Today’s Motto: ‘Let your creativity not be hampered by adverse opinion’

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

On this day, 30 Mar….
1791 – After a proposal by the Académie des sciences, the French National Assembly finally chose that a metre would be a 1/10 000 000 of the distance between the north pole and the equator.

1842 – Physician Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation. He placed an ether-soaked towel over the face of James Venable and removed a tumour from his neck. This event predated Morton’s public demonstration of ether by four years (pic credit-hmdb.org).

1858 – The first U.S. patent for a combination of  lead pencil and eraser was issued to Hyman L. Lipman, of Philadelphia.

1919 – MK Gandhi announces resistance against Rowlatt Act. (The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919 popularly known as the Rowlatt Act was a legislative act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on March 18, 1919, indefinitely extending the emergency measures of preventive indefinite detention, incarceration without trial and judicial review enacted in the Defence of India Act 1915 during the First World War).

1923 – The Cunard liner Laconia arrived in New York City, becoming the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the world, a cruise of 130 days.

1959 – Dalai Lama fled China & was granted political asylum in India.

1981 – US President Ronald Reagan was shot at close range as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel about one mile from the White House.
The attacker John Hinckley, was charged with trying to assassinate the president and in the following June, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to hospital (pic credit-Michael Evans).

1987 – An anonymous foreign buyer purchased Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece ‘Sunflowers’ for nearly $36.3 million.

1998 – The German car maker BMW buys Rolls-Royce cars for $570 million.

1999 – A jury in Portland, Oregon, in a landmark case ordered Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades (pic credit-businessglitz.com).

2002 – The Queen Mother died in her sleep today at the age of 101.

2012 – Japan has stated that if North Korea launches a rocket in April and it flies into Japan’s territory, the country will not hesitate to shoot it down if necessary. South Korea made a similar statement earlier in the week, saying that if it was necessary they too would shoot the rocket down.

2023 – Key figures in Artificial Intelligence including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak sign an open letter warning the race to develop AI systems is out of control and asking for a suspension of at least six months.

Born…. 1908 – Devika Rani, famous film actress. (Devika Rani Chaudhuri, usually known as Devika Rani was an actress in Indian films who was active during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the First Lady of Indian cinema. started with silent film A Throw of Dice in 1928.  She is credited  with performing a 4-minute long kissing scene on screen with hero Himanshu Rai (her husband) in film Karma in 1929.  They both established a studio  Bombay Talkies  for film making. She was awarded Padma Shri and was the first  Dadasaheb Phalke award winner  in 1969.

1962 – Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Bhartiya Janata Party’s 4 time MP from Saran, Bihar. Former Union  Minister and a trained  Flyer,  a  Captain, who flew a Rafel in 2017 Bengalore Air Show.  He’s also a  Party Spokesman.

1979 – Norah Jones. American piano singer, song writer who sold millions of her records, mixing jazz and pop, classical and contemporary,   vocally.

1986 -Sergio Ramos Garcia. Spanish professional footballer, known as one of the greatest defenders ( centre forward) of all times,  he captains Liga MX Club Monterrey and has a worth of $ 80 million.

1987 -Becky Lynch,  (Rebecca Quin), an Irish-American wrestler. who became famous with WWE in 2005 by winning SuperGirls championship. She won RAW twice and many other contests in the ring.. On March 26, 2024, she released  her  autobiagraphy The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, which also became a best seller by April 2024. She also did some TV performances and popular films.

You may have known…. 

In a village called Shani Shingnapur in Maharashtra,  a  relgious place near Shirdi Sai  Baba Ashram  and has a big Shani Dev statue.  Here  people have been living in houses with No Ddoors for generations.  This is because they believe that whoever steals anything from this place will incur the wrath of Shani God and will have to pay for his/her sins very dearly. There is no police station in this village either.

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