Today's Event – 22nd December 2021

• 1769 – Sino-Burmese War: The war ends with an uneasy truce.

• 1788 – Nguyễn Huệ proclaims himself Emperor Quang Trung, in effect abolishing on his own the Lê dynasty

• 1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies.

• 1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

• 1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).

• 1851 – India's first freight train is operated in Roorkee, to transport material for the construction of the Ganges Canal.

• 1851 – The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., burns

• 1864 – American Civil War: Savannah, Georgia, falls to the forces of General Sherman.

• 1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan.

• 1888 – The Christmas Meeting of 1888, considered to be the official start of the Faroese independence movement. 

• 1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kentville and Kingsport, Nova Scotia.

• 1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.

• 1894 – The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.

• 1920 – The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.

• 1921 – Opening of Visva-Bharati College, also known as Santiniketan College, now Visva Bharati University, India.

• 1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City

• 1939 – Indian Muslims observe a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with the United Kingdom

• 1948 – Sjafruddin Prawiranegara established the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (Pemerintah Darurat Republik Indonesia, PDRI) in West Sumatra

• 1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 290 kilometres (180 mi) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives.

• 1964 – The first test flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird) takes place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, United States.

• 1965 – In the United Kingdom, a 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time.

• 1968 – Cultural Revolution: People's Daily posted the instructions of Mao Zedong that "The intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty."

• 1971 – The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.

• 1973 – A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Tanger-Boukhalef Airport (now Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport) in Tangier, Morocco, killing 106.

• 1974 – The house of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.

• 1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.

• 1984 – "Subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz shoots four would-be muggers on a 2 express train in Manhattan section of New York, United States.

• 1987 – In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi. 

• 1989 – Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife Elena flee Bucharest in a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers

• 1989 – Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

• 1990 – Lech Wałęsa is elected President of Poland.

• 1990 – Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.

• 1992 – During approach to Tripoli International Airport, a Boeing 727 operating as Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 collides in mid-air with a Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23, killing 157 people

• 1997 – Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.

• 1997 – Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somalia since 1991.

• 1999 – Just after taking off from London Stansted Airport, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 crashes into Hatfield Forest near Great Hallingbury, killing all four people on board.

• 2001 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, hands over power in Islamic State of Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

• 2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.

• 2008 – An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 4.2 million m3 (1.1 billion US gal) of coal fly ash slurry.

• 2010 – The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama

• 2012 – Bashir Ahmad Bilour of Awami National Party and eight others are killed in a Pakistan Taliban bomber suicide attack in Dhaki Nalbandi area near Qissa Khwani Bazaar

• 2016 – A study finds the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus between 70 and 100% effective, thus making it the first proven vaccine against the disease.

• 2017 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397 against North Korea is unanimously approved.

• 2018 – A tsunami caused by an eruption of Anak Krakatau in Indonesia kills at least 430 people and injures almost a thousand more.

National Events- 

•  While rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are yet to be framed, government data shows that a significant majority of those granted Indian citizenship since 2018 were minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh

•  The Winter Session of Parliament, which began on November 29 in the shadow of uncertainty with the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs in the previous session, came to an end Wednesday, a day earlier than scheduled, with the passage of 11 bills in both houses.

•  The Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die Wednesday amid calls by Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge for a discussion on a report of The Indian Express that local officials who have served in or are serving in Ayodhya bought land in the region after the Supreme Court cleared the decks for the construction of the Ram temple in 2019.

•  Amid heavy protests by the Opposition over a number of issues like the suspension of 12 MPs from the Upper House, the Lakhimpur violence and the farmers’ demand for a legislation on MSP, the Winter Session of Parliament came to an end Wednesday. In the 18 sittings that it witnessed, the Winter Session that began on November 29 saw the passage of legislations like The Farm Laws Repeal Bill and the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill

• A railway engineer in Bihar has been booked and suspended, for trying to illegally sell off a vintage steam engine as “scrap”, a senior official said on Tuesday. According to Alok Agrawal, DRM of Samastipur Division under East Central Railway, an FIR was registered on the previous day against engineer Rajiv Ranjan Jha and six others at Banmankhi in Purnea district

International Events- 

• A member of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign arranged and participated in a meeting at which a Georgia election worker says she was pressed by a Chicago publicist to falsely admit voting fraud. 

