Today’s Motto: ‘If you can imagine it, you can create it’

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

On this day, 25 Dec….

1 – 1st Christmas, according to calendar-maker Dionysus Exiguus. (Earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th was in 337. 1st definite date Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th was in 352). It is believed Santa Claus visits  your homes and brings  lovely Gifts for kids and families.

597 – England adopted the Julian calendar.

1741 – The Centigrade temperature scale was devised by astronomer Anders Celsius.

1989 – Japanese scientist achieved -271.8 degrees C, coldest temp ever recorded.

1999 – An Indian Airlines aircraft with 187 passengers on board was hijacked. The plane was going from Kathmandu to New Delhi. It landed near Abu Dhabi after several hops.

2000 – A.B.Vajpayee, Prime Minister, launched a Rs.60,000 crore ”Gram Sadak Yojana” for linking all villages and the “Antyodaya Anna Scheme” for providing cheap foodgrains.

2014 – Sony Pictures releases its comedy ‘The Interview’ in over 300 theatres and through online channels; the film depicts an attempted assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and was initially cancelled due to threats and hacking attacks.

Born….

1642 – Sir Issac Newton, English physicist and mathematician who made seminal discoveries in several areas of science, and was the leading scientist of his era.

1861 – Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, a freedom fighter philosopher, educationist and historian. Founder of Banaras Hindu University.

1876 – Mohamad Ali Jinnah, a lawyer, fundamentalist revolutionary and  the founder of Pakistan.

1919 – Naushad Ali,  legendary Indian music director.

1924 – Atal Krishna Behari Bajpayee, popular poet, politician and stratesman and 10th Prime Minister of India. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1957 from Barhampur and went on  occupy lower House 10 times and upper House Rajya Sabha 2 times. Became External Affairs minister in Janata Party Govt. in 1977.  In 1984 rechristened  Bhartyiya Janata Party (from Jan Sangh) BJP  got only 2 seats.  Veteran RSS leaders LK Advani and Vajpayee led the party to  have their  PM on  May 16, 1996 first time as BJP was the largest Party in Lok Sabha but his Govt. fell apart as no other party gave it suppport. In 1998   Vajpayee led NDA coalition Govt, lasted for 13 months and in 1999 the third time with strong suppoprt AB Vajpayee could complete his term until 2004. He was conferred with Padam Vibhushan in 1992 and Bharat Ratna in 2015 by President Pranab Mukherjee. 

AB Vajpayees tenure saw many dramatic developments,  viz., Pokharan Nuclear Test in  May 1998, Bus Yatra to Lahore for Indo-Pak Summit, Agra Summit with Gen. Musharaff Kargil War, Hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to  Kandhaar by Pak terrorists and Attack on Indian Parliament on Dec. 13, 2001, Godhara Train burning in 2002  and later failure of India Shining campaign in 2004 LS Elections.

1927 – Begum Para,  veteran actor, dancer and singer of 1940s-60s. Acted in Chand, Neel Kamal, Sohni Mahiwal, Suhaag Raat, Laila Majnu, Naya Ghar etc.

1963 – Raju Srivastava, popular comedian and Bollywood actor. He acted in about 10 films and  performed in many comedy shows.

RIP….

1994 – Giani Zail Singh, Congress politician from Punjab, was state chief minister from 1972 -77,  Union Home Minister (1980.82) and 7th President of India from 1982-87.

You may have known….
The United States, Burma, and Liberia are the only countries in the world that have not officially adopted the metric system as the standard of measurement.

 

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