#TodayInMumbaiHistory
A BLACK HORSE FOR BOMBAY
This day, 145 years ago, the city got a new landmark - the Kala Ghoda. That was the name given by the common Mumbaikar to a bronze statue of Albert, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). The statue was funded by Mumbai businessman Sir Albert Sassoon to commemorate the Prince's visit to Mumbai and India in 1875-76, and was sculpted by British sculptor Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm. It still survives till date, but not at Kala Ghoda! It has now been consig…
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THE MAHARAJAH FLIES ABROAD
This day, 76 years ago, a 40-seater Lockheed L-749 Constellation aircraft took off from Mumbai's Santa Cruz Airport to London. It wa…
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Bombay to Poona at that time....
Venkatraman Films And Studios Private Limited
TOWARDS THE CHALLENGING BOR GHAT
This day 166 years ago, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (today's Central Railway) opened the Khandala - Poona Railway line …
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This day 152 years ago the first telegram was sent by Anderson (Managing Director in London) to Stacey (Manager in Bombay) that read "How are you all?" to which…
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A SCHOOL FOR PARSI GIRLS (AND SOME BOYS)
Today marks the centenary of Dadar Parsi Colony’s JB Vachha High School. It began as a school to provide education to Parsi girls (and boys up to Class IV!) staying in the newly-developed areas of Dadar and Matunga, which had poor access to schools. It was originally named as the NJ Wadia School after the Trust that contributed to establishing it, but subsequent donations by the Seth Jehangirji Burjorji Vachha Trust and Lady Hirabai C…
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THE MAHARAJAH FLIES ABROAD
This day, 76 years ago, a 40-seater Lockheed L-749 Constellation aircraft took off from Mumbai's Santa Cruz Airport to London. It was Air India's maiden international flight, and even had a real-life Maharajah on board - Nawab Amir Ali Khan of Jamnagar! Believe it or not, the journey took two days, as the aircraft had to stop at Cairo and Geneva for refuelling!
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THE MAHARAJAH FLIES ABROAD
This day, 76 years ago, a 40-seater Lockheed L-749 Constellation aircraft took off from Mumbai's Santa Cruz Airport to London. It was Air India's maiden international flight, and even had a real-life Maharajah on board - Nawab Amir Ali Khan of Jamnagar! Believe it or not, the journey took two days, as the aircraft had to stop at Cairo and Geneva for refuelling!
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A NEW SYMBOL FOR MUMBAI
This day, 15 years ago, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link was thrown open to the public. Its cable-stayed spans gave the city a spanking new symbol and an addition to its modern urban heritage. The 5.6 km sea link, then India’s longest sea bridge, cut down travel time between Bandra and Worli from 20-30 minutes to 10 minutes.
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TOWARDS THE CHALLENGING BHOR GHAT
This day 166 years ago, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (today's Central Railway) opened the Khandala - Poona Railway line to passenger traffic and it became possible to take the train from Mumbai to Pune. But there was one hitch. The Bhor Ghat section was not completed till 1863, and so passengers had to get down at Khopoli and hitch a palanquin, a pony or a bullock-cart to Khandala before boarding a train again.
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CSMT’S VERY FIRST RENAMING
On this day 137 years ago, Queen Victoria completed 50 years as Great Britain's monarch. And on the same day, to commemorate the event, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway's Bori Bunder railway station was renamed in her honour as Victoria Terminus. It was again renamed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996, and to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in 2017.
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AGLA STATION KHAR ROAD
In 1919, the British government established the Bombay Development Directorate (or BDD as it was more popularly known) to create new housing in the city. One of the schemes initiated by the BDD was that of the Khar model suburb. 842 building plots were developed to house a population of 10,000. A convenient railway station was desirable to make the scheme a success, and so, this day exactly a hundred years ago, the Khar Road railway station came into e…
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BUY! SELL! HOLD!
Though stock-trading in Mumbai started in the 1840s, Indian brokers were not allowed to trade on British exchanges. So, on this day 149 years ago, a group of Indian brokers got together and drafted rules for a Native Share & Stock Brokers’ Association, the forerunner of the Bombay Stock Exchange. However, the association was formally constituted only in 1887.
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THE HAND THAT HELD THE MARATHA DAGGER POINTED AT THE HEART OF BRITISH BOMBAY
Today is the 295th death anniversary of Kanhoji Angre, the sarkhel or admiral of the Maratha fleet from 1698 till his death. He controlled the Konkan coast south from the tip of Mumbai right down to Vengurla and had constant skirmishes with the British in Bombay over the control of trade. His base on the island of Khanderi, just south of Mumbai made the British call it 'the Maratha dagger pointed at…
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ZARA HAT KE, ZARA BACH KE, YEH HAI BOMBAY MERI JAAN
Today is the 99th birth anniversary of Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone, more well-known as the film director and actor Guru Dutt. Born in Padukone in Karnataka and brought up in Kolkata, he moved to Mumbai in 1944. He made his directorial debut with Baazi in 1951. Mumbai’s favourite anthem, ‘Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan’, is from his film C.I.D.
