17 June - Begum Mumtaj Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan Death

Begum Mumtaj Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan, Emperor of India, passed away at Burhanpur a few hours after the birth of a daughter. She was married in 1612 and the Taj Mahal was built for her.

Mumtaz Mahal born Arjumand Banu; 27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the Empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 19 January 1628 to 17 June 1631 as the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.The Taj Mahal in Agra, often cited as one of the Wonders of the World, was commissioned by her husband to act as her tomb.

Mumtaz Mahal was born Arjumand Banu Begum in Agra to a family of Persian nobility. She was the daughter of Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan, a wealthy Persian noble who held high office in the Mughal Empire, and the niece of Empress Nur Jahan, the chief wife of Emperor Jahangir and the power behind the emperor.She was married at the age of 19 on 30 April 1612 to Prince Khurram, later known by his regnal name Shah Jahan, who conferred upon her the title "Mumtaz Mahal" (Persian: the exalted one of the palace).Although betrothed to Shah Jahan since 1607,she ultimately became his second wife in 1612. Mumtaz and her husband had fourteen children, including Jahanara Begum (Shah Jahan's favourite daughter),and the Crown prince Dara Shikoh, the heir-apparent,anointed by his father, who temporarily succeeded him, until deposed by Mumtaz Mahal's sixth child, Aurangzeb, who ultimately succeeded his father as the sixth Mughal emperor in 1658.

Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 in Burhanpur, Deccan (present-day Madhya Pradesh), during the birth of her fourteenth child, a daughter named Gauhar Ara Begum.Shah Jahan had the Taj Mahal built as a tomb for her, which is considered to be a monument of undying love. As with other Mughal royal ladies, we have no contemporary likenesses that are accepted as of her, but numerous imagined portraits were created from the 19th century onwards.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumtaz_Mahal

11 June - Ghanshyam Das Birla - Death Anniversary

Ghanshyam Das Birla (10 April 1894 – 11 June 1983) was a pioneering Indian businessman and member of the Birla Family. 

Ghanshyam Das Birla was one of the most prominent Indian businessmen from the era when India was struggling to get freedom from the British Empire. He belonged to the Birla family and is the founding father of the multi-billion dollar Birla Empire. He came from a humble background of Pilani in India where his grandfather was into the business of money lending—a tradition in that particular community. But Birla had dreams bigger than that and took him to Calcutta. He started a jute firm in Calcutta and gathered the kind of success which was impossible for an Indian businessman to achieve in those hard times. This led to one success after another and soon he expanded his empire into manufacturing, tea business, banking, chemical, cement, etc. It was his early efforts that made the Birla Empire what it is now and his impeccable business sense earned him the India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan.

Birla was a close associate and a steady supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, whom he met for the first time in 1916. Gandhi stayed at Birla's home in New Delhi during the last four months of his life.