Today’s Motto: ‘The loudness of criticism is a sign of your doing well’

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

On this day, 13 Jan….

(Lohri: Celebrated  on January 13 across Northern India {Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi}, marks the harvest festival marks the end of the winter solstice and the arrival of warmer days).

1709 – Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah I defeated his brother Kam Bakhsh in Hyderabad, consolidating power.

1818 – The Rana of Udaipur signed a treaty with the British for protection, bringing Mewar under British influence.

1849 – Start of Battle of Chillianwala: A major conflict during the Second Anglo-Sikh War took place between the Sikh Empire and British forces. While the British ultimately won the war, this battle was a pyrrhic victory where the Sikhs inflicted heavy casualties, shaking the British reputation of invincibility. Though the Sikh army under Maharaja Ranjit Singh won the battle, yet it couldnot sustain control and soon lost major regions to the British.

1906 – 1st radio set advertised (Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American) claimed to receive signals up to one mile

1928 – The first TV sets, with receiver screens only 1½ inches square were installed in private homes in New York.                                                       1930 – “Mickey Mouse” comic strip 1st appears.   Cartoonist  Ub Iwerks  of Kansas City,  a popular  animator,  character designer, inventor and special effects technician drew the strip, though many credit this to Walt Disney who wrote the texts  and Win Smith, another colleague  also  contributed  new funny ideas.                                                                                                                        Mickey Mouse strip was running  in over 60 newspapers in US and other countries by 1940 and later spread to world over. Walt Disney  co. has a net worth of  $ 205.6 Billion as in Yr. 2023.

1957 – The first frisbee – an “aerodynamic toy to be thrown through the air – was developed.

1964 – Tragic Hindu-Muslim riots erupted in Calcutta leading to the loss of over 100 lives.

1967 – Samachar Bharti inaugurated  by veteran journalist Dharmvir Gandhi and Lala Pheroz Chand in New Delhi.

1976 – The first machine for reading printed matter aloud was given its first public demonstration, by its inventor, Raymond Kurzwell. Using a camera with a computer, pages of printed matter could be scanned, the letters analysed, and reproduced in synthesized English speech at 150 words per minute.

2020 – Oldest celestial  meteorite material existing on earth at 7.5 billion years old, revealed by scientists studying the Murchison meteorite that fell to earth in Australia in 1960s.

2021 World’s oldest known cave painting of an animal – a pig, 45,000 years old, discovered in Leang Tedongnge cave, island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Although over 350 old cave paintings including Mohan Da Zaro and others have been credited with being  ancient ( photo credit-Luc-Henri Faze).

2025 – World’s largest religious festival, the Mahakumbh Mela for 400 million people began beside the Ganges in Prayagraj. Held every 12 years, 2025 was the grand Kumbh Mela, held every 144 years. It was estimated that about 65 crore Indians went to bathe  in Mahakumbh in Prayagraj in 2024.

Born…. 1926 – Shakti Samanta, film director and producer, who founded Shakti Films in 1957.  From 1957  he produced or directed  most popular films such as Anand Ashram, Anusandhan /Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, Anyay Abhichar, Howrah Bridge, Insan Jaag Utha, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, An Evening in Paris, Aradhana, Kati Patang, and Amar Prem, Amanush   Legendary  filmmaker Shakti Samanta and superstar Rajesh Khanna, together, dominated  an era between 1969 and the mid-1970s. Shakti and Rajesh delivered films like Aradhana, Kati Patang, and Amar Prem that blended romance, pain, music, and human vulnerability like few others could.                                                                                                        He received several Filmfare awards, Filomfare Lifetime Achievements awards, Zee Cine awards and many international accolades  at Berlin, Tashkent, Moscow, Cairo, Beirut etc.  He was Ptesident of IMPPA, CBFC for 7 years and Chaired Satyajit Ray Film and TV Institute Kolkata for 2 years.

1938 – Pt.  Shivkumar Sharma, veteran  Santoor player. Santoor is a Kashmiri folk instrument earlier played in local folk songs, public functions.  Shivkumar Sharma was awarded international  honors including Honorary citizenship  of the City of Baltimore in 1985, Sangeet Natak Akademy in 1986,  Padam Shri and Padam Vibhushan in 2001.

1949 – Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma,  Patiala-born, the  first Indian cosmonaut (in Soyuz T-11) to go into space. He went into space alongwith 2 other Soviet cosmonauts on April 03, 1984 and spent 7 days 21 hours 40 minutes in space. He spoke to then PM Indira Gandhi and some media persons from the spacecraft. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union and Ashoka Chakra, the highest gallentry  award.

1977- Orlando Bloom. British actor, famous for his ocean raider role in Lord of the Rings and 39 other films. He was awaded Screen  Actors Guild, Hollywood Walk of Fame and other awards.              1982 – Ruth Wilson. British actress who has done about  films like The Affair, The Royal Scandal, Luther, Mrs Wilson, The Woman in The Wall, His Dark Materials etc.

1978 – Major Mohit Sharma, posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra  on  Republic Day 2010  Operating under 1st Para  SF Batallion, he was involed in counter insurgency operations aqgainst Hizbul Mujahideen in Kupwara, Kashmir. He was martyred in the combat in  March 2009, after breaking enemy backbone in secret mission.

RIP…. 1921- Raghunath Narasimha Mudholkar, who presided over annual session of  Indian National Congress in 1912 at  Bankipore.

1928- Wilhelm Wiens. German physicist, who founded the theory of heat in electromagnetic operations. He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1911.

1974 – Saraswatibai Rane, famous music expert and classical singer. She was the daughter of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, the founder of Kirana Gharana. She and her elder sister Hirabai had a very fine jugalbandi, they were awarded Bal Gandharwa Samman, ITC Sasngeet Research and Padam Bhushan samman by Govt. of India apart from several honors.

 1985 – Madan Puri, an actor of Hindi and Punjabi films. As a character actor mainly in negative roles, he acted in about 430 films in a career spanning above fifty years. One of the famous Puri brothers, Chamana, Amrish Puri, born in Nawanshehar (Pakistan),  was a cousin of legendary singer KL Sehgal.

You may have known…. French Revolutionary Time, used from 1794 to 1800, during the French Revolution, was a short-lived concept that used a base-10 timekeeping system. Otherwise known as “decimal time,” this unprecedented method included 10-hour days, 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute. Each day was divided into 10 equal parts, with “zero” marking the start (what is now midnight) and “five” denoting the midpoint (noon). This meant that every hour was more than twice as long as an hour of standard time. New clocks and watches were even manufactured displaying both decimal time and standard time, to considerable confusion.                   
                                                                                                                                  {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R )  Raj Kadyan }