Today’s Motto: ‘The best way to make a living is to do what you enjoy most’

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

On this day, 18 Jun….

1815 – Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon and France defeated by British forces under Wellington and Prussian troops under Blucher.(The term ‘meet one’s waterloo’ meaning ‘To encounter one’s ultimate obstacle and to be defeated by it’ came into being after this battle).

1912 – A patent was issued for a mercury vapour lamp to Peter Hewitt (pic  credeit-in.images.yahoo.com).

1939-40 – All India  Forward Block Party was established by  Sarat Chandra Bose and Netaji Subhas Bose. Ealier it was a faction within the Congress Party, but after Independence, it became a separate political entity, being most poular in West Bengal, Assam and  North Eastern regions.

1959 – 1st telecast transmitted from England to US.

1966 – Indian sitar master Pt. Ravi Shankar performed at California’s hippie subculture event.

1978 – The Karakoram Highway,  (NH-35)  linking Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with Sinkiang in China, is opened. Called  China-Pakistan  Friendship Highway -35, is about 1310 km long  and connects   Hasan Abdal (Pak-Punbjab)  to  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,  Gilgit-Baltistan to  Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomus region of China (illustration credit-wikipedia.com).  

1983 – Sally K. Ride, mission specialist, became America’s first woman in space (pic credit-providencedailydose.com).

1989 – India and Pakistan decide to end the five-year-old confrontation in Siachen Glacier area (at a height of 5,753 m or 18,875 ft from  Sea level)  by redeploying their forces. It is  the  world’s highest battle-field  at   -50 Deg. C, and  the coldest too. Presently India occupies an  advantageous position at  Indira Col  Peak  (pic credit-reckontalk.com).

1993 – Shri Lal Krishna Advani takes over as BJP President. He was earlier  Minister for I&B in Janta Party Govt. in 1977-79,  He became  the  Home Minister & Dy. PM in 1998-2004 under PM Vajpayee Govt. . He led the Ramjanmbhumi Movement  during 1989-91  and  until  the  Supreme Court settled the case in 2019 and Shri Ram Lalla Temple came up at Ayodhya in 2024 .

2000 – K.M. Beenamol breaks P.T. Usha’s record in 400m at 51.21 sec in an international meet at Kiev in Ukraine.

2001 – Protests occur in Manipur over the extension of the ceasefire between Naga insurgents and the government of India.

2015 – Kennewick Man was confirmed to be Native American in a letter published in Nature. The 8,500-year-old skeleton discovered on 28 July 1996 at first seemed possibly of Caucasian or Asian origin (pic credit-greatarcheology.com).

2018 – US President Trump orders US military to set up sixth branch of the military – a space force.

2019 – Chennai, India’s 6th largest city with 4 million people, runs out of drinking  water as  its reservoirs dry up (pic credit-.AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

2022 – Flooding in Bangladesh and nearby Indian states leave four million stranded and without electricity, with at least 41 dead as monsoon floods become more frequent and extreme.

Born….  1931 – K.S Sudarshan, the fifth Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)  during  2000-2009.  Be it the Khalistan problem of Punjab or the anti-infiltration movements  of Assam,  he gave concrete suggestions for their solutions,  due to his deep study and clear direction of  nationalist   thinking,

1942 – Paul McCartney, English musician and member of The Beatles

RIP…. 1974 – Seth Govind Das, a freedom fighter, Parliamentarian, and Hindi writer. Descendent of  Jabalpur’s  merchant Maheshwari family of Raja Gokuldas.  He wrote several   poems, novel Indu Mati, Navras,  Spardha,  Kartavya,  many  plays and articles supporting freedom fighters and was jailed  during  the Freedom Movement. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in  1961.

2002 – Naseem Bano, a leading film actress in Hindi films of the forties. This actress, who made the audience crazy with her captivating performances in the Indian cine world. She was called the “Beauty Queen” for her beauty. She was the mother of  veteran actress Saira Banu and famous producer/director  Sultan Ahmed.

2005 – Syed Mushtaq Ali, an Indian cricketer, a right-handed opening batsman who holds the record of scoring the first overseas Test century by an Indian player. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is named after him.

You may have known…. The value of pi was first calculated by  Indian  mathematician  Budhayana  in the 6th  Century, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have  officially published  in 1999 that Budhayan’s works date to the 6th Century whict is long before the European mathematicians.

{Compiled by Lt. Gen./ (R)  Raj Kadyan}