Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev
 Former President of U.S.S.R

Was born on 2^nd of March 1931, in Privolnoye village near the city of Stavropol of. Southern U S S R. His father’s name was Sergei Andreevich Gorbachev, and mother’s Maria Panteleevna.  His father was a mechanic and mothers   a farm worker. In 1950, Gorbachev joined   Moscow University; to study law .At that time he joined the Komsomol, or Young Communist League, an organization that served as a training ground for the future leaders of the Communist party. He became deeply involved in politics than to his studies.  In 1954 he was elected head of the university chapter of communist party .He obtained his graduation in 1955, Thereafter he came back to Stavropol on a minor assignment with the local Komsomol.   The next two decades saw him   steadily rising his way up in the political hierarchy and he occupied various agriculture-related positions in the government, first at the local and regional level and then at the national level. In   1970, he became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the parliament. Of USSR Thereafter elevation came to his life one and other. The following year, he was inducted to the powerful Central Committee, the core group of people in charge of running the government.  In 1978, the Central Committee elected Gorbachev to the post of agricultural secretary, and in 1979 he was made a nonvoting member of the Politburo, the Central Committee's policy-making body. A year later, he was promoted to full membership in the Politburo. During the time he became close to senior leaders like KGB chief Yuri Andropov,In late 1982, upon the death of   Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov became head of the Soviet Union, Andropov appointed Gorbachev to be his chief aide, and together the two men initiated some bold reforms, including purging dishonest and incompetent officials from the party, cracking down on alcoholism, absenteeism and poor performance in the workplace, and taking steps to decentralize key industries. But Andropov's death in 1984 after only fourteen months in office dealt a serious blow to these efforts.  Brezhnev loyalist Konstantin Chernenko an elderly man   succeeded the post Gorbachev nevertheless remained a powerful figure in the Politburo and gradually assumed many of Chernenko's public duties as the elderly leader's health began to detoriate.  In March 1985, he had been elected general secretary of the Communist party and leader of the Soviet Union following Chernenko's death. A new era in Soviet and world history began with the election of Mikhail Gorbachev to the USSR's top leadership position, that of general secretary of the Communist party.  A fifty-four year Gorbachev was much younger and better educated than his predecessors. He was also the first general secretary to have come of age after the terror and paranoia that marked the Josef Stalin era. His presence on the national and international scene hinted at major changes to come, and over the next six-and-a-half years Gorbachev did his best to live up to that impression. He intended to proceed vigorously with a complete overhaul of the Soviet system from top to bottom, focusing on changes that would get the economy moving, scale back the bureaucracy, and rejuvenate the party. To that end, he renewed the crackdowns on corruption, alcoholism. Gorbachev announced a new series of domestic reforms, including expanded freedoms and the democratization of the political process, all of which were to be achieved through his policies of social and economic restructuring, or perestroika, and openness, or glasnostGorbachev's impact on the international scene was equally forceful. Gorbachev continued to amaze the world throughout the rest of  Mikhail Gorbachev was the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his leading role in ending the Cold War and promoting disarmament. He also sparked revolutionary political changes in his native country and throughout Eastern Europe. On August 18, a group of hard-line conservative communists under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin staged a coup and held Gorbachev and his family under house arrest.Mikhail Gorbachev was the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his leading

Valentina Tereshkova 
The first woman in space

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born in the village of Maslennikovo along the Volga River in U S S R on 6^th March 1937. Vladimir Tereshkov, was her father who was a tractor driver; and a Red Army soldier during World war II, and was killed when Valentina was two Her mother Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova, a worker at a cotton mill, single-handedly had to raise Valentina. She had one brother and a sister The family was economically not sound; and Valentina was not able to begin school until she was ten. And she did not have formal education beyond normal simple education, she moved to her grandmother's home at the villageYaroslavl and learnt working in tyre factories at her age of 17. Thereafter she joined her mother and sister as a power loom operator at the cotton mill when she joined the mill's Komsomol (Young Communist League), and soon advanced to the Communist Party. She graduated from the Light Industry Technical School. Through correspondence courses .In 1959, Tereshkova joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club and became a skilled amateur flier and parachutist. Inspired by the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, she volunteered for the Soviet space program. Although she had no experience as a pilot, by dint of her extreme seriousness and hard labour she received an Air Force commission and trained for 18 months before becoming chief pilot of the Vostok VI. Admiring fellow cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was quoted as saying, "It was hard for her to master rocket techniques, study spaceship designs and equipment, but she tackled the job stubbornly and devoted much of her own time to study, poring over books and notes in the evening." On June 16, 1963, at 12:30 PM Junior Lieutenant Tereshkova became the first woman to be launched into space.  She reported, "I see the horizon. A light blue, a beautiful band. This is the Earth. How beautiful it is! All goes well."  The satellite Vostok VI that took off from the Tyuratam Space Station made 48 orbits, 1,200,000 miles in 70 hours, 50 minutes. Tereshkova's flight confirmed Soviet test results that women had the same resistance as men to the physical and psychological stresses of space. On June 22 1963,at the Kremlin she was named a Hero of the Soviet Union and was honoured with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal.

