Today’s Motto: ‘Begin, be bold and venture out to explore the future’

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

On this day, 09 Sep ….

1753 – The first steam engine imported into the American colonies landed at New York City.

1791 – The capital of America was named Washington after President George Washington.

1892 – The New York City health department established the first diagnostic public heath laboratory in the U.S. as its Division of Pathology, Bacteriology and Disinfection.( It was spurred by the scare of Asiatic cholera at the time).

1920 – Aligarh was transformed into the Anglo-Oriental College, now called  Aligarh Muslim University.

1934 – The first rocket  to break the sound barrier was launched  in America. It reached a top speed of 700 mph, a maximum height of 400-ft, 1,600-ft horizontal range.

1945 – The first “bug” in a computer program was discovered by Grace Hopper: a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay and taped into the log.  (A Harvard technical team looked at Panel F of Mark II calculator and found something unusual. It was a moth, which they promptly removed and taped in the log book. U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper added the caption “First actual case of bug being found,” and that’s the first time anyone used the word bug to describe a computer glitch. Story is unconfirmed. While the core facts of the story are true but that’s not how this meaning of the word bug appeared in the dictionary. Inventors and engineers had been talking about bugs for more than a century before the moth in this 9 Sep 1945 incident. Even Thomas Edison used the word. Here’s an extract of a letter he wrote in 1878 to Theodore Puskas, as cited in The Yale Book of Quotations (2006): “‘Bugs’ — as such little faults and difficulties are called — show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached”).

1997 – Designated court decides to frame charges against 49 persons, including Shiv Sena Supremo  Bal Thackeray, BJP president L. K. Advani and former U.P. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, in cases relating to Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

1999 – Mahesh Bhupathi and Ai Sugiyama won the mixed doubles title in the U.S. Open.

2000 – The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica stretched over a populated city for the first time, after ballooning to a new record size. For two days, Sept. 9-10, the hole extended over the southern Chile city of Punta Arenas, exposing residents to very high levels of ultra violet radiation.

2014 – Apple announced the Apple Watch, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.

2015 – Queen Elizabeth-II becomes Great Britain’s longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

2019 – Poet John Milton’s own copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623 survives with his annotations in a Philadelphia library and could be the world’s most important modern literary discovery.

2019 – Scientists reveal evidence of humans’ earliest milk consumption 6,000 years ago from the dental plaque of prehistoric farmers’ teeth in Britain.

2024 – World’s first whole-eye and face transplant is declared successful for a 47-year-old Arkansas man more than a year after the operation.

Born…. 1850 – Bhartendu Harishchandra, poet/dramatist/father of modern Hindi. Born to Bengali family in Varanasi and to a poet father, the family moved to Jagannath Temple when he was aged 15, he  was influenced by Bengal’s Renassance and  started writing  on social, religious issues.  He edited magazines Kavi Cachan Sudha, Harishchandra Magazine and Bala Sudha and translated Ratnavali, Mudrarakshash,  Merchant of Venice etc. His poetry collections were Bhakt Sarvagya, Prem Malika, Prem Madhuri, Prem Tarang, Bharat Durdasha, Chandravali, Raa Sangraha etc. Indian government  launched an award in his name, as Bhartendu Harishchandra  Puorskar in 1983.

1890 – Colonel Harland Sanders, American founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).  He was an American entrepreneur and founder of fast food chicken restaurant chain  KFC. He later acted as the company’s brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company even today.

1909 – Leela Chitnis, a famous Hindi film actress who had been the heroine of Ashok Kumar. Later, she appeared in several films as the mother of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. She also produced and directed the film ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ (1955). Leela Chitnis had to prove her mettle in the studio of a rare, beautiful lady like Devika Rani along with her beloved hero Ashok Kumar.

1967 – Akshay Kumar (Rajiv  Hari Om Bhatia),  Bollywood actor. started with  film Saugandh in 1991 and went on to do over 150 films like Khiladi,  Mohra, Dillagi, Jaanwar etc.  He married Twinkle Khanna, daughter of legendary Rajesh Khanna and youth Diva Dimple Kaparia. He has won 2 National and 2 Fimfare awards apat from several other accolades.

1974 – Capt. Vikram Batra, Officer of the Indian Army, posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra  in the 1999 Kargil War. Palampur(Himachal) born  braveheart  was decorated for sacrifcng his  life for  attacking and killing Pakistani infiltrators  from post  Rocky Knob  post 5140  and then saving his Unit RakRifles soldiers while capturing another peak  Point  4875.

RIP…. 2012 – Verghese Kurien, known as the Father of the White Revolution in India. He was a social entrepreneur whose “billion-litre idea“, Operation Flood – the world’s largest agricultural dairy development programme, made India the world’s largest milk producer, surpassing the United States of America by 1998. He founded Kaira Milk Producers Cooperative Ltd. later named Amul. He was awarded Raman Magasaysay award, Padma Vibhushan, Order of Agricultural  Merit (France) and many more accolades (pic-krishjagran.com).

You may have known…. In April 2025, the government cited a World Bank report claiming 171 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty over a decade.                         Later on, the World Bank updated its poverty estimates, stating that only 5.75% of Indians now live in abject poverty, down from 27% in 2011–12.  (Niti Ayog report 2024).{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan)