Beware what you wish for; the Gods may grant it to you.
On this day, 02 Feb....
1046 - The weather turns especially cold throughout Europe. Monks note in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that "no man alive...could remember so severe a winter." It is the first known record of the beginning of the 200 year period of exceptional cold, known as the "Little Ice Age."
1665 - British forces capture New Amsterdam, the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan is to be renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York, its new governor.
1795 - A prize of 12,000 francs was offered by the French government for a method of preserving food and transporting it to its armies. The winner was Nicholas Appert, a French chef who invented a way to can food. He developed the method of heating food in airtight glass jars, not very different from the home-bottling method. He published The art of preserving animal and vegetable substances for several years, in Paris. He was also the inventor of the bouillon cube. (bouillon is French for froth. It is typically made from dehydrated vegetables, meat stock, a small portion of fat, salt and seasonings, shaped into a small cube).
1880 - The steamship SS Strathleven arrived in London with first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia. It had been chartered, fitted with air compression/expansion refrigeration equipment, and sent to Australia for a trial shipment of frozen carcases.
1892 - The bottle cap with cork seal was patented by William Painter, Baltimore U.S. This replaced the time-consuming cork and wire bale way of sealing bottles, and represented a major saving for the bottlers. The cap was used until the 1970s, when cork in soft drink and beer bottle caps was considered unhealthy, so, manufacturers switched to cans and plastic, instead. Currently, caps used on bottles use plastic cap "liners", instead of cork.
1897 - A patent was issued for an ice-cream scoop invented by black American inventor, Alfred L. Cralle. His design of an "Ice-cream Mold and Disher" was made to be strong and durable, effective, inexpensive, able to keep ice cream and other foods from sticking and easy to operate with one hand. It could be constructed in almost any desired shape, such as a cone or a mound, with no delicate parts that could break or malfunction. The basic design is so efficient that it is seen still in use today.
1935 - The detective Leonard Keeler conducted the first use of his invention, the Keeler polygraph, or lie detector machine. Those examined were two criminals Cecil Loniello and Tony Grignano, who were convicted of assault at their trial where the results were introduced as evidence.
1947 - Beginning of polaroid photography. Edwin H. Land gave the first demonstration of his invention of instant photography. On 28 Nov 1948, his Polaroid Land Camera first went on sale. This first model was sold through 1953, and was the first commercially successful self- developing camera system. A sepia-coloured photograph took about one minute to produce.
1958 - Mrs Indira Gandhi elected president of the Congress party.
1962 - Eight of the nine planets lined up for the first time in 400 years.
1965 - Indian Government sanction was accorded to the Officers Training School for the start of Short Service Regular Commission.
1967 - US President Johnson orders consignment of 2 mil. tons of food grains to be sent to India.
1978 - The Indian National Congress (I) recognized as a national party and allotted the election symbol 'hand' (Palm).
1982 - Geet Sethi becomes the youngest Indian to win the National Billiards' crown at Madras.
1986 Dalai Lama meets Pope John Paul II in India.
Born....
1915 - Khushwant Singh, novelist, lawyer, journalist and politician. Known for humour, sarcasm and an abiding love of poetry. Was decorated with the Padma Bhushan in 1974. But he returned the award in 1984 in protest against Operation Blue Star. In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.
RIP....
1964 - Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, social reformer and freedom fighter.
Titbits....
1802 - The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston. It cost 25 cents to see the 'import from Bengal'.
You may have known....
The highest Baily Bridge in the world is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
Good morning. Have a nice day.
Raj Kadyan
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