Today’s Motto: ‘Rushing is of no use if you are going the wrong way’

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

On this day,  Aug . 20………

1695 – A British patent was granted to Daniel Quare for a portable weather-glass column, a  Barometer.   And a    wall-clock, wrist-watch.   (pic credit-Wikipedia)

1791 – Samuel Briggs and his son, Samuel Briggs, Jr. became the first father-son pair to receive a joint U.S. patent. Their invention was a nail-making machine.

1819 – 1st parachute jump in U.S.

1841 – The word—dinosaur (“terrible lizard”) was used for first time by Richard Owen while addressing the Annual Meeting of the British Association in Plymouth, England.

1858 – Governance power  of India transferred from East India Company to Crown.
After the occasion, the Supreme British ruler in India was called as ‘Viceroy’.

1870 – Tower Subway, the first tube railway in the world, was opened under the River Thames in London. It was not successful due to low use and frequent breakdowns, and the railway closed within three months (Nov 1870). The tunnel was converted to a foot tunnel with stairs. It was closed in 1894 when the opening of the nearby Tower Bridge made it redundant. The tunnel now holds water mains and fibre optic cables.

1875 – World 1st roller skating rink opens in London.

1880 – Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted officially by Parliament. Originally set-up to aid naval navigation, in the 1840 ‘s with the introduction of the railways there was a need in Britain for a national time system to replace the local time adopted by major towns and cities 9Pic credit-British inventions).

1892 – George A. Wheeler, of New York City, patented ideas for the first practical moving staircase, though it was never built. Some of its features were incorporated in the prototype built by the Otis Elevator Company in 1899.

1935 – The British pass Govt. of India Act, separating Burma, Aden from India.

1938 – The first nylon-bristle toothbrush in the U.S. that replaced hog bristles.

1965 – The trimline telephone was made by Bell Telephone.

1970 – Smt. Chonira Beliappa Muthamma, India’s first woman ambassador, was deputed at Hungary (pic credit-kodavacian).

1987 – Vishwanathan Anand becomes the first Asian to win the World Junior Chess championship.

1987 – Geet Sethi retains the World Amateur Billiards title.

1993 – CEC, T N Seshan postpones all elections including by-elections to December in protest against the government’s attempt to subjugate the Commission.

2000 – The Lok Sabha performs a ”hat-trick” by setting off the process for the creation of three new states by passing the Jharkhand Bill.

Born….

1922 – Gangaprasad Birla,  great industrialist, who founded companies like Hindustan Motors, Orient Paper, Orient Fans & Electricals, Hyderabad Industries, Avetic, Nigeria Engg. Works etc. woerth over Rs 5,000 Crores business empire alingwith his cousin BK Birla. Also Birla Institute of Engg. Pilani and Birla Planetoriums in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai.

RIP….

1922 – Graham Bell, Scottish-American inventor of the telephone.

You may have known….

Festival of the Snake – Nag Panchami: India shares a very old bond with snakes. These frightening beings have played a prominent role throughout Indian mythology and folklore. India is known to many still, as the Land Of Snake Charmers. Till date, the fifth day of the lunar month of Shravan is celebrated as Nag Panchami across India and Nepal. Live Cobras, without their venomous fangs removed, are worshipped! Priests sprinkle haldi-kumkum and flower petals on their raised hoods. Devotees feed them milk and even rats. It is popularly believed that snakes do not bite on Nag Panchami (pic credit-Pinterest).

 

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