GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™, the global authority on record breaking achievements, announces 112-year-old Salustiano Sanchez Blazquez from Grand Island, New York, as the new world’s Oldest living man.

The record is announced on the heels of the recent passing of Japanese 116-year-old Jiroemon Kimura, who was recognized as the Oldest man ever and died on June 12^th, 2013.

Currently,115-year-old female, Misao Okawa of Japan, is considered by Guinness World Records to be the world's Oldest living person overall.

Source: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2013/7/salustiano-sanchez-confirmed-as-oldest-living-man-50056/

India's advanced meteorological satellite INSAT-3D was successfully launched by an European rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana early today, giving a boost to weather forecasting and disaster warning services.

European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket launched INSAT-3D and Alphasat satellites.

Alphasat is Europe's largest telecommunication satellite-ever manufactured and results from a large-scale public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat.

The workhorse vehicle lifted off exactly on schedule at 1.23 AM IST from the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch zone in French Guiana for a nearly 33-minute flight.

The Sangam Age constitutes an important chapter in the history of South India. According to Tamil legends, there existed three Sangams (Academy of Tamil poets) in ancient Tamil Nadu popularly called Muchchangam.
- Head Sangam
- Middle Sangam 
- Last Sangam period.

The corpus of Sangam literature includes Tolkappiyam, Ettutogai, Pattuppattu, Pathinenkilkanakku, and the two epics – Silappathigaram and Manimegalai. The most important among them is Tirukkural authored by Thiruvalluvar. Silappathigaram written by Elango Adigal and Manimegalai by Sittalai Sattanar

During this period Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Chola, Pandya and Chera.
The Cheras ruled over parts of modern Kerala. Their capital was Vanji and their important seaports were Tondi and Musiri.
The Chola kingdom of the Sangam period extended from modern Tiruchi district to southern Andhra Pradesh. Their capital was first located at Uraiyur and then shifted to Puhar.
The Pandyas ruled over the present day southern Tamil Nadu. Their capital was Madurai.

Tolkappiyam refers to the five-fold division of lands- 
Kurinji – chief deity was Murugan – chief occupation, hunting and honey collection.
Palai – chief deity Korravai – chief occupation robbery.
Mullai – chief deity Mayon (Vishnu) – chief occupation, cattle-rearing and dealing with dairy products.
Marudam – chief deity Indira – chief occupation, agriculture.
Neydal – chief deity Varunan – chief occupation fishing and salt manufacturing.

The people were divided into five different clans ("kudis") based on their profession-
Mallars- the farmers.
Malavars- the hill people who gather hill products, and the traders.
Nagars- people in charge of border security, who guarded the city walls and distant fortresses.
Kadambars- people who thrive on forests.
Thiraiyars- the seafarers.

The primary deity of the Sangam period was Seyon or Murugan, who is hailed as Tamil God. Other gods worshipped during the Sangam period were Mayon (Vishnu), Vendan (Indiran), Varunan and Korravai. 

Agriculture was the chief occupation. Rice was the common crop. Ragi, sugarcane, cotton, pepper, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and a variety of fruits were the other crops. Jack fruit and pepper were famous in the Chera country. Paddy was the chief crop in the Chola and Pandya country.

'Kalabhra Interregnum' has been referred as the Dark Age in the history of Kerala. The Kalabhra Kings overthrowing and deracinating Chera, Chola and Pandya dynasties. The reign of Kalabhras of South India finally came to an end in the 8th Century AD.

Three political powers ruled the territories of Kerala during the Sangam Age. These were- 
The Ezhimala to the North Kerala-
The Chera in Central Kerala- 
The Ay in the South Kerala-

The Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) today announced that this year three individuals and two organizations from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and the Philippines will receive Asia’s premier prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award.  

The Awardees are:

Ernesto Domingo, from the Philippines.  
Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission), from Indonesia. 
Lahpai Seng Raw, from Myanmar.  
Habiba Sarabi, from Afghanistan.  
Shakti Samuha (“Power Group”), from Nepal.  

Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honor and is widely regarded as the region’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Source: http://www.rmaf.org.ph/newrmaf/main/community/announcement/page/1/view/18

Born as the son of Velayudhan and Kunhichali at Mayyanad near Kollam in 1871, he stopped his schooling at the eighth standard. He started a school for low caste Hindus at Vellamanal, Mayyanad, Quilon and became its headmaster.

C.V. opened his journalistic career in Sujananadini, published from Paravoor, Quilon. His early writings were more on social affairs. Later, he became the sub-editor.

In 1911, C.V. launched Kerala Kaumudi as a weekly newspaper. He was the proprietor - editor, printer, publisher and even the proofreader!

