May 4: The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humour but without folly.

On this day, 04 May...

1715 - French manufacturer debuts 1st folding umbrella (Paris).

1799 - Tipu Sultan is killed in a battle against 5,000 British soldiers who stormed and razed his capital, Seringapatanam.

1814 – Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.

1854 - The first stamp was officially issued from Calcutta where the first modern post office was established.

1884 - The first photograph of a lightning flash made in the U.S. was made by W. C. Gurley of the Marietta Observatory, Ohio. The flash was about 3 miles away.

1886 - Three patents for recording and reproducing speech and other sounds relating to a phonograph disk record were issued. Alexander Graham Bell was a joint patentee on two of them. From these designs, Bell & Tainter manufactured the first practical phonograph.

1892 - A process for commercial production of acetylene was made by Thomas L. Wilson, though it happened by accident. His experiment to produce metallic calcium by fusing lime and coal tar in an electric furnace was unsuccessful, and the slag-like waste product was dumped in a nearby stream. The water reacted with the slag and liberated a gas, recognised to be acetylene gas, which was previously known, but had only been made on a laboratory scale. Now Thomas Wilson had a method for production of acetylene on a commercial scale. Acetylene has an important use in welding applications.

1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.

1927 - The first U.S. balloon flight ascent to exceed an altitude of 40,000-ft was made by Captain Hawthorne C. Gray of the U.S. Army Air Service. The nearly 2-hour free flight reached an altitude of 42,470-ft.

1933 - The discovery of radio waves from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy was described by Karl Jansky in a paper he read to the International Radio Union in Washington. The galactic radio waves were very low intensity, short wavelength (14.6 m, frequency about 20 MHz) and required sensitive apparatus for their detection.

1959 - Nehru rejects proposals that India and Pakistan resolve their differences and set up a common alliance against Communist China.

2003 The first cloned equine, a mule foal was born at the University of Idaho, the U.S., named Idaho Gem.

2015 - The human trafficking crisis continues in the Mediterranean, as approximately 7,000 migrants are rescued from 34 vessels intercepted over the last few days.

Born

1767 - Thyagaraja, Carnatic music composer.

1923 - Mrinal Sen, film director.

1942 – Sam Pitroda. (Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda is a telecom engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and policymaker. He was born in Titilagarh, Odisha, to a Gujarati OBC family. He spent nearly a decade with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as leader of an effort to build an Indian information industry. The task was to extend digital telecommunications to every corner of the country, including remote villages, like the one of his birth).

1945 – N Ram, journalist and prominent member of the Kasturi family that controls The Hindu Group of publications.

1972 - Jyoti Randhawa, golfer.

RIP

1799 - Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore.

You may have known...

Pak Army has vested interest in Indo-Pak relations on the simmer. Their "welfare foundations" run thousands of businesses worth tens of billions of dollars, ranging from street-corner petrol pumps to sprawling industrial plants.

Economic News

The GST Council in its 27th meeting on May 4 is likely to clear the imposition of Sugar Cess approximately between 2% to 5%, also Government to Increase Stake in GSTN to 100% and Simplification of Return Form on agenda

The Income Tax Deptt. has detected Three Lakh Unreported Transactions in the FY 2017-18 whose Value is more that Rs. 1 Lakh Crore which were detected by the Directorate of Intelligence and Criminal Investigation Department of Income tax

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed John Energy gets Sebi Go-Ahead for Rs 350 Crore IPO

Sebi puts in place New Framework to check Non-Compliance of Listing Rules & Conditions, wherein Exchanges will have powers to freeze Promoter Shareholding and even Delist the shares of such Defaulting Companies

Jaypee Infratech lenders to meet on May 7 to consider Lakshadweep Rs 7,350 crore bid

US Trade Deficit narrows in March for the first time in seven months as Exports reached The Highest Level on Record

Tata Motors to sell its Defence, Aerospace Business to Tata Advanced Systems

RBI asks Listed Firms to provide FPI data to Depositories by May 15 or else they will be barred from receiving Foreign Investments