This Day in History – April 20

1914 – One of the greatest Oriya writers, Gopinath Mohanty was born. He has several awards to his credit like Soviet Land Nehru Award (1970), Jnanpith Award (1973), Padma Bhushan (1981), Sahitya Akademi Award (1993) etc. for his contribution to the literature of India.

Gopinath Mohanty sketch

1950 – President of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), N. Chandrababu Naidu was born. He served as the Chief Minister of the Andhra Pradesh (1995–2004) and is currently the Leader of opposition in the AP State Assembly. He is the state’s youngest assembly member and youngest minister at 28. As chief minister, Naidu’s way of functioning gave him widespread media coverage and  soon Time magazine awarded him with ‘South Asian of the Year’ award. He also won numerous other awards including ‘IT Indian of the Millenium’ and ‘Business Person of the Year’.

Chandrababu Naidu

1970 – Lyricist of the well known yesteryears song ‘Chaudvin ka chand ho’, renowned poet and song writer, Shakeel Badayuni, passed away. He has won 3 ‘Filmfare Best Lyricist Award’ for 3 successive years for his songs: ‘Chaudvin ka chand ho’ – Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1961), ‘Husnwale tera jawab nahin’ – Gharana (1962), and ‘Kahin deep jale kahin dil’ – Bees Saal Baad (1963).

2004 – Noted Indian folklorist, Komal Kothari passed away. Invariably associated with Rajasthani Folk Music, Komalda with Vijaydan Detha, founded the ‘Rupayan Sansthan’ in Rajasthan for documenting Rajasthani folk-lore, arts and music. He was honoured with Padma Shri in 1983, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1986, Prince Claus Award in 2000 and Padma Bhushan in 2004. He was the first person to be honoured with Rajasthan Ratna award by the Government of Rajasthan.

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