Today’s Motto: ‘You have to do your own growing, no matter how tall your father was’

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

On this day,  Aug.. 24…………

1608 – The first representative of the East India landed in Surat for purposes of trade.

1690 – Calcutta was founded by Job Charnock. He was an employee and controversial administrator of the English East India Company, and traditionally regarded as the founder of the city of Kolkata. He lived in India from 1655 to 1693.  He’s  also credited with saving a widow from the funeral pyre of her husband and later married her.    However, after the landmark Calcutta High Court ruling on 16 May 2003, his name has been purged from all official documents as the founder of Kolkata (pic ccredit-Wikipedia).

1869 -The first U.S. patent for a waffle iron was issued to Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, N.Y.

1891 – Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera.

1907 – The Bréguet-Richet Gyroplane No. 1 made what isgenerally accepted as the first vertical flight, hovering about 2 feet off the ground for one minute, powered by a 45 h.p. engine.

1932 – Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States, travelling from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just over 19 hours.  Earlier in the same year, on 20 May 1932, she accomplished the first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean (pic credit-Britannica).

1966 – Mihir Sen swims the Gibralter channel.

1971 – Crowds invade the pitch as India beat England by four wickets for their first-ever cricket victory in London.

1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of USSR Communist Party.

2015 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces that for the 1st time 1 billion people logged into Facebook.

2022 – South Korea again records the world’s lowest fertility rate at 0.81  (advanced economics average 1.6, population replacement needs 2.1).

Born….

1933 – Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority (1994-2004) and 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

1949 – KJ George. Congress politician and Karnataka minister of Energy.

RIP…….

2019- Arun Jaitley. Sr. Advocate and Govt. Attorney. Served as Minister of Finance and Corp. Affairs in BJP Govt. between 2014-19 and is credited with implimenting GST law in India.

Titbits….

1997 – Gordon Spence discovered the largest known prime number, 2^2976221 – 1, the 36th known Mersenne prime number. It took his 100-MHz Pentium PC fifteen days to prove it. At 895,932 digits in length, if printed out the number would stretch for 1.4 miles or if spoken 8 hours a day would take 28 days to complete.

You may have known….

When the Gods dance amongst men – Theyyam, Kerala: We’ve often been told that God lies in each of us. But how many times have you seen God possess a human body? Those who have witnessed North Malabar’s Theyyam ritual worship will know how intimidating it can be. Dressed in elaborate make up and headdresses, dancers perform to drumbeats and incantations reciting myths and legends, of the deity of the shrine. As the beats become more intense, the metaphysical combines with this realm and the dancer metamorphoses into the deity or the Theyyam. In their ‘possessed’ state, they dance on fire, bless devotees and perform miracles. Sometimes, a cock sacrifice is made and an offering of blood is made to Theyyam. Once dancers are out of the fervent trance, they have no recollection of what transpired during the possession (pic ccredit-Wikimedia Commons).

 

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