An untiring activist of SNDP Yogam, he was elected its general secretary in 1928 and 1931. Valmiki Ramayanam, a prose rendering of the great epic, was his first work to come out in print, in 1901. It won him wide acclaim prompting him to write Vyasabharatam and Panchavadi. Meanwhile, Karthikodayam brought out his prowess as a poet.

He had been on the editorial board of Malayala Rajyam, Navajeevan, Navasakthi, Malayala Manorama, Bhashaposhini, Kathamalika, Vivekodayam and Yuktivadi. He had also been a lawyer and a member of Sree Moolam Prajasabha.

Pen names: 

C.V. has been hailed for his role behind the historic Temple Entry Proclamation (1936).

കവിത

• കാർത്തികോദയം
• ശ്രീ പത്മനാഭസന്നിധിയിൽ
• ഈഴവനിവേദനം
• നരലോകം
• ഒരു സന്ദേശം
• സ്വാമിചൈതന്യം
• സ്വാഗതഗാനം

നാടകം

• മാലതീകേശവം

ഗദ്യം

• ഒരു നൂറു കഥകൾ
• എന്റെ ശ്രീകോവിൽ
• ആശാൻ സ്മരണകൾ
• അറബിക്കഥകൾ
• ഷേക്സ്പിയർ കഥകൾ
• രാമദേവനും ജാനകിയും
• വെന്നീസ്സിലെ വ്യാപാരി
• വരലോല
• ഹേമലീല
• കൊടുങ്കാററ്
• വാല്മീകിരാമായണം
• സോമനാഥൻ
• വ്യാസഭാരതം
• രാധാറാണി
• രാമായണകഥ
• കാന്തിമതി
• ലുക്രീസിന്റെ ചാരിത്രഹാനി
• പത്നാദേവി (അപൂർണം)
• രാഗപരിണാമം
• ദുർഗാക്ഷേത്രം (അപൂർണം)പഞ്ചവടി
• നാഗകന്യക (അപൂർണം)
• ഉണ്ണിയാർച്ച
• തുമ്പോലാർച്ച
• മാലുത്തണ്ടാൻ
• ഒരു നൂററാസ്സിനു മുമ്പ്
• ലോകമതങ്ങൾ (തർജ്ജമ)

ചരിത്രം

• കെ. സി. കേശവപിള്ളയുടെ ജീവചരിത്രം
• ഇന്ത്യാ ചരിത്ര സംഗ്രഹം

ആത്മകഥ 

• ഞാൻ 

തൂലികാ നാമങ്ങൾ: ഭാഷാഭിമാനി, സിംഹളൻ, പി.കെ. തിയ്യൻ

Source: http://www.cvkunhuraman.com

Govindan Paramaswaran Pillai was born in Pallippuram, Thiruvananthapuram, India, in an aristocratic Nair family. He was born on February 2,1864. GP Pillai’s writings were not just against British rulers; he even wrote articles against the autocratic rule of Diwan of Travancore.

G.P. Pillai completed his BA from the University of Madras and later was admitted to The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, popularly known as Middle Temple, in London. Barrister GP Pillai played a major role in the formation of "Malayali Memorial" in 1891. He is also credited for establishing the “Madras Standard” – the first English language newspaper in South India.

 “Indian National Congress Men” and “Represent India” are the two major words of Barrister GP Pillai.

Barrister G.P. Pillai is the only Keralite mentioned in the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. 

World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1999 approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.

World Population Day 2013, Focus is on Adolescent Pregnancy. About 16 million girls under age 18 give birth each year. Another 3.2 million undergo unsafe abortions. On this World Population Day  raise awareness of the issue of adolescent pregnancy in the hopes of delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

Moulavi was born in 1873 in Vakkom, Chirayinkil Taluk, Thiruvanthapuram in Travancore.

Maulavi started the Swadeshabhimani newspaper on January 19, 1905, declaring that `the paper will not hesitate to expose injustices to the people in any form`, but on 26 September 1910, the newspaper and press were sealed and confiscated by the British Police.

Maulavi was considered one of greatest reformers in the Kerala Muslim community, and is sometimes referred to as the "Father of muslim renaissance".

The journal ‘Muslim’(1906) was mainly meant for religious reforms of the community and restore the the purity and essence of Islam shorn of all the accretions of superstitious and meaningless rituals and other evil practices. 

‘Al Islam’(1918) in Arabi-Malayalam was begun with the purpose to take his ideas of reform to illiterates in general particularly Muslim women who were steeped in ignorance. It had its intended effect. 

