Dadasaheb Phalke Death Anniversary

 

Dadasaheb Phalke, who passed away on 16 February 1944, was an Indian motion picture director who is considered the father of the Indian cinema. Phalke was credited with making India’s first indigenous  feature film and spawning the burgeoning Indian film industry today chiefly known through Bollywood productions.

As a child, Phalke displayed great interest in the creative arts. Determined to pursue his dreams, he joined the Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay (now Mumbai), in 1885. While there he pursued a variety of interests, including photography, Lithography, architecture, and amateur dramatics, and he became adept even at magic. He briefly worked as a painter, a theatrical set designer, and a photographer. While working at the lithography press of celebrated painter Ravi Varma, Phalke was significantly influenced by a series of Varma’s paintings of the Hindu Gods, an impression that was evident in Phalke’s own portrayal of various gods and goddesses in the mythological films he later made.

In 1908 Phalke and a partner established Phalke’s Art Printing and Engraving Works, but the business failed because of differences between them. It was Phalke’s chance viewing of the silent film The Life of Christ (1910) that marked a turning point in his career. Deeply moved by the film, Phalke saw it as his mission to bring all that was Indian to the moving picture screen. He went to London in 1912 to learn the craft from British pioneer filmmaker Cecil Hepworth. In 1913 he released India’s first silent film, Raja Harishchandra, a work based on Hindu mythology. The film, scripted, produced, directed, and distributed by Phalke, was a huge success and an important milestone  in Indian cinematic history. Likewise important, he introduced a female actor in the leading role in his film Bhasmasur Mohini (1913) at a time when professional acting was taboo for women.

Phalke, with the help of several partners, established the Hindustan Film Company in 1917 and went on to produce several films. A talented film technician, Phalke experimented with a variety of special effects. His employment of mythological themes and trick photography delighted his audience. Among his other successful films were Lanka dahan (1917), Shri Krishna janma (1918), Sairandari (1920), and Shakuntala (1920).

With the introduction of sound in cinema and the expansion of the film industry, Phalke’s work lost popularity. He left filmmaking in the 1930s and died lonely, embittered, and sick.

Stephen Hector Taylor Smith Death Anniversary

 

 

Stephen Hector Taylor-Smith, who passed away on 15 February 1951, was a pioneering Indian aerospace engineer who developed techniques in delivering mail by rocket.

Unlike Friedrich Schmiedl, whom the Austrian Authorities banned from further experimenting, Smith was encouraged in his experiments by Indian Officials. In the ten-year span of his experiments (1934–1944), Smith made some 270 launches, including at least 80 rocket mail flights.

First Teddy Bear in 1903

 

The teddy bear was inspired by a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman depicting American president Theodore Roosevelt—commonly called "Teddy"—having compassion for a bear at the end of an unsuccessful hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. Morris Michtom saw the drawing and created a tiny plush bear cub which he sent to Roosevelt. After receiving permission to use Roosevelt's name, Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window on 15 February 1903 with a sign "Teddy's bear." After the creation of the bear the sale of the bears was so brisk that in 1907 Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan Death Anniversary

 

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, who passed away on 15 February 1948, was an Indian poet. Chauhan authored a number of popular works in Hindi poetry. Her most famous composition is Jhansi Ki Rani, an emotionally charged poem describing the life of Rani Lakshi Bai. The poem is one of the most recited and sung poems in Hindi literature. An emotionally charged description of the life of the queen of Jhansi (British India) and her participation in the 1857 revolution, it is often taught in schools in India.

This and her other poems, Jallianwala Bagh mein Vasant, Veeron Ka Kaisa Ho Basant, Rakhi Ki Chunauti, and Vida, openly talk about the freedom movement. They are said to have inspired great numbers of Indian youth to participate in the Indian Freedom Movement. 

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan wrote in the Khariboli dialect of Hindi, in a simple, clear style. Apart from heroic poems, she also wrote poems for children. She wrote some short stories based on the life of the middle class.

Mirza Ghalib Death Anniversary

 

Mīrzā Asadullāh Khān Ghālib, who passed away on 15 February 1869, was a preeminent Indian poet of his time writing in Persian, equally renowned for poems, letters, and prose pieces in Urdu.

Born into an aristocratic family, Ghālib passed his youth in luxury. Subsequently, he was granted a small pension by the British government but had to struggle against penury and hardships. Recognition finally came in 1850, when he was appointed poet laureate to the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II.

Ghālib’s best poems were written in three forms: ghazal (lyric), mas̄navī (moralistic or mystical parable), and qaṣīdah (panegyric). His critics accused him of writing in an obscure and ornamental style of Persian incomprehensible to the masses. His verses affirm God’s omnipotence while questioning the misery of the phenomenal world.

World Anthropology Day

Every year on the third Thursday of February, World Anthropology Day is observed. And it occurs on February 15 this year. The day is designated to honour the untapped and educate the general public about anthropology.

The scientific study of humanity is known as anthropology. It investigates the beginnings and progression of human societies and cultures. Different scientific methodologies are used to examine traits in historical and contemporary communities. The study also aids in our understanding of how the world functions, the reasons behind our behaviour, and how our environments are influenced by us.

World Anthropology Day was established in 2015 by the American Anthropological Association (A.A.A.).

World Hippo Day

World Hippo Day is observed every year on February 15 to remember the hippopotamus which are reportedly declining in population. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed them as "vulnerable species" in 2006.

World Hippo Day aims to celebrate and value these mud-loving mammals, in the hope that they will be around for many years to come. It also focuses to raise awareness about the illegal trading of these animals as hunting and poaching of hippos, both for their meat and ivory teeth, is a major threat to the species.

These days there are only two types, says reports stating them to be - the bog-standard hippopotamus and smaller pygmy hippopotamus, but a few other extinct species could be found across Europe and in Madagascar as little as 1,000 years ago. Hippos are most common in countries such as Zambia and Tanzania.