Today’s Motto: ‘Leaddership and learning are conjoined twins’

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

On this day, 9 Aug ….

1753 – The first steam engine imported into the American colonies. It was installed to pump water from a copper mine.

1843 – A U.S. patent was issued, antedated to 29 Jul 1843, for a hand-cranked Ice-cream Freezer invented by Nancy M. Johnson.

1889 – Dan Rylands patented the screw cap.

1925 – Government Treasury from Postal Train was looted near Kakuri Station just about 22 km. away from Lucknow by the members of ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.’ The Kakori Train Robbery was executed by Freedomfighters Ram Prasad Bismil, Chandershekhar Azad, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Sachindra Bakshi, Keshav Chakravarty, Manmathnath Gupta, Mukundi Lal, Murari Lal Khanna and Banwari Lal. One passenger was killed in the Robbery, which  was a bag of cash Rs. 8,000 (a big amount those days).

1930 – In the ‘Gandhi Cap Case’ in Guntur, the magistrate prohibits wearing of Gandhi caps within a five-mile radius of the town. (In his history of the 150 years of the Madras High Court, lists it as one of the cause cèlébres of the Court. Apparently in June 1930, the District Magistrate of Guntur passed an order that the Gandhi cap could not be worn by anyone in a public place in Guntur and within five miles of it. Negotiations on this went back and forth, but the Magistrate eventually backed the Police plea that they could not differentiate between who was a member of the Civil Disobedience Movement (all of whom wore the caps) and who was not but who might be wearing the cap).

1934 – The first rocket fired in America to break the sound barrier was launched by the American Rocket Society from Staten Island, New York. Its flight reached a top speed of 700 mph, a maxium height of 400-ft, 1,600-ft horizontal range and ended in New York Bay.

1945 – The first “bug” in a computer programme was discovered by Grace Hopper: a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay and taped into the log. The grand dame of military computing, computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, coined the terms ‘bug’ and ‘debug’ (pic credit-thefamouspeople.com).  

1945 – Second  Atomic Bomb (B-29)  is dropped on the Japanese city  of Nagasaki by American Air Force  to  bring down fighting Japanese to accept defeat in World War -II. About 1,50,000 to 2,40,000  Citizens were  burnt  and  many more  bruised badly, in the two bombings as the temperature  rose to 7,000 degrees C within seconds of the bombing.. Japan and Axis Group (including Germany, Italy,  Austria etc.) offered to surrender and accept  terms of Peace from Allies powers (Amercia, England, France and USSR).

The nuclear scientist Albert Einstein who  developed the Bombs,  later apologised to the World Citizens for his ‘heinous crime’  and chided US presidents DD Eisenhower and Herry S Truman for ordering him for  such a distructive warfare.

1960 – An ejected space capsule from Discoverer 13 was recovered when it returned from orbit; it was the first human-made object recovered from space.

1963 – India was the first country to add its signature to the test-ban treaty at Moscow.

1996 – Sachin Tendulkar, 23, chosen India’s cricket captain. Sachin went to be the top Indian and World’s  batter with  15,921 runs from 200 Tests,  18,426 from 463 ODIs and  2334 from 79 IPL matches. He has scored 100 International Centuries  in cricket. He is given epthets God of Cricket and Little Master by his fans and admirers.  Sachin  was honoured with Bharat Ratna by Govt. of India in  2014 and won several other cricketing and  civilian  awards earlier.

1998 – India moves the World Trade Organisation against the European Union reimposing anti-dumping duties on unbleached cotton gray fabric imports.

2000 – Indian  Parliament approves the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2000, paving the way for the creation of a separate Chhattisgarh State.  And  reorganisation  of Uttar Pradesh  carving out Uttranchal  (now called Uttrakhand).

2016 – Longest-ever hunger strike ends as Indian human rights campaigner Irom Sharmila Chanu  from  Manipur tastes honey after 16 years. She is called the Iron Lady of Manipur. She agitated  for repeal of Armed Forces Act 1958 and removal of Central Security Forces from  Manipur and China  borders.

2024 – A trainee female doctor is raped and murdered in a Kolkata’s  RG  Kar  Medical College &  Hospital, sparking huge outrage and protests. It led to statewide  agitations and national calls by women’s and  Human Rights organisations for  arrest and punishment to perpetrators of crime.

Born…. 1648 – Johann Michael Bach, famous German composer burn in Arnstadt. He mastered mouth organs and  worked in a govt. office.

1860 – Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, the great architect of the renaissance of Hindustani music and who played a vital role in giving re-birth to North Indian classical music. He became member of Gyan Uttejak Mandali in  1884 to create awareness about Classical Music, studied Khayal,  Dhrupad,  Ragas, Raginis and Putras in music tunes,  under expert Ustaads, then Natya Shastra and Sangeet Ratnakara. He wrote several books on music under psudonyms  Vishnu Sharma and Chaturpandit.  He established  Marris College of Musin in Lucknow in 1926, now known as Bhatkhande Music Institute, a Deemed University.

1893 – Shivpujan Sahai, famous Hindi story writer,  novelist  and editor who wrote in Bhojpuri and Hindi.  He was awarded  Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India..

1963 – Whitney Houston, American  singer. model, film actor, producer and philanthropist. He net worth was $ 20 million.

1975 – Mahesh Babu. Tamil and Telugu actor, model and producer. He is one of the highest paid actors presently. He acted in Businessman, Dookudu, Athadu etc.

RIP…. 1999 – Padma Bhushan Acharya Baldev Upadhyaya, Eminent Sanskrit Scholar,  essayist and critic.  He worked for Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit  Akademy,  Sampoornanand Sanskrit Vidyalya and did lot of research on Vedanta, Hindi/Sanatan Sanskriti.  He wrote and edited over 25 books and edited magazines  Saraswati Bhavan Granthmala and  Saraswati Sushma.

You may have known…. The total fertility rate in India (number of children per woman) in 1950-1955 was 5.9. In 2010-2015 it was 2.48.                                                                                                                                                                    {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}