Today’s Motto: ‘If you want to be happy, stop feeling sorry for yourself’

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

On this day, 29 Jul….

(International Tiger Day, to spread awareness about the exact need for Tigers’ conservation and to promote the protection of tigers’ natural habitat.  India has over 75% of Tiger population globally. We have 58 tiger Sanctuaries habitating 3,682  Tigers, Jim Corbett Tiger Park,  Sunderbans (Bengal Tiger) Park,  Gir  Forest and Tiger Park, Kanha Tiger Park, Nagarhole in Tamil Nadu  are among them.  

1588 – Attacking Spanish Armada defeated and scattered by English defenders. The Spanish attack was a disaster and of the initial 130 ships over one-third failed to return.

1870 – America’s first asphalt pavement was laid in Newark.

1874 – Major Walter Copton Wingfield patents a portable tennis court. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.

1899 – 1st motorcycle race, Manhattan Beach, New York.

1914 – Transcontinental telephone service began. It was celebrated with a telephone conversation between Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco and Alexander Graham Bell in New York City repeating their historic conversation from 1876.

1927 – The first iron lung (electric respirator) was installed at Bellevue hospital in New York for the post war polio epidemic

1949 – BBC radio begins broadcasting.

1979 – Choudhary Charan Singh was sworn in as the fifth Prime Minister of India heading the Janata (S)-Congress coalition. He held this office till January 14, 1980.

1980 – India win Gold Medal in Hockey at Moscow Olympics.

1983 – First Pilot-less Aeroplane of India was tested successfully by the Aeronautical Development Establishment near Kolar.

1987 – India and Sri Lanka sign peace accord at Colombo in a bid to end the 5-year old ethnic trouble and mainly to bring Peace in  Northern Tamil regions.   The deal was signed  by Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi and  Sri Lankan President JR Jayawardhne  to disarm the rebellious Tamils under  V Prabhakaran, Commander of  LTTE. This stance taken thereafter by the LTTE added several dimensions to the scenario. But a political  disaster leading to  IPKF units withdrawal soon and   assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE in May 1991.

1993 – Two bills seeking to delink religion from politics and to empower the EC to debar parties with religious names introduced in Lok Sabha.

1999 – Bandh in Mumbai to protest against the verdict barring Bal Thackeray from voting and contesting any election till December 10, 2001.

Born….1883 – Badridas Goenka, a successful Indian  industrialist who was  decorated as  Rai Bahadur Sir Badridas Goenka CIE  by the British. He   served as the Chairman of the Imperial Bank of India from 1933 to 1955 and the first Chairman of the State Bank of India upon its formation in 1955 till1957. He was also the  first  Chairman  of FICCI.

1904 – Jahangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, industrialist and Father of Indian Aviation.. He started the country’s first commercial airline ‘Tata Airlines, which later became India’s national airline ‘Air India’. For this reason,  France born Indian who studied in France, England and Japan.  He became Indian citizen in 1929 and joined his family company  Tata Sons. JRD  got a flying license in 1932 and piloted a flight from Karachi  to Madras and then established Tata Airlines, which later became Air India in 1946.  He also established TCS, Tata Motors, TISS, TIFR, Tata Steel and grew his group to top position. he was Air India Chairman from 1938 to 1977, when he was removed by PM Desai (for having supported Indira Gandhi during Emergency). He was made honorary Air Vice Marshal in 1974, awarded Padma Vibhushan and several global awards viz.,  French  Legion of Honour, also  UK and Canada. He  was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1992.

1953 – Anup Jalota,  legendary Bhajan and Ghazal singer. Called Bhajan Samrat, Jalota also acted in some films and contested in Bigg Boss 2 in  2018. His  father  Purushottam Das Jalota  was  also a  known Bhajan singer. Anup received  Padma  Shri in  2012 and  several  other  music  accolades.

1959 – Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood actor son of famous  actor Sunil Dutt and heroine Nargis Dutt. He has played some very interesting and diverse roles in  films like Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna Bhai,  PK, Mission Kashmir, Agneepath, Rockey, Vidhaata, Naam, Sadak, Thanedar, Khalnayak, Jodi No. 1 etc. He has won 2 Filmfare,  3  Screen and  a Global Indian award and several other honors. Also acted in some Punjabi,  Tamil, Kannada, Telugu films.

He had a history of  Drug use and alleged arms trafficing due to his relations with Bombay’s underworld {1993-98). He served a sentence and later restarted his life afresh, thanks to his father Sunil Dutt’s help and  social appeals,  undetaking Pad Yatra thru’ South India to North India.

RIP….1996 – Aruna Asaf Ali, a revolutionary, militant leade. Her important contribution to the ‘British Quit India’ movement of 1942 cannot be forgotten.

2003 – Johnny Walker, a well-known comedian. His real name was Badruddin Jamaluddin Qazi. He borrowed his name from a popular brand of whiskey, but later it became difficult to decide which of the two is more popular. He started his life as a bus conductor. It was his pastime to make jokes with the passengers on the bus, which attracted Balraj Sahni, who introduced him to Guru Dutt and the two peaks of sensibility and humour became one, which created new definitions for Hindi cinema. Johnny Walker became a parallel identity of Guru Dutt’s films like ‘Baazi’, ‘Aar-Paar’, ‘Mr and Mrs 55’, ‘CID’, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’, ‘Pyasa’.   

2009 – Gayatri Devi, Ex-Maharani of Jaipur.  Famous as one of the most beautiful princess of India (born in Gwalior), she was the 3rd Maharani of Jaipur, married Maharaja Sawai Mansingh II.   She fought Lok Sabha election 1962 on Swatantra Party ticket  founded by  C Rajagoplachary and won 1969, 1971 elections too. Later she joined Jana Sangh (now BJP)  and became Party’s Vice President as well. She published  her autobiography  A Princess Remembers; an account of her life and Emergency days of 1975 (she spent over 5 months in Tihar Jail during this period. (pic  credit-IMDb.com)  

You may have known…. The combined, male and female, median age in India is 29.8 years, signifying the  majority of Younger  population.  (In 1960 it was 20.2 years). Though Monacco ranks No. 1 with median age of 58.9 years, Japan at No. 3 with 49.9  years and  Angola at 228 with 16.3 years. India ranks at 147. at 2020  estimtes, released in 2024 (UN).

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