Today’s Motto: ‘Always remember why you started’.

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

On this day, June 21………..

1768 -The first commencement of a U.S. medical college was held. Of the ten degrees granted, John Archer being alphabetically at the head of the list, became the first doctor in the U.S. to receive such a degree.

1834 – Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine, recognized as the first such practical machine. He demonstrated his machine in 1831 at a public trial, which was impressive, cutting six acres in half a day. (Although it did the work of six men, it was very difficult to popularize, and it took until 1841 before McCormick sold his first two machines).

1838 – His discovery of the stereoscopic viewer was described in a paper by Charles Wheatstone, ‘On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of Binocular Vision’, which he read to the Royal Society, London. (This is the visual effect whereby pictures of an object drawn from slightly different viewpoints for individual eyes could be viewed with his stereoscope and give the perception of the object in three dimensions: image credits – King’s College, London).

1853 – The first U.S. patent for a commercially successful “Envelop-Folding Machine” was issued to Dr. Russell L. Hawes of Worcester.

1854 – First Victoria Cross won during the Crimean War. Awardee was 21-year-old Lucas of HMS Hecla.

1893 – The first Ferris wheel premiered at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, America’s third world’s fair. It was invented by George Washington Ferris, for the purpose of creating an attraction like the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1913 – The first successful parachute jump from an airplane by a woman was made by Georgia Broadwick, age 18, in Los Angeles, California.

1921 – The UK, the Dominions, and India, become the British Commonwealth of Nations.

1948 – The first stored-programme computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine, SSEM, ran its first programme. Written by Professor Tom Kilburn, it took 52 minutes to run. The tiny experimental computer had no keyboard or printer, but it successfully tested a memory system developed at Manchester University in England.

1948 – The first successful long-playing microgroove phonograph records (33 1/3 RPM) were introduced to the public at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

1948 – Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy).

1948 – C. Rajagopalachari was appointed the first Indian Governor General of Indian union (After January 25, 1950, this post was abolished).

1998 – India and Russia sign a $2.5-billion deal to set up a nuclear power station at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu.

1999 – Leander Paes was seeded number one in doubles ranking. This was his highest doubles ranking.

2004 – Mike Melvill became the first civilian to pilot a craft into space.

Born….

1953 – Benazir Bhutto, 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan and 1st female leader of a Muslim nation (photo credits- Oliver Mark)

1976 – Tushar Kapoor, actor (image credit- Filmfare)

RIP….

1940 – Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar, politician and founder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
Titbits….

1879 – F W Woolworth opens 1st store (failed almost immediately).

You may have known….

The ‘Purple Heart Medals’ awarded to soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan were originally manufactured in preparation of a bloody invasion of Japan in 1945.

 

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