09 February - Chocolate Day

 

La Poste France has issued a miniature sheet commemorating 400 years of Chocolate's arrival in Europe in 1609, La Poste has created a block of chocolate-scented stamps.  

The block of 10 stamps (€0.56 each, for €5.60) is designed to look like a bar of chocolate and even smells like one. The stamps depict scenes from the history and manufacture of chocolate. 

The ink used on the stamps contains microcapsules which provide a chocolate scent that will reportedly last up to two years.

 Issue date 25 May 2009

Chocolate Dayis celebrated as to do away with the bitter and sour feelings in relationships. On this day, people exchange chocolates with their crushes or partners or relatives and pamper them by gifting them their favorite collection of chocolates or handmade candies.

08 February - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev birth anniversary

 

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (08 February 1834 – 02 February 1907) was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is best known for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements. He used the Periodic Law not only to correct the then-accepted properties of some known elements, such as the valence and atomic weight of uranium, but also to predict the properties of three elements that were yet to be discovered.

08 February - Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi death anniversary

 

Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi( 30 December 1887 – 08 February 1971), popularly known by his pen name Ghanshyam Vyas, was an Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educationist from Gujarat state. A lawyer by profession, he later turned to author and politician. He is a well-known name in Gujarati literature. He founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust, in 1938.

Munshi wrote his works in three languages namely Gujarati, English and Hindi. Before independence of India, Munshi was part of Indian National Congress and after independence, he joined Swatantra Party. Munshi held several important posts like member of Constituent Assembly of India, minister of agriculture and food of India, and governor of Uttar Pradesh. In his later life, he was one of the founding members of Vishva Hindu Parishad.

08 February - Jagjit Singh - Ghazal King India birth anniversary

 

Jagjit Singh born Jagmohan Singh Dhiman (8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was an Indian composer, singer and musician. He composed and sang in numerous languages and is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an Indian classical art form, by choosing poetry that was relevant to the masses and composing them in a way that laid more emphasis on the meaning of words and melody evoked by them. In terms of Indian classical music, his style of composing and gayaki (singing) is considered as Bol-pradhan, one that lays emphasis on words. He highlighted this in his music for films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth (1982), and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). Singh is considered to be the most successful ghazal singer and composer of all time in terms of critical acclaim and commercial success. With a career spanning five decades and many albums, the range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining.
Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government of India in 2003 and in February 2014, the government released a set of two postal stamps in his honor.

08 February - Leiden University established in 1575

 

Leiden University is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. It was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 and established on 08 Feb 1575  by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Leiden for its defense against Spanish attacks during the Eighty Years' War. As the oldest institution of higher education in the Netherlands, it enjoys a solid reputation across Europe and the world.

Known for its historic foundations and emphasis on the social sciences, the university came into particular prominence during the Dutch Golden Age, when scholars from around Europe were attracted to the Dutch Republic due to its climate of intellectual tolerance and Leiden's international reputation. During this time, Leiden became the home to individuals such as René Descartes, Rembrandt, Christiaan Huygens, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza and Baron d'Holbach.

The university has seven academic faculties and over fifty subject departments while housing more than 40 national and international research institutes. Its historical primary campus consists of buildings scattered across the college town of Leiden, while a second campus located in The Hague houses a liberal arts college (Leiden University College The Hague) and several of its faculties. It is a member of the Coimbra Group, the Europaeum and a founding member of the League of European Research Universities.

Leiden University consistently ranks among the best universities in the world by prominent international ranking tables, being placed in the top 50 worldwide in thirteen fields of study in the 2020 QS World University Rankings: classics & ancient history, politics, archaeology, anthropology, history, pharmacology, law, public policy, public administration, religious studies, arts & humanities, linguistics, modern languages and sociology.In the 2022 ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects it is ranked 3rd in the world in Public Administration, 12th in Medical Technology, 22nd in Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, 40th in Political Sciences and 49th in Library & Information Science.

