ALL ABOUT TODAY

21-July-1658 Aurangzeb celebrated his being the emperor of Mugal Empire at Delhi. He was informally enthroned.

21-July-1883 Star Theatre was opened in Calcutta.

21-July-1891 Jairamdas Doulatram, great leader, journalist and freedom fighter, was born at Karachi.

21-July-1906 W.C. Bonerjee, first President of Indian National Congress, passed away.

21-July-1907 Gulam Mohamad Bakshi, former Prime Minister Jammu and Kashmir, was born.

21-July-1911 Umashankar Jethalal Joshi, famous Gujarati poet, Hindi writer and educationist, was born at Bamna in Gujarat.

21-July-1930 Anand Bakshi, famous lyrisist, was born.

21-July-1934 Chandrakant Gulabrao Borde, cricket batsman (55 Tests for India 1959-67), was born in Pune.

21-July-1935 Establishment 'Mumabi Marathi Sahitya Sangh'.

21-July-1936 Vasantrao Vishnu Limye, senior journalist and President of 'Ratnagiri District Parishad', was born.

21-July-1947 Indian Constitution Assembly accepted the tricolour flag as its National Flag. This flag is with three equal horizontal stripes of Saffron (Sacrifice), White (Truth) and Green

(Prosperity) and a Chakra is superimposed on white (Dharma Chakra on the capitol of Ashoka's Pillar at Sarnath) in blue colour having 24 spokes. The ratio of the width to length is two to three.

21-July-1962 Passenger Train and Freight Train collided near Dumraon killing 69 persons.

21-July-1963 Kashi Vidyapeeth was given recognisation as University.

21-July-1975 Hindi Post Guards was established by Government.

21-July-1977 K.S. Hegde elected Lok Sabha Speaker.

21-July-1977 Neelam Sanjiva Reddi was elected as the President of India.

21-July-1977 Bhudevchandra Basu, famous animal expert, passed away.

21-July-1984 Terrorists breach Bhakra canal in Punjab.

21-July-1988 Indian National Satellite (INSAT-1C) launched. This is operational multi-purpose communication and meteorology satellite. It served for only one and a half years. It was launched by European Ariane launch vehicle Ariane-3.

21-July-1993 Jayalalitha ends fast, Centre to set up a committee; Karnataka rejects the proposal.

21-July-1994 The Supreme Court declares that SC/ST will lose status on migration to other states.

21-July-1995 Sajjad Husain, famous film music director, passed away.

21-July-1999 Bansi Lal, Haryana Chief Minister, quits before seeking a trust vote; and rebels form a separate party.

21-July-1999 The Janata Dal splits under Deve Gowda and Sharad Yadav. The latter group to support NDA.

21-July-2000 A. B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister, announces a special fund for population projects with the Planning Commission providing seed money of Rs. 100 crores. He was addressing the maiden meeting of the National Population Commission.

INDIAN HISTORY of the Day

18-July-1634 Joannes Camphuys, Governor General of Dutch-Indies (1684-91), was born.

18-July-1695 Joannes Camphuys, Governal General of Dutch-Indies, died at the age of 61.

18-July-1857 The Calcutta, Mumbai and Madras Universities were established.

18-July-1908 Fourteen thousand mill workers go on strike at Bombay.

18-July-1909 Vishnu Dey, Gyanpeeth awardee and famous Bengali poet, was born.

18-July-1946 U.K. Parliament approves British Cabinet mission report on India but Churchill says that the mission went too far in offering India independence outside of the Commonwealth.

18-July-1947 Indian Independence Act, signed by King George VI, was proclaimed as Indian Freedom Act, 1947.

18-July-1953 Riots against increase in streetcar fares continue with demonstrators taking control of parts of Calcutta.

18-July-1980 Second Experimental launch of Space Launch Vehicle -3 (SLV-3) by Indian made 35 kilogram Rohini satellite (RS-1) successfully placed in orbit. It was used for measuring in-flight performance of second experimental launch of SLV-3. The launch took from Sriharikota and India became the sixth nation to put a satellite into orbit.

18-July-1980 Madras Doordashan Centre transmitted their first colour transmission for one hour in the afternoon, and this programme was re-transmitted simultaneously by Delhi Doordarshan, India.

18-July-1980 Naoomal Jeoomal, cricketer (3 Tests for India 1932-34, 108 runs), died.

18-July-1987 Amitabh Bachhan resigns his Lok Sabha membership.

18-July-1987 Arun Singh, union minister of state for defence, resigns from the cabinet.

18-July-1990 Following the end of six months Governor's rule, President's rule imposed in J&K.

18-July-1992 Kanandevi, famous Bengali actress, passed away.

18-July-1993 Dr. Banoo Coyaji, 75, gets Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

18-July-1993 India beats France 3-2 in a sensational Davis Cup tie to enter into the semi-final.

18-July-1993 Jayalalitha goes on fast on Cauvery issue.

18-July-1993 Rail, road traffic disrupted.

18-July-1993 Girilal Jain, 71, The Times of India editor, died.

18-July-1994 Munis Raza, famous educationist and former Chancellor of Delhi University, passed away.

