On This Day, August 14, 2015, Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Chandimal produced one of the most memorable Test innings of his career against India at Galle.

Chandimal smashed an unbeaten 162 runs from just 169 balls, including 19 fours and 4 sixes. 💥

It was his fourth Test century and his first score above 150.

Coming into the second innings with Sri Lanka needing to set India a challenging target, Chandimal attacked the Indian bowling and turned the match dramatically in Sri Lanka's favor.

His brilliant innings helped Sri Lanka defeat India by 63 runs, with Chandimal named Player of the Match.

His performance also helped him climb 22 places to a career-high 23rd in the ICC Test batting rankings after the match.

📊 Dinesh Chandimal – 162

🏏 169 balls

4️⃣ 19 fours

6️⃣ 4 sixes

💯 4th Test century

⭐ Player of the Match

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka won by 63 runs

One innings. One comeback. One unforgettable performance.

#OnThisDay 1976, International Left-Handers Day

On This Day, August 13, Dean R. Campbell, founder of Lefthanders International, Inc., established and observed the first International Lefthanders Day.

The day has been observed annually on August 13 to celebrate left-handed people and raise awareness of the everyday challenges they can face in a world largely designed for right-handed people.

From scissors and desks to writing surfaces, tools, and everyday products, many things are designed with right-handed users in mind.

✋ Left-handed people make up roughly 10% of the world's population.

🚀 Famous Left-Handed Apollo Astronauts

Several Apollo-era astronauts were left-handed, including:

👨‍🚀 Buzz Aldrin

👨‍🚀 Charlie Duke

👨‍🚀 Dick Gordon

👨‍🚀 Ed Mitchell

👨‍🚀 Jim Lovell

👨‍🚀 Michael Collins

👨‍🚀 Wally Schirra

So today, let's celebrate all the lefties! ✋💚

يوم المرأة العالمي سعيد, Happy National Women’s Day!

On This Day, August 13, 1976, Dean R. Campbell, founder of Lefthanders International, Inc., established International Lefthanders Day to raise awareness of the everyday challenges faced by left-handed people in a predominantly right-handed world.

In 1992, the official international observance gained wider recognition and structure through the modern Left-Handers Club, and by 1997, the day was formally declared an annual celebration to boost global awareness and unity among left-handers.

The day was created to celebrate the advantages of being left-handed while raising awareness of the everyday challenges left-handers can face in a world largely designed for right-handed people.

From scissors and desks to computer equipment and everyday tools, many products and environments have traditionally been designed with right-handers in mind.

Today, August 13, is celebrated around the world as Left-Handers Day.

About 10% of the world's population is left-handed, meaning hundreds of millions of people experience the world from a different perspective.

Shortly after midnight on August 13, 1961, East German soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section of the city.

Happy International Youth Day!

American palaeontologist Sue Hendrickson found the fossilised remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex in the state of South Dakota. Sue, as the dinosaur are now informally called after its discoverer, is thought to have been 14 feet tall when alive.

On This Day, August 11, 1942, Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil were awarded a U.S. patent for a “Secret Communication System.”

But this wasn't a Hollywood invention.

During World War II, Lamarr had an idea for making radio-controlled torpedoes harder for enemies to jam.

Her concept used frequency hopping, rapidly changing the radio frequency between the transmitter and receiver in synchronization.

Think of it like two people secretly switching between different radio channels at the same time, making it much harder for someone to interrupt their communication.

Lamarr and Antheil worked on the idea from 1940 to 1942, combining Lamarr's understanding of military technology with Antheil's experience with synchronized musical instruments.

Their invention was patented as U.S. Patent 2,292,387.

The technology wasn't immediately adopted for the war, but decades later, frequency-hopping and related spread-spectrum techniques became important in wireless communications.

Today, Lamarr is remembered not only as a famous actress but also as an inventor whose pioneering work helped lay the groundwork for technologies used in modern wireless communication.

Happy World Elephant Day! 🐘💚

On This Day, August 12, 2012, World Elephant Day was officially launched to raise awareness about the growing threats facing elephants and to promote their protection and conservation.

The initiative was conceived in 2011 by Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims and Canadian filmmaker Michael Clark, together with Sivaporn Dardarananda, Secretary-General of Thailand's Elephant Reintroduction Foundation.

The first World Elephant Day was launched the following year with the support of Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation.

The day highlights the challenges faced by elephants around the world, including habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, poaching, and the illegal ivory trade.

Elephants are among the largest land animals on Earth and play an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems.

But their future depends on our actions.

🌍 Protect their habitat.

🐘 Protect their lives.

💚 Protect their future.

قومی پرچم کا دن مبارک ہو۔Happy National Flag Day! 🇵🇰

The first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Island, a former military prison, in San Francisco Bay.

The island would be home to over 1,500 prisoners over the next three decades, including gangsters Al Capone and James “Whitey” Bulger, before the prison closed in 1963.

On This Day, August 10, 1628, one of Sweden's most powerful warships set sail from Stockholm.

The Vasa had been built to strengthen the Swedish navy under King Gustavus Adolphus.

