Today’s Motto: ‘It is best to live like it is heaven on earth.’

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

On this day, May 03……

1375 BC – The oldest recorded eclipse occurred, according to one plausible interpretation of a date inscribed on a clay tablet retrieved from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria.

1764 – Mir Kasim, with the backing of Delhi Emperor, attacked on Patna but this weak Emperor was defeated by Britishers. Britishers became the rulers of Bengal, the richest province of India then. His father-in-law Mir Zaffar lost to the British army in Plassey and surrendered his state too.

1802 – Washington, DC, was incorporated as a city.

1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry. Produced, directed and co-screen-written by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, whom we today respectfully call Dadasaheb Phalke, the film changed the way India saw entertainment and popular culture forever. Promotion statement for Raja Harishchandra read, “A performance with 57,000 photographs. A picture two miles long. All for only three annas.” Interestingly, those days females did not like acting. Phalke struggled to get a woman, including nautch girls, to agree to act in the film. Not succeeding, he had to cast a delicate-looking man to play the role of Queen Taramati, Harishchandra’s wife. Phalke discovered Salunke, who used to work in a restaurant as a cook, for this role. Salunke would later play the role of both Rama and Sita in Phalke’s 1917 film Lanka Dahan and become the most popular actor and actress of his time! (pic ccredit-mythgyaan.com)

1939 – Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Block  after he resigned Congress Party, following differences with MK Gandhi and Nehru.  It was later banned by the British in 1940 as a revolutionary  and violent outfit. (pic credit-bangla-aajtak).

1944 – Dr. Robert Woodward and Dr. William Doering produced the first synthetic quinine at Harvard University.

1945 – Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.

1947 – Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)  was established.

1952 – The first airplane landed at the geographic North Pole.

1968 – Dr. Denton Cooley of the Texas Heart Institute performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States on Everett Thomas.

1978 – “Sun Day” – solar energy events held in the US.

1983 – Soviet leader Yuri Andropov decreases nuclear weapons in Europe.

2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

2023 – Ajay Banga is elected President of the World Bank after being nominated by US President Joe Biden.

2023- Mysterious explosive drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow has no clear motive or link to people behind it, despite Russian claim it was attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, amid Ukrainian and US denials.

Born….1896 -Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon, lawyer, jurist, and politician, Indian former Minister of Defence.

1898 – Golda Meir. Popular Israeli teacher, author  (born in Ukraine), fiery leader who became 4th Prime Minister of the country (1969-74).

1920 – Achala Sachdev, Peshawar  born veteran romantic Bollywood actor who  started  as a  child  actor  and  ended as a loving grandmother  thru’ over 240 films in 74 years,  like  Footpath, Sangam, Daag, A Poem of Love, Waqt, Chandni, Mera Naam Joker,  Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge etc.

1959 – Sadhvi Uma Gulab Singh Bharti activist and flameboyant politician. Sanatan Hindu activist in Ram Janmbhoomi movement   also became  16th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (pic credit-Rediff.com)

RIP…. 1969 – Zakir Hussain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd President of India.

1981 – Nargis Dutt,  veteran Indian actress who formed a petfect Jodi with legendary Raj Kapoor in Shri 420, Awara, Chori-Chori, Barsat etc. and acted in Mother India, maaried Sunil Dutt. Was awarded National Film, Stardust, Filmfare and Karlovy Vary International award. (pic credit-Pinterest).

2006 – Pramod Mahajan, veteran Maharashtra and national  politician. Was minister of I&B  in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s NDA  cabinet. He had a tiff with his younger brother, who shot him on April 20. 2006. Mahajan died 13 days later.  (pic credit-Getty Images)

2014 – Gary Stanley Becker. American eceonomist, wrote several books on economics,  won Nobel Prize in 1992.

You may have known…. 1.  Tirupati Balaji Temple built in the 10th century, is the world’s largest religious pilgrimage destination. It is larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.

2.  The earliest loaf of bread ever discovered is a whopping 8,600 years old, unearthed at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in what is now southern Turkey, comprised of mud-brick dwellings built on top of one another.

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