•  Charles Lieber, one of the country’s top research chemists, sat miserably in a chair at the Harvard Police Department, trying to explain to two FBI agents why he had agreed to partner with a lesser-known Chinese university in a relationship that had soured and landed him in trouble with the US government.

•  South Korea has been locked in an invisible fight for its future for decades — against a declining population. Government statistics released in early December appear to show Asia’s fourth-largest economy is losing the battle.

•  Stepping onto a podium in heavy boots and military fatigues at a ceremony outside Moscow, six teenagers accepted awards for an increasingly important discipline in Russia: patriotism. For days, students from around the country had competed in activities like map-reading, shooting and history quizzes. The contest was funded in part by the Kremlin, which has been making “military patriotic” education a priority.

• Throughout Britain and parts of Europe, new government restrictions combined with heightened anxiety over the highly contagious omicron variant have drastically reduced business at restaurants, pubs, event venues and retail stores, prompting urgent calls for additional government assistance.

Job alerts-

• National Thermal Power Corporation Limited Jobs for Assistant Law Officer and other posts. Last date 07 January 2022

• Madhya Pradesh High Court Jobs for Civil Judge and other posts. Last date 27 January 2022

• Union Public Service Commission Jobs for Combined Defence Service (CDS I) Exam and other posts. Last date 11 January 2022

• Government Medical College and Hospital Jobs for Demonstrator, Medical Officer, Junior Resident and other posts. Last date 03 January 2022

• Union Public Service Commission Jobs for National Defence Academy (NDA),Naval Academy and other posts. Last date 11 January 2022

Sports-

•  India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani successfully defended his National Billiards title in Bhopal, part of a sweet story of how two friends played against each other in the title contest.

•  Real Madrid has added David Alaba and Isco Alarcón to its list of players with COVID-19, taking it to eight members of its first team.

•  Second-placed Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw by Barcelona on Tuesday, a result that helped Real Madrid to open a five-point lead at the top of La Liga.

•  Indian captain Virat Kohli slipped a notch to be placed seventh in the latest ICC rankings for Test batters even as Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, riding on his prolific Ashes form, displaced England skipper Joe Root to become the new world number one.

• The BCCI and Cricket South Africa have mutually agreed that the upcoming Test and ODI series between the two teams will continue even if there is an isolated case of COVID-19 among players or support staff and close contacts will not be forced into isolation, the host board’s medical officer Shuaib Manjra has said.

Awards and honours-

• TBA 

Technology-

• WhatsApp has been spotted developing a new interface for voice calls. The interface is said to be a part of both Android and iOS versions of the instant messaging app. WhatsApp may be able to deliver an improved experience for both individual and group voice calls through the new interface. However, the changes are not yet available for access — even to beta testers. This means that users may need to wait for some time to get the updated voice call interface. 

•  Airtel recently introduced a new Rs. 666 prepaid recharge plan in India, which was quietly brought in after the telecom operator completely revised its prepaid mobile tariffs in the country. The new prepaid recharge plan offers users 1.5GB of high-speed data on a daily basis, along with unlimited voice calls. While the validity is shorter than the older Rs. 598 plan (which now costs Rs. 719) this plan appears to be aimed at customers with a budget under Rs 700.

•  Samsung Galaxy S22 series is not yet officially confirmed by the South Korean tech giant, even though leaks have been in abundance. Samsung was earlier speculated to unveil the much-awaited Galaxy S22 lineup on February 8 next year. Now, a new leak suggests that the series models will be launched one day later than expected. The upcoming Samsung flagship lineup is expected to include the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S22 variant, alongside the Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22 Ultra models.