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A PIONEERING PUBLICATION
#DidYouKnow? Today, the Gujarati newspaper Mumbai Samachar enters its 203rd year of publication! On this day, 202 years ago, Furdoonji Marzban, a Parsi priest and scholar and the pioneer of Gujarati journalism and printed literature, brought out its first issue under the name Mumbai Na Samachar. The newspaper started as a weekly, became a bi-weekly in 1832, and a daily in 1855.
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LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
On March 22, 1895, the Lumiere Brothers screened Asia’s first-ever motion picture in Paris. A little more than a year later, on this day 128 years ago, Marius Sestier, a Lumiere Brothers representative, showed the films at what was then the finest hotel in Mumbai, Watson’s Hotel, and laid the seed of the Indian film industry.
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A VICTORY FOR THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
#DidYouKnow? Till 1890, Mumbai's mill-workers worked daily throughout the year, except for a few Hindu festivals. Rao Bahadur Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, the Father of the Indian Labour Movement, founded the Bombay Mill Hands Association to fight for their rights. This day 134 years ago, the mill owners' association gave in to the demands of the Bombay Mill Hands Association and made Sunday a weekly holiday for the mills.
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TAKING HIGHER EDUCATION TO WOMEN
Inspired by the Japan Women’s University, Maharshi Dhondopant Karve started the Mahila College in Pune with five students on this day 108 years ago to provide higher education to women. The college later became the Indian Women’s University. In 1920, the university secured financial assistance from industrialist Sir Vithaldas Thackersey and was renamed in honour of his mother as the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s Univer…
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CSMT’S VERY FIRST RENAMING
On this day 137 years ago, Queen Victoria completed 50 years as Great Britain's monarch. And on the same day, to commemorate the event, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway's Bori Bunder railway station was renamed in her honour as Victoria Terminus. It was again renamed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996, and to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in 2017.
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A POLITICAL AND MILITARY ALLIANCE
In the mid-17th century, Portugal was at war with Spain and needed military support. And so a wedding was brokered between Catholic Portugal and Protestant England. On this day, 363 years ago, the terms of the marriage between Princess Catherine de Braganza and King Charles II were finalised. Portugal would get arms and men from England, and in return England would get rokda (two million gold crowns), dhanda (trading rights in Brazil) and j…
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THE END OF A POWERFUL SCRIPT
Today marks the 55th death anniversary of Prahlad Keshav Atre, affectionately known as Acharya Atre. He was a teacher, a playwright, a screenwriter, a film producer and film-maker, a journalist and editor, and even a political figure. Known for his oratory, he led the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and was an MLA. His printing press from where he published fiery editorials against then Chief Minister Morarji Desai was located close to the chowk na…
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AS MUMBAI AS...MID-DAY!
Publications devoted to Mumbai have come and gone. But one has lasted the distance for 45 years. This day in 1979, sports journalist and scion of a publishing family Khalid A H Ansari launched a peppy eveninger the likes of which the city had not seen before - Mid-day. The newspaper became a big hit with Mumbai's commuters, and continues to be a city institution till date.
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THE QUEEN WHO REPLACED VICTORIA
Today marks the 350th death anniversary of Rajmata Jijabai, mother of Shivaji Maharaj. It was she who sparked the dream of a Hindavi Swarajya within her son, and kept the flame burning till it was achieved with the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj as Chhatrapati in Raigad. Sadly, just 12 days after the coronation, she breathed her last. Colonial Bombay’s Victoria garden and Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute were renamed in her honour.
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A PUNEKAR IN A MUMBAI JAIL
Today is the 129th death anniversary of Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, co-founder of Pune’s Deccan Education Society and Fergusson College, and editor of Kesari and Sudharak. Though he lived and died in Pune, he underwent four months’ imprisonment in Mumbai’s Dongri jail along with Lokmanya Tilak on charges of defamation, and wrote a book about his experiences inside titled ‘डोंग्रीच्या तुरुंगातील आमचे एकशे एक दिवस (Our 101 days in Dongri prison)’. Andheri…
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A MASTER OF MODERNISM
Today is the 9th death anniversary of one of the city's iconic architects, Charles Correa. His memory, though, is kept alive by the buildings he designed for the city such as Kanchenjunga at GD Deshmukh Marg (Peddar Road), and by the now-bustling twin metropolis of Navi Mumbai whose masterplan he drew up.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF MUMBAI’S BIGGEST LAND-OWNER
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the construction of a railway line across peninsular India led to the demise of the port of Kolkata and the supremacy of the port of Mumbai. To meet the increase in traffic, the Bombay Port Trust was formed under a Government Act on this day in 1873. Newly reclaimed valuable foreshore land was transferred to the Trust and it was tasked with the development of the port of Mumbai.
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