This Day in History is DUE’s daily dose of trivia for all the history buffs out there. So sit back and take a ride of all the fascinating things that happened today!
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in people, and hence, every day has been a significant one in the foibles of history. Now, let’s take a tour of “This Day in History – February 8”.
1834
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, popularly known as Mendleev in Science textbooks was a Russian chemist and inventor. Born on February 8 in Siberia, he is known world-wide for formulating the Periodic Law. Along with it, he prepared a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements.
The scientific figure used his periodic law to correct the accepted properties of some known elements. For example the valence and atomic weight of Uranium. Additionally, he used this Periodic Law to predict the properties of eight elements that were not discovered then.
1897
Zakir Husain Khan, the third president of India was born on February 8 in Hyderabad State in Central India. He was an Indian economist and politician whose tenure of presidentship was from 13 May 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969.
The former president also served as the Governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962. Additionally, he acted as the Vice President of the country from 1962 to 1967. Being the co-founder of Jamia Milia Islamia, he served as its Vice-chancellor from 1928. It was under him that Jamia became closely associated with the Indian freedom struggle. Moreover, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1963.
1926
Two natives from Missouri, Walt Disney and Roy Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Angles. This was in 1923 and they started with producing a series of silent Alice Comedies short films. It featured a live-action child actress in a fascinating animated world. After relocating to California, they started working in their uncle’s studio. However, in October 1923, they formally launched their studio. But it was on February 8 that they took the name Walt Disney Studios.
1941
Jagjit Singh popularly known as “The Ghazal King” was born on February 8 in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan. The composer, singer and musician is known for composing in several languages along with reviving the popularity of ghazal. He is considered to be the most successful ghazal singer and composer of all time with respect to critical acclaim and commercial success.
His album, Beyond Time, was the first digitally recorded release in the country. His five decade long career has been appreciated for being genre-defining. In 2003, Singh received the Padma Bhushan. While in February 2014, the government released two postal stamps in the honour of this great musician.
1994
Today Kapil Dev is considered one of the greatest all rounder and captain to play the sport of Cricket. He is known for his performance against West Indies that helped India win its first World Cup. However, he has made many records too.
On February 8, Kapil Dev surpassed Richard Headley’s earlier record of 431 Test wickets at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. With this, he became the player to take the highest number of wickets in Test matches with 432 wickets.
2000
Jyotirao Phule discovered Shivaji’s tomb on Raigad and consequently wrote the first and longest Ballad on his life. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the first Chhatrapati and founder of the Maratha Empire. He started celebrating Shiv Jayanti in 1870 with the first event in Pune. After that, the celebration has expanded to larger scales. However, it was on February 8, 2008 that the Maharashtra Government decided to celebrate Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s birth anniversary on February 19.
Since then, the state celebrates it as a festival and is therefore a public holiday.
