Gopal Krishna Gokhale Death Anniversary

 

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who passed away on 19 February 1915, was an Indian liberal political leader and a social reformer during the Indian Independence Movement. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the founder of the Servants of India Society. Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale campaigned for Indian self-rule and for social reforms. He was the leader of the moderate faction of the Congress party that advocated reforms by working with existing government institutions.

Shivaji's Birth Anniversary

 

Shivaji Bhosale I, born on 19 February 1630, was an Indian warrior-king and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out an enclave from the declining Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire. In 1674, he was formally crowned as the chhatrapati (emperor) of his realm at Raigad.

The first official flight with air mail in 1911

 

On 18 February 1911, The first official flight with air mail took place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivered 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.

Although airborne mail transport had occurred during the nineteenth century, the first official airmail flown by airplane took place in India in 1911.

During the 1800s, balloons and gliders carried the first flown mail. The first official U.S. airmail delivery took place on 17 August 1859. On that day, veteran balloonist John Wise (1808-1879) carried 123 letters and twenty-three circulars from Lafayette to Crawfordsville, Indiana, a distance of thirty miles, in his balloon Jupiter.

On 17 December 1903, Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-1912) Wright made the first sustained, powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. Orville flew 120 feet for twelve seconds. No mail was carried. During the following decade, pilots around the world barnstormed the countryside, holding aerial demonstration meets, creating postcards and souvenir labels. Many pioneer pilots carried unofficial mail on their short flights. “Unofficial mail” refers to mail carried privately and postmarked before or after the flight, while the post office authorized and serviced “official mail.”

 On 18 February 1911, French pilot Henri Pequet (1888-1974) carried the first official mail flown by airplane. The flight occurred in India. Pequet carried a sack with about 6,000 cards and letters on his Humber biplane. The plane flew a distance of five miles, from an Allahabad polo field, over the Yamuna River, to Naini. All mail received a special cancel depicting an airplane, mountains, and “First Aerial Post, 1911, U. P. Exhibition Allahabad.”

Pequet was in India flying demonstration flights for the United Provinces Exhibition in Allahabad. Walter Windham (1868-1942), a British aviation pioneer, organized the aerial demonstrations. The event marked the first time airplanes flew in India. An appeal from Rev. W.E.S. Holland, a chaplain of the Holy Trinity Church, Allahabad, spurred the event. He had appealed to Windham for help in fundraising for a new youth hostel. Windham conceived the aerial post and obtained approval from the post office for officially sanctioned mail. Postal officials asked Windham to design the cancel. Most mail has a magenta cancellation, but a few examples exist with black ink. The regular postage rate required an additional surcharge as a donation for the Church Hostel Building.

To tell the story of airmail’s development and expansion, aerophilatelists avidly collect worldwide airmail stamps and mail flown by a variety of aircraft. Airmail redefined global postal communications in the twentieth century.

 

Enzo Ferrari Birth Anniversary

 

Enzo Ferrari, born on 18 February 1898, was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. He was widely known as "il Commendatore" or "il Drake".

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Birth Anniversary

 

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, born on 18 February 1894, was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist, also described as an Islamic socialist. Kidwai was a major ally of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. After India gained independence from the British Raj in 1947, Kidwai became India's first Minister for Communications.

Malayapuram Singaravelu Birth Anniversary

 

Malayapuram Singaravelu, born on 18 February 1860, was a pioneer in more than one field in India. In 1918, he founded the first trade union in India. On 1 May 1923 he organised the first ever celebration of May Day in the country.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa Birth Anniversary

 

Ramakrishna Paramahansa, born on 18 February 1836, was an Indian Hindu mystic, saint and considered as an avatar by many in 19th century Bengal. Sri Ramakrishna experienced spiritual ecstasies from a young age, and was influenced by several religious traditions, including devotion toward the Goddess Kali, Tantra (shakta), Vaishnava (bhakti), and Advaita Vedanta. As a priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple, his mystical temperament and ecstasies gradually gained him widespread acknowledgement, attracting to him various spiritual teachers, social leaders, lay followers and eventually disciples. Reverence and admiration for him among Bengali elites led to his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda founding the Ramakrishna Math, which provides spiritual training for monastics and householder devotees and the Ramakrishna Mission to provide charity, social work and education.