On this day, 29 Jan - Lt Gen Raj Kadyan

The greater your destiny, the greater the price.

On this day, 29 Jan....

1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.

1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.  A three-wheeler vehicle with a Benz-designed one-cylinder four-stroke gasoline engine. This patent is recognized as the world's first patent—regarded as the birth certificate—for a practical internal combustion engine powered automobile.

1901 -  The prolific black American inventor, Granville T. Woods, received one of his patents related to the operation of an electric railway. It applied to the kind of electric trains which take their power from conductors in the road-bed.

1924 - The first U.S. patent for an ice cream cone rolling machine was issued to its inventor, Carl R. Taylor of Cleveland, Ohio, in which it was described as a “machine for forming thin, freshly baked wafers while still hot into cone shaped containers” for ice-cream.

1958 - The Boston Herald printed a letter from Olga Owens Huckins attacking DDT pesticide as dangerous. Huckins was a friend of Rachel Carson, and also sent a personal letter to her, which together prompted the writing of Carson's book Silent Spring, an early call for modern environmentalism.

1960 - An artificial kidney that operates without human monitoring was announced.

1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."

1992 - India and Israel decide to establish full diplomatic relations.

1998 - For the first time, a top tobacco company executive acknowledged the health risk of tobacco products under oath to US Congress. This testimony by Steven Goldstone, RJR Nabisco chairman and CEO, came at a hearing where industry leaders pushed Congress to enact a $368.5 billion deal giving them partial immunity from future lawsuits. As recently as 1994, seven tobacco industry executives had stood before the House Commerce Committee and sworn nicotine is not addictive.

1999 - Paris prosecutors announced the end of the investigation into the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana.

Born....

1896 - Swami Paranabananda Brahamachari, founder of `Bharat Sevashram Sangha'.

RIP....

1983 - Piloo Mody, veteran Parliament member and senior leader of Janata Party.

You may have known....

The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.

Good morning. Have a nice day.
Raj Kadyan