Today’s Motto: ‘Don’t just wait for Inspiration. Become it’

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

On this day, 18 Jan….

1911 – The first landing of an aircraft on a ship.

1950 – India is declared a secular republic. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said he was determined to abolish casteism and industrialise the nation. Constitution makes Hindi official national language, English to continue for 15 years, 14 major state languages are recognized.                             India also moved a motion for No war-treaty with  Pakistan to improve the relations with neighbouring countries (Nehru-Liaqat pic PIB).                                                          (Indian PM Nehru also signed a Panchsheel Treaty with China on April 29, 1954, yet both went on to attack India in 1962 and 1965).

1962 – US begins spraying foliage pesticide in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas.

1968 – The Resolution on Official Languages was passed by both the houses of the Parliament wherein the need to formulate a more intensive and comprehensive programme for the progressive use of Hindi for Official purposes, formulating a programme for the co-ordinated development of the other languages included in the 8th schedule along with Hindi, adopting of a tri-lingual formula, making the knowledge of either Hindi or English compulsory for recruitment to the services of the Union, and inclusion of all the languages of the 8th schedule of the Constitution and English as the optional medium for the exams conducted by the union Public Service Commission at the appropriate time, has been stressed.

1995 – The 4-nation non-official initiative on Arms Reduction and Disarmament concludes with Goa Declaration (also called Shanghai-II).

2016 – World’s 62 richest people are now as wealthy as half the world’s population according to a report published by Oxfam.

Born…. 1942- Mahdev Govind Ranade. Freedom fighter,  author and judge. Contemporary of  Gopal Krishna Gokhle, Ramabai Ranade, and Dadabhai Naoroji etc. He was a co-founder of Indian National Congreess in 1985.

1933 – John Boorman OBE. British actor, director and producer, known for films Point Blank, Hell in the Pecific, Deliverance, Exorcist II, Zardoz, Hope And Glory etc. He won several Academy, Cannes honours and OBE by the British Govt. in 1994  and Knighthood in 2022 (pic credit-Golden Globes).

1972 – Vinod Ganpat Kambli,  a middle order batsman, played for Mumbai alongwith  ‘Little Master’ Sachin Tendulkar, for India and Boland, South Africa. He scored a ODI century on his Birthday in 1993.

1978 – Aparna Popat. Former Ace Badminton player, who was National Chapion for 9 times between 1997-2006.

1988 – Angelique Kerber. German Tennis player. Three-times Tennis Grand Slam winner, was World No. 1 for 36 weeks and won a Silver in  Paris Olympics 2024. Retrired on August 01, 2024 (pic credit-Mike Hewitt/Getty Images).                                                                                                                        RIP…. 1936 – Rudyard Kipling, famous India-born English writer and author. He was a young journalist in British India. He wrote in verses, stories, novels children’s stories some of these were “The Jungle Book, Kim, Riki-Tiki-Tavi and Just-50 stories” and was honoured with Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

1947 – Kundanlal Saigal,  legendary Indian  film superstar and unique singer. He was an inspiration for many budding singers like Kishore and Mukesh. Sehgal sung about 185 songs in Hindi,  Punjabi and Urdu ghazals.

1996 – NT. Rama Rao, legendary Telugu  actor, philonthropist, scriptwriter, producer  who performed  many mythological roles in  South  movies  like Mayabazaar, Lava Kusha, Gundama Katha,  Patala Bhairvi, Adavi Ramadu etc. He also served as Andhra  chief minister for 3 terms in 7 years. He also won some National Film awards, 2 Filmfare, Nandi awards,  several other accolades and Padam Shri in 1968.

You may have known….

Texts from the Maurya Empire era (3rd century BCE) mention  that the state raised revenue from charging farmers for irrigation services from rivers.

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