Its August 8 and its quite an eventful date. On this day - 1. 106 years ago, in the year 1908, Wilbur Wright (of the Wright brothers who invented the first airplane) made his first flight for official public view at a racecourse in Le Mans, France. 2. 72 years ago, in the year 1942, MK Gandhi finally demanded poorna swaraj/total independence for India and launched the Quit India Movement against British Imperialism (a movement in which my paternal grandfather was an active participant and even served time in prison). Both the Hindu Sangh Parivar and most of the Indian Communists (Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh etc were dead by then) didnt participate in the movement. The former group (Right wingers) boycotted because it was majorly made up of Wealthy Upper Caste Hindus who feared losing their privileged status (which they enjoyed under the British) if Nehru or Boses Socialist government came to power. 3. 51 years ago, in the year 1963, the Great Train Robbery of England took place early in the morning. A gang of 15 train robbers of mostly Irish & Welsh descent, headed by Irishman Bruce Reynolds (who was earlier rejected by the Royal British Navy because of his poor eyesight), stole £2.6 million worth of bank notes from the Royal Mail train heading between Glasgow and London. Most of the robbers were caught within a few months except for mastermind Reynolds who was caught 5 years later in 1968 as hed escaped to Mexico and was living lavishly there. 4. 47 years ago, in the year 1967, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was founded in Bangkok, Thailand by member countries Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. 5. 45 years ago, in the year 1969, at a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan captured the iconic photo of the 4 Beatles which went on to became the cover of the Beatles album Abbey Road. 6. 40 years ago, in the year 1974, after being unable to endure any more embarrassment courtesy the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announced his resignation from the office of the President of the United States, becoming the first and so far, the only US president to do so. 7. 25 years ago, in the year 1990, Saddam Husseins Iraq (which for over a decade had been the USs darling ally, receiving obscene amounts of aid to fight against Ayatollah Khomeinis Iran) went on to invade Kuwait and that led to the demise of Iraq-US love affair :P Anyway, heres wishing a very Happy Birthday to :) - 1. Happy 112th birthday to British theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate PAUL DIRAC. He made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He formulated the Dirac equation, which describes the behaviour of fermions and predicted the existence of antimatter. 2. Happy 83rd Birthday to the living legend Sir ROGER PENROSE, British mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science known for his exemplary work in mathematical physics, in particular for his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. 3. Happy 77th Birthday to one of the finest actors ever - DUSTIN HOFFMAN. 4. Happy 53rd Birthday to THE EDGE, lead guitarist of legendary rock band U2. and finally. 5. Happy 33rd Birthday to Fed Ex - ROGER FEDERER (he needs no introduction)
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 01:43:05 +0000
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