Today’s Motto: ‘Don’t merely live your fears, live your dreams’

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

On this day, 28 May….

1937 – Volkswagen  (Peoples’ Car), the German automobile manufacturing is founded.  German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was very much facinated by the Volkswagen Beetle car design. So he visited the formal opening of the car factory on May 26, 1938.

1963 – Estimated 22,000 die in a cyclone in Bay of Bengal.

1965 – Fire and explosion at Dhori mine in Dhanbad India kills 400.

1971 – The U.S.S.R. Mars 3 was launched. It arrived at Mars on December 2, 1971. The lander was released from the Mars 3 orbiter and became the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars.

1996 – 13-day-old BJP-led minority coalition govt. headed by A.B. Vajpayee quits at the end of a two-day debate on a motion of confidence. A lone Vote by   Orissa chief minister Giridhar  Gamang who had still not resigned  as Lok Sabha Member despite having taken over CMs oath,  was the decider  Vote against  Vajpayee (269-270).  A left-wing coalition takes over headed by new prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda, Janata Dal leader.

1998 – Pakistan made its first public underground nuclear test codenamed Chagai-I, exploding five nuclear devices, becoming the seventh nuclear power.  The  explosions were  conducted at  Ras  Koh Hills in the Chagai District of Balochistan, and   came after years of development led by Abdul Kadeer Khan. United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions. (Shortly after the Indo-Pakistan War in 1971, following its defeat and break-up, Pakistan began a nuclear weapons program, and had its own clandestine facility for uranium enrichment from the mid 1980s). Pakistan Tests were  conducted just 17 days after India’s  Pokhhran -II  Tests on May 11, 1998 (pic credit-isi.org).  

2010 – In West Bengal, India, the  Jnaneshwari Express  train derails between  Sardha and  Khemasuli railway stations  in Midnapur distt. and subsequent collision kills 71 passengers and injures over 200.

2012 – ‘Time’ magazine includes ‘Awaara’ by Raj Kapoor  on its list of All-Time 100 Greatest Films. The film made in 1951 with Nargis pairing opposite Raj, had 10 memorable  love songs grossed over Rs. 2.1 crores and was a blockbuster  Soviet Union, China,  and Turkey, and won a prize in Cannes,  (pic  credit-YouTube).

2019 – Johnson & Johnson go on trial in Oklahoma accused of deceptively marketing painkillers and downplaying risks of addiction helping create “opioid epidemic”, first of 2,000 cases against US pharmaceutical firms.
2023 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates India’s new Parliament building, amid a boycott by Opposition parties (on the alibi,  they  wanted the President to open it).

Born…. 1883 – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an Indian independence activist and politician who formulated the Hindu nationalist philosophy of Hindutva. He was a leading personality in the Hindu Mahasabha. Savarkar joined the Hindu Mahasabha and popularized the term Hindutva, previously coined by Chandranath Basu, to create a collective “Hindu” identity as an essence of Bharat (India). Savarkar was an atheist and also a pragmatic practitioner of Hindu philosophy (pic credit-pinterest.com).

1903 – Shantanurao Laxmanrao Kirloskar, a businessman who was instrumental in the rapid growth of the Kirloskar Group. He was the son of Laxmanrao Kirloskar, who established the Kirloskar Group and the township of Kirloskarwadi  in Maharashtra.

1915 – Gopala Ramanujam, co-founder of the Indian National Trade Union Congress.

1923 – Nandamuri Tarak Rama Rao often referred to by his initials NTR, was a legendary  Andhra  actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, film editor, philanthropist, and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh over four terms forabout  seven years.  He played  mythological roles  of Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, Viswamitra and even Ravana  in  Telugu/Tamil and Hindi films like Sonta Ooru (1956), Mayabazaar, Bhoolalias, Venkateswara Mahatyam, Seeta Rama Kalyanam, Mahabharata etc. He dis over 300 films in four decades of his cine career  before joining politics. He also founded Telugu Desam Party and his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu is the present CM of Andhra Prafesh.

RIP….  1787 – Leopold Mozart  (Wolfgang Amadeus),   famous Austrian violinist, verstile composer of Chamber and Opera  notes and tunes. Born in Salzburg, Australia, he  became popular at age 5 and toured  Vienna, Paris and other  royal  concerts with his father,  He was appointed   musician  in Salzburg  Court  (1777-79),  but  was dismissed soon due to his being more ambitius and demanding.  Some of his symphonies are  marvels of history.  He died at the age of 35 in Vienna.

1964 – Mehboob Khan, legendary film director and producer, who made films  Aan, Aurat, Ali Baba, Amar, Andaaz, Anmol Ghadi, Mother India, Son of India, . Best known for directing the social epic Mother India. He was awarded 2 National Fim awards, 1 Filmfare award and was nominated to  Academy Awards (pic credit-IMDb ).

You may have known….  1. In 2016   St. Louis   (U,S.) police officers arrested 102 year-old Eddie Simms  so that she could cross the experience off her bucket list.           

2. The World’s biggest family in the northeastern state of Mizoram. The family,  headed by Ziona Chana, consists of 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grandchildren, totaling 199 members. They all live together in a 100-room house in Baktawng village in Mizoram   (pic credit-dailymail.co.uk).  

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