Gautama Buddha was born on a Baisakhi Purnima, received enlightenment on a Baisakhi Purnima and attained nirvana on a Baisakhi Purnima.
Indians taught Europeans the use of rockets in warfare
In 1792, the weapon suppliers of Tipu Sultan designed and successfully developed the first iron-cased rockets. These were used by Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, rulers of the kingdom of Mysore, against the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British then spread this technology around the world.
How the great scientist J.C. Bose fought discrimination and won
Jagadish Chandra Bose as a professor of Physics at Presidency College, Kolkata, was offered a salary substantially lower than his European colleagues, many of whom were less qualified than him. Prof. Bose was then under the Imperial Education Service (IES). He refused to accept it but nevertheless left no stone unturned in discharging his duties. After …
Who began the practice of vaccination?
The word ‘vaccine’ is derived from the Latin word vacca meaning cow. A vaccine is prepared from killed microbes or other substances that resemble the activity of the organisms that are known to cause the disease. English physician and scientist Edward Jenner established the system of vaccination. He used the vaccination material extracted from virus of affected cows. …
Telstar – the satellite that relayed the first transatlantic TV signals
In 1962, the satellite Telstar was developed by AT&T and it was placed in an orbit of 682 to 4,030 miles (i.e. 1,091 to 6,444 km) orbiting the earth in 2 hours 40 minutes. The first transatlantic television signals were transmitted through Telstar. With the launch of Telstar, wireless communications, such as voice, television, fax and …
Invention of dynamite
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish industrialist, engineer and inventor. He was into construction and that led him to perform an experiment to find out ways of blasting rocks. His research led him to nitroglycerine. He found out that mixing silica with nitroglycerine would make it easy to handle. This mixture is known today as dynamite.