Today’s Motto: ‘There are many distinctions in life, but graves are all equal’

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

On this day,  May 22……..

1841 – Henry Kennedy, a cabinet-maker and upholsterer of Philadelphia, was issued the first U.S. patent for a reclining chair (pic credit-Ballotpedia).

1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. President to ever hold a patent.

1988 – Architect Leroy S. Buffington patented the system for building skyscrapers using a metal skeleton frame. Although Buffington claimed to be the originator of the metal skeleton frame that made building tall structures feasible, his claim to be the inventor of the skyscraper was refuted (pic credit-archyde.com).

1892 – Dr. Washington Sheffield, a dentist in the USA, invented the collapsible metal toothpaste tube, which was later manufactured by his Sheffield Tube Corp. (The idea of collapsible metal tubes, however, dates back to a patent by American artist John Rand on 11 Sep 1841, but these packages were first commercially used for oil paints. The first collapsible polythene tubes were produced in the US for skin-tanning lotion in 1953).

1894 – Black American inventor S. Newson was issued a patent for an “oil heater or cooker”.

1899 – Plain Dealer reporter Charles Shanks first used the French word “automobile”. (The word thereafter became accepted in the US).

1961 – Top Of The Needle restaurant in the Space Needle in Seattle, was dedicated. It was the first revolving restaurant in the US, 500 feet above the ground. A 14-foot ring next to the windows carrying 260 seats rotated 360 degrees in one hour on a track and wheel system driven by a 1-horsepower motor (pic credit-The Seatle Times).

1963 – Rohini, Glider, became the first to successfully fly at Kanpur.

1973 – Robert Metcalfe wrote a memo describing a way to transmit data from the early generation of personal computers to a new device, the laser printer. He called his multipoint data communications system Ethernet, and today it continues to dominate as the standard computer network.

1989 – IRBM ‘Agni’ Missile launched successfully from Chandipur, Orissa.

1996 – United Front prime ministerial candidate H.D. Deve Gowda unanimously elected leader of the Front’s parliamentary party.

2004 – Dr Manmohan Singh becomes the 13th Prime Minister of India.

2010 – Air India Express Flight 812 crashes near Mangalore International Airport; eight passengers survive and 158 perish.

2012 – Yahoo! sells off its stake in Alibaba Group for $7.1 billion.

Born…. 1772 – Raja Ram Mohan Roy, philosopher and social reformer. Title Raja given by Akbar II for socio religious reforms. Abolished idol worshipping. Studdies Upnishdas, Vedas in Varanasi and spent years in the Himalayas Founded  Brahmo Samaj, Atmiya Sabha, Presidency University and Hindu School.

1859 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish author,  physician whose fictional detective,  Sherlock Holmes, is  emulated by  the scientists, diligently searching through data and making sense of it. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” Later in life, he was a convert to spiritualism and requested burial in an upright position in the garden of his home (pic credit-perfilformosa.com).

1940 – EAS Prasanna, legendary Indian spinner cricketer.  Member of Indian Spin Quartet, comprising Bishan S Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar and S Venkataraghavan)  that won many Test matches and series by their bowling (pic credit-sportslife.com).

1959 – Ms Mehbooba Mufti, J&K  politician. Head of pro-Pak  political party  PDP and daughter of ex-CM Mufti Mohd. Syed, who was also Home Minister in VP Singh government.

RIP….1545 – Sher Shah Suri. He was fatally wounded in an explosion on Kalanjara fort while preparing for an attack. {He introduced the new silver rupee-coin “Rupiya” based on the ratio of 40 copper coin pieces –paisa per rupee and built several roads including the longest road in India known as Grand Trunk Road, which is one of Asia’s oldest and longest major roads. It runs from Chittagong, Bangladesh through Howrah, West Bengal,  then across Northern India through Delhi to Amritsar. From there, the road continues towards Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan, finally terminating in Kabul, in Afghanistan.

You may have known…. 1.  India has the largest number of vegetarians in the world. So much so that Pizza Hut had to open their first pure vegetarian restaurant in the country.  And KFC had to introduce a “vegetarian” menu for India.  And so did McDonalds, the world’s largest fast-food manufacturer.   

2. The Atacama desert in northern Chile is the driest desert in the world. Average rainfall in this region is about 1 mm per year. Some locations within the desert have never had any rainfall.

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