New Delhi became India's capital in 1931

On 13 February 1931, New Delhi became the capital of India.

New Delhi, the capital city, had its foundation stone laid by George V, the then Emperor of India. The event took place in the Delhi Durbar of 1911. The city’s architecture and planning were done by two British architects, namely Sir Herbert Baker and Sir Edwin Lutyens. It was on 13 February 1931 that Lord Irwin, India’s Viceroy, inaugurated New Delhi as the new capital of the country. Since then, New Delhi has become the center of government, with all the branches (legislative, judiciary and executive) needed to run the country.

Before New Delhi became the capital of India, Kolkata had the privilege of being the country’s capital till 1911. However, Delhi had been the financial and political center of many empires that had earlier ruled India. Some of the best examples of this are the reign of the Delhi Sultanate as well as the reign of the Mughals from 1649-1857. With the coming of the British in India, many things changed. It was in the early period of the 1900s that the British administration thought of shifting the capital of the British Indian Empire from Calcutta to Delhi.

One of the main reasons that were cited for the capital shift was the location of Delhi. Calcutta was situated in the eastern coastal part of the country, while Delhi was located in the northern part. The British government of India felt that ruling India from Delhi was easier and more convenient. The proposal was heartily accepted by the British Raj. During the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, George V, the then ruling Emperor of India, along with Queen Mary, announced that the capital of India would be shifted from Kolkata to Delhi. Along with the announcement, the foundation stone for Coronation Park, Kingsway Camp, was also laid. This would be the Viceroy’s residence.

The initial planning and architecture for Delhi were done by two British architects, Herbert Baker and Edwin Lutyens. They were among the leading architects in Britain then. Once the plan was sanctioned, the contract of building the city was endowed on Sobha Singh. The construction work began after the First World War and the whole construction got over by 1931. The city was finally inaugurated by the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on 13 February 1931. Once the city was inaugurated, plans of extending the city also started coming up. Different architects gave their ideas and inspirations but the majority of them got rejected by the Viceroy. The main reason behind the rejection was the huge cost involved.

Once the capital of the British Indian Empire shifted to Delhi from Calcutta, a temporary secretariat building was constructed in North Delhi in 1912. Many of the important offices shifted to the place so that general working would not be affected. It is also quite interesting to note that for proper running of the various offices of the then British Indian Government, employees were brought from Madras Presidency, Calcutta Presidency, and so on. The employees lived in the nearby areas and later turned into one of the most posh residential areas of New Delhi.

World Radio Day

 

World Radio Day, is an international day celebrated on 13 February each year. The Day was decided by UNESCO on 3 November 2011 during its 36th conference.

13 February marks World Radio Day (WRD), a celebration of the powerful medium that has informed, entertained, and educated people around the world for over a century. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution of World Radio Day on 14 January 2013, recognizing the importance of radio as a source of information, entertainment, and education for all.

With the rise of digital technologies, radio is facing challenges such as low revenue, technological disruption, and censorship. However, it continues to remain an essential tool for reaching people who lack internet access or are otherwise disconnected.

World Radio Day is an opportunity to celebrate the medium of radio as a source of information, entertainment, and education. It is also a reminder of the importance of radio as a tool for promoting inclusive communication and social cohesion.

Chuck Yeager Birth Anniversary

 

Chuck Yeager, born on 13 February 1923, was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight.

Yeager enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 1941, shortly after graduating from high school, and was assigned to the Army Air Corps. He was commissioned a reserve flight officer in 1943 and became a pilot in the fighter command of the Eighth Air Force stationed in England. He flew 64 missions over Europe during World War II, shot down 13 German aircraft, and was himself shot down over France (he escaped capture with the help of the French underground). After the war he became a flight instructor and then a test pilot, securing a regular commission as a captain in 1947.

Yeager was chosen from several volunteers to test-fly the secret experimental X-1 aircraft, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to test the capabilities of the human pilot and a fixed-wing aircraft against the severe aerodynamic stresses of sonic flight. On October 14, 1947, over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California, he rode the X-1, attached to a B-29 mother ship, to an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 metres). The X-1 then rocketed separately to 40,000 feet (12,000 metres), and Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier, which was approximately 662 miles (1,066 km) per hour at that altitude. The feat was not announced publicly until June 1948. Yeager continued to make test flights, and on December 12, 1953, he established a world speed record of 1,650 miles (2,660 km) per hour in an X-1A rocket plane.

In 1954 Yeager left his post as assistant chief of test-flight operations at Edwards Air Force Base in California to join the staff of the Twelfth Air Force in West Germany.

Following other routine assignments, he returned to Edwards in 1962 as commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School with the rank of colonel. In 1968 he took command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing. He retired from the air force with the rank of brigadier general in 1975. His autobiography, Yeager, was published in 1985.

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad Birth Anniversary

 

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad, born on 13 February 1835, was Indian  Indian Muslim leader who founded an Islamic religious movement known as Ahmadiyyah.

The son of a prosperous family, Ghulām Aḥmad received an education in Persian and Arabic. He initially refused his father’s urgings that he go into British government service or practice law. However, because of his father’s persistence, he served as a government clerk in Sialkot from 1864 until 1868. Ghulām Aḥmad led a life of contemplation and religious study. He claimed to hear revelations and declared in 1889 that he had received one in which God had entitled him to receive bayʿat (an oath of allegiance). Soon he gathered a small group of devoted disciples. From then on his influence and following steadily increased, as did opposition from the mainstream Islamic community

Ghulām Aḥmad claimed not only that he was the mahdi  (a promised Muslim “saviour”) and a reappearance (burūz) of the Prophet Muhammad but also that he was Jesus Christ  and the Hindu God Krishna returned to earth. A number of his rather unorthodox teachings were incorporated into the beliefs of the Aḥmadiyyah.

After Ghulām Aḥmad’s death, his followers disputed whether he had really claimed to be a prophet and, if so, what he meant by his prophethood. Nonetheless, his devotees formed a community of believers and elected a caliph to lead them. Ghulām Aḥmad’s most famous work is Barāhīn al-Aḥmadiyyah (“Proofs of the Ahmadi Faith”; 1880).

Suraj Mal Birth Anniversary

 

Suraj Mal, born on 13 February 1707, was a Jat ruler of Bharatpur in present-day state of Rajasthan. Under him, the Jat rule covered the present-day districts of Agra, Aligarh, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Etawa, Hathras, Mainpuri, Mathura, and Rohtak.

Sarojini Naidu Birth Anniversary

 

Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India, was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. She has many firsts to her credit, including being the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. The eldest daughter of Aghornath Chattopadhyaya and Barada Sundari Devi, she was fluent in many languages.