April 14 : To lead is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.

On this day, 14 Apr...

1611 - The word “telescope” was first used in public by Prince Federico Cesi at a banquet held to honour Galileo, on a grand hillside estate. Although the name was announced by Cesi to christen Galileo's instrument, the word telescope (in Italian) was perhaps devised from Greek words, by a Greek poet-theologian, who happened to be present. 

1659 - Aurangzeb defeated his brother Dara Shukoh to capture the throne of Delhi.

1863 - The first U.S. patent for a continuous-roll printing press was issued to William Bullock.  

1865 - President Lincoln is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington. He died the next day. 

1912 - David Sarnoff, 21-year old telegraph operator, picked up a message of distress call of the Titanic relayed from ships at sea: “S.S. Titanic ran into the iceberg, sinking fast.”   He stayed at his post for 72 hours, receiving and transmitting the first authentic information on the disaster.  (The RMS Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 on Sunday 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, which made it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history).

1914 - The first U.S. patent for a non-skid tyre pattern was issued to Stacy G. Carkhuff of the Firestone Rubber Co. of Akron Ohio.

1956 - The first practical commercial black-and-white video recorder was demonstrated in Chicago. It was the size of a deep-freeze with an additional five 6-foot racks of circuitry.  (One reel of tape cost $300, and a recorder cost about $75,000 to $100,000, about a half a million dollars today). 

2014 - The Netherlands introduced glow in the dark road markings on a small stretch of highway in the country to test the concept. The markings are made with a glow in the dark paint that charges during the day and glows at night. It was done as an effort to replace streetlights and save energy in the country. 

Born

1469 - Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev.

1563 - Guru Arjun Dev, Sikh Guru.

1891 -  B. R. Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Untouchables (Dalits), while also supporting the rights of women and labour. In recognition of his efforts, he was appointed the first Law Minister of independent India. 

1919 – Shamshad Begum, singer. She was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. 

1941 - Julie Christie, actress (Dr Zhivago), was born in Assam.

Titbits

2011 - Rejean Hinse, a Quebec man wrongly convicted of a crime in the 1960s and acquitted 30 years later, receives $13.1 million in compensation.

You may have known...

The security forces in Kashmir are performing their difficult task effectively. In 2017 alone more than 200 terrorists were killed. However, they can only control the situation; they cannot solve the problem that has many facets – political, social, economic, psychological etc.