
Read on to enlighten yourself with historical milestones of today
History is something that illuminates the culture and its origin. It also forecasts the awareness and how and when everything evolved and fell into pl
History is something that illuminates the culture and its origin. It also forecasts the awareness and how and when everything evolved and fell into place. It not only helps us trace the origins of the past but also helps us understand it better which leads to an understanding of the present more desirably. We, at Brag Social, try to keep you updated with the happening of past and present through our today column. Let us now read the historical milestones of September 23.
1846 – Neptune was discovered
On September 23, 1846, the eighth planet from the sun was discovered and postulated by the French astronomer Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier. Calculating the approximate location of the planet by studying gravity-induced disturbances in the motions of Uranus, Le Verrier informed Galle of his findings. Galle and his assistant Heinrich Louis d’Arrest identified Neptune at their observatory in Berlin by noting its relative movement to the background stars for over 24 hours. They confirmed that the blue gas giant was a planet. The planet has a diameter four times that of the Earth and was named after the Roman God of the sea.
1912 – Mack Sennett’s first “Keystone Cop” film debuts, Cohen Collects a Debt.
Mack Sennet produced the first Keystone Cop film under his company, Keystone film company. The Keystone cops were fictional, humorous and incompetent policemen that were featured in silent films produced by Mack Sennet. The first Keystone Cop film was ‘Cohen Collects a Debt’ that made its debut on 23rd September 1912. The black and white silent comedy starred Ford Sterling, Mabel Normand, Fred Mace and was directed by the producer Mack Sennet.
1994 – The Shawshank Redemption hit the cinemas
The Shawshank Redemption was released worldwide on September 23, 1994, after it was premiered at the Toronto film festival. Although the film deemed a box office failure earning $16 million during its initial theatrical run, it nabbed seven Oscar nominations. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont and stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. The movie is based on the novel ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’ by Stephen King. The film’s portrayal of the unlikely friendship between Andy (Robbins) and Red (Freeman) is well crafted. Each nurtures the other and serves as a touchstone for keeping their sanity intact although the story rolls in between some rousing prison-type action and is coarsened by an overpowering sense of frustration.
2002 – Mozilla Firefox was released
Developed by the Mozilla Foundation, the Mozilla Firefox, an open and free web browser was released on the 23rd of September, 2002. To render web pages and to implement current and anticipated web standards, Firefox uses the Gecko Layout Engine. The Mozilla community members established the browser initially under the name – ‘Phoenix’ which proved to be popular with its testers and was praised for its speed, security, and add-ons compared to Microsoft‘s then-dominant Internet Explorer 6 during its beta phase. By the end of 2009, Firefox’s usage grew to a peak of 32.31%, overtaking Internet Explorer 7 with version 3.5. Incorporating new technology to promote parallelism and a more intuitive user interface, Firefox is available for Windows 7 or newer, macOS and Linux.
2018 – PM Narendra Modi launched ‘Modi-care’
Modi-care happens to be the world’s biggest health insurance scheme, promising free coverage for half a billion of India’s poorest citizens ahead of national elections. The healthcare program was launched by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi unveiling it in the federal budget. The program was launched as India’s overburdened public health systems was plagued by a shortage of facilities and doctors. To strengthen the hands of the poor and stand shoulder to shoulder with them in pursuit of good health was Modi’s motive behind the launch of the healthcare program. Medical cards were handed out at the launch in Ranchi, capital of the eastern state of Jharkhand and 40 per cent of India’s 1.25 billion people were said to be covered under the flagship program.