Today’s Motto: ‘Use past as a trampoline and not as a couch’

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

On this day, 06 Jul….

1782 – British-French sea battle at Negapattinam, off India’s  Southern  coast. (The Battle of Negapatinam was the third in the series of battles fought between a British fleet and a French fleet off the coast of India during the Anglo-French War. The French attempted to take the British held port of Negapattinam but were frustrated and had to withdraw).

1787 – Sir JC Bose  Indian Botanical Garden was established in Shibpur, West Bengal. The great Banyan Tree located in the Garden is the largest Banyan Tree on the Globe (330 m long), and listed on Guinness Book of World Records in 1989.

1885 – French scientist Louis Pasteur and his colleagues injected the first of 14 daily doses of rabbit spinal cord suspensions containing progressively inactivated rabies virus into 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been severely bitten by a rabid dog 2 days earlier. The immunisation was successful and Pasteur’s rabies immunisation procedure was rapidly adopted throughout the world. (The boy grew up and became caretaker of the Pasteur Institute until age 64).

1886 – Horlick’s of Wisconsin offered the first malted milk to the public. The  energy food launched by James and William Horlick then is today’s leading  kid’s  favourite brand, owned by Unilever Company, worldwide.

1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.

1920 – A radio compass was used for first time for aircraft navigation. In a test of the radio compass as an aid to navigation, an F5L left Hampton Roads and flew directly to the battleship Ohio, 94 miles at sea in a position unknown to the pilot.

1924 – 1st photo sent experimentally across Atlantic by radio, US-England.

1928 – 1st all-talking motion picture shown in NY.

1944 – For the first time, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose called Mahatma Gandhi – the Father of the Nation.

2000 – India, Nepal sign agreement to set up a specialist joint unit to counter terrorism and share information about criminals operating along the border.

Born….  1901 – Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, great social reformer, politician and leader. He was the founder of the “Bharatiya Jana Sangh”, of which BJP is the successor party. He was also a Union Minister of Industry & Supply (now Commerce and Industry). He opposed Nehru-Liaquat Ali Agreement of April 1950 and resigned. He agitated in Srinagar against these agreements, was arrested and died in the jail under doubtful circumstances (Jan Sangh, RSS blamed poisening for it).

1905 – Laxmibai Kelkar, an eminent social reformer who founded an organization called ‘Rashtra Sevika Samiti’ in 1936. Her original name was Kamal, but people used to call her ‘Mausi Ji’ with respect. Laxmibai Kelkar fought fiercely with the orthodox society and employed Harijan servants .Once when Mahatma Gandhi appealed to donations in a meeting, Lakshmibai donated her gold chain.

1927 – Prabhjot Kaur, great  Punjabi, English and Hindi  poet and author. Born in Gujarat, but lived in New Delhi, wrote many collections like Plateau, Pabbi, Dreams Die Young, Zindgi De Kujh Pala, Kandhari Hawa, Bolana di Nahin Ja We Adia etc. She was awarded Padma Shri, Sahitya Kala Award, La Rose de France, Poetry Society of America, Punjab Vidhan Parishad and UNESCO  membership.

1935 – 14th Dalai Lama,  (Tenzin Gyatso). Tibetan spiritual leader of  Tibet’s Lamaistic Buddhists (Gelug School). He was oppressed by Chinese govt. under Mao Zedong,  so he  sneaked into India in 1959 and established a Tibetan Govt. in Exile with Dharamshala as his Head Quarters. He has travelled worldwide and preached Buddhism, Spiritualism,  Hinduism, meditation  and  led several campaigns for World Peace. He was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and got  several world honours. He has written many books on above subjects.

1985 – Ranveer Singh (Jugjeet Singh Bhavnani), is an actor who is well known for his work in Hindi films. The recipient of several awards, including four Filmfare Awards, he is among the highest-paid Indian actors and has been featured in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list since 2012.

RIP…. 1986 – Babu Jagjivan Ram, politician and valiant freedom fighter. After Independence,  he held many prominent ministerial portfolios such as Communication Minister (1952-56), Railway Minister (1956-62), Food and Agriculture Minister (1967-70), Defence Minister (1970-74). After 1977 and  he became the Deputy Prime Minister (Defence) in Janta regime. Thereafter, he established Congress (J). His uninterrupted representation in the Parliament from 1936 to 1986 is a world record.

2002 – Dhirubhai Ambani, businessman. (Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was a business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries in Bombay with his cousin. He had been figured in the The Sunday Times top 50 businessmen in Asia. Ambani took Reliance Industries public in 1977 and by 2007, the combined fortune of the family was $60 billion, making the Ambanis the third richest family in the world).

You may have known…. The Indian Railways is a colossus. It is the world’s largest railway system under a single management and is unparalleled in size, scale and operations. Launched on April 16, 1853 from Boribander, Bombay to Thane,  today it  transports over   13 millionj passangers daily across  country , apart from millions  of tons of cargo.  Its route network is over  69,439.000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir (Srinagar) and   West Bengal border to Rann of Kuchh in Gujarat.

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