Today’s Motto: ‘The path to success is paved by action’

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

On this day, 26 Mar….
(Celebrated as Purple Day, an international grassroots effort dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy worldwide).

1552 – Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh guru.

1668 – England took control of Bombay.

1845 – A patent was awarded for an adhesive medicated plaster, predating the ‘Band-Aid.’ A Johnson & Johnson company executive designed the tape to cure his wife’s small cuts in kitchen (pic credit-edition.cnn.com).

1872 – Thomas J. Martin was awarded a patent for the fire extinguisher.

1885 – The first cremation in England took place at Woking, where a crematorium was built.

1916 – Robert Stroud stabbed and killed a prison guard in Leavenworth Kansas. For this crime, he was imprisoned for life. While there, Stroud conducted and published important research on bird diseases, and became the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” named for the prison where he spent his sentence (pic credit-thefamouspeople.com).

1931 – British  rulers replace  New Delhi as capital in place of  Calcutta.

1971 – Bangladesh (East Pakistan) declares its independence.

1996 – The 3-day old Hazratbal shrine crisis ends, as the militants holed up in the shrine come out of it.                                                                                                                                                                                        2014 – Beijing issues air pollution warnings, advising limited outdoor activity as particulate concentration measures over 12 times the World Health Organization standards.

Born….  1907 – Mahadevi Varma, a Hindi-language poet and novelist. She is considered as one of the four major pillars of the Chhayawadi era in Hindi literature. She wrote many collections of poems, essays and novels.  She was honoured with Sahitya Akademi award,  Padma Vibhusha, Jnanpeeth Award,

1940 – Nancy Pelosi. Famous American politician, was  Speaker of US Senate of Representatives between 2019-23.  Wrote books like The Art of Power, Know Your Power etc.

1940 – James Cann. American actor and karate master who trained under japanese Takayuki Kubota. Played the character of Sonny Carleone in The Godfather. Got Hollywood Hall of Fame honour.

1944 –  Diana  Ross. American and British  lead singer of The Supremes, who had over 100 million music  records to her credit.  Won a Golden Globe, two Holliwood Walk of Fame titles   and several other awards. (pic credit-thefamouspeople.com)

1962 – Archana Puran Singh, film and TV personality. Known for comedy roles in films and popular Kapil Sharma  Show and Comedy Circus. She has acteds in Agnipath, Kick, Raja Hindustani, Mela, Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai, Mohabbaten, Virgin  Bhanupriya, Luv Da  the End, Panga Gang  etc.  she has won 2 Filmfare, a People’s Choice, IIFA awards each .

1969 – Madhu Nair , film actress known for her works predominantly in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language films. She was a part of film Roja (1992).  He won a National Film award,  3 Filmfares,  Padma Shri  and  several  state  film  awards.

1973 – Lawrence Edward Page, an American computer engineer who was a graduate student when he co-founded Google, Inc. with Sergey Brin, while working in the same Ph.D. programme.

1985 – Keira Knightingley – British actress known for her role in Star wars, The Phantom  Lives, Bend It Like Beckham, Pirates of The Caribbean, Pride And Prejudice and Imitation Games etc.                                                                                                                                                                                    RIP…. 1814 – Joseph Ignace Guillotin, French physician who promoted a law requiring the use of a “machine that beheads painlessly” as a humane mode for all executions. (The beheading device ‘Guillotine’ was named after him

You may have known…. 

The Tirupati Balaji temple and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple both, receive more visitors than the Vatican City and Mecca combined.                                                                                                               Tirupati temple, called Kaliyuga Baikunth,  is the abode of Lord Venkateshwara, an incarnation of  Vishnu Bhagwan  and has over 80,000 -100,000 visitors  daily.  On Vaikuntha Ekadasdhi  the visitors count crosses 1,50,000.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Kashi Vishvanath temple in Varanasi  is the oldest abode of Shiva, where  He  adjudicated the supremacy of  Lord Vishnu  over  Brahma  Deva  during  the formation of   Sanatana Hindu  cultural  and social   system  on the Earth. The city  also  known as  Kashi and had  1099 temples of  Shiva  (Aadi Vishveshwara temple  with Jyotirlinga) and other Gods.  Rechristened as one of the 12 Jyotirlings by Adi Shankracharya in  9th century,  the temples were destroyed by  foreign invadors  several times  between 1194  CE  and  1670, but was rebuilt  again and again by  devout Hindu kings including  Raja Man Singh,  Raja Todarmal,  Ahilyabai  Holkar  and the present PM Narendra Modi, also elected as  local MP in  2014  and  renovated  most  part of the  complex as Kashi Visvanath Corridor to streamline  worship  by the  pilgrims.                                                              Kashi Viswanath gets over 10,000 pilgroms daily but sometimes during  Mahashivratri it goes beyong 10 lakhs.                                                                                                                                                                                                             {Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}