This Day In History- August 25

1920 – Freedom fighter and Social servant Pandit Shyam Sunder Surolia was born. Young Pandit Surolia was highly inspired by the movement for Independence and registered his participation at the age of 14. In 1939 he was arrested for making bombs along with other young revolutionaries and sent to a juvenile home in Chuadanga, Bangladesh. After India gained Independence he ventured into politics with the sole purpose of working for the poor. He took over as the Chairman of the Mukundgarh Municipality (in Rajasthan) and initiated the Harijan Development Programme. He introduced schemes like scholarships and hostel facilities for students from the lower segment of the society. Pandit Surolia dedicated his entire life for the upliftment of the poor.

1981 – First Luger to represent India and compete at the Winter Olympic Games, Shiva Keshavan K P was born. Right from the start he had a liking for winter sports and was an avid skier and had bagged the Junior National Ski Championship in 1995 before discovering his passion for Luge while on a Training Camp in Himachal when he was 15 He was later selected for a camp conducted by the International Luge Federation with the assistance of World Luge Champion Gunter Lemmerer who was assigned with the task of finding talented lugers from countries that hardly had any international representation in the sport. Keshavan proved his potential as he went on to become youngest person ever to qualify for the Olympics in luge at the age of 16. Till date, Shiva Keshavsan has represented the country in 4 Olympic Games held in Nagano, Japan (1998), Salt Lake City, USA (2002), Torino, Italy (2006) and Vancouver, Canada (2010). He is currently the Asian record holder at 134.3 kmph. He also brought glory to the nation in the sport by winning the Bronze medal in 2008-09 and the Silver medal in 2009-10 at the Asian Championships held in Nagano, Japan. Last year he won the Gold in Asia Cup at Nagano, Japan.

Twin Car bomb blasts Mumbai 2003

2003 – Twin Car bomb blasts rocked the financial capital of India, Mumbai. One of the bombs exploded in the jewellery market- Zaveri Bazaar in Central Mumbai while the other went off near Gateway of India. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the attacks. They were tried in a special POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) Court and awarded death sentence which was upheld by the Bombay High Court.

2007 – Exactly four years after Mumbai bombings two blasts occured in the city of Hyderabad. Lumbini Amusement Park adjacent to Hussain Sagar was first hit followed by an explosion in Gokul Chat Bhandar just 5 kms away from Lumbini Park. Two more bombs were found in the city and defused. The next day police found 19 bombs fitted with timers across Hyderabad at various public places.

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