Today’s Motto: ‘Don’t let what you cannot do interfere, with what you can do’

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

On this day,  Jan. 09………..

1664 – Shivaji started Surat campaign and left the city after plundering the place.

1760 – Marathas were defeated by the Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Durrani in the Battle of Barari Ghat.

1793 – Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the United States. Blanchard’s balloon, filled with hydrogen, soared to 5,800 feet and eventually wound up some 15 miles His only passenger was a small, black dog.

1799 – Income Tax introduced in UK.

1811 – 1st documented Women’s Golf Tournament held. (At Musselburgh Golf Club in Scotland).

1816 – Sir Humphry Davy’s safety lamp was first used in a coal mine. (Deadly explosions had been a continual hazard caused by the flammable gas, methane, leaking out of the coal seams ignited by the flame of a miner’s lamp. . Davy applied a scientific approach to determine the suitable fineness of wire gauze placed around the flame which would avoid ignition of flammable gas outside. He determined that the holes in the gauze should be less than 1/22 inch in diameter, and that the wire itself should be between 1/40 to 1/60 inch thick. Since the flame changed colour in the presence of methane, it also served as a warning to the miner to take protective action (pic credit-Science Photo Library).

1901- The first application for a patent for Meccano was submitted, as “Improvements in toy or educational devices for children and young people. Known at first as “Mechanics Made Easy,” this invention of Frank Hornby became a worldwide success.

1915 – On return from South Africa, Gandhiji became a member of the Indian National Congress. He was awarded Kaiseri-e-Hind Gold Medal for Ambulance service on Jan, 11.

1936 – Semi-automatic rifles adopted by U.S. army.

1996 – PM unveils India’s state-of-the-art Main Battle Rank (MBT) `Arjun’ at a New Delhi function.

2003 – Parvasi Bharti Divas was started. It is a celebratory day observed annually on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community towards the development of India. (The day was chosen to mark the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India in 1915 – see above (pic Credit-Wikimedia Commons).

2013 – U.S. scientists claim 2012 weather as the hottest year ever recorded.

2019 – Car manufacture Hyundai unveils a model of a proposed walking car, for first responders, in

in Las Vegas.

Born….

1889 – Dr. Vrindavanlal Varma, famous Hindi writer and social reformer. He mainly wrote historical and social novels, most famous being ‘Mriganainee’ (pic credit-Pustak.org).

1922 – H. Gobind Khorana. Also called Hargobind Khorana was an Indian-American biochemist who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley.

1927 – Sundarlal Bahuguna, a noted Garhwali environmentalist, Chipko movement leader and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of Non-violence and Satyagraha.

1938 – CV Ramanujam, mathemetician.

1965 – Farah Khan, film director, scriptwriter, Choreographer, dance choreographer, done about 80 films, known for Main Hoon Na,  Om Shanti Om etc. (pic credit-Bollywood Hangama).

1974 – Farhan Akhtar, film director.

1983 – Kalki Koechlin, Puducherry born French descent Bollywood  actress, known for roles in Dev-D, Zindgi Na Milegi Dobara, Gullyboy, Goldfish, Happy Ending etc.

RIP….

1324 – Marco Polo. He was an Italian merchant traveller and citizen of the Venice Republic whose travels are recorded in Livres des merveilles du monde, a book that introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China.

1945 – Sir Chhotu Ram. He was a prominent politician in British India’s Punjab Province, an ideologue of the Jat community and a champion of its interests. Also called Deenbandhu. He was knighted in 1937 and was the 

-founder of the National Unionist Party.

1996 – Fearless Nadia, actor. Mary Ann Evans, also known by her married name Mary Evans Wadia and her stage name Fearless Nadia was an actress and stuntwoman, who is most remembered as the masked, cloaked adventurer in Hunterwali.

2003 – Qamar Jalalabadi, screenwriter.

You may have known….

The city of Vienna, Austria, handed out 14,000 cans of deodorant to subway passengers when temperatures climbed to 95 degrees F in 2018.

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