Today's Event – 21st October 2021

• 1512 – Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

• 1520 – Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as the Strait of Magellan.

• 1520 – João Álvares Fagundes discovers the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, bestowing them their original name of "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins".

• 1774 – The flag of Taunton, Massachusetts is the first to include the word "Liberty".

• 1797 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.

• 1824 – Portland cement is patented.

• 1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.

• 1879 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.

• 1888 – Foundation of the Swiss Social Democratic Party.

• 1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting U.S. president against lynching in the deep South.

• 1931 – A secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.

• 1940 – The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.

• 1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public.

• 1959 – President Eisenhower approves the transfer of all US Army space-related activities to NASA, including most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

• 1965 – Comet Ikeya–Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers (279,617 miles) from the sun.

• 1967 – The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organizes a march of fifty thousand people from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon.

• 1969 – The 1969 Somali coup d'état establishes a Marxist–Leninist administration.

• 1973 – Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

• 1978 – Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft

• 1981 – Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year-long system of power dominated by conservative forces.

• 1983 – The metre is defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

• 1984 – Niki Lauda claims his third and final Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by half a point ahead of McLaren team-mate Alain Prost at the Portuguese Grand Prix

• 1987 – The Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka, killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.

• 1994 – North Korea and the United States sign an Agreed Framework that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

• 2005 – Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery.

National Events- 

•  With around 99.4 crore doses already administered on Wednesday, the Government hopes to complete 1 billion, or 100 crore, doses by Thursday. The Government has lined up a string of programmes for the ‘great achievement which comes nine months after the vaccination drive started in the country. 

•  Especially helpful in cases of the early phase of Covid-19 illness, the ‘flower protein expression’, a particular protein on the cell surface, could accurately predict hospitalisation or death as well as forecast who would have a less serious infection, scientists have said in a study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine.

• All international travellers visiting India will need a negative RT-PCR test, according to the revised guidelines for international arrivals that will be implemented from October 25.  An order issued by the Union Health Ministry said, “The global trajectory of Covid-19 pandemic continues to decline with certain regional variations. 

•  The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at multiple locations in four districts of Jammu and Kashmir and arrested four accused persons in the J&K terrorism conspiracy case. 

• The NIA on Wednesday conducted searches in Delhi in the case of seizure of 3,000 Kg drugs at Mundra Port, Gujarat. The agency conducted the searches at a go down in Nebsarai here, the agency said.

International Events- 

• The Taliban have recruited women cadres in its fold to raise a women's wing with the twin agenda of projecting itself as pro-women and countering its anti-women image through these women who have graduated from Quranic schools.  

•  Agencies are gearing up to vaccinate all of Afghanistan's children under 5 against polio for the first time since 2018, after the Taliban agreed to the campaign, the World Health Organization says.

•  Russia hosted talks on Afghanistan on Wednesday involving senior representatives of the Taliban and other factions, a round of diplomacy that underlines Moscow's clout.

•  Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday urged the international community to get together to stop a brewing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, which is now ruled by the Taliban.

• Demanding that the Bangladesh government should enact a new law to ensure religious freedom for everyone, protesters and academicians across the country condemned the mob attacks on the Hindu community and vandalisation of temples and idols during Durga Puja festivities.

Job alerts-

• Balmer Lawrie Jobs for Junior Officer Grade “B” and other posts. Last date 12th November 2021

• National Book Trust (NBT) India Jobs for Marketing Executive in North East India and other posts. Last date 17.11.2021

• AMTRON Jobs for Manager & Officer and other posts. Last date 23.10.2021

• TNPSC Jobs for Architectural Assistant / Planning Assistant and other posts. Last date 23rd October 2021

• OPSC Jobs for Geologist and other posts. Last date 29-10-2021

Sports-

•  India fine-tuned their T20 World Cup preparations with a convincing nine-wicket win over Australia in their final warm-up game here on Wednesday but the sixth bowler’s slot remained a worry as even Virat Kohli rolled his arm over going into the tournament proper.

•  Seasoned Australia batter Steve Smith says a "terrific" Indian team is packed with some serious match winners going into the T20 World Cup, alluding that Virat Kohli's side will be one of the favourites to lift the title.

•  Lionel Messi scored twice in quick succession, including an exquisite Panenka-style penalty, to rescue Paris Saint-Germain as it rallied to beat Leipzig 3-2 in the Champions League after being dominated for long spells.

•  Young Lakshya Sen thumped compatriot Sourabh  Verma in straight games to enter the second round but it was curtains  for Saina Nehwal at the Denmark Open Super 1000 tournament here on Wednesday.

• The ICC T20 World Cup will belong to the spinners, Afghanistan’s star leg-break bowler Rashid Khan has asserted, and said they can beat any team if they bat well in the showpiece. Since being picked up by IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad as an 18-year-old in 2017, ace leg-spinner Rashid has emerged as T20 cricket’s leading wicket-taker in this period with 333 scalps and is wanted by franchises across the world.

Technology-

•  Microsoft has announced the first preview of Android apps on Windows 11. Testers with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm processors will all be able to try out Android apps on Windows 11. Android app support did not launch with the initial release of Windows 11.

•  South Korean tech giant Samsung has started rolling out the first big software update to the Galaxy Watch4 series with some new features on board.

•  The Indian smartphone market has recorded a decline of 5% Year-on-Year for the third quarter of 2021, after months of steady growth.

•  Apple claims that the GPU in M1 Pro is up to two times faster than M1, while M1 Max is up to four times faster than M1.

• Instagram Stories, currently, are 30 seconds long. Any video exceeding the duration limit is automatically split into.

Economy – 

•  In a bid to avert power crisis being triggered in the country due to fuel shortages in the months following monsoon rains, the government proposes revise the coal stocking norms for thermal power plants, based on regular shift stock limits, depending on the actual fuel requirement during a particular period.

•  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised down its 2021 economic growth forecast for Asia to 6.5 per cent, down by 1.1 percentage points from its April projection, according to a newly released regional economic outlook.

•  Record electric vehicle sales last summer amid a shortage of computer chips and other materials propelled Tesla Inc. To the biggest quarterly net earnings in its history.

•  The 30-share index was trading 265.84 points or 0.43 per cent higher at 61,525.80 in initial deals. Similarly, the Nifty advanced 93.45 points or 0.51 per cent to 18,360.05.

• With Air India set to be acquired by Tata group, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the decision on the national carrier will give new energy to the country’s aviation sector.

Local –

•  All in 104 villages in Haveri (Karnataka) receives first covid-19 vaccination

•  Telengana high courts gives permission to open gurukuls

•  Kolkata Airport opens terminal for international courier clearance

•  Tamil Nadu adds 1170 new covid cases and 20 deaths to its tally

• 5 new species of freshwater crabs found in Western Ghats, Pune (Maharashtra)

GK – 

Which country houses La Lloreria or the Crying Room for promoting mental wellness?

[A] Germany
[B] Italy
[C] Spain
[D] Denmark

Which firm supplied P-8I long range maritime patrol aircraft to Indian Navy?

[A] Boeing
[B] SpaceX
[C] DRDO
[D] Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd

Allium negianum, which was seen in the news, as discovered in which Indian state/UT?

[A] Assam
[B] Uttarakhand
[C] Arunachal Pradesh
[D] Goa

As of October 2021, who is the highest wicket-taker in T20 International cricket?

[A] R Ashwin
[B] Jasprit Bumrah
[C] Shakib Al Hasan 
[D] Tim Southee

Nechiphu tunnel, which was seen in the news recently, is located in which state?

[A] Arunachal Pradesh
[B] Uttarakhand
[C] Sikkim
[D] Bihar