Today’s Motto: ‘Life is a blank canvas; you paint your own design’

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

On this day, 08 Nov ….

1895 Discovery of X-rays by Madame Curie.

1947 – Junagadh state accedes to India. It is a former state  situated in the Girnar Hills about 355 Km from Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Established in 5th century  BCE  by Chandragupta Maurya’s  commanders  and  ruled  by  Raja Dhaj and Ror Kumar  in 319 BCE and later by Dhudasama  rulers in the 10th Century of  Christian Era (CE).

1990 – Congress (I) extends support to Chandrasekhar to form Government, when the  BJP and Left parties declined the request of President R. Venkataraman to form Government.

2000 – India wins the men’s team title in the World Carrom championship in   New Delhi. Maria Irudayam received the Trophy from then  Prez KR Narayanan.

2013 – Palestinian investigators claim their former leader, Yasser Arafat, did not die of old age or ill health; they believe Israel killed him, because his exhumed body contained high levels of the radioactive element polonium-210.

2016 – PM Narendra Modi announced the demonetization of ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes. The purpose was to unearth the Black Money from  the economy, yet it’s success has been  a  doubtful outcome (pic credit-pepnewz.com).

Born…. 1920 – Sitara Devi, legendary Kathak dancer, singer and actress. Born in Calcutta to a Sasnskrit  scholar and dance teacher Sukhdev Maharaj and Matsya Kumari also a dancer. She got  rich applaud from Rabindra Nath Tagore who saw her dance at her  performce at age 16. She  acted in films like  Usha Haran (1940) , Nagina, Roti, Vatan, Anjali, Mother India.  Sitara Devi married 4 times and has 2 sons. She was honoured with Padma Bhushan, Kalidas Samman and Sangeet Natak Akademy Award.  (pic credit- classicalclaps.com). 

1927 – Lal Krishna Advani, veteran  Bhartiya Janata Party leader, who  led and shaped the policies and performance of his party from Jan Sangh to  BJP during his  days in RSS as a Pracharak to top post as Dy. PM of India.  A great patriot,   and   Right Wing politicia, he is  the co-founder of Bhartiya Janata Party, alongwith AB Vajpayee in 1980 when Janta Party Govt. fell down. He served as BJP President for longest ever period taking BJP from 2 Lok Sabha seats in 1984 to  182  in 1998  and helped form the 2nd NDA  Govt. led by late Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1998 for 13 months . He led Rath Yatra from Somnath  to Ayodhya in  1990 which was stopped by Bihar CM Lalu Yadav in Patna and it led to demolition of Babri Masjid structure in 1992 by Kar Sewaks.  Was elected to Lok Sabha 7 times and Rajya Sabha 4  terms.  Served as 7th Dy. Prime Minister of India from  2002 to 2004-.

1947 – Usha Uthup, singer, lyricist, actor.  Bengali/Tamil  and Bollywood  pop, zazz and film singer. Has sung in   many Indian languages and won Filmfare  awards 4  times  and was  awarded  Padam Bhushan  by Govt. of India.

1964 – Sagarika Ghose, veteran journalist, daughter of  former Secy. I&B and media personality Chitra Ghose. Sagarika has worked for Times of India, CNN-IBN, Outlook  and Indian Express and won several awards. She is married to a  famous media person  Rajdeep Sardesai (pic credit-tifpost.com).

RIP…. 1661 – Guru Har Rai. Second son  of  Baba Gurditta, became the 7th Sikh Guru age of 14 years  and remained Guru for 17 years until his death on Oct.  6, 1661. He was a  great spiritual leader and nationalist in his preachings. His son Har Kraishan became the 8th Guru of Sikhs.

1960 – Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee OBE. the first Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force, (died while having dinner in Tokyo, where he had gone with the Air India International Airlines on  its  inaugural flight to  Tokyo). He was awarded  several honors and awards.

You may have known…. India has 159 operational airports; Pakistan has 69. As of early 2024, China had 259 certified civil airports and 106 certified general airports, bringing the total number of certified airports to 365.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}