July 19, 1827 – April 8, 1857 Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier who played a key part in events immediately preceding the outbreak of the Indian rebellion of 1857. Pandey was a sepoy in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry regiment of the British East India Company. While contemporary British opinion considered him a traitor and mutineer, Pandey is widely regarded as a freedom fighter in modern India. In 1984, the Indian government issued a postage stamp to commemorate him. [...]
January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952 Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India to a devout family.According to his younger brother, Sananda, from his earliest years young Mukunda’s awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary.In his youth he sought out many of India’s Hindu sages and saints, hoping to find an illuminated teacher to guide him in his spiritual quest. Yogananda’s seeking after various saints mostly ended when he met his guru, Swami Yukteswar Giri, [...]
December 11, 1882 – September 11, 1921 Chinnaswami Subramania Bharathi was an Indian writer, poet, journalist, Indian independence activist and social reformer from Tamil Nadu, India. Popularly known as “Mahakavi Bharathiyar”, he is a pioneer of modern Tamil poetry. His numerous works were fiery songs kindling patriotism and nationalism during Indian Independence movement. Born in Ettayapuram of the then Tirunelveli district (presently Tuticorin district) in 1882, Subramania Bharati had his early education in Tirunelveli and Benares and worked as a journalist [...]
August 15, 1872 – December 5, 1950 Sri Aurobindo, born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose, was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, Maharishi, guru and poet.He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule, for a while became one of its influential leaders and then turned into a spiritual reformer, introducing his visions on human progress and spiritual evolution. Sri Aurobindo studied for the Indian civil service at King’s College, Cambridge. After returning to India he took up various civil [...]
August 20, 1944-May 21, 1991 On the morning of 31 October 1984, his mother was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards to avenge Operation Blue Star; later that day, Rajiv Gandhi was appointed Prime Minister. His leadership was put to the test over the next few days as organised mobs rioted against the Sikh community, resulting in the death of thousands in Delhi alone. Nevertheless, that December, a nationwide sympathy vote for Rajiv’s Congress party helped it win the greatest Lok [...]
November 7, 1888 – November 21, 1970 Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, FRS was an Indian physicist whose ground breaking work in the field of light scattering earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered that, when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect.In 1954, he was honoured with the highest civilian award in India, the Bharat Ratna.
December 11, 1969 Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991-92, India’s highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award in Indian history. Anand has won the Chess Oscar six times (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008). He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, at a [...]
March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003 Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India. She was the first Indian-American astronaut and first Indian woman in space.She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Chawla was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
August 27, 1931 – October 11, 2007 Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual master who taught meditation in the West after moving to New York City in 1964.A prolific author, artist, poet, and musician, he also held public events such as concerts and meditations on the theme of inner peace.Chinmoy also advocated athleticism to achieve spiritual enlightenment, including distance running, swimming, and weightlifting. He organized marathons and other races, and was an active runner [...]
April 23, 1938 Sishtla Sreeramamurthy Janaki,commonly known as S. Janaki, is an Indian playback singer. Renowned for her voice modulation abilities, she has sung in many Indian languages, most frequently in Tamil and Telugu Throughout a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 35,000 songs, won four National Film Awards and 31 different State Film Awards. Her association with singer S. P. Balasubramanyam and composer Ilaiyaraaja is among the most popular musical combinations in South India.She is fondly [...]
