Today's Event – 12th October 2021

• 539 BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon, ending the Babylonian empire. (Julian calendar)

• 1279 – The Nichiren ShōshÅ« branch of Buddhism is founded in Japan

• 1406 – Chen Yanxiang, the only person from Indonesia known to have visited dynastic Korea, reaches Seoul after having set out from Java four months before

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus's first expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas

• 1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100 people.

• 1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Province of Massachusetts Bay Governor William Phips.

• 1773 – America's first insane asylum opens.

• 1792 – The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.

• 1793 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• 1798 – Flemish and Luxembourgish peasants launch the rebellion against French rule known as the Peasants' War.

• 1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute.

• 1810 – The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest.

• 1822 – Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor.

• 1849 – The city of Manizales, Colombia, is founded by 'The Expedition of the 20'.

• 1856 – An M 7.7–8.3 earthquake off the Greek island of Crete cause major damage as far as Egypt and Malta

• 1871 – The British in India enact the Criminal Tribes Act, naming many local communities "Criminal Tribes".

• 1890 – Uddevalla Suffrage Association is formed.

• 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools.

• 1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.

• 1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.

• 1928 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Boston Children's Hospital.

• 1933 – The military Alcatraz Citadel becomes the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.

• 1945 – The Lao Issara took control of Laos' government and reaffirmed the country's independence

• 1959 – At the national congress of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance in Peru, a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party who later form APRA Rebelde.

• 1960 – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.

• 1960 – Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma is stabbed to death during a live Television broadcast.

• 1962 – The Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities. There was at least U.S. $230 million in damages and 46 people died.

• 1963 – After nearly 23 years of imprisonment, Reverend Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit missionary, was released from the Soviet Union.

• 1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.

• 1968 – Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.

• 1971 – The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.

• 1979 – Typhoon Tip becomes the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded.

• 1983 – Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from the Lockheed Corporation, and is sentenced to four years in jail.

• 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds 31.

• 1988 – Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down execution-style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.

• 1994 – The Magellan spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Venus.

• 1997 – The Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria kills 43 people at a fake roadblock.

• 1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at University of Wyoming, dies five days after he was beaten outside of Laramie.

• 1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

• 1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.

• 2000 – The USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, is badly damaged by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.

• 2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.

• 2005 – The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying two cosmonauts in orbit for five days.

• 2010 – The Finnish Yle TV2 channel's Ajankohtainen kakkonen current affairs program featured controversial Homoilta episode (literally "gay night"),which led to the resignation of almost 50,000 Finns from the Evangelical Lutheran Church

• 2017 – The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO. Israel immediately follows.

• 2018 – Princess Eugenie marries Jack Brooksbank at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

• 2019 – Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna

National Events- 

•  Across 32 species of seabirds sampled from around the globe, an international team from 18 institutions in seven countries found that up to 52 per cent of the birds not only ate plastic, but also accumulated the plastic’s chemical components in their bodies.

•  The CBI has registered a case against a private company Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services Ltd (TIISL),Surya Prakash Madrecha and others for allegedly cheating SBI and other consortium member banks to the tune of `862.06 crore during the period 2009 to 2017.

•  The Sikh community of Bahraich and relatives of a farmer killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence have demanded that the victim's village be named after him.

•  As the "Maharashtra bandh" called by the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) protest against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident evoked a good response across the State on Monday, the ruling alliance partners and the Opposition BJP exchanged barbs over the “success” of the bandh.

• Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ banker wife Amruta Fadnavis stirred up a hornet’s nest in the state political circles through a controversial tweet, wondering whether “extortion” was continuing in the state or not. Taking an “indirect” dig at the Shiv Sena, Amruta – known for controversial statements and tweets – wondered: “Will someone tell me if the extortion is continuing or has stopped (on the bandh day)?”

International Events- 

• A US-based economist won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for pioneering research that transformed widely held ideas about the labor force, showing how an increase in the minimum wage doesn’t hinder hiring and immigrants do not lower pay for native-born workers. Two others shared the award for creating a way to study these types of societal issues. Canadian-born David Card of the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded half of the prize for his research on how the minimum wage, immigration  and education affect the labor market. The other half was shared by Joshua Angrist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dutch-born Guido Imbens from Stanford University for their framework for studying issues that can’t rely on traditional scientific methods.

• Kathmandu: Eight people were killed on the spot when the jeep they were travelling in fell 100 metres from a high-altitude trekking spot in Nepal’s Kaski District on Monday, officials said 

• Beijing: At least 13 people were killed and one person was missing when a bus carrying 51 passengers plunged into the Hutuo river in North China’s Hebei province on Monday, according to a media report.

• A car bomb exploded in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed Syrian Opposition fighters on Monday, killing at least four people, rescue workers and a war monitor said. The bomb exploded in a market in the town of Afrin in Aleppo province. Volunteers with the Syrian Civil Defence, rescuers who operate in opposition areas, said the death toll would likely rise. 