HOCKEY   Olympian Pargat Singh

Pargat Singh was born on 5^th March 1965, at Mithapur near Jalandhar cantonment. Punjab Pargat Singh had got primary education in his village school.  He joined Lyallpur Khalsa College. Jalandhar. Many a great persons were the students of this college, which produced players of the calibre of Ajit Pal Singh and Surinder Sodhi, both former captains of Indian hockey team. Pargat Singh was also became a great player of hockey representing India several times. He played as Full Back for India in Junior & Senior Indian Hockey teams. He captained India in two Olympics   namely   in 1992 Barcelona Olympics and in 1996 Atlanta Olympics. For his extraordinary and skilled services he was awarded Padma Shree & Arjuna Award by Govt. of India.  He is at present an officer of Punjab Police and is Vice-President of the Surjit Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament Society of Jalandhar.

Professor U R Rao 
 EMINENT SPACE SCIENTIST
Member, Space Commission, India

U.R. Rao was born on 10th March 1932, in Karnataka Career=  .He started his career under Vikram Sarabhai, dealing with cosmic ray matters. And continued to contribute one after another throughout his service   like 

1. Development of space technology in India and its extensive application to communications and remote sensing of natural resources

2.Understanding of interplanetary physics and high energy astronomy,

3. Complete understanding of the solar cosmic ray phenomena and the electromagnetic state of the interplanetary space based on experiments on a number of Pioneer and Explorer spacecrafts. 

4. Extensive work in X-ray and Gamma Ray high-energy astronomy using rocket and satellite borne payloads.

5.  Establishing the Indian Space Programmed on an end-to-end basis,

6.  Guiding Space Applications Programme in the areas of communication, distance education, TV broadcasting and remote sensing

1.Launching of the Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development, which showed the benefits of space technology at the grass-roots level.

As Chairman, Space Commission and Secretary, Department of Space in 1984, he accelerated the development of rocker technology, resulting in the successful launch of ASLV rocket in 1992.  He was also responsible for the development of the operational PSLV launch vehicle, which successfully launched an 850 kg satellite into a polar orbit in 1995. He initiated the development of the geo stationary launch vehicle GSLV and the development of cryogenic technology in 1991. He has published over 250 articles in various scientific and technical journals. He is the author of three books and has edited 10 special editions of CLIODIN, IAF.

Honours
1.  Honorary doctorate degrees from universities all over the world.

2.Member of many scientific bodies

Awards

1.Paddya Bhushan in 1976

2. Yuri Gagarin Award in 1991

3. Frank J Malina Award of the International Astronautical Federation in 1994

4. COSPAR Vikram Sarabhal Medal in 1996

Jamshedji Nasarwanju Tata

Architect of Modern India and grandfather of Indian industry. Jamshedpur city named after him He was born of Parsi parentage at Navarsi, Gujarat on   March 11, 1839 and was educated at Elphinstone Institution in Bombay. His fathers name was   Nasarvanji Tata who used to trade in jute with China and Britain. He started export from India. Dissatisfied with the traditional businesses in India, Jamshedji started his own textile mills in Nagpur  At that time almost all the cloth used to come from England.Jamshedji Tata was the main person behind the idea to start an Iron and steel Factory. But his sons fulfilled his dreams, when they started the Tata Iron and Steel Factory in 1907 first three years after his death. He established the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IISc). Then Hydro -electric Project at Bombay is an example of his foresightedness. The Taj Hotel in Bombay was also built by Tata, which ranks as one of the best hotels in the world. He greatly expanded the business empire left by his father. He did much to develop India's cotton, power, and steel industries. . Jamshedji Tata is perhaps best known for establishing India's first integrated, modem steel factory in Bihar, close to sources of both iron and coal, the new town that sprang up after 1907 took on his name and is known both as Jamshedpur and Tatanagar. Anticipating the need for Indian scientists, he and his sons, Sir Dorab Tata and sir Ratanji Tata, endowed the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore for fundamental research and advanced training, which continues to be a premier institution.He was one of the torchbearers of the modern India who was fortunate enough to draw inspiration from Swami Vivekananda and who denied the British honour of Sir conferred on him by the Queen. The great man expired in 1904.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born on 14th March 1879 at Ulm, in Württemberg, in Germany.  His father’s name was   Hermann and mother’s   Pauline The family was of Jewish descent the family moved to Munich, for better business opportunity in manufacture of electrical goods There Albert started his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium, a Catholic grade school. When Albert was ten he began secondary school, but he did not excel. He disliked the regiment of school, and science books and magazines aroused the strictness of his teachers but his hunger for learning. His mother passed her passion for music on to Albert. He began violin lessons at the age of six and although he was never a musical genius he carried a passion for music for the rest of his life.
In 1894 his fathers business failed, the family moved to Milan in order to get a fresh start. At the age of sixteen, Einstein took the entrance exam from another school that would give him a degree in electrical engineering, but did not get through.
1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics  .He passed and was admitted for a degree in science and mathematics education.  In 1901, the year he gained his degree. He acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In Bern, and began tutoring part time. This was not a challenging job for Einstein, and allowed him plenty of time to pursue his personal pursuits. In 1905 Einstein published three papers that he submitted to the University of Bern. These papers concerned themselves with the properties of light, the theory of special relativity and Einstein famous equation E=mc2
the first of these papers was on Brownian motion. His second paper explained the Photoelectric Effect.  The third Paper dealt with molecules. Ironically after the initial submission of this paper to the University of Bern it was rejected. Shortly thereafter, the University reconsidered their decision.   He obtained his doctor's degree.
 In 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in Berne. He left his job at the patent office in 1909 and became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. In 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity. In 1921 he got the Nobel Prize. Meanwhile He became a German citizen since 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and immigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton.  He became American citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.

