Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams

Indian-origin astronaut SUNITA WILLIAMS

Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams, was born as Sunita Pandya Krishna on September 19, 1965. She is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman. 

She holds the record of the longest space flight (195 days) among female space travelers, and is on her second flight on Sunday 15 July 2012. She has been honored with Awarded Navy Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and various other service awards. 

She was awarded the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award by the World Gujarati Society[24], the first person of Indian origin who is not an Indian citizen to be presented the award. On October 4, 2007.

Williams was deployed onboard USS Saipan when she was selected for the astronaut program, and she has logged over 3000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. She was selected for training by NASA in June 1998. 

Williams served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, and she launched with the crew of STS-116 on December 9, 2006, docking with the station on December 11, 2006. As a member of the Expedition-14 crew Suni Williams established a world record for females with four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes of EVA.

Bastille Day Military Parade

Bastille Day Military Parade

The Bastille Day Military Parade (French military parade) taken place the 14 July each year in Paris since 1880. The parade passes down the Champs-Elysées from l’Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde where the President of the French Republic, his government and foreign ambassadors to France stand. This popular event is broadcast on French TV, and is the oldest and largest regular military parade in the world. 


This Bastille day became militarized during the Directory. Under Napoléon, the celebration lost much of its importance, though it came back into fashion during the Third Republic. The Fête de la Fédération became the official national celebration on the 28 June 1880, and a decree of 6 July the same year linked a military parade to it. Between 1880 and 1914 the celebrations were held at the hippodrome of Longchamps, Paris.


Since World War I the parade has been held on the Champs-Élysées, the first occasion being the “Victory parade” led by Marshals Joseph Joffre, Ferdinand Foch and Philippe Pétain on 14 July 1919. This was not a French National Holiday parade, although held upon the same date, but one agreed upon by the Allied delegations to the Versailles Peace Conference. A separate Victory parade of Allied troops was held in London four days later.


On the occasion of the 14 July 1919 parade in Paris, detachments from all of France's World War I allies took part in the parade, together with colonial and North African units from France's overseas Empire. The latter, most notably squadrons of Algerian Spahis mounted on Arab horses and in traditional full dress uniform, continued to participate in the annual parade until the end of the Algerian War in 1962.
In the Second World War, the German troops occupying Paris and Northern France paraded along the same route. A victory parade under General de Gaulle was held upon the restoration in 1945 of Paris to French rule while within the period of occupation by the Germans a company of the commando Kieffer of the Forces Navales Françaises Libres had continued the French National Holiday parade in the streets of London.