Today’s Motto: ‘There is little use competing with someone, who has nothing to lose’

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

On this day, 24 Oct….

1836 – A Phillips patents Match-sticks. (The first friction matches, using a mixture of chemicals for their heads, were made and sold in England in 1827. Phillips’ match, which could be struck on any rough surface, was the first genuine friction match made in America. Known as “loco focos,” and later as “lucifers,” these matches were made entirely by hand from a mixture of chalk, phosphorus, glue, and brimstone (sulphur). The introduction of gas for lighting and cooking, and the spread of cigar smoking, made the lucifer almost a necessity. There are two main types of matches: safety matches, which can be struck only against a specially prepared surface, and strike-anywhere matches, for which any suitably frictional surface can be used).

1882 – Robert Koch, a German physician and microbiologist  discovers the Germ that causes tuberculosis. He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1905.

1901 – First woman to go over Niagara Falls in Canada,  (Anna Taylor).

1934 – Mahatma Gandhi quits the Indian National Congress in a struggle over political  tactics, in Freedom struggle.

1939 – Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in Wilmington, Delaware. (Nylon hit the markets in 1939 and was an instant hit, especially as a replacement for silk in hosiery. In fact, before long “nylons” and “stockings” were synonyms in everyday speech. The inventor Carothers did not see the widespread application of his work — in consumer goods such as toothbrushes, fishing lines, and lingerie, or in special uses such as surgical thread, parachutes, or pipes — nor the powerful effect it had in launching a whole era of synthetics.

1945 – UNO Day. The United Nations was established by the major  fighting nations  in WW-II, with the  idea that humanity’s future depends on our ability to work together — settling disputes through diplomacy and law, fighting poverty and hunger, promoting human rights, and delivering life-saving aid. In a world shaken by conflict, battered by the climate crisis and scarred by inequality, UN Day is a moment to renew that promise: dialogue over division, cooperation over confrontation, solidarity over fear.

1975 – Bonded labour system was abolished by Ordinance.

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No 13 rocket takes the first photograph of Earth from outer space).

1948 – Bernard M Baruch introduces term “Cold War”.

1984 – First Metro Train (Underground Train) in India started between Esplanade and Bhowanipore in Calcutta city.

Born….1914 – Lakshmi Sehgal, was born in a traditional Tamil family and studied medicine at Madras Medical College, then moved to Singapore. During World War II, when Japanese forces attacked British forces in Singapore, she joined Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj. She was influenced by the nationalist movement since childhood and when Mahatma Gandhi started the boycott movement of foreign goods she took part in it. She became the first woman member in the cabinet of the provisional Azad Hind government in 1943.

1921 – R. K. Laxman, (Rasipuram Krishnaswamy), the celebrated cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He is best known for his creation “The Common Man” and for his daily cartoon strip “You Said It” in The Times of India in 1951 and continued for about five centuries. He worked for The Hindu and Free Press Journal as political cartoonist. He also drew popular mascot Gattu for ASian Paints and  drwaings for film Malgudi Days written by his elder brother RK Natrayan,  Wagle Ki Duniya and many personalities like Churchill, Hitler, Gandhi etc. He was awarded Padma Vibhushanm Raman Magasaysay Award and Doctorate by the University of Mysore.

RIP….1991 – Ismat Chugtai, famous  Urdu author, social worker and campaigner for justice for women. Born  as  9th  of the 10 children of  a vcivil servant Mirza Qasim Baig  Chughtai,   in  Badayun (U.P.),  she was  a leftist thinker and activist. She wrote against many myths in  Hindu and Muslim relegious books and  faced much  social opposition. Some of her novels like Lihaaf, Ziddi, Tedhi Lakir etc. were adapted into films by KA Abbas and on theatre stage too.

2013 – Manna Dey, also affectionately known as Manna Da, was a well-known Indian playback singer in the film industry. His real name was Prabodh Chandra Dey. Manna Da started his film career in 1942 with the film Tamanna and lent his voice to more than 3000 songs from 1942 to 2013. Apart from mainly Hindi and Bengali film songs, he also composed some of his songs in other Indian languages With his singing, he used to bring out the hidden emotion behind the word beautifully. Perhaps this is the reason why the famous Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan chose Manna Dey to give voice to his immortal work Madhushala.

2017 -Girija Devi,  was an esteemed Indian classical singer of the Seniya and Banaras gharanas. She specialized in the thumri genre of Hindustani classical music and was fondly known as ‘Thumri Queen’. Her musical journey was adorned with numerous accolades, including the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Vibhushan, reflecting her stature as a doyenne of Indian classical music.

You may have known….1. India grows more brinjal, also known as eggplant or aubergine, than any other country in the world. With ideal growing conditions and strong demand across its diverse regional cuisines, India produces over 12.9 million tonnes of brinjal every year. The vegetable is cultivated across states like West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh and appears in dishes ranging from curries to stir-fries (pic credit-vecteezy.com).

2. While India has seen a steady decline in child marriage, millions of girls remain affected, with rates remaining high in certain states. Data shows a strong correlation between child marriage and lower education levels, poverty, and residence in rural areas.                                                                                          {Compiled y Lt. Gen. (R)  Raj Kadyan}

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