Today's Event – 17th October 2021

• 1448 – An Ottoman army defeats a Hungarian army at the Second Battle of Kosovo.

• 1456 – The University of Greifswald is established as the second oldest university in northern Europe.

• 1534 – Anti-Catholic posters appear in Paris and other cities supporting Huldrych Zwingli's position on the Mass.

• 1558 – Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded.

• 1604 – Kepler's Supernova is observed in the constellation of Ophiuchus.

• 1610 – French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims Cathedral.

• 1660 – The nine regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England are hanged, drawn and quartered.

• 1662 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to Louis XIV of France for 40,000 pounds.

• 1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Mozart at age 15.

• 1806 – Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I, is assassinated after an oppressive rule.

• 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood.

• 1817 – The tomb of Pharaoh Seti I is discovered

• 1860 – First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).

• 1861 – Aboriginal Australians kill nineteen Europeans in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre.

• 1907 – Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.

• 1912 – Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

• 1931 – Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.

• 1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.

• 1940 – The body of Communist propagandist Willi Münzenberg is found in South France, starting a never-resolved mystery.

• 1943 – The Burma Railway (Burma–Thailand Railway) is completed.

• 1943 – Nazi Holocaust in Poland: Sobibór extermination camp is closed.

• 1945 – A massive demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, demands Juan Perón's release.

• 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield, England.

• 1961 – Directed by their chief Maurice Papon, Paris police massacre scores of Algerian protesters.

• 1979 – Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• 1979 – The Department of Education Organization Act creates the U.S. Department of Education.

• 1980 – As part of the Holy See–United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican.

• 1992 – Having gone to the wrong house, Japanese student Yoshihiro Hattori is killed by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

• 1994 – Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.

• 2018 – The recreational use of cannabis is legalized in Canada.

• 2018 – Kerch Polytechnic College attack in Crimea.

National Events- 

•  Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said a Government can become pro-people only if all the institutions working in rural areas function effectively.

•  Seven people, including the district presidents of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, have so far been arrested in connection with the rape of a 17-year-old girl here, police said on Saturday. The Samajwadi Party (SP) said it has dissolved its Lalitpur district unit. 

•  Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday took potshots at the BJP over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, saying the ruling party only knows 'jeebh chalana' (lip service) and 'jeep chadhana' (mowing down people).

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kedarnath on November 5 to offer prayers and inaugurate Kedarpuri reconstruction projects worth `250 crore.  This will be his second visit to the State within a month.

• The BJP Government in Gujarat has decided to offer financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per person from the State's tribal community for pilgrimage to Shri Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, Tourism and Pilgrimage Development Minister Purnesh Modi said.

International Events- 

•  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing on a Shia mosque in southern Afghanistan that killed 47 people and wounded scores more.

• NASA spacecraft named Lucy rocketed into the sky with diamonds Saturday morning on a 12-year quest to explore eight asteroids. 

•  Russia’s daily death toll from Covid-19 has exceeded 1,000 for the first time as the country faces a sustained wave of rising infections.

•  In a Catholic church across town, flour and oil to make communion wafers will soon run out. And the flagship hospital in Mekele, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, wrestles with whether to give patients the expired medications that remain. Its soap and bleach are gone.

• UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi, who visited Kabul last week, told reporters at UN headquarters that five of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces — Balkh, Jawzjan and Samangan in the northwest, Kunduz in the northeast and Urozgan in the southwest — are already allowing girls to attend secondary school.

Job alerts-

• Punjab Sub-ordinate Service Selection Board Jobs for Dairy Development Inspector and other posts. Last date 31st October 2021

• Odisha Public Service Commission Jobs for Assistant Professor and other posts. Last date 25th November 2021

• Jobs for and other posts. Last date

Sports-

•  India captain Harmanpreet Kaur held her nerves under pressure while opener Jemimah Rodrigues scored an invaluable 33 as Melbourne Renegades beat hosts Hobart Hurricanes by six wickets in a Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) match here on Saturday.

•  Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who will be assisting head coach Gary Stead during the Black Caps' T20 World Cup campaign, feels their players' skill levels are very high and the team only needs to get the balance right.

•  Playing a man down and without its top scorer, Real Sociedad turned to a 21-year-old reserve player to score a clutch goal that was good for a three-point lead of the Spanish league.

•  The six-nation Nordic group of European soccer federations have detailed their opposition to FIFA’s push to stage the World Cup every two years.

• India crushed Nepal 3-0 to win their eight SAFF Championship title after second-half goals from Sunil Chhetri, Suresh Singh and Sahal Abdul Samad in the final here on Saturday.

Technology-

•  Cryptocurrencies are waiting to explode in India and Ashish Singhal, Co-founder and CEO of leading crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, aims to onboard at least 50 million users from India in the next two years, educating them around crypto investments and helping them create wealth.

•  AAs the tech giant is asking developers to promote payments using the Apple ID balance, Apple is now giving a 20 per cent bonus to Indian users who add funds to their Apple ID

Economy – 

• Describing the Indian government's response to the Covid-19 situation as "swift and substantial", the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the country continued with labour reforms and privatisation despite the pandemic.  

•  Conglomerate Tata Group plans to pilot synergy between all its airlines to compete in various market segments.

•  The Purvanchal  region of Uttar Pradesh is emerging as the export hub for vegetables. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, huge consignments of fresh green vegetables were flown from Purvanchal to the Gulf countries, for the second time in less than two years, benefitting farmers substantially in terms of income.

• Lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a year-on-year rise of 17.6 per cent in its net profit for Q2FY22. The bank's net profit increased to Rs 8,834.3 crore during the period under review over the quarter ended September 30, 2020. 

• Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have turned net sellers in the capital markets in October so far, reversing the trend of net investments in the previous two months, due to depreciation in the rupee and global factors, experts said.

Local –

•  Maharashtra has reported 1715 cases and 29 deaths related to corona

•  Delhi has reported 32 new cases of covid-19 without fatality

•  Heavy rainfall in Mangalore has disrupted normal life

•  Heavy rainfall to continue in West Bengal till October 20th 2021

• School principal in Rajasthan held for raping an 11 year old girl

GK – 

Which institution released the report titled ‘Transforming Food Systems for Rural Prosperity’?

[A] IFAD
[B] FAO
[C] NABARD
[D] NITI Aayog

Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) is associated with which Ministry?

[A] Ministry of MSME
[B] Ministry of Finance
[C] Ministry of Commerce and Industry
[D] Ministry of Textiles

Hwasong-8, which was seen in the news recently, is a new hypersonic missile tested by which country?

[A] China
[B] Japan
[C] Israel
[D] North Korea