His father Seth Morarjee Goculdas was
a pioneering textile magnate. He studied at Elphinstone College. He
started managing two mills- Morarjee Goculdas Mill of Bombay and Solapur Mill
of Solapur while studying.
Narottam Morarjee later came into close
contact with Mahatma Gandhi, Dr, Annie Besant, Dadabhai Naoroji, Rabindranath
Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Motilal Nehru.
Narottam Morarjee joined hands with
other Gujarati businessmen, Walchand Hirachand and Kilachand Devchand to finance
and establish The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd., which was founded on
27 March 1919. On 5 April 1919, Scindia's first ship s.s. LOYALTY sailed from
Bombay to the United Kingdom and unfurled the flag of Indian shipping in
international waters.
Narottam Morarjee died on 5 November 1929.
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,
born on 2 April 1902, in Kasur, of the erstwhile Punjab Province, British India, was
an Indian
vocalist, from the Kasur-Patialia Gharana and hailed from a family of
musicians. Following partition of India in 1947, Kasur Tehsil was allocated
to Pakistan.
He received his early training in vocals from his uncle Kale Khan — who had been a court singer in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. He also familiarised himself with the sarangi. Subsequently, he was trained by his father Ali Baksh Khan.
His musical might first became evident when he
found an audience for his “all-night riyaaz” in Kasur. His brothers Ustad
Mubarak Ali Khan, Ustad Bharat Ali Khan and Ustad Amanat Ali Khan were also
well-known contributors to the Kasur-Patiala gharana.
The most common epithet used to describe Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan is ‘Tansen of the 20th century’. Often referred to as Bade (older) Ghulam Ali Khan to differentiate him from other maestros of the same name, the genius musician was one of the most legendary thumri vocalists of all time, who took the Patiala Gharana, one of the schools of Hindustani classical music, to new heights.
Born in undivided Punjab, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan found his home in India many years after Partition — he lived in Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, where he eventually passed away.
St.
John Paul II, passed away on 2 April, 2005, Vatican
City, aged 84. He was beatified on 1 May 2011; canonized 27 April 27 2014; and
has his feast day on 22 October, a date chosen to remember the anniversary of
the liturgical inauguration of his Papacy in 1978.
Of
Polish nationality, and born, Karol Józef Wojtyła, he
was the third longest serving pope and the first non-Italian for 455 years he
held office from 1978 to his death in 2005. As part of his effort to promote greater understanding
between nations and between religions, he undertook numerous trips abroad, traveling far greater
distances than had all other popes combined, and he extended his influence beyond the church by
campaigning against political oppression and criticizing the materialism of the
West. He also issued several unprecedented apologies to groups that
historically had been wronged by Catholics, most notably Jews and Muslims. His
unabashed Polish nationalism and his emphasis on nonviolent political activism
aided the Solidarity movement in communist Poland in the 1980s and
ultimately contributed to the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
More generally, John Paul used his influence among Catholics and
throughout the world to advance the recognition of human dignity and to deter
the use of violence. His
centralized style of church governance, however, dismayed some members of the clergy, who found
it autocratic and stifling. He failed to reverse an overall decline in the
numbers of priests and nuns, and his traditional interpretations of church
teachings on personal and sexual morality alienated some segments of the laity.
Samuel
F.B. Morse, who passed away on 2 April 1872, New
York, aged 80, was an American painter and inventor who is best remembered today for his invention of single-wire
telegraph system and the co-inventor of the Morse code - method of transmitting textual information as a
series of on and off tones. His discovery soon changed the way the messages are
sent and received in the entire world, and even today Morse code is still in
use in various areas of radio communications. Although he was considered to be
poor during the majority of his life, he managed to live as an accomplished
painter until he focused his interests on electromagnetism and electric
communication.
Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji, Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, who passed away on 2 April 1933, Jamnagar,
aged 60, was one of the world’s greatest cricket players and, later, a ruler of
his native state in India.
After attending
Trinity College, Cambridge (1890–93), he played for the Sussex cricket team in
first-class county competition (1895–97, 1899–1904, 1908, 1912) and served as
team captain (1899–1903). An unorthodox but graceful batsman, he scored the
high total of 3,000 runs in 1899 and again in 1900. In 15
England-versus-Australia test matches, he scored 985 runs.
As maharaja of
Nawanagar from March 1907, he was a progressive ruler and statesman and set an
example by the simplicity of his personal life. He modernized his capital
of Jamnagar, developed the seaport of Nawanagar, and built roads,
railways, and irrigation facilities. During World War I he was a British
army staff officer in France, attaining the rank of colonel. In 1920 he
represented the Indian states at the League of Nations Assembly, Geneva, and in
1932 he became chancellor of the Indian Chamber of Princes. He was knighted in
1917, 1919, and 1923.
Tristão
de Bragança Cunha, alternatively spelled as Tristao de
Braganza Cunha, born on 2 April 1891, in Chandor village, Goa, was a prominent
Indian nationalist and anti-colonial activist from Goa (then part of Portuguese
India). He is popularly known as the ‘Father of Goan nationalism’ and was the
organizer of the first independence movement to liberate Goa from Portuguese
rule.
