Halidor Laxness Death Anniversary

 

Halldor Laxness, was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories. He passed away on 8 February 1998.

Zakir Hussain Khan Birth Anniversary

Zakir Husain Khan, born on 8 February 1897, was an Indian statesman, the first Muslim to hold the largely ceremonial position of president of India. His fostering of secularism was criticized by some Muslim activists.

Husain responded to the nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi’s appeal to Indian youth to shun state-supported institutions; he helped found the Muslim National University in Aligarh (later moved to New Delhi) and served as its vice-chancellor from 1926 to 1948. At Gandhi’s invitation, he also became chairman of the National Committee on Basic Education, established in 1937 to design a Gandhian syllabus for schools.

In 1948 Husain became vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, and four years later he entered the upper house of the national Parliament. In 1956–58 he served on the executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He was appointed governor of Bihar state in 1957 and was elected vice president of India in 1962. As the official Congress Party candidate, he was elected president of India in 1967 and served until his death.

Dmitri Mendeleev Birth Anniversary

 

Dmitri Mendeleev, born on 8 February 1834, was a Russian chemist and inventor who is best known for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements. This table—which was arranged by atomic weight and presented the elements in a grid where elements in the same column exhibited similar chemical properties—was a significant breakthrough in the history of chemistry.

In his formulation of the Periodic Law, Mendeleev predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered. He left gaps in his table for these elements, and remarkably, when they were discovered, their properties matched Mendeleev's predictions. These accurate forecasts lent significant credibility to his work and solidified the acceptance of the periodic table.

Aside from his work on the periodic table, Mendeleev made significant contributions to other areas of chemistry, metrology, and technology. He also made efforts towards improving Russia's higher education, and he advocated for modernization and industrialization in Russia. The crater Mendeleev on the Moon, as well as element number 101, the radioactive mendelevium, are named after him.

Jagjit Singh Birth Anniversary

 

Jagjit Singh, born on 8 February 1941, often referred to as the "Ghazal King", was a versatile and talented Indian Ghazal singer and musician who also wrote several memorable songs. He, in collaboration with his singer wife Chitra Singh, contributed immensely to ghazal as a musical genre and made it popular across multiple age groups.