18-July-1996 Union Finance Ministry gives final clearance to the Enron power project in terms of issuance of counter-guarantee.

18-July-1997 Fifth Pay Commission report approved by Central Govt.

18-July-1998 The Maharashtra Government bans the controversial Marathi play on Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. It was produced by Mr. Udhay Dhurat.

2002 - A.J.P. Abdul Kalam, a scientist known as the father of India's nuclear missile program, is elected as the nation's 12^th president. Kalam, an ethnic Tamil, is the third Muslim to hold the post.

17-July-1489 Nizam Shah became the Sultan of Dehli.

17-July-1893 Lokmanya Tilak was arrested for 18 months.

17-July-1903 Joseph, versatile author in Malyalam language and critic Butshshor, was born.

17-July-1930 Lord Irwin,British Viceroy, allows Indian moderates to visit Gandhi in prison.

17-July-1935 Dr. Ram Babu Gupta, cricket test umpire for 11 tests from 1986-89, was born at Delhi.

17-July-1937 Delhi-Calcutta Express Train derailed near Patna killing 95.

17-July-1947 Ramdas Coastal Steamer sank off Bombay claiming 550 lives.

17-July-1948 Govt. announced that all discriminations against women in matter of employment will be done away with and in future, women will be eligible for any public service including administrative sevice and police service.

17-July-1974 J.P. Narain leads an agitation for dissolution of the Bihar Assembly.

17-July-1976 Mudliyar A. Ramaswami, Padmabhushan awardee, politician and industrialist, passed away.

17-July-1979 Jagjivan Ram elected Janata parliamentary party leader. Charan Singh is PM heading Janatha (S)-Congress coalition and Jagjivan Ram is leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.

17-July-1987 V. P. Singh announces resignation from Congress; R. Venkataraman elected President of India.

17-July-1992 Lok Sabha rejects no-trust motion.

17-July-1996 All 47 ministers in Madhya Pradesh submit resignations to CM Digvijay Singh.

17-July-1996 Madras to be known as 'Chennai' henceforth.

17-July-1997 K.R. Narayanan,Vice President, wins in the Presidential election with a record margin to become the next head of state.

17-July-2000 55 persons die as a Boeing 737 of Alliance Air from Calcutta to Delhi via Patna and Lucknow crashes at Gardanibagh, one km from the runway at the Patna airport.

Today In Indian History

· 16-July-1856 -Ishwar Chand Vidyasagar, on the request of Governor Lord Canning, instituted a law announcing the right of Hindu widows for re-marriage

· .16-July-1905 -A decision to boycott British goods was taken at Bagarhat.

· 16-July-1909 -Aruna Asaf Ali, social worker and freedom fighter, was born at Kalka in Haryana.

· 16-July-1914- N. E. Balram, communist leader, died.

· 16-July-1917 -Jagdishchandra Mathur, modern Hindi playwright, was born.

· 16-July-1929 -Indian Council of Agricultural Research, an autonomous apex national organisation which plans, conducts and promotes research, education, training and transfer of technology for advancement of agriculture and allied sciences, was established. It has 45 Central Research Institutes, 4 National Bureaux, 10 Project Directorates, 30 National Research Centres, 90 All India Co-ordinated Research Projects, 261 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and 8 Trainers Training Centres

· .16-July-1931- C. T. Studd, 69, died. He was an English missionary, one of the 'Cambridge Seven,' who worked on the mission field in China, India and Central Africa

· .16-July-1936-Venkataraman Subramanya, cricketer (Indian bowler in nine Tests mid-60's, Leg Break Googly, Right Arm), was born in Bangalore.

· 16-July-1954-French rule ends in Mahe. De facto power was transferred to the people and the Indian flag hoisted.

· .16-July-1959-Suhridkumar Roy, famous geologist, died.

· 16-July-1969-Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, DFC. became the Air Officer Commanding, India Command. He was in this office till 15/01/1973.

· 16-July-1969-Morarji Desai resigns from cabinet.

· 16-July-198-1India performs nuclear Test.

· 16-July-1990-O.P.Chautala resigns following directive from JD.

· 16-July-1991-Railway budget hikes passenger fares by 15-20% and freight up by 10%.

· 16-July-1992-Shankar Dayal Sharma is appointed President.

· 16-July-1992-Amar Varma, Hindi author, producer and director, died.

· 16-July-1993-Russia cancels cryogenic rocket deal with India.

· 16-July-1996-Narasimha Rao moves Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the summons issued against him by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case.

· 16-July-1996-Supreme Court says dowry demand even during marriage talks is an offence.

· 16-July-1996-The four basin states of Narmada valley - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra - reach agreement to raise the height of Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat to 436' after which hydrological studies will be done for 5 years to decide whether the height should be raised to the awarded 455'.

· 16-July-1997-Kamal Hassan gets best actor award for ''Indian'' while Tabu bags best actress award for ''Maachis''.

· 16-July-1997- V. S. Rama Devi, Secretary-General of Rajya Sabha, appointed Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

· 16-July-1999 -17 are killed and over 200 injured when the Delhi bound GT Express collides with derailed wagons of a goods train near Mathura.