On this day - Lt Gen Raj Kadyan

Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy's staying alive.

On this day, 23 May....

1785 - A letter from Benjamin Franklin referred to his bifocal glasses. Writing from France to George Whatley, a friend, Franklin described his “double glasses” solution to needing two pairs of glasses of different focussing power to see objects far or near he wrote, “I had the glasses cut and half of each kind associated in the same circle...."  Some historians have pointed to evidence of others making split-lens spectacles. So, it remains likely, but not definite, that Franklin actually invented the bifocal glasses, and it may have been in the early 1760s. He was certainly well-known for wearing and popularising them

1825 - The electromagnet in a practical form was first exhibited by its inventor, William Sturgeon. He  deposited the apparatus in the museum of the Society of Arts. Sadly, this was lost after the society's museum was dispersed.

1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.

1903 - The European capital cities of Paris and Rome were linked by telephone for first time.

1933 -  Gertrude Ederle and C. Kelsey were granted a patent for a "paddle-driven swimming device" . On the same date, Max Wasserberg received a patent for a "beach and lawn chair".

1940 - R.V. Jones, a scientist with air intelligence, tells the government that intersecting radio beams could guide Luftwaffe bombers to their targets.

1947 - The U.K. Cabinet took the historic step of agreeing to Lord Mountbatten's proposal for the partition of India into two states, one Muslim and the other Hindu. 

1962 - A 12 year old boy's severed arm was reattached in the world's first successful replantation of a human limb with microvascular repair of vessels by a team of surgeons led by Drs. Ronald A. Malt and J. McKhann at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. The arm had been severed three inches below the shoulder by the wheels of a train.

Born....

1906 – General Pran Nath Thapar, former Chief of Indian Army.  

1919 – Gayatri Devi, English-Indian wife of Prince Jagat Singh.

RIP....

1975 - Lt Gen P. S. Bhagat, Victoria Cross winner.

You may have known....

Chai  is India’s national drink.

Good morning. Have a nice day.
Raj Kadyan