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» Seven-time member of Lok Sabha Karia Munda was unanimously elected Deputy Speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha on June 8. The tradition of having the Deputy Speaker from the Opposition was began in 1977, the very year Karia Munda entered the Lok Sabha. Munda was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from Khunti in Jharkhand on BJP ticket.

» Former Law Minister 72-year-old, Hans Raj Bhardwaj, who failed to make it to the Union Cabinet after the elections, was on June 24 appointed as the new Governor of Karnataka. He replaced Rameshwar Thakur who was transferred to Madhya Pradesh.

» Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur was appointed new Governor of Madhya Pradesh for his remaining tenure. He will hold the post till November 2009. He replaced Balram Jakhar, whose term ended on June 30. Thakur was first appointed Governor on November 17, 2004. In 2006, he was shifted to Andhra Pradesh and later to Karnataka in 2007.

» The former Finance Minister of Assam, Devanand Konwar, was appointed Governor of Bihar in place of R. L. Bhatia, whose term ended on June 23. Konwar was the founder general secretary of Congress I, when the Party split in 1978.

» One of the most influential figures in modern pop culture, Michael Jackson, died of a sudden cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles on June 25,2009. Jackson, known as 'King of Pop' by fans and often derided as 'Whacko-Jacko' by the media, was 50. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, US. I Want You Back, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Billie Jean, Bad, Black or White, Earth Song were his biggest hits album. His 1982 album Thriller remains the world's best-selling record of all time. Jackson began his career as a child in family group The Jackson 5. He then went on to achieve global fame as a solo artist with smash hits such as Billie Jean and Bad. Thriller, released in 1982, is the biggest-selling album of all time, shifting 65m copies, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. He scored seven UK number ones as a solo artist and won a total of 13 Grammy awards. Michael Jackson popularised a dance technique called the moonwalk or backslide. Moonwalk presents the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward. The dance move gained widespread popularity after being performed by Michael Jackson during his song ‘Billie Jean’ on the March 25, 1983. He published autobiography ‘Moon Walk’ in 1988. The book was edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list.

» Famous poet and writer Kamala Surayya, best known as Kamala Das passed away at Jehangir hospital in Pune on May 31,2009 due to respiratory failure. She was 75. Kamala Das enjoyed the status of being one of the first poets writing in English from Kerala to be recognised nationally and internationally. She wrote with literary name ‘Madhavikutty’. An iconoclast of her generation who unabashedly spoke about the Indian woman’s sexual desires and a maverick who courted controversies, she was decorated with prizes such as the Kent Award and nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. A free spirit, she dabbled in painting and even politics. She contested Parliamentary elections in 1984 and lost. On December 16, 1999, at the age of 65, she converted to Islam. Her writings like ‘Summer in Calcutta’ (1965), ‘The Descendants’ (1970), ‘The Old Playhouse And Other Poems’ (1973), ’The Anamalai Poems (1985), and ‘Only the Soul Knows How to Sing’ (1996) and a collection of poetry with Pritish Nandy (1990) celebrate love and womanhood. She complemented the five books of English poetry with the novel, ‘Alphabet of Lust’ (1977), a collection of short stories, ‘Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories’ (1992) and her autobiography, ‘My Story’ (1976), which earned her more fame and notoriety than those from all her other works put together.

» Legendary sarod player Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died of renal failure at his San Anselmo, California, home on June 19,2009. He was 87. He composed several ragas, including Gauri Manjari, Lajwanti, Madhavi and Madhu Malati, and also scored Bengali films like Jhinder Bandi, Kshudhita Pashan and Satyajit Ray's Devi. Ali Akbar, born on April 14, 1922, in Comilla in present-day Bangladesh, was one of the greatest teachers and ambassadors of Indian classical music. He is credited with taking this music to the West. He was the son of multi-instrumentalist Baba Allaudin Khan, who founded the Maihar Gharana, the school most closely associated with Hindustani classical music. He was awarded India’s highest civilian honours of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian classical music. He also won MacArthur Genius Award, two Grammy nominations, the President of India Award and, the most valuable to him, the title of Swar Samrat bestowed by his father and guru.

» One of India’s greatest dramatists, Habib Tanvir passed away on June 8,2009 at the age of 85. He was a popular Hindi playwright, theatre director, poet and actor. He created a new theatrical language that married contemporary drama with folk performance and elevating folk forms to international attention. The founder of Naya Theatre, Tanvir worked with Chhatisgarh tribals in Bhopal. He channelled their indigenous performance form, nacha, to create milestones such as Charandas Chor, Agra Bazaar and Kamdeo ka Apna Basant Ritu ka Sapna. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shri in 1983, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002. Tanvir was also nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha (1972-1978). His play Charandas Chor got him the Fringe Firsts Award at the Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982.

» The last survivor of the legendary ocean liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912 after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic, Millvina Dean died on May 31,2009 at the age of 97. She was about 2 months old when she sailed on the ocean liner in 1912. She, her mother and brother were saved.

» Actor-filmmaker-producer Joginder, who is still remembered for his title role in Ranga Khush, died at a hospital in Mumbai on June 14,2009. He was 65. He had produced and directed 30 films. Among the films produced by him are Bindiya Aur Bandook, Do Chattane, Fauji and Yari Zindabad. Joginder was also a trained pilot and has even worked with late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi before he turned to acting.

