Today’s Motto: ‘If you live your beliefs, you can turn the world around’

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

On this day, 28 Dec….

1849 – Discovery of dry-cleaning. It is said that dry-cleaning was accidentally discovered when M. Jolly-Bellin, a tailor, upset a lamp containing turpentine oil on his tablecloth and noticed it had a cleaning effect.

1869 – U.S. patent for Chewing Gum, made of “the combination of rubber with other articles was first issued.

1886 – The first U.S. patent for a commercially successful dishwasher was issued to Josephine Garis Cochrane.

1895 – The brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière presented their motion-picture films in their first public performance, at the Salon Indien of the Grand Café in Paris (credit-Motion Picture Institute).

1896 – In the Indian National Congress, Vande Mataram was first sung in Calcutta.

1926 – Imperial Airways begins England-India mail & passenger service.

1931 – The second round of a British-Indian conference on the political future of India collapsed in disagreement over demands by Indian nationalists for complete independence. The breakdown of the talks set off a new round of disorders, Gandhi was greeted by rioting in the streets of Bombay between upper-caste Hindu members of the Congress party and “untouchable” caste members.

2012 – At 115 years old and 266 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world’s oldest living person when he surpassed the age of Danish-American Christian Mortensen. (Kimura died on 12 June 2013).

Born….

1932 – Dhirubhai Ambani, legendary Gujarati businessman who founded Reliance Industries (1958)  with edible oil and  Crude oil processing  and allied industries.   Opened  his companies  for public  shareholding thru’ Capital market  IPOs and became a leading corporate giant ( worth Rs. 7.4 trillion as in August 2024). Also a known philonthropist  Amabani was honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 2016 (posthumously).

1937 – Ratan Tata,  legendary industrialist who led Tata Group of Industries from 1991 to 2017 and later Chairman Emiratus until his death on Oct. 9, 2024. He expanded the Tata group into vast sectors of operations from Steel to Airlines, travel, hospitality,  automobiles, IT services (digital), health, higher education, skill development  etc. Has been honoured with Padma Vibhushan and other industry accolades in India and abroad.

1940 – AK Antony,  Congress politician from Kerala. Was state Chief Minister  thrice and Union Minister for Defence from 2004-14.  Presently a  Member of Rajya Sabha.

   1951 – Sajid Khan, Bollywood presenter,  comedy actor, producer and director.  Knwn for films like Housefull series, Heyy Beyy, Hamshakal, Himmatwala etc. Was nominated tyo Zee Cine, Screen awards etc.

1952 – Arun Jaitley, veteran BJP Politician;  student leader of Delhi and jurist, was Minister of Inf. & Broadcasting, Law & Justice and Finance  in the PM Modi Govt’s first term (2014-19). He is credited with having formulated and  implemented GST Act alongwith FM Nirmala Sitharaman. He was honored with Padma Vibushan in 2020 (posthumously).

RIP….

1923 – Gustave Eiffel, French civil engineer who ecialised in metal structures, known especially for the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1972 – C. Rajagopalachari, the only Indian Governor General after departure of Louis  Mountbatten in 1948. He was in the post until Jan. 1950. A writer, politician and popular freedom fighter and statesman of Tamil Nadu.

1977 – Sumitranandan Pant, legendary Hindi poet and litterateur of 20th century and contemporary of Mahadevi Verma, Jaishankar Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala and Ramkumar Verma. He wrote novels,  poetry collections like Pallav, Chidambara , Kala ASur Boodha, Grammya, He was honored with Sahitya Akademy, (1960), Jnanpeeth (1968) awards and Padam Bhushan (1961) and Soviet Union’s Nehru Peace Award.

You may have known….

The British doctor  Andrew J Wakefield , who claimed there was a link between autism and vaccines  and created fraudulent data for his study and lost his medicallicense.

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