Today’s Motto: ‘Don’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limits’

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

On this day,  May 04………..

1715 – French manufacturer debuts 1st folding umbrella (Paris).

1799 – Tipu Sultan is killed in a battle against 5,000 British soldiers who stormed and razed his capital, Seringapatanam.

1814 – Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives on the island of Elba to begin his exile (pic credit-History.com).

1854 – The first stamp was officially issued from Calcutta where the first modern post office was established.

1886 – Three patents for recording and reproducing speech and other sounds relating to a phono graph disk record were issued. From these designs, Bell & Tainter manufactured the first practical phonograph.

1892 – A process for commercial production of acetylene was made by Thomas L. Wilson, though it happened by accident. His experiment to produce metallic calcium by fusing lime and coal tar in an electric furnace was unsuccessful, and the slag-like waste product was dumped in a nearby stream. The water reacted with the slag and liberated a gas, recognised to be acetylene gas, which was previously known, but had only been made on a laboratory scale. Now Thomas Wilson had a method for production of acetylene on a commercial scale. Acetylene has an important use in welding applications.

1919 – Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan (pic credit-Getty Images).

1927 – The first U.S. balloon flight ascent to exceed an altitude of 40,000-ft was made by Captain Hawthorne C. Gray of the U.S. Army Air Service. The nearly 2-hour free flight reached an altitude of 42,470-ft.

1933 – The discovery of radio waves from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy was described by Karl Jansky in a paper he read to the International Radio Union in Washington. The galactic radio waves were very low intensity, short wavelength (14.6 m, frequency about 20 MHz) and required sensitive apparatus for their detection.

1959 – Nehru rejects proposals that India and Pakistan resolve their differences and set up a common alliance against Communist China.

2003 The first cloned equine, a mule foal was born at the University of Idaho, U.S., named Idaho Gem.

2015 – The human trafficking crisis continues in the Mediterranean, as approximately 7,000 migrants are rescued from 34 vessels intercepted over the last few days.

2023 – WHO declares Covid-19 over as a global health emergency, but remains a significant threat, with seven million known deaths (real total likely to be 20 million).

Born….

1767 – Sadguru Thyagaraja Swami, legendary Carnatic music composer who also wrote several devotional songs on Rama  (pic credit-Dr. Padma Murali).

1923 – Mrinal Sen, veteran  Bengali/Hindi/Telugu film  screenwriter, director who is known for films like Bhuvan Shome, Calcutta 71, Mrigayaa, Kharij, Padatik, Ek Din Pratidin etc. He won Special Jury award at Cannes for Kharij and Silver Bear at at Berlin International. Also awarded Padma Bushan in 1981 and Sovietland Nehru award. (pic credit-Jacobin)

1942 – Sam Pitroda, a telecom engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker. He spent nearly a decade with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as leader of an effort to build an Indian information industry. The task was to extend digital telecommunications to every corner of the country.(pic credit-The Hindu)

1945 – N Ram, journalist and prominent member of the Kasturi family that controls The Hindu Group of publications. .

1972 – Jyoti Randhawa, one of the leading Indian professional golfer. He won 8 Golf titles and ranked among World Top 100. He  married popular  film actress Chitrangada Singh (pic credit-India Today)

RIP….

1799 – Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore.

You may have known….A reindeer’s eyes change colour depending on the season.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}