Today’s Motto: ‘Leadership is the ability to transform vision into reality’

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

On this day, 03 Aug ….

1903 – Thomas Edison’s concern about X-Ray injury was front page news in the New York World newspaper. Under the headline “Edison Fears Hidden Perils of the X-rays” the history of injuries of his laboratory employee were described. “I am afraid of radium and polonium too, and I don’t want to monkey with them.”

1908 – A nearly complete, buried, skeleton of a Neanderthal was discovered in a cave at La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France. As per published description, it stereotypical characterization was of the Neanderthal as a shuffling, bent-kneed, and hairy creature capable of “rudimentary intellectual abilities” became stereotypical. This mistake was corrected by research in the 1950s. The species had been named after the Neander Valley, Germany, where the earliest find was made in Aug 1856. Neanderthal fossils have since been found at 80 sites in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Western Asia. (Neanderthal is an extinct species of human that was widely distributed in ice-age Europe between circa 120,000 and 35,000 years ago, with a receding forehead and prominent brow ridges).

1921 – 1st aerial crop-dusting (to kill caterpillars).

1926 – The first traffic lights in Britain were installed at Piccadilly Circus.  1

943 – Gen. George S  Patton slaps a U.S. GI in the hospital accusing him of cowardice. (Patton’s hard-driving personality and lack of belief in the medical condition post-traumatic stress disorder, then known as “battle fatigue” or “shell shock”, led to the soldiers becoming the subject of his ire in incidents on August 3 and 10, when Patton struck and berated them after discovering they were patients at evacuation hospitals away from the front lines without apparent physical injuries. As a result, Patton’s career was halted as his former subordinates became his superiors) He wanted to be a senator and President of America..

1958 – The USS Nautilus became the first submarine to travel under the geographic North Pole when the ice-pack conditions were favourable.

1984 – Bomb attack on Madras airport, 32 killed.  23 of these were Sri Lankan nationals.  A caller had informed the Airport manager at 10.10 p.m. about the bomb in  black suitcases, but refused to  give more details. The police didn’t take it seriously, dubbing it a hoax. The bomb blastes at 11 p.m. making tht tragedy

1985 – Baba Amte was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. A true  Gandhian,  he  lead a movement for eradication of Leprozy from India, from    1948  until his death in 2008. 

1991 – About 280 kgs of gold ornaments valued at $15 million, which had been deposited in the Portuguese banks in Goa by its natives, flown back to India. The gold was deposited by them before Liberation of Goa in 1961.

1994 – The first successful heart transplant operation was performed at the All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, by a team of doctors led by Prof. P. Venugopal.  A pioneer heart surgeon of India, he  used stem cell therapy in thye operation and believed to have  performed  50,000 open  heart and over 12,000 closed heart surgeories during his tenure.  He also trained over 100  cardio thoracic  surgeons around the world.  He was honoured with Padma Bhushan, Dr. BC Roy award and several other honours for his  services.  

2003 – Police in London, England, used the Taser electric stun gun on a suspect for the first time in that country. . (A Taser is an electroshock weapon sold by Taser International. It fires two small dart-like electrodes, to disrupt voluntary control of muscles causing “neuromuscular incapacitation”. Tasers do not rely on pain compliance, except when used in “Drive Stun” mode, and are thus preferred by some law enforcement over non-Taser stun guns and other electronic control weapons. Tasers were introduced as non-lethal weapons for police to use to subdue fleeing, belligerent, or potentially dangerous people, who would have otherwise been subjected to more lethal weapons such as firearms. A 2009 study said that injuries drop by 76% when a Taser is used. However, there have been some instances where Tasers have resulted in serious injury or death).

2022 – Ascent skyscraper in Milwaukee is certified as the world’s tallest timber building at 25 stories, 86.6 meters (284 feet).  Known as the City of Skyscrapers,  Milwauke is a  US town in Wisconsin  State. The tallest of the 61 buildings is Ascent Tower, houses US  Bank Centre and is  183.2 m tall.

Born…. 1886 – Maithili Sharan Gupt (3 August 1886 – 12 December 1964) was the first important poet of Khari Boli. With the inspiration of Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, he made Khari Boli the medium of his compositions and worked tirelessly to make Khari Boli a poetic language through your poetry. In this way, leaving the rich poetic language like Brajbhasha, new posts adapted to the time and context, new poets made it the medium of their poetic expression.

1916 – Shakeel Badayuni, a great poet and lyricist. Encouraged by the unceasing success of his poetry, he left his government job in the supply department and moved to Mumbai in 1946. Shakeel Badayuni was awarded the Filmfare Award three times in a row for his songs; ‘Chaudhavi Ka Chand Ho Ya Aftab Ho…‘ in 1960, ‘Husn Wale Tera Jawab Nahi…‘ from the film ‘Gharana‘ released in 1961 and in 1962 the Filmfare Award for the song ‘Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil…’ in the film ‘Bees Saal Baad‘.

1957 – Mani Shankar, filmmaker.  Guntur-Andhra Pradesh  born  filmmaker who did Engineering in BITS Pilani before entering film direction.. He used computer-generated  imagery  in his films like 16 December, Rudraksh, Mukhbiir etc. He also did holographic campaign for Narendra Modi in 2012 when he was Gujarat Chief Minister. His films like Knock Out, Charlie Tango, 16 December and Rudraksh were  grand success on Box Office.

You may have known….     In the 2001-2011 decade India’s Hindu population grew by 16.8%, Muslim population by 24.6%, Christians by 15.5% and Sikhs by 8.4%..     

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