Today’s Motto: ‘Let adverse opinion not hamper your creativity’

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

On this day, 30 Mar….

1791 – After a proposal by the Académie des sciences, the French National Assembly finally chose that a metre would be a 1/10 000 000th  of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator.

1842 – Physician Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation. He placed an ether-soaked towel over the face of James Venable and removed a tumour from his neck. This event predated Morton’s public demonstration of ether by four years (pic credit-hmdb.org).

1858 – The first U.S. patent for a combination of  lead pencil and eraser was issued to Hyman L. Lipman, of Philadelphia (pic credit-interwell.cn).

1919 – Congress leader MK Gandhi announces resistance against Rowlatt Act. (The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919 popularly known as the Rowlatt Act was a legislative act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on March 18, 1919, indefinitely extending the emergency measures of preventive indefinite detention, incarceration without trial and judicial review enacted in the Defence of India Act 1915 during the First World War).

1959 – Dalai Lama (14th),  fled China, reached India  & was granted political asylum in India. He fled Tibet after Chinese army had taken control of the Himalayan  country Tibet and refused to give him the State religio-spiritual status as head of  Tibetan  society.

1981 – US President Ronald Reagan was shot at close range as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel about one mile from the White House.
The attacker John Hinckley, was charged with trying to assassinate the president and in the following June, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to hospital (pic credit-Michael Evans).

1987 – An anonymous foreign buyer purchased Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece ‘Sunflowers’ for nearly $36.3 million.

1998 – The German car maker BMW buys Rolls-Royce cars for $570 million.

1999 – A jury in Portland, Oregon, in a landmark case ordered the Cigarette making company  Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades (pic credit-businessglitz.com).

2002 – The Queen Mother (Queen Elizabeth),  died in her sleep  at the age of 101. She served as the longest head of the British empire since 1952.

2012 – Japan  stated that if North Korea launches a rocket in April (2012) and it flies into Japan’s territory, the country will not hesitate to shoot it down if necessary. South Korea also made a similar statement earlier in the week, saying that if it was necessary they too would shoot theChin ese  rocket down (map credit-MIA.Bannet).

2023 – Key figures in Artificial Intelligence including Elon Musk (Twitteer, Tesla)  and Steve Wozniak (Apple)  sign an open letter warning the race to develop AI systems is out of control and asking for a suspension of at least six months (pic credit-redhotcyber.com).

Born…. 1908 – Devika Rani, famous film actress. (Devika Rani Chaudhuri, usually known as Devika Rani was an actress in Indian films who was active during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the First Lady of Indian cinema (as no girl would then enter films due to social  hesitation)  She started with silent film A Throw of Dice in 1928.  She is credited  with performing a 4-minute long kissing scene on screen with hero Himanshu Rai (her husband) in film Karma in 1929.  They both established a studio  Bombay Talkies  for film making. She was awarded Padma Shri and was the first  Dadasaheb Phalke award winner  in 1969.                                                                                                                            1913 – B. S. Soman, first Admiral of India and 4th  Chief of  Indian Navy  from 1962  to  1966.

1962 – Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Bhartiya Janata Party’s 4 time MP from Saran, Bihar. Former Union  Minister and a trained  Flyer,  a  Captain, who flew a Rafel in 2017 Bengalore Air Show.  He’s also a  Party Spokesman.

1979 – Norah Jones. daughter of  Indian legendary  Sitarist  Ravi Shankar and US  singer  Suo Jones,  American piano singer, song writer who sold  53 million of her records, mixing jazz and pop, classical and contemporary,  vocally. She has won 10  Grammy  Awards and has a net worth of $ 25 million (2025).

1986 -Sergio Ramos Garcia. Spanish professional footballer, known as one of the greatest defenders ( centre forward) of all times,  he captains Liga MX Club Monterrey and has a worth of $ 80 million.       1987 -Becky Lynch,  (Rebecca Quin), an Irish-American wrestler. who became famous with WWE in 2005 by winning SuperGirls championship. She won the top world wrestling  champinship  RAW twice and many other contests in the ring.. On March 26, 2024, she released  her  autobiagraphy The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, which also became a best seller by April 2024. She also did some TV performances and popular films.                                                                                                               You may have known….  In a village called Shani Shingnapur in Maharashtra, people have been living in houses with no doors for generations. This is because they believe that whoever steals anything from this place will incur the wrath of Shani God and will have to pay for his/her sins very dearly. There is no police station in this village either. 

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