Today’s Motto: ‘Success normally awaits just one step beyond our greatest failure.’
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 History Book.
This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History!
On this day, 19 Apr….
(World Liver Day, dedicated to spreading awareness about liver diseases. With the exception of the brain, the liver is the second largest and most complex organ in the body).
1451 – Bahlol 
Lodi captured Delhi beating Alam Shah.
1770 – British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia (pic credit-Britannica).
1892 – The first Duryea automobile was operated by pioneer manufacturer Charles E. Duryea. He had been building it since August 1891. This would become the model for the first automobile regularly made for sale in the U.S.
1909 – Joan of Arc receives beautification and Sainthood by Pope Pius X at the Roman Catholic Church and cannonised on May 16, 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. St. Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France. She was a peasant girl who, believing that she was acting under a divine guidance, led the French army into a momentous victory at Orléans in 1429 that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War.
1971 – Salyut 1 was launched by the Soviet Union. Although primitive, having only a single main module, it was the first space station ever in Earth orbit.
1975 – The first satellite built in India was launched from Volgograd Launch Station, Russia, on a Soviet Intercosmos C-1 rocket. It was named Aryabhatta, after a noted 5th-century Indian mathematician who researched on cosmos (Brahamand) and wrote Aryabhatt and Arya Siddhant. He was born in Patliputra, the capital of Samrat Ashok. 1995 – A criminal release of sarin vapour in the Tokyo underground caused the death of twelve people, and 5,000 were injured. Because of their attack with sarin gas the previous year, in Matsumoto, Japan, in which 7 people were killed and 200 injured, the authorities were prepared for similar acts of terrorism, and antidotes were available to treat those affected in the next attack. In an incident of 1995, this preparation saved many lives. (Sarin vapour is a nerve gas, so poisonous that a tablespoonful of liquid sarin could kill or disable 25,000 inhabitants if sprayed from the air as a fine mist over a town).
1997 – I.K. Gujral, External Affairs Minister, chosen leader of United Front in place of Deve Gowda and made the next Prime Minister Born in Sohawa Tehsil (now in Pakistan), he’s also known for moving a diplomatic Gujral Doctrine on South Asia politics, though it failed to bring any tangible results.
1998 – Kottayam in Kerala becomes the first district in India to complete computerisation of the Talluk offices connecting them with the district headquarters.
2011 – Fidel Castro resigns his position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba after 45 years of holding the title.
2021 – NASA successfully flies its drone helicopter Ingenuity on Mars, first powered aircraft to fly on another world.
Born…. 1824 – Lord Byron (George Gorden). British romantic poet and satirical writer. His famous poetry collections Darkness, She Walks in Beauty, Don Juan DeMarco, Vampyr: A Soap Opera, Gothic, Jane Eyre, Le Coarsaire are relished even today. He died at young age of 36. He had several romantic affairs which forced to move to far off places in Europe. 1864 – Mahatma Hansraj, a famous Arya Samaj leader, social reformer, and educationist of Punjab. Due to his significant contribution and efforts, more than 750 schools and colleges are providing quality education in its name. Hansraj Ji was greatly influenced by the thoughts of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He was also a strong opponent of casteism (pic credit-in.pinterest.com).
1945 – Surekha Sikri. Indian film, theatre and TV atress. Debuted with TV serial Kissa Kursi Ka, Balika Vasdhu and films like Tamas, Mammo, Badhai Ho, etc. She won Sangeet Natak Akademy award, 3 National, a Filmfare 
, a Screen and an ITA award.
1957 – Mukesh Ambani, businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the largest public company in India by market capitalisation in 2025. As of December 2025, he is the richest person in Asia and the 16th richest in the world in 2023; with a net worth of US$112.8 billion (now $ 105 billion and overtaken by Gautam Adani to India’s No. 1).
1968 – Arshad Warsi, film actor, producer, dancer, television personality, choreographer, and playback singer who appears in Hindi films. He is known for roles in 3 idiots, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Golmaal, Dhamaal, Jolly LLB etc. Won a Filmfare award in 2007 for comic and supportive role and several other awards.
1977 – Anju Bobby George, a popular athlete who won India a world-class
award for the first time by winning a Bronze medal in the long jump at the World Athletics Championships held in Paris in September 2003.
RIP…. 1882 – Charles Darwin. legendary naturalist, biologist, life scientist whose Theory of Evolution, Origin pf Species, ThevDescent of Man, Selection of Relation to Sex, Expression of Emotions of Man and Animals, Goeogocal Observations of South America, The Voyage of the Beagle etc. were many noted reserches of his age.
You may have known…. The fi rst railroad in India was constructed by two Indian businessmen, a Hindu and a Parsi ( Nana Jagannath Shunkerseth and Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy) and not the British).
{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}
