Today in History @ 26 Nov.

Famous Birthdays

a. Father of the White Revolution' in India Dr. Varghese Kurien (b. 1921). His "billion-litre idea", Operation Flood – the world's largest agricultural dairy development programme, made dairy farming India's largest self-sustaining industry and the largest rural employment provider, being a third of all rural income. It made India the world's largest milk producer from a milk-deficient nation, which doubled milk available per person and increased milk output four-fold, in 30 years. Kurien, who spent most of his life in Gujarat and gained the affection and the respect of its people, was unable to get any landlord to rent him a room when he first arrived in Anand, as besides being unable to speak the language of the place, he was "a bachelor, a non-vegetarian and a Christian"! He never spoke the language of the state despite understanding it later on, nor was he used to drinking milk.

b. American cartoonist Charles Monroe Schulz (b. 1922). He is best known for the comic strip Peanuts (which featured the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, among others). He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time. At its height, Peanuts was published daily in 2,600 papers in 75 countries, in 21 languages. Over the nearly 50 years that Peanuts was published, Schulz drew nearly 18,000 strips. The strips themselves, plus merchandise and product endorsements, produced revenues of more than $1 billion per year, with Schulz earning an estimated $30 million to $40 million annually. During the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997 to celebrate his 75th birthday; reruns of the strip ran during his vacation, the only time reruns occurred while Schulz was alive.

c. American mathematician and philosopher Norbert Wiener (b. 1894). He was a professor of mathematics at the MIT. A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and mathematical noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems. He is considered the originator of cybernetics, a formalization of the notion of feedback, with implications for engineering, systems control, computer science, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the organization of society.

d. American engineer Willis Carrier (b. 1876). He invented the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. In 1915, he founded Carrier Corporation, a company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

e. Indian scientist, educator and educationist Padma Vibhushan Prof. Yash Pal (b. 1926). He was known for his contributions to the study of cosmic rays, as well as for being an institution-builder. In his later years, he became one of the leading science communicators of the country.

Famous death anniversaries

a. Prominent Scottish Jacobite and author of "probably the first systematic treatise written in English about economics, James Steuart (d. 1780).

b. Pioneering American astronomer Benjamin Gould (d. 1896). He is noted for creating the “Astronomical Journal” and discovering the “Gould Belt” in space.

Other events of the day

a. 1865 "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll was published in America.

b. 1922 English archaeologist Howard Carter opened Tutankhamun's virtually intact tomb in Egypt.

c. 1932 Bradman completed 10,000 runs in first-class cricket, 126 innings.

d. 1942 "Casablanca" directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman premiered.

e. 1948 1st polaroid camera sold for $89.75 in Boston at the Jordan Marsh department store. The Edwin Land Camera model 95 becomes prototype for all Polaroid Land cameras for next 15 years.

f. 1949 The Constituent Assembly of India formally adopts a new constitution.

g. 1952 1st modern 3-D movie "Bwana Devil" premiered in Hollywood

h. 2003 Concorde made its last ever flight over Bristol, England.

i. 2008 Terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Ten coordinated attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists killed164 and injured more than 250 people.

?