Today’s Motto: ‘Life isn’t about finding ourselves. Life is about creating ourselves’

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

On this day, 10 May….

1526 – After victory in the First Battle of Panipat, Babur entered the then capital of India, Agra  (ancient name Agravana, the front  view on a forest  and  known for  salty water,  used to prepare salt by evaporating  pond water). Later it was named as Akbarabad by Moughals.  Developed by  Akbar in 1558 as his capital  with Agra Fort and Taj Mahal by Shah Jehan on the bank of river Yamuna. 

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1857 – In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut. A staunch Brahmin Mangal Pandey was the first to  refuse and  agitate against the order on May 10. 1857.  In the first battle, the heroes of Bharat Mata, who served in the British army, killed 50 British soldiers agitating against  introduction of Cow-fat and pig-fat coated cartridged  introduced by the British govt. The Sepoys were asked to  remove the cartridge pin with their mouth, which was a sacrilege in their religions.

1929 – The first submarine “lung” was tested.

1935 – Heart-lung machine. American surgeon John Gibbon successfully maintained the cardiac and respiratory function of a cat using his invention, a rotating blood-film oxygenator in the first heart-lung machine.

1975 – The first home video-cassette recorder, the Betamax, began sales in Japan. The format made by Sony used one-hour tapes, but a competing system was introduced by JVC in the next year called VHS (Video Home System) capable of two-hour recording. Both companies shortly introduced models with twice those playing times. Initially these gadhets cost about $ 18,000 each. Gradually VCRs lost out to DVDs.

1981 – The first day and night cricket match of India was played at the flood-lit ground of the Wilson College Gymkhana, Bombay  (pic credit-cricketgraph.com).

1993 – Santosh Yadav became the first woman mountaineer in the world to reach the world’s highest mountain peak Everest twice.

1994 – Nelson Mandela sworn in as South Africa’s 1st black President. He spent 27 years in jail for leading protests against the British policy of Aparthied (dis-allowing  Black population to vote  and keeping  out of  Govt.) After  release in 1990  he remained  President from 1994 to 1999 and brought in many reforms in South African society.

2000 – India’s population reaches 1 billion, baby girl Aastha born at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital chosen as symbolic billionth (pic credit-indiatvnews.com).

2005 – India and Pakistan agreed to start the Lahore-Amritsar bus service.

2016 – Indian fertility clinic announces that a 70 year old woman has successfully gave birth to a baby boy.

2018 – China announces plans for the world’s largest weather-control mechanism, rain-inducing machines for the Tibetan Plateau.

2021 – World Health Organization classifies the Indian COVID-19 variant B.1.617 as a variant of global concern.

2023 – Heaviest fighting in months between Israel and Palestinian militants as both sides launch air attacks, leaving over 20 dead in Gaza.

Born…. 1905 – Pankaj Malik, legendary  Bengali and  Bollywood  musician, actor and  singer,  He was an expert in classical music. He figured in Mahalaya, Mukti, Meri Behn, Nartaki and Dharti Mata etc. He was  awarded by Padamshri (1970) and Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1972.

1927 – Nayantara Sahgal, famous  Indian  author. Daughter of Vijyalaxmi Pandit and Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, she writes mainly  English novels, stories and on current affairs.  She had criticised her aunt (Bua) Indira Gandhi on Emergency and got  her appointment as Ambassador to Italy in 1980  by  Indira Gandhi after she returned to power.  She was rewarded with Sahitya Akademi honour in 1986 for her novel Rich Like Us.  She also wrote  Prison And Chocolate Cake, Storm in Chandigarh, Indira Gandhi’s Emergence and Style, etc.

1980 – Grenadier Subedar Major Yogendra Singh Yadav, Param Vir Chakra awardee. He received this honor in 1999 for his valour in Kargil war against Pakistan. He sustained several bullet injutries while capturing Tiger Hills post during the War.

RIP…. 1922 – Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, known as a true democrat and social reformer in India. Despite being a king, he understood the suffering of the downtrodden and oppressed class and always kept closeness to them. He started the process of providing free education to the children of the downtrodden class.

2002 – Kaifi Azmi, poet and songwriter.  He wrote Urdu songs and ghazals   including  famous filmsongs for Aakhri Raat, Dopahar, Saanp, Ek Bosa etc. He was the father Bollywood acress Shabana Azmi who is married to  popular scriptwiter Javed Akhtar.

You may have known…. 1. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months two rats could have more than a million relatives.

2. There were  No Plastic  Bags   in  India before 1985.                                          {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}