After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, He was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and Einstein’s researches are,

Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity, General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Among his non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950)

Honours and awards.

1.Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities

2. Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925,

3. Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935.

      MN Roy

A great freedom fighter.Was born on March 21, 1887 in a small village in Bengal with original name Narendranath Bhattacharya His father was Dinabandhu Bhattacharya and mothers name was Basant kumari He studied in Harinabhi Anglo-Sanskrit School, between 1899- 1905. By that time he was influenced by national fever.  He opposed the partition of Bengal and was expelled from School. Meanwhile Naren developed contact with the local revolutionary groups. In 1906,Naren joined Bengal National College after passing the entrance test and studied in Bengal Technical Institute for two years.  In 1907 he was very active in revolutionary terrorist group activities against the British rule. He participated in the robbery of a Railway station (Chingripota village in Bengal in 1907 December). . He became a close associate of the revolutionary Bagha Jatin (Jatin Mukherjee).  And became deeply involved in the revolutionary terrorist movement for India's independence. In August, 1915, Bagha Jatin sent him abroad to seek arms from the Germans for the revolutionaries Narendranath changed his name to   Charles A Martin, then went to Japan, China and then to the United States- in the hope of traveling to Germany from there. The United States had not yet entered the World War I between England and Germany, as ally of Britain or France. Reaching San Francisco on June 15, 1916, he moved to Paulo Alto and, there, to evade British intelligence, from Martin to Manabendra Nath Roy, which he retained till the last.  In 1916 August – after arrival in New York, he married Evelyn Trent. He fled to Mexico in April 1917 after the US joined the war against Germany and he felt he was in danger of being arrested as an enemy agent. After his attempt to send German arms to India had failed, he decided to stay on in Mexico and seek to further the cause of India's freedom from there. He learnt Spanish, began writing fluently in that language, made friends with American and Mexican intellectuals and scholars, and became a confidante of the President, Venustiano Carranza, who had assumed power after the revolution of 1911. He became the general-secretary of the Socialist Party of Mexico; the world witnessed great changes during the First World War. Russia saw the first revolution launched by the Bolsheviks in 1917, which saw the overthrow of the Czar and the capture of power by Lenin. The Russian Communist Party established contacts with revolutionaries throughout the world, and started setting up of the Communist Party outside Russia. M.N. Roy and Evelyn accepted the invitation of Lenin and traveled to Moscow via Cuba, Spain, and Germany. M.N. Roy met several revolutionaries on his way to Moscow.   He became instrumental to forming a Communist Party of India in exile in October 1920. His India in Transition, published in 1922, came to be regarded as a Marxist classic. In 1926, he was elected as a full member of the Presidium, and a member of the Comintern's Secretariat. He remained a member of the Comintern's Presidium as late as its Ninth Plenum in February, 1928, but knew that his independence had cost him Stalin's support and that, like that of many other communists who had not fallen in line with the Russian leader, his own life might be in danger. He fled Russia after attending the Ninth Plenum. He stayed on in Berlin to complete his classic, Revolution and Counter Revolution in China and then decided to return to India despite the danger of being arrested by the British. In India, he was traced by British intelligence, spent a little over five years in prison and on his release in 1936, plunged into political activity again. He joined the Congress and became a member of the AICC but fell foul of its established leadership for his strong criticism of Gandhi's policies. Leaving the Congress in 1937, he formed the League of Radical Congressmen in 1939, which later became the Radical Democratic Party. Gradually M.N. Roy became critical of Marxism and communism He supported the British during World War II, holding that Nazism and Fascism posed the biggest threat to humankind at that juncture and that the war would so enfeeble England that, even if victorious, it would have to give Independence to India. India got independence in 1947 and Roy‚s prediction came true. M.N. Roy with all his experience evolved humanist thought in India. Then he wrote extensively about scientific politics, need for the study of history in a scientific way, and gradually evolved the humanist movement. In 1948 the Humanist theory was published.The International Humanist and Ethical Union formed in 1952 in Amsterdam, elected M.N. Roy as vice Chairman (in absentia). On 25th January 1954 Roy died in Dehra Dun, I Several of his writings were published after his death. M.N. Roy cannot be compared with any leader in the world. He was unique. Without formal academic degrees, he rose to the sky  heights .The Deptt. Of Posts Government of India was privileged to issue a commemorative stamp on M.N. Roy in the series 'Freedom Struggle of India'.  Stamp Issue Date: 13/02/1987

