Today’s Motto: ‘Laughter is often the best medicine and a smile the best tonic’

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

On this day, 14 Mar….

44 BCE – Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar was launching a series of political and social reforms, when he was assassinated by his senators in the Theatre of Pompey, in Italy  (pic credit-fineartamerica).

1839 – Sir John Herschel referred to “photography” in a lecture to the Royal Society—possibly the first use of the word.

1899 – Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Kontstanz, Germany,  was issued a U.S. patent for his invention of his “Navigable Balloon,” the rigid airship, known as the Zeppelin.

1913 – John D. Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation.

1931 – First Indian talkie film ‘Alam Ara’ released at Majestic Cinema, Bombay.

1988 – A special day for math lovers ‘Pie Day‘ was celebrated for the first time.

1990 – Akash missile tested successfully.

1997 – Border Security Force discovers a 34-metre long tunnel in the Ajnala Sub-sector of the Punjab border with Pakistan.

1998 – Sonia Gandhi, wife of former PM Rajiv Gandhi,  became Congress President for the first time. She could also become India’s PM in 2004 but a revolt in the Party  dissuaded her to abort the bid and selected Manmohan Singh as PM, who remained in the post until 2014.                                 2019 – Google announces its Japanese employee Emma Haruka Iwao has broken- the world record for calculating   pi, to 31.4 trillion digits, on pi day using Google Cloud (pic credit-dreshare.com).

Born…. 1879 – Albert Einstein. German-American physicist who developed the special and general Theories of Relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. He also contributed to the development of Quantum Theory. He also wrote popular  books Schooling the World, The White Man’s Last Burden,  The World As I See It, The Meaning of Relativity etc.

1949 – Farida Jalal, popular Bollywood actress, who acted in over 200 films in fifty year of  filmy career starting  with Taqdeer in 1967. Aaraadhana, Rakt, Ye Jo Muhabbat Hai,  Amar Prem, Sankalp etc. were her famous films. She won 4 Filmfare, ITA and Los Angeles Award in Indian films category  and several other nominations.

1965 – Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan, actor, director, filmmaker, and television talk show host. He is commonly known as Aamir Khan. Khan has established himself as one of the most popular and influential actors in Indian cinema.  He is known for out of box film  stories like Taare Zamin Par, 3idiots, Lagaan, Dangal, Pik, Rang De Basanti,  Starting as a child artist in Yadon Ki Baraat in 1973, he has worked in over 64 films, won several awards including 9 Filmfares, 2 National awards and a Star Guild award.

1972 – Irom Chanu Sharmila, a civil rights activist, political activist, and poet. She is also known as the “Iron Lady of Manipur“.  In 2000, she began a hunger strike to abolish the Armed Forces Act, 1958 and ended in 2016.

RIP….  1883 – Karl Marx, great  German philosopher, journalist, chief editor, and social worker. He was the main motivator of  theory of Manifesto of  Communism, labour rights. He wrote Das Kapital, Hostory of French Revolution etc.                                                       1932 – George Eastman. American inventor and industrialist who was a pioneering manufacturer of photographic materials, including rolled film and the Kodak camera.

1963 – Jainarain Vyas, freedom fighter, leader, social reformer, patriot and a noble son of India.  He was appointed Prime Minister of Jodhpur state  in  March 1948 until  April 7, 1949 when the Jodhpur state  joined Indian Union. He became 3rd Chief Minister  and  ruled for 2 two terms.

You may have known…. Between 3000–4000 years ago, ancient Indians, especially in the Indus Valley and along the banks of the Ganges, cultivated sugarcane and found that boiling its juice resulted in a thick, rich sweetener known as jaggery (gur). This unrefined sweetener, with its earthy flavor and high nutritional value, was widely used for medicinal purposes, in religious offerings, and as a daily food item. Early texts such as the Rigveda mention the use of sweet substances derived from sugarcane, indicating that the plant was already a significant crop in Vedic society.                                               Gur, mixed with  kitchen herbs like fennel  (saounf)  orginger etc.acts as a digestive enzyme after regular meals.                                                             

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