» Former Rajasthan chief minister and Assam governor, Shiv Charan Mathur passed away on June 25,2009 following a heart attack at the Fortis Hospital in New Delhi. He was 83. A freedom fighter and Congress stalwart, Mathur was in politics since Quit India movement in 1942. He was twice chief minister of the Rajasthan state. His first tenure was between July 14, 1981 and February 23, 1985 and second was between January 20, 1988 and December 4, 1989. A member of All India Congress Committee since 1972, he was a member of the third Lok Sabha between 1964 and 1967. He was also elected to the tenth Lok Sabha in 1991. He was sworn in as 9th Governor of Assam since the reorganisation of the Northeast in 1972 on July 3, 2008.

» Farrah Fawcett, a three-time Emmy-nominated actress, sex symbol, and star of perhaps the most famous poster of all time passed away on June 23,2009 at St. John's Heath Center in Santa Monica (USA). She was 62. Known as America’s sweetheart in the ‘70s, much to fans dismay Fawcett left the show as it literally was at its peak.

» Noted Bangla author Amalendu Chakraborty passed away in North 24-Parganas district on June 15,2009 after a brief illness. He was 75. He got fame for his Akaler Sandhane and Ekdin Pratidin. Akaler Sandhane and Ekdin Pratidin were made into critically acclaimed films by veteran director Mrinal Sen, with the first film even starring the likes of Smita Patel among others.

» Kaiga Nuclear power plant scientist, N Mahalingam found dead. His body was recovered on June 13 from the Kali River --six days after he went missing.

» The world's oldest man, Tomoji Tanabe, died at his home in southern Japan on June 18 at the age of 113, according to a local official. Tanabe lived with a son and daughter-in-law, had eight children, 25 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. Japan has one of the world's highest life expectancy rates, attributed in part to a diet traditionally rich in fish, rice and vegetables.

» Gabon President Omar Bongo, the world's longest-serving president, who had led Gabon since 1967 died of cardiac arrest in a Spanish hospital on June 8. He was 73. He had stopped work in May, and entered a clinic in Barcelona. He faced a inquiry into corruption allegations. Oil earnings mean that Gabon is officially one of Africa's richest states but country's 1.4 million people live in poverty.

» Infosys Technologies Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani was appointed on May 25 ,2009 as first of chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister. Earlier the Government approved creation of a position of Chairperson UID Authority of India on same day i.e. on June 25. The Authority shall have the responsibilities to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Scheme (UID), shall own and operate the Unique Identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis. The Authority will identify the targeted groups for various flagship programmes. The flagship schemes of the UPA include the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman.

» An assassination attempt was made on Yunus-bek Yevkurov, the president of Russia's southern republic of Ingushetia on June 22,2009. 45-year-old Yunus-bek Yevkurov was injured when his car hit an explosive device planted on the roadside or in a car parked along his motorcade's route near the city of Nazran.

» Meira Kumar made history in the Lok Sabha when she was unanimously elected its Speaker on June 3,2009 and thus became the first woman to occupy one of the high Constitutional posts. She was elected after a resolution moved by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and seconded by leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee was approved by a voice vote amidst thumping of desks by the entire House. Daughter of prominent dalit leader and former Deputy Prime Minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram, 64-year-old Kumar, Congress’ dalit face, a former Indian Foreign Service official and union minister, was inducted as Union Cabinet Minister of Water Resources after 15th Lok Sabha election. She quit IFS and fought first time for Lok Sabha in 1985 from Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh, a year before her father’s death. Meira Kumar became an MP again in 1996 and in 1998 from Delhi’s Karol Bagh constituency but lost her seat in 1999 when NDA returned to power. She was re-elected in 2004 and 2009 from Sasaram in Bihar, the constituency of her father. In between, she had quit Congress for two years from 2000 citing differences with the party leadership. She rejoined the party in 2002.

» Iran’s President and candidate of Abadgaran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secured a landslide victory in the presidential polls on June 13,2009 trouncing his nearest rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got 62.6 per cent of the vote while his rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi got only 33.75 per cent. Though there was sporadic violence and allegations of electoral irregularities in the polls. Mousavi rejected the results and threatened to unveil, what he called the ‘secrets’ behind ‘perilous process.’ Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the final word over state matters, described the outcome in a televised address as ‘divine assessment’ and urged all the candidates to support the President.

» Union Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar was given one-year extension in service on June ,2009 1. The extension for a year came into effect from June 13. An IAS of 1970 batch of the Kerala cadre, K.M. Chandrasekhar had taken charge as the Union Cabinet Secretary on June 14, 2007.

» The Justice Liberhan Commission, which probed the sequence of events that led to the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, submitted its report on June 30,2009. Set up on December 16, 1992, the Commission was initially asked to give a report in three months. However, it could do so only after over 16 years that saw 399 sittings and 48 extensions. About Rs. 8 crore was spent on the Commission, including on salary. The Commission was asked to probe the sequence of events leading to, and all the facts and circumstances relating to the occurrences in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 involving the destruction of the structure; the role played by the (then) Chief Minister, members of the Council of Ministers, officials of the Uttar Pradesh government and by individuals, organisations and agencies concerned or in connection with the destruction of the structure and deficiencies in security measures that might have contributed to the events that took place on December 6, 1992.

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