He
completed his school education in Panaji and then went to Pondicherry to the
French College for pursuing B.A. and thereafter he went to Paris. There he
studied at Sorbonne University and obtained a degree in electrical engineering.
In Paris, Cunha entered the circle of Romain Rolland and helped publicize the
Indian independence Movement generally, and the case of Portuguese India in
particular, in the French-language press. Cunha returned to Goa in the year
1926 and set up the Comissão do Congresso de Goa (Goa Congress Committee) in
1928 to organize the Goan intelligentsia against Portuguese colonial rule.
Pressured by Portuguese authorities, Cunha transferred operations to Bombay and
in 1938, affiliated his organization with the Indian National Congress. He
continued publicizing the Goan case in a stream of articles and books,
denouncing Portuguese rule. Among his publications were booklets such as ‘Four
Hundred Years of Foreign Rule’ and ‘The Denationalization of Goans’ (1944).
Cunha was an advocate of Goan identification, political as well as cultural,
with greater India. In 1946, Cunha helped organize the famous assembly in
Margão, inviting Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia to address what was arguably the first
and largest mass gathering, setting the Goa Liberation Movement in motion.
Along with other organizers, Cunha was arrested by Portuguese authorities in
1946. He was kept in a dark damp cell at Fort Aguada. He was the first civilian
to be tried by a military tribunal. He was court-martialed and sentenced to eight
years imprisonment. He was deported to Peniche prison in Portugal. After
his release from Portugal in 1954, Cunha returned to Bombay. Cunha formed and
headed the Goa Action Committee, to help coordinate the numerous Goan
liberation organizations that had emerged by this time. He published a
newspaper called ‘Free Goa’. Tristao de Braganza Cunha died on 28 September
1958; Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan was one of the pallbearers. The Government of
India issued a postage stamp in his honour. At the time of his death, in a
condolence resolution, the Indian National Congress described him as ‘The
Father of Goa Liberation Movement’. On that Occasion Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru said,
“what is worth remembering is that a small territory has produced a relatively
large number of men and women who have sacrificed much for the struggle. Among
them, the name that stands out is that of Dr. T. B. Cunha”.
Thai Heritage
Conservation Day commemorates the birthday of Princess Maha Chakri
Sirindhorn, the second daughter of King Rama IX, who was born on April 2, 1955.
Sirindhorn has earned a BA in History, MA in Oriental Epigraphy, and PhD in
Educational Development. She has a keen interest in conservation, foreign
cultures, history, languages, the arts, education, and technology.
To honour Princess Sirindhorn and celebrate the Royal
Family's contribution to the creation and conservation of national heritage for
generations to come, the government of Thailand established Thai Heritage
Conservation Day. It was first held on April 2, 1985, in honour of Sirindhorn's
30th birthday, and has been celebrated annually ever since.
On the occasion of the holiday, numerous cultural
activities are held, including, but not limited to, academic seminars,
exhibitions, lectures, concerts. They are aimed at providing the knowledge of
Thai heritage and exhibiting the variety of Thai culture. On this day, citizens
are encouraged to decorate buildings with the national flag.
Hans Christian Andersen, born on 2 April 1805, in Odense, near Copenhagen, Denmark,
was a Danish master of the literary fairy tale whose stories achieved wide
renown. He is also the author of plays, novels, poems, travel books, and
several autobiographies. While many of those works are almost unknown outside Denmark,
his fairy tales are among the most frequently translated works in all of
literary history.
Andersen, who was born to poor parents, fought the
rigid class structure of his time throughout his life. The first significant
help came from Jonas
Collin, one of the directors of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, to which
Andersen had gone as a youth in the vain hope of winning fame as an actor.
Collin raised money to send him to school. Although school was an unhappy
experience for Andersen because of an unpleasant headmaster, it allowed him to
be admitted to the University of Copenhagen in 1828.
The next year Andersen produced what is considered
his first important literary work, Fodrejse fra Holmens Kanal til
Østpynten af Amager i aarene 1828 og 1829 (1829; “A Walk from
Holmen’s Canal to the East Point of the Island of Amager in the Years 1828
and 1829”), a fantastic tale in the style of the German Romantic writer
E.T.A. Hoffmann. This self-published work was an immediate success. He then
turned to playwriting. After some unsuccessful attempts, he achieved
recognition for Mulatten (1840;
“The Mulatto”), a play portraying the evils of slavery. The theatre,
however, was not to become his field, and for a long time Andersen was regarded
primarily as a novelist. Most of his novels are autobiographical; among the
best-known are Improvisatoren (1835; The Improvisatore), O.T. (1836; OT: A Danish Romance), and Kun en
spillemand (1837; Only a
Fiddler).
