Today’s Motto: ‘Nothing wakes up brain cells fater than nonsense’

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

On this day, 20 May….

526 – An earthquake kills about 250,000 people in what is now Syria and Antiochia.

1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut).

1609 – Shakespeare’s Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

1645 – Yangzhou massacre: the 10-day massacre of 800,000 residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing dynasty (pic credit-britannica.com).

1677 – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj won the fort of Jingee in Tamil Nadu, also called Senji Fort built for protection against foregn invaders from Southern coast. (pic credit-Wikipdeia).

1830 – D. Hyde of USA, patented the fountain pen. However, it was 1884 before a truly practical fountain pen was invented by Lewis Waterman.

1873 – Jacob W Davis, received a U.S. patent on a rivet process for strengthening the pocket openings of canvas pants.

1875 – The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established in Sèvres, France, by the International Metric Convention, (also known as the Treaty of the Meter). Each 20 May is now World Metrology Day.

1901 – Claude Grivolas in Paris patented a projector for three-dimensional (stereoscopic) movies viewed wearing  spectacles with one red and one blue lens  (pic credit-Bridgeman images).

1915 – Gandhiji founded Satyagraha Ashram (later known as Sabarmati Ashram after the name of the river, 6.4 km from Town Hall) at Ahmedabad. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandhi, who lived at Sabarmati (Gujarat) and Sevagram (Wardha, Maharashtra) when he was not travelling across India or in prison. He lived in Sabarmati or Wardha for about 12 years in all. Many events regarding Freedom Movement, negotiations with British or else were initiatede from here. Bhagvat Gita was recited here daily morning  to maintain serenity and calimness.

1940 – Inventor Igor Sikorsky demonstrated his helicopter invention to the public.

1974 – A U.S. patent was issued to Gustano A. Pizzoof New York, for his “Anti Hijacking System for Aircraft”. It described an electro-mechanical system immediately aft of the pilots cabin to trap airplane hijackers. When activated a hijacker is dropped by trap doors through the floor into a net bag in the belly area. The hijacker’s weight causes a draw cord to close the bag and also automatically open the airplane’s specially-installed bomb bay doors. The encapsulated hijacker is dropped and parachuted to earth, where police, having been alerted by radio, await his arrival.

1976 – Oil production started from Bombay High Olifields about 160 km inside the Sea basin  from Bombay port.  It was discovered and jointly exlored by Russian and Indian exploration teams. It produces between 131,000 to 471,000 Barrels of Crude Oil per day. It  explores about  two-thirds of India’s oil production per annum.

2015 – Journal Nature publishes findings of the oldest human-made tools from Kenya’s Turkana Basin, dating back 3.3 million years, the first to predate the Homo genus.

2015 – Archaeologists report on the findings in Kenya of stone tools over a half-million years older than known species of human ancestors, raising questions regarding human evolution and use of tools (pic credit-pinterest.com).

Born….  1399 – Saint Kabir, was India’s most reverred spiritualist, Bhakti poet, saint of moddle ages who wrote thousands of Dohe (two-liner couplets)fullofsocialmessagesofamity.Most of his Dohas  are quoted in Sikh Gurus’  Adi Granth Sahib and other Indian literature. He lived about 120 years and his birth/death were both mystic, disputed by Hindus and Muslims later.

1750 – Tipu Sultan, tiger of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, who named his son after a great Sufi saint namely Tipu Mastan Aulia. Tipu Sultan was a great revolutionary freedom fighter, social reformer, music lover  and architect.

1850 – Vishnushastri Krishnashastri Chiplunkar, father of modern story writing in Marathi, who wrote many Marathi storybooks, novels and many of these are the academic syllabus.

1900 – Sumitranandan Pant, one of the most celebrated 20th century poets of the Hindi language and was known for romanticism in his poems which were inspired by nature, people and beauty within. Pant was born in Kausani (Bageshwar, Uttrakhand), known for his Chhayawadi, progressive writings like Nirala, Firaq, Shamsher and others. Wrote, Granthi, Gunjan, Granth, Godhuli, Satyakam etc. He was given Padmabhushan  (1961), Jnanpeeth (1968). Sahitya Akademi and Soviet Land Nehru Puruskar and many for his literary works.

1918 – Company Havildar Major Piru Singh (Shekhawat). As part of 6 RAJ RIF, on 18 July 1948, tasked to capture Pakistani post at Tithwal (J&K), his Company suffered heavy casualties. In time, Singh successfully occupied a Pakistani medium machine-gun post. But, by that time, the entire company lay dead or wounded. Singh was left alone to achieve the objective. He moved out and lobbed grenades at the next enemy post. Before moving to another trench, he received a mortal bullet wound to the head. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra  (pic credit-jammukashmirnow).

1964 – P T Usha, famous athlete (sprinter). One of the finest Indian athletes  who won many Asian,Commonwealth Gold medals but missed Olympics medal by a whisker in 1984. Awarded  D. Litt from Calicut Iniv. in Tamil Nadu, Arjuna Award, Padmsahri and IAAF Veteran Pin. She is currently President of IOA.

RIP…. 1506 – Christopher Columbus. Legendary Italian voyager who is famous for discovering America in 1492 and is also credited with colonisation of America.

1776 – Malhar Rao Holkar, founder king of Indore. A powerful Maratha who fought Nizam, Durranis, Hyder Ali and the British. He  was given command by Peshwa Baji Rao (Shahu) -I to build up a strong   state in Central India (Malwa). He faught and won many battles upto Delhi and Panipat alongwith Raja Surajmal. His son was killed in a war early, so he  convinced his daughter-in-law, Ahilyabai Holkar, who established a strong Hindu empire with capital Indore (1767-1795), who revived many  ancient temples, Shiv Lingas at Kashi Vishwanath, Shri Somnath, Shri Malikarjuna, Shree Onkareshwar, Shree Vainath, Shree Nagnath, Shree Triammbkeshar etc. upto Madras (TN).

1932 – Bipinchandra Ramchandra Pal, powerful journalist and revolutionary freedom fighter. He was amongst the trio which was known as “Lal – Bal – Pal” during the freedom struggle. He started a newspaper called “Swaraj” for the Indians in England. He also edited several other newspapers like “Tribune”, “New India”, “Vande Mataram”, “Hindu Review”.

2015 – Sudha Shivpuri, famous Bollywood actor, played popular roles in Insaf ka Tarazu, Swami, Hamari Bahu Alka, Pinjar, Vidhaata etc. And famous serials like  Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, etc……

2019 – Google stops support for Huawei’s Android system in an escalation of the tech war between US and China.

You may have known….1. India is one of the only three countries that makes supercomputers (the US and Japan are the other two).   

2.  Honeybees let out a ‘whoop’ of surprise when they run into each other.     
{Compiled by  Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}