Today’s Motto: ‘Fear of failure is the strongest shackle of our life’
As Every Day makes a new beginning in life, it brings new opportunities, opens new avenues, to perform and make a mark, to write a Page in History Book !
This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History !
On this day, 12 Oct….
1492 – Christopher Columbus’s expedition makes landfall on Caribbean island he n
ames San Salvador (likely Watling Island, Bahamas). The explorer believes he has reached East Asia.
1860 – British & French troops capture Beijing. Second Opium War” and “Arrow War” are both used in literature. “Second Opium War” refers to one of the British tactical objectives: legalising the opium trade, expanding coolie trade, opening all of China to British merchants, and exempting foreign imports from internal transit duties. The “Arrow War” refers to the name of a vessel which became the starting point of the conflict}.
1879 – British troops occupy Kabul, Afghanistan. (The Second Anglo–Afghan War was fought between the United Kingdom and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880. This was the second time British India invaded Afghanistan. The war ended after the British emerged victorious against the Afghan rebels and the Afghans agreed to 
let the British attain all of their geopolitical objectives from the Treaty of Gandamak. Most of the British and Indian soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan. The Afghans were permitted to maintain internal sovereignty but they had to cede control of their nation’s foreign relationsto the British).
1901 – Theodore Roosevelt renames “Executive Mansion”, as The White House“. which was the official residence of the President of the US, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. (It has been the residence of all U.S. presidents since John Adams in 1800).
1928 – First use of iron lung on a young girl in Boston’s Children Hospital. It was an artificial respirator that enabled her to breathe despite being paralyzed by polio. This negative pressure ventilator, invented by a yo
ung Harvard doctor, Philip Drinker, was the first widely used device of its kind (pic credit-polioplace.org).
1964 – Voskhod-Soyuz -1 was launched by the USSR, with Col Vladimir Komarov as pilot. (It was the world’s first multi-manned spacecraft, and the first to carry a scientist {Konstaintin Feoktistov} and a physician {Boris Yegorov} into space. In the rush to launch before the US Gemini flights, the crew were left at risk with no space suits, ejection seats, or escape tower. The mission returned television pictures of the crew from space, and it had a significant worldwide impact. The Gemini flights had been upstaged by the success, and the effect in the US was to heat up the “space race.” The crew returned to land after 16 orbits of the 
earth, 1 day and 17 min after they had left). He was the first astronaught to have fallen and died in a space fall.
1967 – National Conference, the Working Committee of Jammu and Kashmir, unanimously passed the proposal to a permanent merger of the state with India.
1998 – Ms Sushma Swaraj is selected as Delhi Chief Minister in place of Sahib Singh Verma. Ambala (Haryana) born lawyer, politician, diplomat and a Sanskrit scholar- Sushma was an Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad activist and RSS member. She practiced law in the Supreme and Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana in 1990 became 5th CM of Delhi, though had a short stint as Delhi CM for less than three months (Oct. 13 – Dec. 03, 1998). She was Union Minister for Info’ & Broadcasting; Health & Family Welfare Min. under PM Vajpayee and External Affairs Min. in PM Modi govt. (2014-19). She was elected to RS 3 times and Lok Sabha 4 times. Setting up of AIIMS in 6 states. She was awarded Padma Vibhushan and Order of Merit by the Spanish Govt.
1999 – Per
vez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup. He first became Chief Executive and then President.
2002 – Terrorists explode two bombs in Bali’s nightclub district killing 202 and injuring 209 mostly foreign tourists.
2008 – The Uttar Pradesh government took back about five hundred acres of land given three months ago for the rail coach factory in Lalganj, Rae Bareli.
Born…. 1911 – Vijay Madhavji Merchant Thackersey, cricketer (all-time great Indian batsman).
1938 – Nida Fazli
, born as Muqtida Hasan Nida Fazli, was a prominent Indian Hindi and Urdu poet, lyricist and dialogue writer. His literary contributions include a vast array of poems and songs that resonate with themes of love, life, and philosophy (pic credit-newsd.in).
RIP…. 
1967 – Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. An activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader, Dr. Lohia was a significant figure in shaping India’s political landscape. He was involved with the Congress Socialist Party and played a crucial role in the Quit India Movement. His contributions to the struggle for independence and his efforts to promote socialism in India are well-remembered. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia also known as “Dauntless Dr. Lohia”, had founded t
he ‘Praja Socialist Party’ in 1952.
You my have known…. The Mackintosh or raincoat (abbreviated as mac or mack), made out of rubberised fabric, is named after its Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh. Many writers add a letter k and this variant spelling “Mackintosh” is now standard (pic credit-ar.inspiredpencil.com).
{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}
