Today’s Motto: ‘The best way to teach a child is by telling him what amuses his mind’

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

On this day, 22 Jul….

1678 – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj won the fort of Vellore.

1702 – The “English Company of Merchants” and the old East India Company was named the “United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies”. In1833, this name finally changed to East India Company.

1918 – During the First World War, India’s first fighter pilot Indra Lal Roy’s plane was shot down in battle by German planes near London. ‘Laddie’  Rai had flown 170 hours,  for Britisher under Royal Flying Corps (RAF) and drowned 5  aeroplanes before  losing his  control and life.

1933 – The first round-the-world solo flight (15,596 miles) was completed by Wiley Post, in his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft “Winnie Mae,” in 7 days 18hr 49min.

1983 – Dick Smith made the first solo helicopter flight around the world, taking a leisurely 11 months.

1998 – 24-year old P T Usha won bronze medals in the 400m and 200m races and anchored the 4x100m relay team to Gold and 4x400m for Silver at the Asian Track and Field Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

2012-  Pranab Mukherjee is elected 13th President of India. His term was  from 2012 to 2017. Having started his career as a school teacher in  Howrah and later as an Asstt. Professor, he joined politics in 1969  when he was  given Rajya Sabha Ticket by PM  Indira Gandhi and  Mukherjee served in  various ministries  in Congress  Govts., since 1973, including External Affairs, Defence and Finance.  He won  then Presidential  post  defeating  NDA’s  PA  Sangama.  He appreciated PM Narendra Modi’s decesive and Nationalist  politics and  even  addressed an RSS  meeting  on  June  08, 2018. He  was honoured with Bharat Ratna  in 2019.

2019 – India’s lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 successfully takes off from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota aiming to be fourth nation to soft-land on the moon.

2022 – Droupadi Murmu became the  first tribal politician to be elected President of India. She had earlier been a member of Odisha Legislative Assembly, State Minister of Irrigation and Guv of Jharkhand (2015-21).

Born…. 1912 – Homi Jehangir H Teleyarkhan, social worker, Gandhian and former Inisier in Maharashtra. He served as Governor of Sikkim between Jan. 1981 to June 1984 and persuaded  CM Narbahadur Bhandari to megehis party Sikkim Janata Parishad in Congress Party,  As a Parsi, he also served as National Minority Commission member and wrote some books including Splendour of Sikkim and  The Ideal of National Integration. He was honoured with Padma Shri in 1992 1923 – Mukesh Chand Mathur, popularly known simply as Mukesh, was a prominent playback singer of Hindi cinema, mostly for Raj Kapoor films . Motilal, a distant relative of his, recognized him when he heard him singing at his sister’s wedding. Motilal took them to Bombay and allowed them to stay in his house. In 1959, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Playback Singer for the song ‘Sab Kuch Sikha Humne Na Seekhi Hoshiyari’ from  film Anari. He sang over 150 sad songs. In 1974, Mukesh received the National Film Award for the song “Kai Baar Yun Bhi Dekha Hai” in the film Rajnigandha. His son Nitin is also a singer  and  grandson Neil Nitin  is an actor.

1992 – Selena Gomez, American actress and singer who started  career with Disney World. She has had four  marriages/live-ins in just 34 years of age,  including Nick Jonas. and Justin Bieber.  Her net worth is $ One billion.

RIP … 1967 : Carl  August Sandburg, famous American poet,  folklorist, journalist,  biographist. Won Pulitzer Prize for his collection Corn Huskers. He also wrote novels like The People, The Greaest Story Ever Told,  American Playhouse, NET Playhouse, You Are There,   Abraham Lincoln: the War Years,  Yes, Rememberance Rock, Chicago Poems etc.

Titbits…. 1998 – Sahib Singh Verma,  Delhi Chief Minister, and BJP vice-president K. L. Sharma are fined Rs. 100 each for riding a motorcycle without helmet in New Delhi.

You may have known…. The current population of India is 1,483,314,140 people, as of 2026 based on the adjusted UN estimation. The latest officially reported number was 1,463,865,525 in 2025.                                                                                                                                                                                                          {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}