The university has produced twenty-six Spinoza Prize Laureates and sixteen Nobel Laureates, including Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein. It is closely associated with the Dutch royal family, with Queen Juliana, Queen Beatrix and King Willem-Alexander being alumni. Ten Prime Ministers of the Netherlands are also alumni, including incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Internationally, Leiden University is associated with several leaders, including a President of the United States, two NATO Secretaries-General, a President of the International Court of Justice and a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 

07 February - Rose Day

 

Rose Day, every year, is celebrated on February 7. on this day, people paint the town red – with the colour of the red rose, that denotes love and passion. People gift roses to the person they love and declare their passion to the world. However, it is not mandatory to gift a rose only to the partner. We can also gift a rose to our parents, or to a friend, whom we love unconditionally. We should also learn t practice self-love by buying ourselves roses, or flowers of our choice.

 It is believed that the practice of gifting roses was started by Victorians to express their love for each other. Since then, Rose Day celebrates the expression of love by gifting each other roses.
While red roses are a clear winner for the special day, there are other roses that can be gifted to the ones we love. Yellow rose denotes friendship and the joy of new beginnings, while, white rose expresses innocence and purity. Orange rose on the other hand, is used to express desire, and pink rose denotes appreciation ad gratitude.

 

The seven days of Valentine week

    Rose Day- 7th February.
    Propose Day- 8th February.
    Chocolate Day- 9th February.
    Teddy Day- 10th February.
    Promise Day- 11th February.
    Hug Day- 12th February.
    Kiss Day- 13th February.
    Valentine's Day- 14th February.

06 February - Abdul gaffar khan birth anniversary

 

Abdul Ghaffār Khān (6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988), also known as Bacha Khan (باچا خان, 'King of Chiefs') or Badshah Khan (بادشاه خان), and honourably addressed as Fakhr-e-Afghan (فخرِ افغان, 'Pride of Afghans'), was a Pashtun independence activist, and founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar resistance movement against British colonial rule in India. He was a political and spiritual leader known for his nonviolent opposition and lifelong pacifism; he was a devout Muslim and an advocate for Hindu–Muslim unity in the subcontinent.Due to his similar ideologies and close friendship with Mahatma Gandhi, Khan was nicknamed Sarhadi Gandhi (सरहदी गांधी, 'the Frontier Gandhi').In 1929, Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgar, an anti-colonial nonviolent resistance movement. The Khudai Khidmatgar's success and popularity eventually prompted the colonial government to launch numerous crackdowns against Khan and his supporters; the Khudai Khidmatgar experienced some of the most severe repression of the entire Indian independence movement.

Khan strongly opposed the proposal for the Partition of India into the Muslim-majority Dominion of Pakistan and the Hindu-majority Dominion of India, and consequently sided with the pro-union Indian National Congress and All-India Azad Muslim Conference against the pro-partition All-India Muslim League.

06 February - Ritwik Kumar Ghatak death anniversary

 

Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (4 November 1925 – 6 February 1976) was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright.Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality, partition and feminism. He won the National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his Jukti Takko Aar Gappoand Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.

06 February - Lata Mangeshkar passed away on 6 Feb 2022

 Lata Mangeshkar born Hema Mangeshkar(28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her contribution to the Indian music industry in a career spanning eight decades gained her honorific titles such as the "Queen of Melody", "Nightingale of India", and "Voice of the Millennium".

Lata recorded songs in over thirty-six Indian languages and a few foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi, Hindi, and Bengali.Her foreign languages included English, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Nepali, and Swahili.She received several accolades and honors throughout her career. In 1989, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was bestowed on her by the Government of India. In 2001, in recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour; she is only the second female singer, after M. S. Subbulakshmi, to receive this honour.France conferred on her its highest civilian award, Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, in 2007.

She was the recipient of three National Film Awards, 15 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards, two Filmfare Special Awards, the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award and many more. In 1974, she was one of the first Indian playback singers to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. Her last recorded song was "Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti ki" released on 30 March 2019 as a tribute to the Indian Army and the Nation.

At one point, she appeared in the Guinness World Records, which listed her as the most recorded artist in history between 1948 and 1987.

She passed away on 06 February 2022

06 February - Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom

 

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime, and was head of state of 15 realms at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history. 

The eldest daughter of George VI, she became the heiress presumptive when her father acceded the throne following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. During World War II, she began to undertake public duties and worked in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. After the death of her father she acceded the throne in 1952