Today’s History: The Act of Independence of India was introduced in the Parliament of Britain, passed after 14 days and the country got independence after 42 days

From 1900 onwards, the independence movement in India started gaining momentum. By now the Congress had become a big party. The British were also in trouble with Gandhi’s non-violent weapon. At the same time, communal forces were also getting stronger in India. Britain had also weakened after the Second World War. That is, the pressure on the British to liberate India was increasing. Eventually the Britishers decided to liberate India.

On 20 February 1947, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that Britain would free India by 30 June 1948. Lord Mountbatten got the responsibility of making complete plans for how India would be free.

Mountbatten came to India and got busy with his work. He first made a dicky bird plan which Nehru rejected. After that Mountbatten made another plan which is also called 3 June Plan.

Lord Mountbatten discussing the plan of independence with Nehru, Jinnah and others.

Presenting this plan, Mountbatten had said that partition was the only way to free India. According to this, India will get independence but at the same time there will be partition and a new country Pakistan will be formed.

The princely states will be given this facility that they can join with either India or Pakistan. It was also said in the plan that both the countries would be sovereign nations and could make their own constitutions. This entire plan was introduced in the British Parliament on 4 July 1947 and named ‘The Indian Independence Act’.

The British Parliament passed this bill on 18 July and with this the way for India’s independence was also cleared. Pakistan was formed on 14 August 1947 and India became independent a day later. Nehru became the first Prime Minister of independent India and Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan.

1776: America became independent

Today America is celebrating its Independence Day. On this day in 1776, 13 colonies of Britain together declared independence, which is also called ‘Declaration of Independence’. Actually America was discovered by mistake by Christopher Columbus.

Columbus was looking for a sea route from Europe to India. Columbus left for India by his ship but reached America. However, Columbus himself later came to know that this is America, not India.

After returning from the voyage, when Columbus told that he had discovered a new island, different countries competed to capture this place. The people of Britain came here in large numbers and started ruling.

America’s first President George Washington. The capital of America is named after him.

Like in India, the Britishers oppressed the people there too, as a result of which the conflict between the Britishers and the Native Americans started increasing. After a long struggle, these 13 colonies declared themselves independent by signing a manifesto on this day.

General George Washington, who fought for the freedom struggle, became the first President of America. Today there are 50 states in America, growing from 13 colonies. In the flag of America, these 13 colonies are represented by 13 blue-white stripes, while there is a star in the flag for each state. Currently there are 50 states in the US which are represented by 50 stars in the flag.

1934: Application for a patent for the atom bomb

On this day Leo Jillard applied for the patent for the atom bomb. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in May 1932. Only a few months later, it came to Leo’s mind that atomic energy could be controlled through neutron chain reaction, and it could also be used to make bombs.

When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Leo moved to England. During his stay in England, he studied nuclear chain reaction and started teaching as a guest lecturer in different colleges of America.

On this day in 1934, Leo filed a patent for the atomic bomb. In his patent, he talked about making an atomic bun through a neutron chain reaction. It is said that the purpose of patenting this idea was to prevent the misuse of the atom bomb. Leo talked to the officials of the British government and talked about keeping this technique a secret under the British Secret Law.

In 1940, he got US citizenship and started living in New York. When the Second World War started, Leo felt that Germany might not make an atom bomb, so he removed every book related to the nuclear chain reaction from the shops.

Leo Gillard with Albert Einstein.

He wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in which he talked about making nuclear weapons through nuclear chain reaction that could be used for national security. For this, he also sought consent and financial help from the government.

Roosevelt agreed and gave money for this project. Leo got on with his work. He gathered the graphite and uranium needed for the chain reaction, and on December 2, 1942, the first nuclear chain reaction was successfully tested at the University of Chicago.

The day of 4th of July is remembered in history because of what other important events…

1997: NASA’s Mars Path Finder reached Mars after a seven-month journey.

1996: Free Internet e-mail service Hotmail launched. The very next year it was bought by Microsoft.

1960: The 50th star was added to the American flag, representing the new state of Hawaii.

1902Swami Vivekananda passed away at the age of 39.

1884: France gifted the Statue of Liberty to America.