25 August - Baba Gurdit Singh born in 1860

 

Baba Gurdit Singh (25 August 1860 – 24 July 1954) was the central figure in the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, one of several incidents in the history of early 20th century involving exclusion laws in both Canada and the United States designed to keep out immigrants of only Asian origin.

Singh was born in 1860 at Sarhali, in Amritsar District of British Punjab province (India). In 1914 he chartered a Japanese ship, the Komagata Maru, to go to Canada, reaching Vancouver on 23 May 1914. The government did not allow the ship to anchor and the ship was attacked by the police at night. The attack was repulsed by the passengers and it created a great stir among Indians in Canada

Issued on the first day of Asian Heritage Month, this stamp commemorates the struggle of the Komagata Maru passengers and celebrates the contribution of the South Asian community, and indeed all Asian Canadians, to Canada’s diversity and prosperity.Ahead of the 100th-year anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident in Vancouver, which began on May 23, 1914, Canada Post has unveiled a new stampthat commemorates one of the nation’s historical black spots.

25 August - Belarus declared independence in 1991

 

Belarus officially the Republic of Belarus and formerly known as Byelorussia or Belorussia, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.It is bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% is forested. Its major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing.Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk (11th to 14th centuries), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire.

In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, different states arose competing for legitimacy amidst the Civil War, ultimately ending in the rise of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussian SSR) which became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were finalized after World War II.During WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources.The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945, the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.The parliament of the republic proclaimed the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus declared independence on 25 August 1991.

The first stamp produced under independent Belarus in 1992 which depicates the Cross of Saint Euphrosyne, a 12th-century cross the image of which is displayed above.

25 August - Indian Polo team won the World Championship in 1957

 

India is the birthplace of modern polo. The modern game of polo is derived from Manipur, where the game was known as 'Sagol Kangjei', 'Kanjai-bazee', or 'Pulu'.It was the anglicised form of the last, referring to the wooden ball that was used, which was adopted by the sport in its slow spread to the west.

The Indian Polo Association (IPA) was founded in 1892.The outbreak of the second World War and the mechanization of cavalry units resulted in a decline in interest in Indian polo. The Calcutta Polo Club was the first polo club in the country to resume hosting tournaments post-independence. Polo clubs in Jaipur, Delhi, Bombay and Hyderabad subsequently began holding regular tournaments. The IPA invited the Argentine national polo team to visit India in 1950 and play an exhibition games across the country in a bid to revive interest in the sport. The Argentine team participated in tournaments in Jaipur, Delhi and Bombay. The Pakistan Army polo team visited India in 1955. The IPA also revived the Indian Polo Championship in 1956, after a gap of 17 years. The India national polo team participated in the 1957 World Championship in France and won the tournament it included Major Kishan Singh, Kr. Bijay Singh, Rao Raja Hanut Singh and H.H. Maharaja of Jaipur. These events helped revive interest in polo in the country. Indian polo received another boost after the Indian Army officially adopted polo as a sport granting access to new grounds and stables of horses.