Narendra Dabholkar's birth anniversary: key events in history on November 1

November 1 is the birth anniversary of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, a well-known social reformer of Maharashtra, founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Committee for Eradication of Superstition) and a progressive thinker. He was born in 1945.

Dabholkar fought all his life against superstition, harmful customs and traditions, black magic and fraudulent godmen. Though a doctor by profession, he devoted himself fully to the movement for social change. As editor of the weekly 'Sadhana', he made a major contribution to building a scientific outlook among young people.

He worked persistently and firmly for the passage of an anti-superstition law (an anti-black magic law) in Maharashtra. He was murdered in Pune on August 20, 2013. After his death, the Maharashtra government issued an anti-superstition ordinance.

November 1 is remembered for several important events in the history of India and the world. In 1683, the army of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje showed unmatched valour at Phonda and defeated the Portuguese. In 1755, an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Portuguese city of Lisbon. In 1845, Grant Medical College began in Mumbai, the first medical college to offer modern Western-style medical education. In 1848, the first medical college for women opened in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States; it was later merged into Boston University.

In 1956, the reorganisation of Indian states on linguistic lines came into being. On that day the bilingual Bombay State was formed, and Andhra Pradesh was constituted with Kurnool as its capital at the time. Karnataka was formed by joining the Kannada-speaking areas of South India, and the same date is the foundation day of Kerala. On the same day, Kanyakumari district was transferred from Kerala to Tamil Nadu. In 1966, Punjab was split into two, creating Punjab and Haryana. In 1973, the state of Mysore was renamed Karnataka, and the same year the islands of Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi were renamed Lakshadweep. In 2000, Chhattisgarh became India's 26th state, carved out of sixteen districts of eastern Madhya Pradesh.

Globally, the US weather bureau issued the first official weather forecast in 1870. Australia joined the United Nations in 1945, and Serbia did so in 2000. In 1957, the Mackinac Bridge, linking Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, opened to traffic; it was then the world's longest suspension bridge. Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1981. In 1982, Honda became the first Asian company to build cars in the United States. The Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993, formally creating the European Union. In 2005, Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal took charge as the 36th Chief Justice of India.

Among those born on this date are painter Purushottam Shripat Kale (1888), comic actor Sharad Ganesh Talwalkar (1918), Yashwant Deo (1926), poet Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar (1932), Ramesh Chandra Lahoti (1940), Tim Cook (1960), Nita Ambani (1963), actor Aishwarya Rai (1973) and cricketer V. V. S. Laxman (1974). Those who died on this date include Bengali writer Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (1950), kirtankar Govindswami Aphale (1988), Sri Lanka's second president J. R. Jayewardene (1996) and director S. Ali Raza (2007).