•  Under Armour, the US-based sportswear brand, marked its metaverse debut as it announced a partnership with NBA star Stephen Curry on a non-fungible token (NFT) drop to celebrate his new record as basketball's all-time top three-point shooter. To mark the Golder State Warrior guard's record of 2,974 career three-pointers, Under Armour has released what the brand claims to be the world's first cross-platform metaverse sneaker — a special-edition Curry Flow 9.

• Honor has officially revealed that it is working on a flagship foldable smartphone – Honor Magic V. A teaser shared by the brand offers a glimpse into the foldable smartphone's hinge. The image does not indicate whether it is a book-like hinge or a clamshell fold design. Honor Magic V is also depicted to sport flat edges. The company has not revealed any more details. However, a recent leak has hinted that this flagship smartphone may debut in the Chinese market in January 2022.

Economy – 

•  Moreover, as shopping online becomes the first choice for both Gen Z and millennials nationwide, the company is now catering to them directly through www.vustore.com, launched on December 1, 2021. Within a week’s time, Vu has installed more than 10,000 TVs to their direct customers. Of these, 93% of the TVs were installed the same day they were delivered. Since a lot of the youth are working in the daytime and are available only late evening, Vu has taken customer service to the next level by installing TVs as per the customer’s requirement anytime of the day or late evening.

• The last day for filing your income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) is on December 31. Generally, the deadline for filing of ITRs is on July 31 each year however this year, the last date has been extended twice due to a number of technical issues on the new ITR portal 

•  Shares of footwear retailer Metro Brands debuted on a weaker note and got listed at a discount of over 12 per cent from their issue price in the stock exchanges today.

• The 30-share index jumped 449.23 points or 0.80 per cent to 56,768.24 in the opening trade. Similarly, the Nifty advanced 134.95 points or 0.80 per cent to 16,905.80 

• Japanese conglomerate Sony’s India unit has finalised a deal with local rival Zee Entertainment to merge their television channels, film assets and streaming platforms, the companies said on Wednesday.

Environment –

•  TBA

Local –

• Delhi on Tuesday recorded 102 Covid-19 cases and one death. The number of daily cases in the city has significantly increased in the past few days. Currently, there are 557 active cases in the city. 

•  Maharashtra Chief Secretary Debashish Chakrabarty on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that the decision to permit only “fully-vaccinated” persons to board suburban local trains in Greater Mumbai area was taken as the Constitution allows reasonable restrictions to be imposed in the interest of the general public

•  THE CONGRESS on Monday alleged that one of its candidates for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election was stripped and beaten up by Trinamool Congress supporters.

•  While Tamil Nadu has put a brake on New Year celebrations and has denied permission to all social or cultural gatherings, the neighbouring state of Puducherry is inviting tourists to the city during the festive season, when a host of programmes will be held, albeit amid strict Covid restrictions.

• The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) has launched the ‘EV Mithra’ app to help residents locate electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations in the city.

Person in News – 

• TBA 

GK – 

What is the name of the Indian Navy’s indigenous stealth destroyer, whose maiden sea trials was conducted recently?

[A] Mormugao
[B] Kalinga
[C] Ashoka
[D] Kalvari

Who is the first Indian male badminton player, to reach the finals of BWF World badminton championship?

[A] K Srikanth
[B] Parupalli Kashyap
[C] Sai Praneeth
[D] Nandu Natekar

Which space agency had launched Yusaku Maezawa, the first private passenger to the international space station, recently?

[A] NASA        
[B] ISRO
[C] ROSCOSMOS
[D] ESA

The week from December 20-25 ,2021 would be observed in India as?

[A] Good Governance Week
[B] Anti-Corruption Week
[C] Banking Awareness Week
[D] Panchayati Raj Week

Under how many themes, the Nadi Utsav 2021 is being celebrated in India?

[A] Two
[B] Three
[C] Four
[D] Six