• A 35-year-old Pakistani journalist was killed in an attack claimed to have been carried out by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army in the country’s restive Balochistan province, media reports said on Monday. Shahid Zehri, who has been associated with Metro 1 News, was travelling in a car in the town of Hub in the province when he was attacked.

Job alerts-

• UKSSSC Jobs for welder, lineman, assistant and other posts. Last date 25th November 2021

• SBI Jobs for SCO and other posts. Last date 18th October 2021

• South Central Railway Jobs for apprentice and other posts. Last date 3rd November 2021

• MOSB CAPF Jobs for Group A and other posts. Last date 27th October 2021

• Malkangiri Court Jobs for clerk, steno, typist and other posts. Last date 8th November 2021

Sports-

• Former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody is expected to apply for the high profile job of Indian cricket team’s next head coach for a fourth time, following the conclusion of the upcoming T20 World Cup, according to a media report. 

•  Mahendra Singh Dhoni walks the talk when he speaks about having an uncluttered mind while doing the finishing job for Chennai Super Kings, something he did with elan on Sunday against Delhi Capitals to take his team to the record ninth IPL final.

•  Glenn Maxwell, teammate Dan Christian and his pregnant partner Jorgia Dunn were subjected to online abuse after their IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore's ouster from the ongoing edition of the lucrative league.

•  The Indian men’s badminton team blanked lower-ranked Netherlands 5-0 in its opening Group C tie to make a winning start at the Thomas Cup Final here.

• Virat Kohli's tenure as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore may have ended without an IPL triumph but the franchise will nonetheless "celebrate" his contributions over the years, said the team's pacer Harshal Patel.

Awards and honours-

•  162 girl toppers awarded smartphones on Girl Child Day

Technology-

•  Facebook is reportedly planning to expanding the Live Audio rooms feature to a global audience. Now apart from public figures and creators, Facebook is making the feature -- a Clubhouse competitor -- available to groups as well, reports The Verge.

•  Elon Musk on Monday said Tesla has finally started rolling out its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta 10.2 software.

•  Facebook-owned Instagram would soon roll out two new tools to safeguard teenagers from harmful content, after whistleblower Frances Haugen testified last week before the US Congress that Instagram can have a negative effect on the mental health of teenagers.

•  Microsoft on Monday announced that Windows 11 users can now start using Chat from Microsoft Teams on Windows. Chat from Microsoft Teams will be pinned to the Taskbar at Windows 11 startup.

• HCL Technologies on Monday said it has expanded its strategic partnership with Google Cloud to jointly launch healthcare and life sciences solutions for customers.

Economy – 

•  Ratings agency Icra on Monday revised downwards by 300 basis points the growth forecast for the auto components industry for the ongoing fiscal year citing the impact of semiconductor shortage on domestic vehicle manufacturers as well as on exports revenues.

•  The economy is poised to achieve 10.25 per cent GDP growth in FY 2021-22 on the back of effective Government policies, Reserve Bank's accommodative policy stance and improved business sentiments, industry body PHDCCI said on Monday.

•  After swinging over 200 points in the opening session, the 30-share Sensex was trading 34.62 points or 0.06 per cent lower at 60,101.16. Similarly, the Nifty slipped 2.45 points or 0.01 per cent to 17,943.50.

•  The Finance Ministry on Monday said it has released Rs 9,871 crore of revenue deficit grant to 17 States. The States which will receive money from the grant as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

• The rupee slid by 37 paise to close at a 15-month low of 75.36 against the US dollar on Monday as crude oil zoomed towards seven-year high and the greenback hardened in the overseas markets.

Environment –

•  3.6 magnitude earthquake hits Gulbarga (Karnataka)

Local –

• Mumbai University gets A++ ratings till 2028 

• Edible oil prices in Karnataka are rising rapidly 

•  Fire breaks out in at Vodafone mobile tower in Nabana (West Bengal)

•  1 crore beneficiaries in Rajasthan yet to receive 1st dose of covid vaccine

• Allahabad High Court has stated that Rs.450 per month is a form of forced labour

GK – 

The State Election Commission of which state is set to conduct India’s first dry run for “Voting through smart phone”?

[A] Andhra Pradesh
[B] Telangana
[C] Karnataka
[D] Kerala

The Exercise Malabar is associated with which Armed force of India?

[A] Indian Army
[B] Indian Navy
[C] Indian Coast Guard
[D] National Security Guard

Sunil Chhetri, who was in the news recently, is associated with which sports?

[A] Cricket
[B] Football
[C] Volleyball
[D] Kabaddi

Which International Forum has recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right?

[A] UNFCCC
[B] UNESCO
[C] WHO
[D] UN Human Rights Council

What is the proposed financial outlay for the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan?

[A] Rs. 100 crore
[B] Rs. 1 lakh crore
[C] Rs. 10 lakh crore
[D] Rs. 100 lakh crore