Another Malayalam monthly ‘Deepika’(1931) was begun almost at the evening of his life. The publication had a wide range of interests like education, history, science, literature, philosophy etc. It was his life's ambition to produce a translation of the Quran in Malayalam with his own commentary, but he died on 31 October 1932 before the work was completed.

Thanks & Source: http://www.vmft.org/vakkom-muhammad-abdul-khader-moulavi-1873-1932/ & Wikipedia

Poonthanam (1547-1640AD) was a famous devotee of Guruvayurappan, who lived in Keezhattoor in Malappuram district. He was a famous devotee of Lord Krishna (Guruvayurappan). He is remembered for his masterpiece, Jnanappana which means 'the song of wisdom' in Malayalam. Poonthanam was the family name, his personal name is not known.
He married at 20, but for a long time, they had no children. He began to propitiate the Lord of Guruvayur by reciting the ‘Santhana Gopalam ’ and a son was born. He called for a celebration and everybody known was invited, but the child died an hour before the Annaprasanam ceremony. Grief stricken, Poonthanam sought refuge at Guruvayur and started praying with the puranic story of Kumaraharanam.

He was a contemporary of Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri(1559–1645), another famous poet associated with Guruvayur. He was a mathematical linguist (vyakarana). His most important scholarly work, Prakriya-sarvawom(പ്രക്രിയ സർവ്വവം), sets forth an axiomatic system elaborating on the classical system of Panini. However, he is most famous for his masterpiece, Narayaneeyam, a devotional composition in praise of Guruvayoorappan (Sri Krishna) that is still sung at the temple of Guruvayoor.

Thanks & Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poonthanam

Between 1919 and the early 1930s, scientists were piecing together the important parts of the atom's structure. In 1919 New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford discovered protons. In1932 James Chadwick discovered the neutron, neutrons share space with protons in the atom's nucleus. 

Italian physicist Enrico Fermi thought to use neutrons for bombardment in 1934. Since neutrons have no charge, they can hit an atom's nucleus without being repelled. He successfully bombarded several elements and created new, radioactive ones in the process. What Fermi had done, without recognizing it, was discover the process of nuclear fission. Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, were the first to officially acknowledge this process in 1938 when they successfully split uranium atoms into two or more parts. Meitner interpreted these results as being nuclear fission and Hahn won the Nobel prize in physics for discovering fission in 1944.

Early in 1939, the world's scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists utilizing that energy to produce a bomb capable of unspeakable destruction.

Scientists Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi persecution, and Enrico Fermi, who escaped Fascist Italy, were living in the United States. They agreed that the President must be informed of the dangers of atomic technology in the hands of the Axis powers. 

Einstein penned a letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research program later that year. Roosevelt saw neither the necessity nor the utility for such a project, but agreed to proceed slowly. In late 1941, the American effort to design and build an Atomic Bomb received its code name — the Manhattan Project. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada.

Scientists Who Invented the Atomic Bomb under the Manhattan Project: Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller. 

By the summer of 1945, Oppenheimer was ready to test the first bomb. On July 16, 1945, at 5:30 am at Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, scientists of the Manhattan Project readied themselves to watch the detonation of the world's first atomic bomb. 

On August 6, 1945 the American B-29 bomber known as the Enola Gay released the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. The 9,000 pound bomb nicknamed "Little Boy(uranium-235)" detonated in Hiroshima, Japan. "Little Boy's" explosion was catastrophic and resulted in 66 thousand instantaneous deaths. Total vaporization from the blast measured one half a mile in diameter. Total destruction ranged one mile in diameter and serious blazes extended as far as three miles in diameter.

Three days after the release of "Little Boy" a second bomb named "Fat Man(plutonium)" was released on the town of Nagasaki. "Fat Man" weighed 10,000 pounds and annihilated nearly half of the city. In one split-second, the population of Nagasaki dropped from 422,000 to 383,000.

Source: http://gk12.rice.edu/trs/science/Atom/man.htm

Image Courtesy: http://abombisaok.blogspot.in/2013/05/some-background-info.html

Champu poems can be classified into two types, being Pracheena Manipravala Champukkal and Madhyakala Champukkal.

Pracheena Manipravala Champukkal - Unniyachi Charitham, Unniyadi Charitham and Unni Chiruthevi Charitham.

Madhyakala Champukkal - Ramayanam Champu, Bharatham Champu, Naishadham Champu, Rajaratnavaleeyam Champu, Kodiyam Viraham Champu, Kamadahanam Champu, Chellur Nadhodayam Champu, Narayaneeyam Champu and Thenkaila Nadhodayam Champu.

