Today’s Motto: ‘Reputation is what other people know about you. Honour is what you know about yourself’

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

On this day, 06 Aug ….

1753 – Professor Georg Richmann of St. Petersburg, Moscow, was killed by his experiment with lightning. Richmann attached a wire to the top of his house and led it down to an iron bar suspended above “the electric needle” and a bowl of water partly filled with iron filings*. It was reported that during a storm, Richmann was struck while about a foot from the bar, and closely observing the needle. “A globe of blue and whitish fire about four inches diameter” from the bar struck Richmann’s forehead” with “an explosion like that of a small cannon.” His assistant, M. Sokolaw, who survived, was thrown to the floor feeling blows on his back. He found marks of burning hot wire fragments on the back of his clothes (pic credit-X.com).

1862 – Madras High Court was established.

1890 – The electric chair was used for the first time, when William Kemmler was executed with 1,300 volts of alternating current in New York State for murdering a woman with an axe. The execution was botched. The first shock lasted only 17 seconds. As the body appeared to move, a much longer second jolt was given until it produced a smell of burning flesh. Thomas Edison wished the public to associate AC with danger and death, and promoted the electric chair to discredit Tesla’s AC system of electricity which competed with his own DC system (pic credit-ranker.com).

1906 – Prominent freedom fighter Chittaranjan Das and other Congress leaders together started the publication of “Vande Mataram” newspaper.

1930 – On 11 July 1897, Dr. Salomon August Andrée of Sweden and two companions had left Danes Island, Spitsbergen in a balloon, Eagle, which he had built himself, hoping to drift over the North Pole. This was the first attempt by air to explore the Arctic. Nothing was heard of them for 33 years. On 6 Aug 1930, Norwegian explorers discovered the debris of this earliest balloon expedition to the North Pole. They also found the remains of a balloonist, diaries and photos. The diaries recorded that just two days after their launch, an emergency landing on ice had been made. They eventually met their end in the bitter cold on the island, still hundreds of kilometres from the North Pole (pic crdit-pbs.org).

1945 – The first atomic bomb used in World War II was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The weapon, code-named “Little Boy,” was dropped from a United States Air Force B-29 bomber, The Enola Gay. This first bomb was a uranium bomb. (Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The second bomb, code-named “Fat Man” was a plutonium bomb. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history).

1998 – The Maharashtra Government rejects the Srikrishna Commission findings on the 1992-93 communal riots and the serial blasts in Mumbai, but agrees to act on the panel’s suggestions to refurbish the police force. (The report had heavily indicted the ruling alliance).

2007 – Hungarian scientists claimed to have found a Fossil of a Pine tree about eight million years old.

2019 – A quarter of humanity is running out of water with 17 countries under extreme water stress including Cape Town, Los Angeles and Bangalore, according to report by the World Resources Institute.

2024 – Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus picked to lead Bangladesh’s interim government after PM Sheikh Hasina forced to flee her country.

Born…. 1881 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered Penicillin and  its curative effect in various infectious diseases. He was awarded Nobel Prize  for Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

1958- Mohammed Bana, an  Iranian Greco Roman  wrestler who won Asian Games Gold and coached his team in 2012 (3 Golds) and 2016-22.

1959 – Rajendra Singh, an environmental activist. He is famous for his work in the field of water conservation. The Alwar district of Rajasthan has been considered a dry region from the beginning, where water was considered a scarce commodity. At that time, making  rainwater  reservoirs  and keeping them safe was a traditional method, by which the problem of water scarcity was removed. These reservoirs were called ‘johad’. During the period of development, the work of quarries and deforestation of the foothills of the hills almost put an end to these johads. The men mostly fled the  city,  and the area was in a serious water crisis. Rajendra Singh understood the situation of this crisis fundamentally and decided to overcome it and founded “Tarun Bharat Sangh”, in which volunteer youths again returned to traditional johads, which solved the problem of water to a great extent. For this work, he was awarded the ‘Ramon Magsaysay Award‘ in 2001 (pic credit-globalindian.com). 

1960 – 1970 – M Night Shyamalan. Puducherry born Indo-American  scriptwriter, director and producer, who delves in spitritual and celestial subjects for his films. He has won a Golden Globe, 2 BFTA, 2  Academy award nomonations. His net worth is $ 80 billion (2024-25).  His popular films are  Unbreakable, Split, A Lady in the Water, The Village Signs, The Sixth Sense etc.

1987 – Aditya Narayan. Popular singer and son of  legendary singer Udit Narayan. Aditya has sung for Mohini (Nepalese),  Rangeela, Pardes, Akele Hum Akele Tum etc. He was host for Indian Idol, Fear Factor: Khatron ke Khiladi 9, Sare Gama Pa… etc. He has won Screen Award,  Zee Cine, ITAA and Ghanta Awards etc.

RIP…. 1925 – Surendranath Banerjee. Was a famous freedom fighter, who was twice elected President of the Congress. He is also known as the ‘Maker of Bengal’ of 1905. He founded the Indian National Committee, one of the earliest Indian political organizations, and later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Surendranath Banerjee applied in England for admission to the Indian Civil Service (Indian Administrative Service) after graduation. At that time there was only one Hindu in this service. Banerjee was not included on the ground that he had misreported his age. Alleging discrimination on the basis of caste, Banerjee argued in his appeal that according to Hindu custom, he added his age from the time of conception. Not by birth and he won.

You may have known…. India’s religion-wise literacy rate (2001 census): Hindus – 64.5%, Muslims – 60.0%, Christians – 80.3% and Sikhs – 70.4%.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              {Compiled by  Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}