April 09 : Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

On this day, 09 Apr...

1667 - 1st public art exhibition was held at Palais-Royale, Paris.

1783 - Tipu Sultan drives out English from Bednore in south India.

1872 - Dried milk was patented by Samuel R. Percy. (While Marco Polo wrote of Mongolian Tatar troops in the time of Kublai Khan who carried sun-dried skimmed milk as "a kind of paste", the first modern production process for dried milk was invented by the Russian physician Osip Krichevsky in 1802. The first commercial production of dried milk was organised by the Russian chemist M. Kirchoff in 1832. In 1855, T.S. Grimwade took a patent on a dried milk procedure, though a William Newton had patented a vacuum drying process as early as 1837).

1912 - Ill-fated ship Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland for New York.

1914 - 1st full colour film shown "World, Flesh and Devil" in London.

1965 - Fighting breaks out in the Rann of Kutch between Indian and Pakistani troops. Pakistan attacked Indian borders, Sardar Post, Chhar Bet and Beria Bet, manned by the State Armed Police Battalions. In Kutch Pakistan launched its 8th Infantry Division supported by two regiments of M47/48 Patton. Operation 'Desert Hawk' was launched to draw away reserves from other vulnerable areas, and possibly to test India's resolve. The Indian Army did not rise to the bait.

1969 - The British Concorde prototype 002 left Filton airport, Bristol, on its first flight with test pilot Brian Trubshaw at the controls. The French prototype Concorde 001 had already made its first flight the previous month, on 2 Mar 1969, from Toulouse. An even earlier first flight was made on 31 Dec 1968, by the Russian Tupolev TU-144 supersonic-capable airliner (a Concorde look-alike, dubbed Concordski in the West). The first Concorde to fly at supersonic speed, over Mach 1, was prototype 001 on 1 Oct 1969.

1974 - African American, Phil Brooks was issued a U.S. patent for a disposable syringe.

1974 - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh reach pact to exchange prisoners of 1971 war in New Delhi.

2012 - Facebook purchases Instagram, a photo sharing application, for $1 billion.

Born

1948 - Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan, actor.

RIP

2009 - Shakti Samanta, film director.

Titbits

1878 - 1st Lady Lucy Hayes begins egg rolling contest on White House lawn.

You may have known...

Local anger at Indian-run elections in 1988 brought a militant insurgency that continues to this day and has resulted in loss of many lives.