Andersen’s first book of tales, Eventyr,
fortalte for børn (1835; “Tales, Told for Children”), included
stories such as “The Tinderbox,” “Little Claus and Big Claus,” “The Princess
and the Pea,” and “Little Ida’s Flowers.” Two further installments of stories
made up the first volume of Eventyr (1837);
a second volume was completed in 1842, and to these was added Billedbog uden billeder (1840; A Picture-book Without Pictures). New collections
appeared in 1843, 1847, and 1852. The genre was expanded in Nye eventyr og historier (1858–72; “New Fairy
Tales and Stories”).
These collections broke new ground in both style and
content. A real innovator in his method of telling tales, Andersen used the idioms
and constructions of the spoken language, thus breaking with literary
tradition. While some of his tales exhibit an optimistic belief in the ultimate
triumph of goodness and beauty (e.g., “The Snow Queen”), others are deeply
pessimistic and end unhappily. Indeed, one reason for Andersen’s great appeal
to both children and adults is that he was not afraid of introducing feelings
and ideas that were beyond a child’s immediate comprehension, yet he remained
in touch with the child’s perspective. He combined his natural storytelling
abilities and great imaginative power with universal elements of folk legend
to produce a body of fairy tales that relates to many cultures.
It may also be noted that part of what makes some of
the tales so compelling is Andersen’s identification with the unfortunate and
the outcast. A strong autobiographical element runs through his sadder tales;
throughout his life he perceived himself as an outsider, and, despite the
international recognition he received, he never felt completely accepted. He
suffered deeply in some of his closest personal relationships.
Andersen
began receiving a government stipend in the late 1830s that gave him financial
stability, and his fairy tales started achieving wide popularity in Europe,
particularly in Germany, at about the same time. From 1831 to 1873 Andersen
spent a good deal of his time traveling throughout Europe, Asia
Minor, and Africa, and his impressions are recorded in a number of travel
books, notably En
digters bazar (1842; A Poet’s
Bazaar), I Sverrig (1851; Pictures of
Sweden), and I Spanien (1863; In Spain). Because Andersen rarely destroyed anything he wrote, his
diaries and thousands of his letters are extant.
Every year, the International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated on April 2 in honour of the Danish author Hans Christian Anderson. The aim of the day is to encourage children's love of reading through the use of books. Each year, the International Bureau of Children's Books (IBBY) chooses a new department to be the international sponsor of ICBD. The IBBY selects a theme and asks a well-known writer from the host nation to pen a letter to young readers everywhere. This message is then accompanied by an illustration by a renowned illustrator on a poster. Many strategies are used to promote books and reading with the resources produced by IBBY.
International Children's Book Day history
ICBD was initiated by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a non-profit organization founded in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1953. The organization aims to promote international understanding through children's books, as well as to advocate for children's right to access quality literature.
The idea for International Children's Book Day was proposed by
Jella Lepman, a German writer and journalist, who founded the International
Youth Library in Munich in 1949. Lepman strongly believed in the power of
children's literature to foster empathy, understanding, and cultural exchange,
especially in the aftermath of World War II.
The first International Children's Book Day was celebrated on April 2, 1967, coinciding with Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, the renowned Danish author best known for his fairy tales. Andersen's works have had a profound influence on children's literature worldwide, making his birthday a fitting date to celebrate children's books.
Significance of International Children's Book Day
International
Children's Book Day is important because it encourages children around the
world to read for pleasure and to become more literate. This annual event,
organised by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY),
celebrates children's literature and the continuing legacy of authors such as
Hans Christian Andersen. Through books, children are given the opportunity to
discover many points of view, spark their imagination and develop a lifelong
love of reading, helping to create a brighter future through the power of
storytelling.
Every year, the world observes World
Autism Day on April 2 to raise awareness about the causes, symptoms and
prevention of autism. This day aims to spread awareness about the disorder and
support people who are suffering from it. This day marks a global event which
is about the acceptance, support and inclusion of autistic people and the
advocacy of their rights.
What is
Autism?
As per the World Health
Organisation (WHO), Autism Spectrum Disorders or ASD are a diverse group of
conditions characterised by some degree of difficulty with social interaction
and communication. Other characteristics of ASD are atypical patterns of activities
and behaviours like difficulty with transition from one activity to another
focus on details and unusual reactions to the sensations.
This is a neurological and
developmental disorder affecting the conditions of people who struggle to
interact with others like communication, learning and behaving. Autism can be
diagnosed at any age. However, this condition is generally known as a developmental
disorder as it generally appears in the first two years of life.
What causes
Autism?
The causes of Autism Spectrum
Disorder (ASD) are not well understood as it is a rare gene change or mutation
causing small genetic variations in people implying a genetic component. There
is a growing area that focuses on the interaction of genetic and environmental
factors. The other possible causes of Autism are extreme prematurity, prenatal
exposure to air pollution, maternal obesity, diabetes, immune system disorders
or genetics that lead to the development of autism spectrum disorders.
Environment
factors associated with autism
There are different
environmental risk factors associated with autism involving clearest evidence
events like before or during birth such as
What are
the symptoms of Autism?
There are multiple symptoms of
autism, such as
Goa Liberation Day, observed annually on December 19, marks a pivotal moment in India’s history when the nation freed Goa from 451 years ...
