January 8 : A true dreamer is one who knows how to navigate in the dark.

On this day, 08 Jan....

1838 - The first telegraph message in the US in which letters were represented by dots and dashes was transmitted. The message was: A patient waiter is no loser. The communications system was invented by Alfred Vail of Morristown, US, in Sep 1837.  

1889 - 1st Computer patented. Herman Hollerith was an American inventor who developed an electromechanical punched card tabulator to assist in summarising information and, later, accounting.

1894 - Black American inventor Fredrick J. Loudin was issued a U.S. patent for a "Key Fastener".   The invention was a device designed to attach to the knob-shaft or door-handle above the key-hole and fasten the door key in place in the lock by engaging with the eyed-end of the key to keep it from being turned in the lock. As the patent described, this would prevent disengaging the key, as might otherwise be done by a burglar from the outside of the door with some suitable implement, inserted through the key-hole.

1927 - The first scheduled London-Delhi flight arrives after 63 hrs.  

1940 - George Stibitz's Complex Number Calculator was functional. He was a research mathematician at Bell Laboratories, who worked on its construction from Apr 1939, assisted by Samuel Williams. Later known as Bell Labs Model I Relay Computer, it used telephone relays and coded decimal numbers as groups of four binary digits (bits) each. It has been called the first electromechanical computer for routine use.

1965 - 'Star of India' returned to American Museum of Natural History. (The Star of India is a 563.35-carat - 112.67 g - star sapphire, one of the largest such gems in the world. ).

1998 - Scientists announced the identification for the first time of a key brain chemical related to nicotine addiction, in the journal Nature.

2000 - The Government reconstitutes the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and Trust and retains Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as a trustee along with Mr. P. V. Narasimha Rao, Prof. Yashpal and Dr. Abid Hussain.

2013 - U.S. scientists claim 2012 weather as the hottest year ever recorded.

Born

1908 - Mary Nadia Wadia (Fearless Nadia), actor.

1929 - Saeed Jaffrey, actor.

1939 - Nanda, actor.

1957 - Nafisa Ali, actor.

RIP

1884 - Keshub Chandra Sen,  a leading 19th century Bengali thinker and reformer who was influenced by Christian beliefs which he merged with Hindu philosophy to form a unique synthesis of religious thought.

1941 - Swami Pranabananda Maharaj, father of Bharat Sevashram Sangha.

1984 - Sushma Mukhopadhyay, first Indian women pilot.

1995 - Madhu Limaye, veteran national leader, socialist thinker, freedom fighter, politician, writer, close associate of Ram Manohar Lohia and Jaya Prakash Narayan.

You may have known....

Indian railways owned the longest platform in the world at Kharagpur with a length of 2,733 feet. Now, breaking the record, Gorakhpur station has taken its place with a span of 4,430 feet.