Monday, 16 March 2015

Anna Atkins

 The first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images

                                               Anna Atkins (16 March 1799 – 9 June 1871) was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources claim that she was the first woman to create a photograph.

cyanotype photogram made by
Atkins which was part of her 1843 book,

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions

Cyanotype photogram of Wood Horsetail
 from the 1853 bookCyanotypes of British and Foreign
 Ferns
 by Atkins and Dixon

Sunday, 15 March 2015

Harita Kaur Deol

First Indian woman airforce pilot


                                     Flight Lt. Harita Kaur Deol (1972 - December 25, 1996) was a pilot with the Indian Air Force. She was the first woman pilot to fly solo in the Indian Air Force. The flight was on 2 September 1994 in an Avro HS-748, when she was 22 years old

                                      Hailing from Chandigarh in a Sikh family,in 1993, she became one of first seven women cadets inducted into the Air Force as Short Service Commission (SSC) officers. This also marked a critical phase in training of women in India as a transport pilots. After initial training at Air Force Academy, Dundigul near Hyderabad, she received further training at Air Lift Forces Training Establishment (ALFTE) at Yelahanka Air Force Station.

                                   However she died in an aircrash near Nellore on Dec. 25, 1996. She was one of 24 Air Force personnel to die when an Indian Air Force Avro aircraft, crashed near the Bukkapuram village in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh
Courtesy: wikipedia

Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming

                                    Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was an English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer, best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at EtonSandhurst and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
                      While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planningOperation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units, 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. His wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail and depth of the James Bond novels.
                 Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952. It was a success, with three print runs being commissioned to cope with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two short-story collections followed between 1953 and 1966. The novels revolved around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's storyChitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatestBritish writers since 1945".
He was married to Ann Charteris, who was divorced from the second Viscount Rothermere as a result of her affair with Fleming. Fleming and Charteris had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker who suffered from heart disease; he died in 1964, aged 56, from a heart attack. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-five times, portrayed by seven actors
courtesy:wikipedia