Giulio Natta's Birth Anniversary

Giulio Natta, born on 26 February 1903, was an Italian chemist who contributed to the development of high polymers useful in the manufacture of films, plastics, fibres, and synthetic rubber. Along with Karl Ziegler of Germany, he was honoured in 1963 with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of Ziegler-Natta catalysts.

Natta took his doctorate in chemical engineering at Milan Polytechnic (1924) and held chairs in chemistry at the universities of Pavia, Rome, and Turin before returning to the Polytechnic as professor and research director of industrial chemistry (1938). His earlier work formed the basis of modern industrial syntheses of methanol, formaldehyde, butyraldehyde, and succinic acid. In 1953 he began intensive study of macromolecules. Using Ziegler’s catalysts, he experimented with the polymerization of propylene and obtained polypropylenes of highly regular molecular structure. The properties—high strength, high melting points—of these polymers soon proved very commercially important.

John Harvey Kellogg's Birth Anniversary

 

John Harvey Kellogg, born on 26 February 1852, was an American physician and health-food pioneer whose development of dry breakfast cereals was largely responsible for the creation of the flaked-cereal industry.

Kellogg received an M.D. from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, in 1875. A Seventh-day Adventist and vegetarian, Kellogg became superintendent in 1876 of the Seventh-day Adventist Western Health Reform Institute, which then became the Battle Creek Sanitarium, located in Battle Creek, Michigan. (The sanitarium was renamed the Percy Jones Army Hospital in 1942, the Battle Creek Federal Center in 1954, and Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in 2003.) Kellogg developed numerous nut and vegetable products to vary the diet of the patients, including a flaked-wheat cereal called Granose and cornflakes. Although cornflakes were not new, they had never before been presented as a breakfast food. In 1898 Kellogg and his brother W.K. Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium Health Food Company to handle the production of cornflakes and other foods for sanitarium patients. In 1906, after a dispute over the distribution of their cornflake cereal, W.K. Kellogg formed his own cereal company, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (later renamed Kellogg Company), and one of the sanitarium patients, C.W. Post, also founded a cereal company that became well known.

Kellogg was a co-founder of the Race Betterment Foundation, an organization that promoted eugenics and racial segregation. He also was founder and first president (1923–26) of Battle Creek College, and in 1931 he opened Miami–Battle Creek Sanitarium at Miami Springs, Florida. He was the author of numerous medical books.

Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 culminates

 

The final day of the grand Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 began on Wednesday, February 26, with devotees rushing to the Triveni Sangam in the wee hours for a holy dip, the last special 'snan', on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.

With this, the six-week-long Mela, the world's largest spiritual gathering being held at Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj, will conclude.

Maha Shivratri, as is, is a key occasion for Hindus as it commemorates the divine union of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. However, it holds a special place in the Maha Kumbh context. As per Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva's crucial role in the Samudra Manthan (churning of the ocean), led to the emergence of Amrit Kumbh (the pitcher of nectar), which is the key essence of the Kumbh Mela.

Maha Kumbh Mela, which began on January 13, witnessed six special ‘snan’, including three 'Amrit Snan' days. The first one being on Paush Purnima on January 13, Makar Sankranti on January 14, Mauni Amavasya on January 29, Basant Panchami on February 3, Maghi Purnima on February 12 and finally, Maha Shivratri on February 26.