It was on this day, back in 1994, that legendary World Cup-winning Indian captain set the world record for most test wickets with scalp number 432 being Sri Lankan Hashan Tilakaratne. The all-rounder surpassed New Zealander Richard Hadlee while playing his 130th test match for the country. He finished his career at a tally of 434 wickets in 131 matches. His record stood for six years until it was broken by West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh in 2000. Kapil Paaji, as he is fondly known, also earned the moniker of The Haryana Hurricane playing during his heydays.
The date is also significant for being the time when the classic neo-noir thriller film Taxi Driver was released. The movie, directed by legendary director Martin Scorsese, starred big names Robert De Niro in the titular role as well as Jodie Foster. Actors, interestingly, took pay cuts so that the movie could be completed on a low budget of $1.9 million. The film is considered to be among the greatest ever in history while it went to become a critical and commercial success. It received four nominations at the Academy Awards but unfortunately could not win any. It did, however, win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It was chosen among the 100 best films of all time by Time magazine.
February 8 is also the day when the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations or Nasdaq began operations. It was the first world's first electronic stock market but in the beginning, it was just a quotation system and did not provide a way to perform electronic trades. Simpler times indeed.