Devika Rani
First Lady Of The Indian Screen

Was born on 30^th March, 1908, at Waltair Tamilnadu, She was a grand-niece of Rabindranath Thakur, being his sister Sukumari Devi’s grand-daughter. Her father, Col. M.N. Chaudhuri, was the first Indian Surgeon-General of Madras After completing her schooling she was sent to England to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Royal Academy of Music in London. She took a degree in architecture, expertise in the art of make-up and after due specialization, worked as textile designer.
While in London, she met Himangshu Ray a law student from India to study at the Inner Temple  .Ray had switched over to the profession of   cinema as a filmmaker and set up the Bombay Talkies in Mumbai in 1934. Devika was involved in the unit of film making of Ray in Light of Asia (1926), and then made Shiraz (1928) followed by A Throw of Dice (1929). Devika joined Ray as an assistant art director and costume designer for this latter film. In Germany, she also studied filmmaking. Thereafter they developed a mutual relationship, which culminated in their marriage. While still abroad, Himansu Ray co-produced Karma (Fate) in English and Hindi, while Devika made her debut as a heroine.  The English version of the film earned exuberant acclaim in London and other European cities, as did the Hindi version in India. The British press was particularly profuse in its praise of Devika for her delicate glamour and exceptional loveliness of face, voice and diction. The film ran in London for eight months and won the Daily Mail prize. Its success catapulted Devika to great international fame and as an inevitable corollary, when a year later Ray founded the Bombay Talkies, she was the first favourite heroine of its pictures. With its latest machinery and foreign technical staff the studio could rightly pride itself on its unmatched excellence.
Devika Rani is best remembered for (1) Achhut Kanya (1936). Devika also crooned a couple of songs in the film, including the memorable duet with Ashok Kumar, "Main ban ki chidiya banke ban ban doloon re” The film was a huge success It also established her and Ashok Kumar as the most popular romantic screen pair in the first decade of Hindi cinema (2). Jeevan Naiya (1936), which was Ashok Kumar’s debut film. (3). Janam Bhoomi (1936) (4) Izzat (1937) (5) Prem Kahani (1937) (6) Savitri (1937)(7) Mamta (1936), (8)Nirmala (1938), (9) Durga (10) Anjaan (1941). (11) Jeevan Prabhat (1937), (12) Vachan (1918) and (13) Hamari Baat (1943).
Himansu Ray died in May 1940. After him, the reins of the company came into the hands of Devika, who displayed a rare understanding of a complex business. Under her baton, the company went on to make successful films like Punar Milan (1940), Jhoola (1941). Naya Sansar (1941), Basant (1942) and Kismet (1941). Thereafter, control of the Bombay Talkies passed through several hands, Devika Rani, after selling her interests, retired from the screen and married Svetoslav Roerich, the famous painter of Russian origin, in 1945. The couple took residence in their sprawling estate near Bangalore A portrait of Devika Rani painted by him with a special labour of love stood out as his best work at an exhibition of his paintings inaugurated in New Delhi by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960. A larger-than-life painting each, of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, done by Svetoslav adorns two panels on the inner circular walls of the historic Central Hall of India’s Parliament in New Delhi. Earlier in 1958, the President of India had honoured Devika Rani with a "Padma Shri". In 1970, she became the first recipient of the prestigious "Dadasaheb Phalke Award".  Sarojini Naidu described Devika Rani as "a magical flower of romance".  Devika rani’s father in law Nicholas was a great painter too. At his death he had left behind a very large number of his most artistically executed paintings and many other artifacts of great value. These and the family’s other precious heirlooms, priceless jewelry and huge immoveable property constituted an enormous wealth but the couple died childless. Svetoslav passed away on January 9,1993, and Devika followed him on March 9,1994. At her funeral Devika was given full state honours