World Polio Day: Vaccination stressed as the surest way to end polio

World Polio Day is observed today. The aim of the day is to make people aware of a dangerous disease like polio and to draw attention to the steps needed to eradicate it.

Polio is a disease spread by a virus. It mainly affects young children and, if the condition turns serious, can cause paralysis.

The day was begun by the organisation Rotary International. Large-scale campaigns to end polio were subsequently run across the world. In 1955, Dr Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine, which went a long way in bringing the disease under control. Many countries are now free of polio, but the problem persists in some. That is why special emphasis is laid on the importance of vaccination on this day, since vaccination is the most effective way to end polio completely. The day also recalls efforts towards a polio-free world.

October 23 is marked in history for many events. In 1605, the Mughal emperor Jahangir was crowned. In 1795, Russia, Prussia and Austria took over Poland. In 1851, William Lassell discovered Umbriel and Ariel, moons of the planet Uranus. In 1857, Sheffield F.C. was founded in Sheffield, England, and is described as the world's oldest football club. In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph line in the United States was completed. In 1901, Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. In 1909, Swatantryaveer Savarkar celebrated Dussehra in London for the first time.

In 1931, the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River was opened to regular traffic. In 1945, the United Nations was founded, and in 1949 its headquarters began work. In 1946, a camera mounted on V-2 rocket No. 13 took the first photograph of the Earth from space. In 1964, Northern Rhodesia gained independence from the United Kingdom and was renamed Zambia. In 1972, the Sakal Relief Fund organisation launched the adopted bull scheme to save cattle struggling with drought. In 1984, India's first underground railway began operating in Kolkata.

In 1997, sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar was awarded Japan's Premium Imperiale international prize for his outstanding work in music. In 1998, Deep Space 1 was launched to explore the asteroid belt and test new spacecraft technology. In 2000, social worker Dr Baba Amte was announced as the recipient of the Union government's Babasaheb Ambedkar International Award. In 2003, Concorde made its last commercial flight. In 2016, Cyrus Mistry was removed as chairman of the Tata Group. In 2018, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the world's longest sea crossing, was opened to regular traffic.

Several well-known figures were born on this date: Dutch microbiologist Antony van Leeuwenhoek in 1632, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor of Delhi, in 1775, Captain Lakshmi Sahgal of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Azad Hind Fauj in 1914, cartoonist R.K. Laxman in 1921, journalist and author Mark Tully in 1935, and actress and model Mallika Sherawat in 1972.

Several figures also died on this date: Dutch astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1601, Cadbury founder George Cadbury in 1922, Renault founder Louis Renault in 1944, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Urdu fiction and screenplay writer Ismat Chughtai in 1991, Lisp programming language creator John McCarthy in 2011, and playback singer Manna Dey in 2013.