Sayajirao Gaekwad III, passed away on 6 February
1939, was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is notably
remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule. He belonged to the
royal Gaekwad dynasty of the Marathas which ruled parts of present-day Gujarat.
Shyama Shastri, was a musician and composer of
Carnatic music. He was the oldest among the Trinity of Carnatic music,
Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar being the other two. He passed away on 6
February 1827.
Pratap Singh Kairon, was the Chief Minister of the
Punjab province (then comprising Punjab, Haryana and part of Himachal Pradesh),
and is widely acknowledged as the architect of post-Independence Punjab
Province (or Punjab, Haryana and Himachal as of today). Moreover, he was an
Indian independence movement leader. He was jailed twice by the British Empire,
once for five years for organizing protests against British rule. His political
influence and views are still considered to dominate politics in Punjab. He was
assassinated on 6 February 1965.
Joseph Priestley, was an English chemist, natural
philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and
liberal political theorist who published over 150 works. He has historically
been credited with the independent discovery of oxygen in 1774 by the
thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide, having isolated it. Although Swedish
chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele also has strong claims to the discovery, Priestley
published his findings first. Scheele discovered it by heating potassium
nitrate, mercuric oxide, and many other substances in about 1772. He passed
away on 6 February 1804.
George VI, was King of the United Kingdom and the
Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He
became known as a symbol of British determination to win the Second World War
against Germany. He passed away on 6 February 1952.
On 6 February 1952, Elizabeth II became Queen of the
United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the
Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of
succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
Ritwik Ghatak, was a noted Bengali filmmaker and
script writer. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit
Ray and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembered for its meticulous
depiction of social reality, partition and feminism. Although their roles were
often adversarial, they were ardent admirers of each other's work and, in doing
so, the three directors charted the independent trajectory of parallel cinema,
as a counterpoint to the mainstream fare of Hindi cinema in India. Ghatak received
many awards in his career, including National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award
for Best Story in 1974 for his Jukti Takko Aar Gappo and Best Director's Award
from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The
Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970. He
passed away on 6 February 1976.
Kavi Pradeep, born on 6 February 1915, was an Indian
poet and songwriter who is best known for his patriotic song Aye Mere Watan
Ke Logo written as a tribute to the soldiers who had died defending the
country during the Sino-Indian War.
Motilal Nehru, was an Indian lawyer, activist and
politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He also served as the
Congress President twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929. He was a member of the
Nehru-Gandhi family and the father of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime
Minister of India. He passed away on 6 February 1931.
Abdul Ghaffār Khān, born on 6 February 1890, was a
Pashtun independence activist who worked to end the rule of the British Raj in
India. He was a political and spiritual leader known for his nonviolent
opposition; he was a lifelong pacifist and devout Muslim. A close friend of
Mohandas Gandhi, Bacha Khan was nicknamed the "Frontier Gandhi" in
British India by his close associate Amir Chand Bombwal. Bacha Khan founded the
Khudai Khidmatgar ("Servants of God") movement in 1929. Its success
triggered a harsh crackdown by the British Raj against him and his supporters,
and they suffered some of the most severe repression of the Indian independence
movement.
Lata Mangeshkar, was an Indian playback singer and
occasional music composer. She is widely considered as one of the greatest and
most influential singers in India. Her contribution to Indian music industry in
a career spanning seven decades gained her honorific titles such as the
Nightingale of India, Voice of the Millennium and Queen of Melody. She passed
away on 6 February 2022.
