Today in history @ 18 Jul

Famous birthdays

a. South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist Nelson Mandela (b. 1918). He served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid and organised the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory and became President.

Widely regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours—including the Nobel Peace Prize. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, and described as the "Father of the Nation".

b. American actor, producer, director and screenwriter Vin Diesel (b. 1967). He is well known for his portrayals of Dominic Toretto in “The Fast and the Furious” film series, Richard B. Riddick in “The Chronicles of Riddick” series and Xander Cage in the “xXx” series.

c. English business magnate, investor and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson (b. 1950). He founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies. At the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label. He is famous for many records; some are: record for the first hot air balloon to cross the Atlantic, aboard the first balloon to cross the Pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada, made attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon, becoming Linkedin’s first member to have one million followers.

d. American publishing executive Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. (b. 1947). Forbes is the Editor-in-Chief of Forbes, a business magazine.

e. American physicist, historian and philosopher of science Thomas Samuel Kuhn (b. 1922). His controversial 1962 book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term “paradigm shift”, which has since become an English-language idiom.

f. British novelist, writer and author William Makepeace Thackeray (b. 1811 in Kolkata). He is known for his satirical works, particularly “Vanity Fair”, a panoramic portrait of English society.

g. Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (b. 1853). He shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the “Zeeman effect”. He also derived the transformation equations which formed the basis of the special relativity theory of Albert Einstein. According to the biography published by the Nobel Foundation, "It may well be said that Lorentz was regarded by all theoretical physicists as the world's leading spirit, who completed what was left unfinished by his predecessors and prepared the ground for the fruitful reception of the new ideas based on the quantum theory."

h. Indian actress Priyanka Chopra (b. 1982).

i. American aviator, astronaut, businessman and senator, John Glenn (b. 1921). He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962.

Famous death anniversaries

a. Indian acting legend Rajesh Khanna (d. 2012). He was referred to as the "first superstar" and the "original superstar" of Indian cinema. No other word could have been adequate to describe his charm and mystique, his romantic persona and sensitive acting. He starred in 15 consecutive solo hit films in the period 1969 to 1971, still an unbroken record.

Khanna won four Best Actor Awards in the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, and received 25 nominations. He won three Filmfare Best Actor Awards, one Filmfare Special Guest Actor Award in 1973, and received a Filmfare Special Award in 1991, after 25 years in the Hindi film industry. He received the Filmfare Life Time Achievement Award at the 50th anniversary Filmfare award ceremony in 2005.

b. English novelist Jane Austen (d. 1817). With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), she achieved success as a published writer. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her novels have inspired many films, from 1940's Pride and Prejudice to more recent productions like Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Love & Friendship (2016).

c. English businessman Thomas Cook (d. 1892) known for founding the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son.

Other notable events of today

a. In 1896, Ranjitsinhji completed 154* on Test Cricket debut v Aust, Old Trafford.

b. In 1914 Gandhi left South Africa after successfully leading campaigns of Passive Resistance. c. In 1925 Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf (original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice").

d. In 1947 King George VI signed Indian Independence Act.

e. In 1976 Nadia Com?neci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

f. In 1980 Rohini 1, 1st Indian satellite, launches into orbit.

g. In 2012 Kim Jong-un is officially appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People's Army.