This Day In History- September 10

1872 – Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar Ranjitshinhji Vibhaji was born. The Nawanagar Royal also fondly referred to as ‘Ranji’ was one of the greatest batsmen of all time and represented England in Test Cricket and Sussex in the domestic circuit.

Ranjitsinhji

Maharaja of Nawanagar Ranjitsinhji

He made his debut for England against Australia in 1896. In 15 tests that he played, Ranji scored 989 runs at an average of 44.95 and a highest score of 175.  Ranji also plundered 24692 runs from 307 First-class matches with a highest score of 285 N.O. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1934 started the Ranji trophy which is one of India’s premier first-class competitions.

1912 – Fifth Vice President of India Basappa Danappa Jatti was born. B D Jatti started his political career in 1940 as a member of the Jamkhandi Municipality and later held the position of President. He then moved on to the Jamkhandi State Legislature.

He was the Chief Minister of Jamkhandi state until its merger with the state of Bombay in March 1948. He served as the Minister of Health and Labour for Bombay government until the reorganization of states took place. He was elected to the Mysore Legislative Assembly and served as Mysore’s Chief Minister (1958-62).

He ventured into politics at the national level later and became the Governor of Pondicherry in 1968 and Governor of Orissa in 1973. In 1974, Basappa D Jatti became the fifth Vice President of India. He also assumed responsibility as an acting President of India when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed passed away while in office.

A humble B D Jatti was also very religious. He was the founder-president of the ‘Basava Samiti’, an organisation that focussed on propagation of teachings of Basaveshwara the 12th century Hindu reformer.

Bagha Jatin

Bagha Jatin

1915 – Great Freedom Fighter Jatindranath Mukherjee or ‘Bagha Jatin’ embraced martyrdom. He came to be known as ‘Bagha Jatin’ after he killed a Royal Bengal tiger single-handedly. According to various sources Bagha Jatin was one of the founders of Anushilan Samiti. In 1908, he was implicated in the Alipore bomb case along with 30 other revolutionaries though he was later acquitted. However, he continued with underground activities.

Bagha Jatin was arrested yet again in connection with the Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case but was acquitted of all charges. He went international in his attempt to organise Indian revolutionaries outside India. When World War I began, Indian revolutionaries across Europe gathered in Berlin, Germany and formed the Indian Independence Party. The prominent members of this party proposed an uprising in India similar to the First War of Independence in 1857.The German government also agreed to provide assistance.

Jatin, who conceived and organised the entire plot, was made in-charge of the operation. Upon insistence of his companions Jatin moved to a safer hideout. However, the British learnt about his hiding place. Bagha Jatin was mortally wounded during police firing and breathed his last in Balasore Hospital.

C R Rao Mathematician

Prof. C R Rao

1920 – Eminent Indian American mathematician and statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao or C R Rao was born. The Times of India included Prof. Rao in its list of top 10 Indian Scientists of all time. In 1943 when Prof. Rao received his M.A. in statistics from Calcutta University he was one of the few people in world to have a Master’s degree in Statistics.

Prof. Rao’s works include the Fisher-Rao theorem, Rao distance and orthogonal arrays. He authored 14 books and has over 400 journal publications to his credit. His other areas of work include multivariate analysis, differential geometry and estimation theory. Prof. Rao held many important positions in his career. He has served as the Director of the Indian Statistical Institute, President of the International Statistical Institute and the International Biometric Society.

Prof. Rao has received many awards and honours for his contribution. In 1963, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the S S Bhatnagar Award. In 1965, the Royal Statistical Society conferred upon him the Guy Medal. He has also received International Mahalanobis Prize of the International Statistical Institute (2003) and Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (2003) of the Indian National Science Academy. In 2002, President George Bush honoured him with USA’s highest award in scientific field, the National Medal of Science.

The Government of India bestowed on him country’s highest award for contribution in science the India Science Award in 2010 and with second highest civilian honour the Padma Vibhushan in 2001.

Sukumar Ray

Sukumar Ray

1923 – Popular Bengali humorist, poet, playwright and story writer Sukumar Ray passed away. Ray is a popular not only among children of West Bengal but also Bangladesh. For the Rays, story-writing or story-telling ran in the family as Sukumar was the son of Upendrakishor Ray, the famous children’s story writer and the father of noted filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

Sukumar Ray was born at a time when Bengali Renaissance was at its peak. As his father was friends with pioneers like Rabindranath Tagore, Jagdish Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Roy he grew up around geniuses. He gave Bengali literature some of its greatest treasures in the form of ‘Abol Tabol'(collection of poems), ‘Pagla Dashu’ (collection of short stories), ‘HaJaBaRaLa’ (novel) though the play ‘Chalchittachanchari’ of his is considered a masterpiece and often compared with Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Ray’s works are also available in English that were translated by Satyajit Ray and others.

1946 – Inspiration Day at Missionaries of Charity. Sister Agnes Teresa Bojaxhiu who later became Mother Teresa experienced the ‘call within a call’ while travelling from Siliguri to Darjeeling which inspired her to embark on her mission to help the underprivileged.

Abdul Hameed

Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hameed

1965 – Indo-Pak War hero Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hameed PVC of the 4th Battalion, The Grenadiers of the Indian Army embraced martyrdom. On 10th September 1965, a Pakistani armour battalion accompanied by Patton tanks launched an attack, at 0800 hours, on the 4th Grenadier position but failed to identify the battalion’s defenses. The enemy tanks had succeeded in penetrating forward company positions by 0900 hours. However Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hameed was quick to realise the gravity of the situation as he moved to an advantageous flanking position with his gun mounted on a jeep.
Inspite of intense enemy shelling managed to knock out three enemy tanks and damaged the fourth one that wounded him seriously. For this gallant act Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hameed was posthumously honoured by the then President Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan with the Param Veer Chakra.

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