Today’s Motto: ‘Once the cart is broken, many will tell you where the potholes are’
As Every Day makes a new beginning in life, it brings new opportunities, opens new avenues, to perform and make a mark, to write a Page in the History Books!
This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History!
On this day, 03 Jul….
1661 -The Portugese Viceroy Nano Da Cunha gives Tangier & Bombay island to the English King Charles II. The island had been a fishing and trading area since early Marathi-Konkani tribals (Satvahanas, Vakatakas, Konkan Mauryas, Chalikyas, Rashtrakutas, Shailaharas, Sauna Yadvas) during 2nd to 10th century CE (pic credit- J.G. Bartholomew, Archibald Constable and Co. – for commons.wikimedia.org).
1760 – Maratha army, under Sadashiv Rao Bhau and Vishvas Rao, captured Dehli from Mughals.
1819 – 1st savings bank in the US (Bank of Savings in NYC) opens its doors. It developed into Empire State Bank later.
1886 – Karl Benz drove the first automobile in the world in Mannheim, Germany, reaching a top speed of 10 mph.
1928 – 1st colour TV broadcast in London.
1929 – Foam rubber was developed at the Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories in Birmingham. Within five years it was everywhere, on motorcycle and bus seats, on Shakespeare Memorial Theatre seats, and eventually in mattresses.
1936 – Indian bowler Jahangir Khan kills a sparrow while cricket bowling, Cambridge University vs MCC match.
1961 – Three men were killed in the first fatal nuclear accident in the U.S. The Stationary Low-Power Plant was part o
f the National Reactor Testing Station. An 80-lb control rod was lifted by hand beyond its safe position, causing a core meltdown and explosion of the reactor. Four days were spent to devise a safe method to recover one of the corpses. All three bodies were extremely radioactive, causing problems for their burial. Clean-up took 18 months. Investigators were never able to determine why this “abnormal act” occurred. (Two decades later, a documentary speculated one of the men had marital problems and sabotaged the reactor).
1987 – British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand became t
he first to cross the Atlantic by hot-air balloon. They travelled a distance of 2,900 miles from from Sugarloaf Mountain, Main
e, in 33 hours to set a new record for hot air ballooning. Branson launched his Virgin Airlines and other ventures to become one of the richest entrepreneurs. (net worth $ 3 billions-2025).
1989 – The movie “Batman” set record of quickest $100 million (10 days). American Superhero comic books and animation series created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in March 1939 in Detective Comics. (photo credit-powerandnight.blog)
1996 – 25 to 30% hike in prices of petroleum products in India, by the Union govt. led by Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister.
Born…. 1962 – Tom Cruise, American/Hollywood icon. He won 4 Academy, 3 Golden Globe and Palme d’Or honours. His net worth was $ 600 million (2024).
1980 – Harbhajan Singh, cricketer and a specialist spinner who has taken the second-highest 
number of Test wickets by an off-spinner after Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan. He had taken 11 wickes for 79 runs against Himachal Pradesh in a domestic match in 1995-96 season and 3/8 against Australia in Mumbai Test (in 2001), was part of the Indian teams winning Champions Trophy (2002) and ICC World Twenty-20 in 2007. He acted in some Bollywood/Punjabi films and playede for Mumbai Indians, Chennai Sper Kings and KKR. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2022 on AAP Party ticket but later broke away with it and joined BJP alongwith 6 other RS Members.
RIP…. 1996 – Raaj Kumar, film actor. He was a sub-inspector in the Mumbai Police in the late 1940s before he turned to act with the 1952 Hindi film Rangeeli. He appeared in the Oscar-nominated 1957 film Mother India and went on to star in over 70 Hindi films, in a career that spanned over four decades. Some of his successful films are Heer Ranjha, Waqt, Kaajan, Dil Ek Mandir, Bulandi, Saudagar, Hamraj, Tiranga etc. He won a Filmfare award and nominated 4 times.
1999 – Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey, an officer of the Indian Army who was posthumously awarded India’s highest military honor, the Param Vir Chakra, for his audacious courage and leadership during the Kargil War.
You may have known…. 42 Railway companies operated in the country before independence. (including Nilgiri Mountain Railway and famous Darjeeling Railway Loop.)
{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}
