On the first day of the 55-day Hindu festival, an estimated 8 million people bathed at the merging point of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

BBC: In brief: India��s Kumbh Mela festival begins

It was at that point that the powerful Henry Crown of Chicago became the biggest shareholder in General Dynamics, merging it with his sprawling construction supply business and beginning a six-decade relationship between GD and the wealthy Crown family that persists to this day.

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