Babasaheb Bhosale death anniversary: Former Maharashtra CM died in Mumbai in 2007 aged 86

October 6 is the death anniversary of Babasaheb Bhosale, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Babasaheb Anantrao Bhosale was the state's ninth chief minister and also a senior legal expert. He died in Mumbai on October 6, 2007. After a brief illness, he breathed his last at Bombay Hospital in Mumbai. He was 86.

Bhosale took an active part in the freedom struggle and was jailed during the 1941-42 movement. He was Maharashtra's chief minister from January 1982 to February 1983. His tenure was short, but during it he provided free education for girls up to matriculation and started a pension scheme for freedom fighters. These are counted among his important decisions in the public interest. With his death, Maharashtra's politics and society lost a well-read and forthright personality.

October 6 is recorded in history for many other events. In 1908, Austria annexed the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1927, Warner Bros' film The Jazz Singer was released in the United States, the world's first talking film. In 1949, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the National Defence Academy (NDA) building at Khadakwasla. In 1963, the Sangli sub-centre of the Pune station of All India Radio began broadcasting. In 1973, Egypt and Syria jointly attacked Israel. In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated. In 1987, Fiji became a republic. In 1990, Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on STS-41, and the Ulysses space probe was deployed to study the Sun's polar regions. In 1995, 51 Pegasi b, the first planet found orbiting another Sun-like star, was discovered. In 2007, Jason Lewis completed a circumnavigation of the Earth by human power, including rowing a boat. In 2010, Instagram was founded.

Several well-known people were born on this date. Mountstuart Elphinstone, the Scottish diplomat and Governor of Bombay Presidency, was born in 1779 (died November 20, 1859). Reginald Fessenden, a pioneer of radiotelephony, was born in 1866 (died July 22, 1932). Astrophysicist and parliamentarian Meghnad Saha was born in 1893 (died February 16, 1956). Nuclear chemist Professor Dr Hari Jeevan Arnikar was born in 1912 (died November 22, 2000). Australian cricketer and commentator Richie Benaud was born in 1930. Dr Ratnakar Mancharkar, a deep scholar of saint literature, was born in 1943 (died February 20, 2012). Actor, film producer and parliamentarian Vinod Khanna was born in 1946 (died April 27, 2017). English cricketer and commentator Tony Greig was born the same year (died December 29, 2012). Composer Salil Kulkarni was born in 1972.

Many notable people also died on this date. Guru Har Rai, the seventh Sikh Guru, died in 1661. English poet Lord Tennyson died in 1892. Will Keith Kellogg, founder of Kellogg's, died in 1951. V. K. Krishna Menon, India's former Defence Minister, died in 1974. Historian, writer and orator Datto Vaman Potdar died in 1979. He had been Vice-Chancellor of Pune University and Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, and was a Padma Vibhushan recipient. Egyptian President and Nobel laureate Anwar Sadat was killed in 1981. In 2007, L. M. Singhvi, a Lok Sabha member, legal expert and India's former High Commissioner to Britain, died on the same day as Babasaheb Bhosale. Arpad Goncz, Hungary's first president after communism, died in 2015.