February 3 : Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down.

On this day, 03 Feb....

1690 - 1st paper money in America issued.

1862 - As a boy of 15, Thomas Edison became the first publisher of a newspaper produced and sold on a moving train. He had set up a small press in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Rail road train Already obsessed with telegraphy, he worked out the logistics of getting advance news. His single sheet weekly Grand Trunk Herald, included local news and advertisements for his father's store. He had been selling candy and newspapers on commission on that train run since age 12. Edison became renowned as a pioneering boy journalist. At its peak, he sold about 200 copies a day to train riders.

1879 - The first practically usable incandescent filament electric light bulb was demonstrated by its inventor Joseph Wilson Swan.

1919 - The first meeting of the League of Nations was held. This organisation was later replaced by the present-day United Nations (UN). The goals of the UN are very similar to the goals of the League of Nations.

1928 - Simon Commission comes to India. It was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been tasked to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. (Almost immediately with its arrival in Bombay, the Simon Commission was confronted by throngs of protesters. A strike began and many people turned out to greet the Commission with black flags. Similar protests occurred in every major Indian city that the seven British MsP visited. One protest against the Simon Commission became infamous. On 30 October 1928, the Commission arrived in Lahore where the protest was led by Indian nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai. In order to make way for the Commission, the local police force began beating protestors with their sticks. The police were particularly brutal towards Lala Lajpat Rai, who died later on 17 November 1928. His death was widely believed to have been caused by the mental trauma of the beating).

1966 - Three days after its takeoff, the unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft landed safely on the moon. It was the first ever soft landing on another celestial body, and opened the way for manned trips to the moon, by removing doubts lest the surface was an unsafe dusty quicksand. A TV camera with a revolving mirror system enabled Luna 9 to take pictures, including panoramic views of the lunar landscape and closer views of nearby rocks, which were transmitted back to earth until 6 Feb when the batteries ran out and contact with the spacecraft was lost.

1984 - A California hospital announced the birth of the world's first baby conceived by embryo transplant.

1986 - The Pope meets Mother Teresa, and visited her refuge for the sick and dying.

1992 - Kapil Dev becomes the second highest wicket-taker in Test Cricket when he took his 400th wicket.

1998 - The BJP releases its election manifesto promising to make India a nuclear state; build a Ram temple at Ayodha and work for a uniform civil code.

2009 - Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been made a knight of the Légion d'Honneur, which is France's highest civilian award. (The best-selling author's great-grandfather was French. In fluent French, she apologised to the crowd for giving Potter's evil nemesis a French name).

Born

1905 - Sir Padampat Singhania, great industrialist.

RIP

1969 - Thiru Conjeevaram Natrajan Annadurai "Anna", a great patriot, writer, editor, orator, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the commencer of Dravid Movement.

You may have known....

The largest volcanic eruption recorded by humans occurred in April 1815, the peak of the explosion of Mount Tambora. The explosion is said to have been so loud it was heard on Sumatra Island, more than 1,200 miles (1,930 km) away. The death toll from the eruption was estimated at 71,000 people, and clouds of heavy ash descended.