April 08 : Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

On this day, 08 Apr...

1759 - British troops chase French out of Masulipatam.

1766 - The first patent was granted for a fire escape: a wicker basket on a pulley and a chain designed by a London watchmaker.

1873 - The first commercially margarine manufacturing process was patented by Alfred Paraf of New York. When its success threatened butter sales, federal and state taxes were levied on it.

1879 - Milk was sold in glass bottles for the first time in the U.S. They were introduced by the Echo Farms Dairy Co. of New York.

1886 - German scientist, Dr. Carl Gassner, was issued a German patent for the first "dry" cell, which used zinc as its primary ingredient.

1929 - Indian Independence Movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest.

1947 - Largest recorded sunspot observed. (Its area was 11265 million square kilometres. In relation to the visible solar area, it covered 6132 millionths of that area. As a sunspot is generally considered large if it covers 300 to 500 millionths of the visible solar area, the 1947 phenomena was indeed huge).

1950 - Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan sign the Indo-Pakistani Pact. (The Liaquat–Nehru Pact or Delhi Pact was a bilateral treaty between India and Pakistan, whereby refugees were allowed to return unmolested to dispose of their property, abducted women and looted property were to be returned, forced conversions were unrecognised, and minority rights were confirmed).

1953 - The first 3D motion picture produced and released by a major company, Man in the Dark, opened at the Globe Theatre in New York City.

1973 - India takes control over Sikkim after anti-government riots.

1985 - India files suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal disaster.

1997 - Delhi High Court quashes charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy against L.K. Advani (BJP President), and former Union Minister V.C. Shukla in the Jain hawala case.

Born

1908 - Jagjivan Ram, politician.

1925 - Kumar Gandharva (Shivputra Siddharamaiya Komkali), famous music director and singer.

1939 - Bhupinder Singh, singer.

RIP

1857 -- Mangal Pandey, the first revolutionary of Indian war of independence and freedom fighter, was hanged at Barrackpore. He struck the first bullet during the time of uprising against the British Empire.

1861 - Elisha Graves Otis, American inventor of the automatic safety brake for elevators.

1894 - Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, famous novelist and writer of national song 'Vande Mataram'. (Some of his other writings are 'Anandmath' and 'Kapal Kundala').

Titbits

1983 - In front of a live audience of 20 tourists, David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear.

You may have known...

Beginning in the late 1980s, at the behest of Pakistan some frustrated Kashmiris variously seeking a referendum, outright independence, or a merger with Pakistan, started violence. In the early 1990s, these militants made Srinagar a dangerous place, particularly for those connected to India's government or military.