This Day In History- August 15

1938 – Pran Kumar Sharma or ‘Pran’,well known cartoonist and the creator of famous ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ was born. He first started with ‘Daabu’ a comic strip that featured in ‘Milap’, a newspaper published from Delhi. Pran created ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ for ‘Lotpot’ which brought him spotlight. He is credited with the popularization of comics and was included in Limca Book of Records’  ‘People of the Year 1995’ list. Pran sketched ‘Raman-Hum Ek Hain’ to promote national integration which was released by the then Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi in 1983. The Indian Institute of Cartoonists honoured him with Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. The International Museum of Cartoon Art, USA has a place reserved for the Chacha Chaudhary strips.

 Pran's Chacha Choudhary

1947 – India won freedom, and over 150 years of  British Raj came to an end. The independence sadly coincided with the partition of India, where the British divided their empire along religious courses into two nations, and this partition followed with many communal riots.

Indian Independence 15 August 1947

1947 – Popular film actress Rakhee Mazumdar Gulzar was born. Rakhee starred in several Hindi and Bengali films. She made her debut in the Bengali film industry with ‘Badhu Baran'(1967) and stepped into the Hindi film industry with ‘Jeevan Mrityu’ (1970) opposite Dharmendra. She gave blockbusters in the form of ‘Sharmilee'(1971), ‘Heera Panna'(1973),’ Daag'(1973), ‘Blackmail'(1973), ‘Tapasya'(1976) etc. Her pairing with Amitabh Bachchan was quite popular among the audiences. They featured together in ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ (1976), ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikander’ (1977), ‘Kasme Vaade'(1978), ‘Trishul'(1978), ‘Kaala Patthar'(1979), ‘Jurmana’ (1979), ‘Barsaat Ki Ek Raat’ (1981) and ‘Bemisal’ (1982). She was also seen in supporting roles in ‘Ram Lakhan'(1989), ‘Baazigar'(1993), ‘Khalnayak'(1993), ‘Karan Arjun'(1995), ‘Border'(1997), ‘Soldier'(1998) and ‘Baadshah'(1999). Rakhee was last seen in the bengali film ‘Shubho Mahurat’ (2003) for which she earned the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance in ‘Tapasya'(1976) won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress while she won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for ‘Daag'(1973) and ‘Ram Lakhan'(1989). She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2003.

Rakhee Mazumdar Gulzar

1949 – The National Museum, New Delhi- one of India’s largest museums was inaugrated by then Governor-General Chakravarti Rajgopalachari.

1950 – Assam and Tibet were struck by a massive earthquake that measured 8.6 on the richter scale.

1975 – Former Test Cricketer Vijay Bharadwajwas born. Though his international career didn’t last long, Bharadwaj made an impression by bagging the Man of the Series Award in his debut ODI series. This was in 1999-00 season when India participated in the LG Cup in Kenya,a quadrangular tournament.He retired from all forms of the game in 2004 and took up coaching. He is currently the coach of the Karnataka Ranji Trophy Super League squads. Bharadwaj is credited with Ranji success of Karnataka in 1998-99 season.

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