Things you didn't know about Dr. Abdul Kalam
That Dr. Abdul Kalam is a bachelor and a teetotaler?
That he recites the Holy Quran and the Bhagvad Gita daily and is equally at home with both Holy Scriptures?
That Dr. Abdul Kalam has gone abroad for studies only once in 1963-64 to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States?
That as a young boy, he sold newspapers to enhance his family's income?
That he is so modest about his achievements that at every felicitation ceremony he gives full credit for India's success to his colleagues?
Oct 15, 1931 : Born at Dhanushkodi in Rameswaram district,Tamil Nadu. His father had to rent boats to pay his school fees. He studied at the Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.
1954-58 : After graduating in science from St. Joseph's College in Tiruchi, he enrolled for Aeronautical Engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology in 1954.
1958 Kalam joined the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and served as a senior scientific assistant, heading a small team that developed a prototype hovercraft. But the project, never took off.
1962 : Following the lukewarm response to his hovercraft program, Kalam moved out of DRDO and joined Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
1963-82 : Kalam joined the satellite launch vehicle team at Thumba, near Trivandram and soon became Project Director for SLV-3.
1980 : Rohini put into orbit in the month of July
1981 : Kalam honoured with the Padma Bhushan
1982 : Kalam returns to DRDO as its Director. Takes charge of India's integrated guided missile development program. The program envisaged the launch of five major missiles.
1992 : Kalam takes over as the Scientific Advisor to Union Defence Minister.
1997 : Kalam honoured with "Bharat Ratna", india's highest civilian award.
May 11, 1998 : Adorning a Gorkha hat in the Rajasthan deserts, he orchestrated India's underground nuclear tests. The scientist from a small hamlet in Tamil Nadu who had dreamt of India as a nuclear power many years ago had finally achieved it!
2002 : Kalam takes over as the President of India.
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