This Day in History: February 17
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao’s Birthday
Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR), the first Chief Minister of Telangana State, was born on February 17, 1954, at Chintamadaka in Medak district to Raghava Rao and Venkatamma. He resigned from the Telugu Desam Party and founded the TRS Party on April 21, 2001, with the aim of achieving a separate state of Telangana. KCR, who played an important role in Telangana achieving statehood, created a record by being elected MLA eight times. After the formation of Telangana, he served as the CM of Telangana state for nine years from June 2, 2014, to June 2, 2023.
Actress Sada’s Birthday
Sada was a top heroine in the film industry. She was born in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. This siren entered Tollywood with the film ‘Jayam’ and received a blockbuster hit in her first film. After that, she acted in a series of films in Telugu as well as in Tamil. Later in 2022, she made an entry in OTT with the web series Hello World.
Birth Anniversary of Palagummi Padmaraju
Celebrated Telugu writer Palagummi Padmaraju was born on 24 June 1915 and died on 17 February 1983. He wrote stories and songs for many films for three decades in the film industry. Later he was awarded the Centre’s Sahitya Akademi Award. His works like Batikina College, Nalla Regadi and Ramarajyaniki Rahadari, written in Telugu, are well known. Although he wrote many stories, Gaali Vaana is well-known among them.
Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Death Anniversary
Today is the death anniversary of Jiddu Krishnamurti, a philosopher, mystic, writer and lecturer from the state of Andhra Pradesh. He died of pancreatic cancer on 17 February 1986 at the age of ninety. His books The First and Last Freedom (1954) and Krishnamurti’s Notebook (1976) are very popular. He published speeches and dialogues. He gave his last speech at his home in Ohio, USA. Krishnamurti opened five schools in India, one in England called Brockwood Park School, and one in California called Oak Grove School.
Release of Microsoft’s Windows 2000
Computer operating software Windows 2000 was released by the world’s largest company, Microsoft on February 17, 2000. Microsoft was founded in 1975 by two friends named Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The company develops, manufactures, licenses and supports various types of computer hardware and software.
A few more important events on February 17
- American basketball player Michael Jordan was born on 17 February 1963. He was nicknamed ‘Air Jordan’ for his amazing jumping ability. He later became the first billionaire athlete in history.
- American actress and singer Paris Hilton was born on February 17, 1981.
- Indian freedom fighter Vasudev Balwant Phadke’s death anniversary is today. He fought against British rule and took part in surprise guerilla attacks on British soldiers.
- Today is the birthday of Pritam Munde Member of Parliament of India. She won the 2014 by-election to the Beed Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra as a BJP candidate. In this election, she secured a lead of 6,96,321 votes and set a new record in the Lok Sabha elections.
