Today’s Motto: ‘Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure’

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

On this day, 24 Apr….

1833 – Jacob Ebert with George Dulty patented the soda fountain. This is the same year as the birth of John Pemberton, creator of Coca Cola, whose famous new drink, in the form of a syrup mixed with soda, was first served in the soda fountain at Jacobs’ Pharmacy on 8 May 1886 (pic credit-WSCA.World and Futura Sciences).

1846 – First Petroleum wellm was disvcovetred in Azerbaijan. Yet some sources claim,   Petroleum was first discovered in the Middle East 1886. The first well to come in was on the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea. 1888 – The East

man Kodak company was formed by inventor George Eastman to sell his revolutionary new easily-portable box camera using roll film he had introduced. These he mass-produced so that now anyone – without needing special skills – could take photographs.

1923 – Colonel Jacob Schick patents Schick shavers.

1925 – Darwin’s theory of evolution was reputed to be taught by teacher John Scopes in High school. For this, Scopes, 24, was prosecuted under the Butler Act, a state law that prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. On 21 Jul 1925, Scopes was convicted and fined $100. On appeal, the state supreme court upheld the constitutionality of the 1925 law but acquitted Scopes on the technicality that he had been fined excessively. (The law was not repealed until 17 May 1967).

1928 – Fathometer, which measures underwater depth, patented (pic credit-historicimages.com).

1929 – 1st non-stop England to India flight takes-off.

1962 – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology  achieved the first transcontinental satellite relay of a television signal. The picture quality was poor, but the images were recognisable.

1970 – China became the fifth nation with a satellite in orbit with the launch ofDFH-1. The first four nations with satellites in space were the USSR (1957), the U.S. (1958), France (1965) and Japan (1970). After China, Britain launched its satellite in 1972.

1981 – The first IBM PC was introduced for Data collection, processing and  harnessing for better use. Armonk (New York) based computer  company  International Business Machines (IBM Corp.) was established in 1911.

1993 – IA’s Delhi-Srinagar Boeing with 141 persons, hijacked by a Kashmiri militant Mohammad Yousuf. The flight IC 427  was grounded in Amrisar by NSG  Commandos and the hijacker was killed in 5 minutes operation.

2023 – India surpasses China as the worlds most populous country according to UN estimates, with 1,425,775,850 people (estimated to reach 1.7 billion by 2064).

Born…. 1973 – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, a former international cricketer, also known as Master Blaster. He is considered one of the greatest cricketers in the world; has scored more than 30,000 runs in International Cricket and is the only cricketer to have 100 International centuries to date. Many National Honours are given to him including Bharat Ratna.

1987 – Varun Dhawan, Indian  film actor son of famous film producer/director David Dhawan,  he  has  done a few  Hindi films and modelling  assignments. One of India’s highest-paid actors and was listed in Forbes India’s  Celebrity List  2010 , Dhawan has appeared in a variety of genres, from romantic-comedies to action viz., sStudent of the Year, main tera Hero, Jugjug Jiyo, Bhediya, Badlapur, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, Judwa2, Border 2 etc. He has won  4 Filmfare awards including one on Debut in 2012.

RIP…. 1942 – Shri Dinanath Mangeshkar, famous Marathi singer, nationalist, musician and actor.  He was  the  Father of legendary  singers/musicians;  Lata, Asha, Hridaynath, Meena Khadilkar and Usha Mangeshkar.

1974 – Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, legendary  poet, freedom fighter, Member of Parliament, essayist, journalist, and satirist. Dinkar’s first poem was published in 1924 in a paper called Chhatra Sahodar.                                                                                                            1980 – Baba Gurbachan Singh, Nirankari chief,  assassinated.  Born in Peshawar. He was declared next Guru by his father and predecessor Baba Avtar Singh in 1962.

1994 – S. L. Kirloskar, industrialist. Shantanurao Laxmanrao)  was a  well-known and successful industrialist who established and expanded  agro equipment  manufacturing in Maharashtra. He won many accolades and awards.

THE WORLD’S ONLY BANK WITH NO LOCKS:  In January 2011, the United Commercial (UCO) Bank opened a ‘lockless’ branch in the village of Shani Shingnapur, the first of its kind in the country, taking note of the near-zero crime rate in this village. The doors of every villagers home is kept open at all times as are the bank door- no locks anywhere. The villagers believe that the ancient local Shani tenple is “jagrut”/”alive” and Lord Shani will severely punish offenders. There have been only 3 thefts documented.

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