Today’s Motto: ‘To fight the darkness do not draw your sword, light a candle’
As Every Day makes a new beginning in life, it brings new opportunities, opens new avenues, to perform and make a mark, to write a Page in History Book.
This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History!
On this day, 26 Apr….
1654 – Jews prosecuted and expelled from Brazil. Jews had moved in under Dutch rule in eary 17th century from Spain and Portugal, As of today they form 9th largest settlers in Brazil, countimng to 1,07.000 as per 2010 census.
1721 – The smallpox vaccination was 1st administrated. (Lady Mary Wortley Montegu had returned to England following a stay in Turkey with her ambassador husband. She had learned of a procedure to inocula
te against smallpox and began a campaign to have the procedure established).
1828 – Yunnan’s (ancient Greece) independence movement from Turkey rule, gets Russain support. Yunnan was a Helenic Republic in South Central Europe got indendence from Chinese rule between 1206-1368 but became part of Ming Dynasty of Mongoles inn 1678. In 19th century, it became British and French colony (credit-map.greece.com).
1841 – “Bombay Herald”, established in 1789 was renamed Bombay Gazette in 1891 and published every Wednesday, started publishing on Silk on April 26, 1841
1892 – The ironing board was patented.
1928 – Madame Tussaud’s waxwork exhibition opened in London. Tussaud (Marie Grosholtz) born in Stra
usborg, France, was an artist, known for Vax structures and museums . There are 24 Tussaud Musems world over as of today. Picture on left (Netaji Subhas Bose and Sardar Patel), is one of the select in Tussaud Museum, Delhi. (pics credit-Wikipedia)
1929 – British flyers, undertook first non-stop flight from England to Bombay India (4,130 miles) completed on April 26.
1986 – Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in Pripyat, Ukraine (USSR). , one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant It was estimated that the released radioactivity was 200 times the combined bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ukraine says the health of millions of its people have been affected by the disaster.
1993 – Boeing 737 crashes in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, killing 60 passengers.
1995 – SAARC decides to launch South Asia Preferential Trade Area (SAPTA).
2008 – 
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dedicated 390 MW Dulhasti hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
2019 – “No religion” tops survey of American religious identity globally, for the first time, with 23.1% Protestants edging out Catholics 23.0% and Evangelicals 22.5%, in long-running General Social Survey.
2023 – Brazilian Portuguese-language Michaelis dictionary adds “pelé” as a new adjective to its online editio
n, meaning “exceptional, incomparable, unique”.
Born…. 1897 – Nitin Bose, film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He directed under the banners of Bombay Talkies and Filmistan. Bose is well known for his direction in the blockbuster film Ganga Jamuna, Devdas (1928) and like Bhagya Chakra, Dhoop Chhaon, Chandidas, Deedar, Kathputli etc. He was awarded Dadasaheb Phalke honour in 1977.
1900 – Charles Richter, seismologist, who developed the Richter Scale for measuring the amplitude of eart
hquakes (pic credit-www.seismosoc.org).
1953 – Moushumi Chatterjee, legendary Bengal and Bollywood actor. Known for roles in films like Angoor, Anuraag, Manzil, Balika Badhu, Roti Kapada aur Makaan, Ghar Ek Mandir, Kachche Dhaage, Piku etc. She got Filmfare awards twice, Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and Bengal Film Journalists’ Award and Genie award. (pic credit-tv9.com)
RIP…. 1920 – Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan. Although self-taught, he was one of India’s greatest mathema
tical geniuses. (While Ramanujan was in hospital in England, his Cambridge professor, G. H. Hardy, visited and remarked that he had taken taxi number 1729, a singularly unexceptional number. Ramanujan immediately responded that this number was actually quite remarkable: it is the smallest integer that can be represented in two ways by the sum of two cubes: 1729=13+123=93+103).
1987 – Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi of the famous Shankar-Jaikishan duo, who produced memorable music from 1949 till 1971 when Jaikishan passed away. Shankar continued giving music 
under the same S-J banner. Duo composed music for films Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Zindagi, Hariyali Aur Rasta, Sanjh Aur Sawera, Basant Bahar, Mere Hazoor etc. They together won 9 Filmfare awards for Best Music. Were also hounoured with Pada Shri and a stamp issued in their name in 1968. (pic credit-amarujala .com).
You may have known…. 1. About 12,000 different types of bacteria live in a human mouth. Some are harmless and protect us from infection. Others are harmful causing tooth decay and gum disease.
2. India has three biodiversity hotspots, no other country, or even continent except Brazil and Indonesia have more than two.
(A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction. The term biodiversity hotspot specifically refers to 25 biologically rich areas around the world that have lost at least 70 percent of their original habitat. India has three antarctic stations, Dakshin Gangotri, Maitri and Bharathi. The first station Da
kshin Gangotri was buried in ice and abandoned in 1990–91)
{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}
