy Indian, religious  freedom and  amity. He was honured with Bharat Ratna  along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2024.

1876 – Mohamad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He led All India Muslim League since 1913 until he got a separate state for Indian Muslims in 1947 and was also blamed for  massacre of lakhs of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and  poor Indians in Bengal, Punjab and elsewhere.  He became the first Governor General of Pakistan. Though he fought for a Muslim Nation, he was not a followers of  strict Muslim  tenets. He drank and smoked profusely (50 sticks and Cuban  Cigars a day). He died in Sept. 1948 just a year after Partition due to a frail health.

1919 – Naushad Ali,  popular Indian music director. He composed classical music for many  popular films like  Sharda, Mother India, Taj Mahal, Sword of Tipu Sultan etc. He was awarded Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1981.

1924 – Atal Krishna Behari Vajpayee, popular poet, politician and statesman and 10th Prime Minister of India. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1957 from Barhampur and went on  occupy lower House 10 times and upper House Rajya Sabha 2 times. Became External Affairs minister in Janata Party Govt. in 1977.  In 1980 rechristened  Bhartiya Janata Party (from Jan Sangh) BJP  got only 2 seats.  Veteran RSS leaders LK Advani and Vajpayee led the party to  have their  PM on  May 16, 1996 first time as BJP was the largest Party in Lok Sabha but his Govt. fell apart as no other party gave it support. In 1998   Vajpayee led NDA coalition Govt, lasted for 13 months and in 1999 the third time with strong support AB Vajpayee could complete his term until 2004. He was conferred with Padma Vibhushan in 1992 and Bharat Ratna in 2015 by President Pranab Mukherjee.

AB Vajpayee’s tenure saw many dramatic developments,  viz., Pokhran Nuclear Test in  May 1998, Bus Yatra to Lahore for Indo-Pak Summit, Agra Summit with Gen. Musharaff Kargil War, Hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to  Kandahar by Pak terrorists and Attack on Indian Parliament on Dec. 13, 2001, Godhara Train burning in 2002  and later failure of India Shining campaign in 2004 LS Elections.

1927 – Begum Para,  veteran actor, dancer and singer of 1940s-60s. Acted in Chand, Neel Kamal, Sohni Mahiwal, Suhaag Raat, Laila Majnu, Naya Ghar etc.

1965 – Baba Ramdev, renowned Yoga Guru and co-founder of Patanjali Ayurveda  organisation for promoting  Indigenous   herbal medicines. He has a vast  research lab and Yoga Ashram near Haridwar, (Uttrakhand). He has  also ventured into  organic foods and  other non-synthetic  merchandise challenging  MNCs.

1974 – Nagma [Nandita Arvind Morarji], actor. She has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Bengali, Bandelkhandi films. She was alleged to have a controversial link with Bombay don Dawood ‘s brother. She joined Congress Party in  2003 and fought 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Meerut but lost it.

RIP…. 1763 – Maharaja Suraj Mal, prominent Jat ruler of Bharatpur State in Rajputana.

Under him, Bharatpur, an independent state, covered the present-day districts of Agra, Alwar, Aligarh, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Etawa, Hathras, Mainpuri, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Mathura, and Rohtak, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Nuh, Palwal, Faridabad, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Bulandshahar.

1972 – Chakravarti Rajagopalachari was India’s 2nd and last Governor-General. A close Gandhian, he fell out with PM Nehru on some policy matters and formed Swatantra Party, and ruled Madras state (Tamil Nadu) as Chief Minister until 1962. He was a great writer on Hindu/Sanatan  culture and wrote several books in Tamil/English viz., Ramayana, Mahabharata,  Mountbatten-A Man for the Century,  Congress Session in Bombay etc.

1994 – Giani Zail Singh, 7th president of India (1982-87). A prominent Nehruvian Punjabi politician, state Chief Minister and Union Home Minister. As President, he got Rajiv Gandhi sworn as PM after the assassination of Indira Gandhi on Oct. 31, 1984.  Later he had some differences with Rajiv and  allegedly  tried to  remove him.

2015 – Sadhana (Shivdasani), legendary Hindi film actress, regarded among the most popular actresses of Hindi Cinema, Sadhana was noted for her exquisite beauty and trend-setting fashion statements. She acted in  Waqt, Aarzoo, Woh Kaun Thi, Hum Dono,  Parakh, Love in Shimla,  Asli Naqli, Mere Mehboob, Mera Saya, Ek Mussafir Ek Hasina  etc. She was nominated to Filmfare and other awards, was honoured with IIFA Lifetime Achievement award in 2002.

Titbits….The United States, Burma, and Liberia are the only countries in the world that have not officially adopted the metric system as the standard of measurement.

You may have known…. India has estimated 1,55,000 reserve personnel. China’s estimated reserve personnel are 510,000.                                                              {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}