April 15 : Effective leadership is defined by results, not attributes.

On this day, 15 Apr...

1561 - Ambroise Paré published a book on surgery for the first time in the French language, to make the knowledge accessible for study by surgeon-barbers. Paré's contribution also included reintroducing the midwifery technique of Podalic version.

1658 - Raja Jaswant Singh was defeated at Dharma. He was sent by Shahjahan and Dara Shukoh to resist Aurangzeb's advance towards Agra.

1726 - Writer William Stukeley held a conversation with Isaac Newton during which Newton recalled: “when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind.” Later, Stukeley writing in his memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life, recorded that Newton said, “It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, though he to himself? Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's center.”

1770 - Dr. Joseph Priestley made the first mention in English that a piece of a rubber substance could erase marks from black-lead pencils.

1877 - A steam-engine driven helicopter model built by Enrico Forlanini (Italy) rose 40 ft. Its coaxial rotors were powered by a steam engine. Just before takeoff, the spherical steam accumulator was charged with 10 atmospheres of pressure, enabling the craft to rise and remain aloft for 20 seconds.

1878 - Harley Procter developed Ivory Soap, which when marketed later, made Procter and Gamble a multi-million dollar business.

1896 - 1st Olympic games close at Athens, Greece. (Winners were given a silver medal, while runners-up received a copper medal. Retroactively, the IOC has converted these to gold and silver, and awarded bronze medals to third-placed athletes).

1910 - Taft is 1st President to throw out the 1st ball at a baseball game. (The ceremonial first ball is a longstanding ritual of baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game).

1912 - The fourth dimension was spoken of by Albert Einstein as time.

1923 -Insulin became generally available for diabetics' use on this day.

1941 - Igor Ivor Sikorsky made the first helicopter flight over a one-hour duration in his Vought-Sikorsky VS-300. It used a three-bladed main propeller 28-feet in diameter and stayed in the air for 65 minutes and 14.5 seconds.

1946 - The original memorial was erected in Kohima, Nagaland, from local stone. (It is a memorial dedicated to soldiers of the 2nd British Division of the Allied Forces who died in the Second World War at Kohima, the capital of Nagaland in April 1944. The soldiers died on the battleground of Garrison Hill in the tennis court area of the Deputy Commissioner's residence. There are 1,420 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War at this cemetery, and a memorial to an additional 917 Hindu and Sikh soldiers who were cremated. The memorial is maintained by the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission).

1948 - Territory of Himachal Pradesh created. (The name was coined by Sanskrit him 'snow' and actual 'mountain', by Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma, one of the State's most eminent Sanskrit scholars).

1950 - Acharya Vinoba Bhave requested the villagers of Panchampalli Telangana, Andhra Pradesh to give 80 acres of land, and with this, he had started his 'Bhudan Andolan'.

1976 - India announces it will send an envoy to Peking, the first time in 15 years.

1984 - Extremists plunder 40 stations in Punjab.

2000 - Baichung Bhutia became the first Asian-player to score a goal in the professional English game.

2010 - Barack Obama says that it is likely that astronauts will be sent to orbit Mars by the mid-2030's.

Born

1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer.

1469 – Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus.

1563 - Guru Arjan Dev.

1919 - Marshal of the Air and former Air Chief Arjan Singh, Padma Vibhushan, DFC.

1922 - Hasrat Jaipuri, lyricist.

1972 – Mandira Bedi, actor.

1990 - Emma Watson, Harry Potter actor.

RIP

1989 - 96 football supporters are killed in Britain's worst-ever sporting disaster at Hillsborough.

You may have known...

The main source of the problem in J&K lies in Pakistan that continues to aid and abet the violence in the Valley.