In accordance with a 1750 act of Parliament, England and its colonies changed calendars in 1752. By that time, the discrepancy between a solar year and the Julian Calendar had grown by an additional day, so that the calendar used in England and its colonies was 11 days out-of-sync with the Gregorian Calendar in use in most other parts of Europe. 

England's calendar change included three major components. The Julian Calendar was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar, changing the formula for calculating leap years.  The beginning of the legal new year was moved from March 25 to January 1.  Finally, 11 days were dropped from the month of September 1752. 

The changeover involved a series of steps:

• December 31, 1750 was followed by January 1, 1750 (under the "Old Style" calendar, December was the 10th month and January the 11th)
• March 24, 1750 was followed by March 25, 1751 (March 25 was the first day of the "Old Style" year)
• December 31, 1751 was followed by January 1, 1752 (the switch from March 25 to January 1 as the first day of the year)
• September 2, 1752 was followed by September 14, 1752 (drop of 11 days to conform to the Gregorian calendar)

Source: http://www.cslib.org/CalendarChange.htm

Manipravalam was a literary style used in medieval liturgical texts in South India, which was composed in the curious mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam which is referred to as Manipravalam, mani meaning ruby (Malayalam) and pravalam meaning coral (Sanskrit).

Lilathilakam, a work on grammar and rhetoric, written in the last quarter of the 14th century discusses the relationship between Manipravalam and Pattu as poetic forms. It lays special emphasis on the types of words that blend harmoniously. It points out that the rules of Sanskrit prosody should be followed in Manipravalam poetry. This particular school of poetry was patronized by the upper classes, especially the Nambudiris. It is also to be remembered that the composition of this dialect also reflects the way Aryan and Dravidian cultures were moving towards a synthesis. 
Dramatic performances given in Koothampalams, known by the names of Koothu and Koodiyattom, often used Sanskrit and Malayalam. In Koodiyattom, the clown (vidooshaka) is allowed to use Malayalam while the hero recites slokas in Sanskrit. Tholan, a legendary court poet in the period of the Kulasekhara kings, is believed to have started this practice. The language of Kramadeepikas and Attaprakarams, which lay down the rules and regulations for these dramatic performances, is considerably influenced by the composite literary dialect of Manipravalam.

Source: www.prd.kerala.gov.in/manipravalam.htm

National Statistics Day - 29 June

UN Public Service Day - 23 June

International Olympic Day - 23 June 2013

World Music Day - 21 June

World Refugee Day - 20 June

'Day of Reading' (Vayana dinam) - 19 june

Father’s Day - 18 June

World Blood Donor Day - 14 June

World Day against Child Labour - 12 June 2013

World Environment Day - 5 june

India have launched their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Monday carrying IRNSS-1A, the first satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. Liftoff from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre occurred at 18:11 UTC (23:41 local time).


Source: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/07/indian-pslv-launch-irnss-r1a/

Niranam gave birth to three well-known poets called Madhava Panikkar and Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar. These poets were populary known as Niranam Poets. They belong to the Kannassa family and the first two were the uncles of Rama Panikkar. They lived in between 1350 and 1450 and made valuable contribution to the Malayalam Literature. It is said that the appearance of modern Malayalam literature starts with the Niranam poets.

Before them the Malayalam poetry was a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam known as ‘Manipravala’. Their success led to the gradual replacement of the Manipravala cult of worldliness and sensual revelry by an indigenous poetics of high seriousness. Madhava Panikkar wrote a condensed Malayalam translation of Bhagavad Gita, perhaps the first ever translation of that classic into any modern Indian language. Sankara Panikkar’s important work is Bharathamala, a masterly condensation of Mahabharatham, is also the first major work of its kind in Malayalam. The greatest of the three is of course Rama Panikkar, the author of Ramayanam, Bharatham, Bhagavatham, and Sivarathri Mahatmyam. Kannassa Ramayanam and Kannassa Bharatham are the most important of Niranam works. Rama Panikkar’s ‘Ramayanam’ has an important link among Cheraman’s ‘Ramacharitam’, Ayyappilli Asan’s ‘Ramakadhappattu’ and Ezhuthachan’s ‘Adhyatma Ramayanam’. The centrality of Niranam Rama Panikkar is of vital concern to any conscientious literary historian of Malayalam. The subordination of the descriptive and the narrative elements to the controlling theme is a feature of Rama Panikkar’s poetic style. Ulloor, a literary historian of Kerala, has said that Rama Panikkar holds the same position in Malayalam literature that Spenser does in English literature..

Source & Thanks: http://www.keralaholidays247.com/niranam-poets/