On this Day - Lt Gen Raj Kadyan

Apparently, the world is not a wish-granting factory.

On this day, 20 Jun....

712 - Muhammad of Bin Quasim (Kasim), Arabs, attacked on Sindh and captured it. Muhammad defeated and killed King Dahir, Hindu king, at Rawar.

1756 - A group of British soldiers along with Halvel were imprisoned by some rebels in a suffocating cell that gained notoriety as the "Black Hole of Calcutta." Most of them died.

1791 - King Louis XVI caught trying to escape French Revolution.

1840 - Samuel F.B. Morse received a patent for telegraphy signals.

1858 - Gwalior fort was captured by British troops and the first Indian Sepoy Mutiny/War of Independence  officially came to an end.

1873 - Young Men Christian Association of India was established in Calcutta.

1899 - Black American inventor Wesley Johnson was issued a patent for a "Velocipede". Although conventional in appearance in a side view, the innovation claimed was to use two wheels separated by four to six inches in the front fork, and two wheels in similar fashion at the back. The patent claimed this gives better stability and safety, especially for those first learning to balance and ride a bicycle, the timid, elderly or the invalid. Further, it said, corners could be turned on slippery ground with better stability.

1918 - The X-ray expert Dr. Eugene W. Caldwell, died of X-ray burns, in New York. Dr. Caldwell   received the fatal burns in the course of his X-ray research.

1921 - At the Imperial Conference in London, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri puts forward a case for the granting of full citizenship rights to Indians in South Africa and other British colonies.

1926 - A wireless phone for autos was demonstrated in Berlin, Germany, by Herr Schaetzle.

1967 - Muhammad Ali convicted of refusing induction into armed services.

1977 - The $7.7 billion trans-Alaskan oil pipeline opened. The  project links oil fields in Prudhoe Bay to the shipping port of Valdez, where oil arrives 38 days later. Because of the earth's heat at greater depths, oil pumped from the Prudhoe Bay field, (which is 10,000-to-20,000 feet deep, is at about 145 to 180 degrees F. Using heat exchangers that work like a car's radiator, the oil companies cool the oil to about 120 degrees before it enters the pipeline.

1979 - 32 solar panels on the White House roof, installed by the Carter administration, were dedicated by  President Carter  He stated, “In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy.” That was not to be. The subsequent Republican President, Ronald Reagan, with one of the worst environmental records of any president, while the roof was being resurfaced in 1986, had them removed and sent to warehouse storage. In the same year he slashed the research and development budget for renewable energy, and eliminated tax breaks for wind turbines and solar projects

1994 - Anti-Pakistan slogans rent the air in Jammu & Kashmir against the killing of Quazi Nissar Ahmed, Mirwaiz of South Kashmir and a famous religious Kashmiri leader who was gunned down by Pak-aided terrorists.

1996 - Govt. of India declares at Geneva conference on 'Global Ban On Nuclear Testing' that it won't sign the CTBT.

2002 - An agreement was signed to establish a seawater desalination and heating plant - using atomic reactors - at the coastal city of Yingkou, China. It is designed to address severe water shortages in China.

Born....

1869 - Laxmanrao Kirloskar, great industrialist, social reformer, patriot and founder of Kirloskar Industry.

1952 - Vikram Seth, Indian poet.

RIP....

1987 - Dr. Salim Ali, internationally renowned expert of birds.

1997 - Basu Bhattacharya, film-maker.

Titbits....

1895 - 1st female PhD from an American University, earned by Caroline Willard Baldwin (in Science) at Cornell University.

1909 - 1st balloon honeymoon (Roger Burham & Eleanor Waring).

You may have known....

According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

Good morning. Have a nice day.
Raj Kadyan