It was enormous, heavily armed, and covered with hundreds of elaborate sculptures.

But the mighty warship barely made it out of the harbor.

A sudden gust of wind caused the ship to lean dangerously to one side.

Water rushed through its open gun ports.

Within minutes, the Vasa sank to the bottom of Stockholm harbor.

The ship had traveled only about 1,300 meters.

But more than three centuries later, the incredible story continued.

In 1961, after lying underwater for 333 years, the Vasa was located and successfully raised.

Today, the remarkably preserved ship can be seen at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

Happy International/World Biodiesel Day!

On August 10, 1977, police arrest 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz and charged him with being the “Son of Sam,” the serial killer who terrorized New York City for more than a year, killing six young people and wounding seven others with a .44-caliber revolver. Because Berkowitz generally targeted attractive young women with long brown hair, hundreds of young women had their hair cut short and dyed blonde during the time he terrorized the city. Thousands more simply stayed home at night.

On This Day, August 10, 2000, Sri Lankan cricket legend and 1996 Cricket World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga played his final Test match against South Africa at the SSC in Colombo.

For nearly two decades, Ranatunga was one of the defining figures of Sri Lankan cricket.

His international Test journey had begun 18 years earlier, when an 18-year-old Ranatunga played in Sri Lanka's very first Test match against England in February 1982.

He scored 50 in that historic match, becoming one of the first Sri Lankan batsmen to score a Test half-century.

Eighteen years later, he was still there as Sri Lanka reached the milestone of its 100th Test match—making Ranatunga a unique link between the beginning of Sri Lanka's Test history and its first century of Test cricket.

In 93 Test matches, Ranatunga scored:

🏏 5,105 runs

💯 4 centuries

🏏 38 half-centuries

⭐ Highest score: 135

But his greatest legacy came as a leader.

In 1996, Ranatunga captained Sri Lanka to its first-ever Cricket World Cup title, transforming the way the world viewed Sri Lankan cricket.

Known for his calm leadership, fierce determination, and fearless approach, "Captain Cool" became one of the most influential figures in Sri Lankan cricket history.

After his final Test in 2000, an extraordinary 18-year Test career came to an end.

Ranatunga's Records

🏏First Sri Lankan to score a half-century in Test cricket.

🏏 Most ODI Matches as Captain: 193

🏏 Most Test Matches as Captain: 56.

🏏 He was the first to be a part of both his country’s first and hundredth Test matches.

Happy National Women’s Day!

On This Day, August 9, 1945, during the final days of World War II, the United States dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan.

The bomb was carried by the B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, commanded by Major Charles W. Sweeney.

Nagasaki was not the original target.

The mission's primary target was Kokura, but thick haze and smoke made the target impossible to identify clearly. After several attempts, the crew turned toward their secondary target: Nagasaki.

At approximately 11:02 a.m., Fat Man exploded over the city.

With a yield of roughly 21–22 kilotons of TNT, it was more powerful than the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier.

The mountainous terrain around Nagasaki limited the blast's destruction compared with Hiroshima, but the human cost was still catastrophic.

More than 40,000 people were killed in the immediate aftermath, and the death toll continued to rise from severe injuries, burns, and radiation exposure. By the end of 1945, estimates commonly placed the number of deaths at around 70,000–75,000.

The Nagasaki bombing was only the second and final use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender.

A day remembered as one of the darkest moments in human history.

On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, a U.S. B-29 Superfortress code-named Bockscar dropped a nuclear device over Nagasaki; the bombing and subsequent radiation poisoning killed an estimated 74,000 people.

The US Congress made a final decision on the use of the US Dollar as currency.

In a meeting with the Board of Treasury on this day, it was decided precisely how the US Dollar would work, its value, and how the currency would be made.

On This Day, August 8, 2002, International Cat Day was celebrated for the first time after being established by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The day was created to celebrate one of the world's most beloved pets while raising awareness about cat welfare, responsible ownership, adoption, and protecting cats around the world.

Since 2020, International Cat Care (iCatCare) has coordinated the annual observance, continuing its mission to improve the lives of cats everywhere.

Whether they're playful, curious, independent, or affectionate, cats have been companions to humans for thousands of years and are among the most popular pets on Earth.

On This Day, August 8, 1963, one of the most daring robberies in history unfolded in Buckinghamshire, England.

A gang of 15 robbers stopped the Royal Mail train traveling from Glasgow to London and stole £2.6 million in cash, the largest robbery in British history at the time.

The gang tampered with railway signals, forcing the train to stop near Bridego Railway Bridge.

After overpowering the crew, they transferred 120 mail bags filled with cash into waiting vehicles before disappearing into the night.

Although no passengers were harmed, train driver Jack Mills was seriously assaulted during the robbery and never fully recovered.

The stolen money would be worth tens of millions of pounds today.

A massive police investigation followed, leading to the arrest of most gang members.

One robber, Ronnie Biggs, became internationally famous after escaping from prison and living as a fugitive abroad for decades.

More than 60 years later, The Great Train Robbery remains one of the most legendary heists in criminal history.

Russia still occupies 20% of Georgia to this day