50 Important Questions About British India

1) In which year was the Regulating Act implemented?
A) 1773
2) Who is regarded as the Father of Indian Civil Service
A) Lord Cornwallis
3) Who wrote the book 'The Sepoy Mutiny and the Revolt of 1857'?
A) R C Majumdar
4) Who was the first Viceroy in British India?
A) Lord Canning
5) Who was the British king to annul the partition of Bengal?
A) George V
6) Which Viceroy did occupy the office for the longest period?
A) Lord Linlithgo
7) Who is considered to be the first martyr of the 1857 rebellion
A) Mangal Pandey
8) Which was the first university established by the British?
A) Kolkata
9) Which Indian city was attacked by the German forces during the
First World War?
A) Chennai
10) Which was the first South Indian city to host the conference of
Indian National Congress?
A) Chennai
11) Who was the founder of Bharat Matha Society?
A) Ajit Singh
12) Whose autobiography is titled 'The Indian Struggle'?
A) Subhas Chandra Bose
13) Who was known as the Socratese of Maharashtra?
A)   Gopalkrishna Gokhale
14) The first cement factory in India was established at?
A)   Chennai
15)  Who founded the Lahore Students Union?
A)   Bhagat Singh
16)  Who used to be called Deenabandhu?
A)   C F Andrews
17) The party founded by Motilal Nehru and C R Das?
A)   Swaraj Party
18) Who was the father of Indian Archaeology?
A)   Alexander Cunningham
19) Who wrote the book 'A Nation in Making'?
A)   Surendranath Bannerjee
20) Who was the first Indian leader to address the people through Radio?
A)   Subhas Chandra Bose
21) Who is known as the Babur of British Empire in India?
A)   Robert Clive
22) What was the former name of India Gate?
A)   All India War Memorial
23) The city where the rebellion of 1857 did commence?
A)   Meerut
24) What is also known as August Revolution?
A)   Quit India movement
25) Who was called the Father of Indian Unrest?
A)   Bal Gangadhar Tilak
26) What was the name of the Parliament during the British rule?
A)   Central Legislative Assembly
27) Which city became the Summer Capital of Indian in 1864?
A)   Shimla
28) What was the official name of Simon Commission?
A)   Indian Statutory Commission
29) Who founded the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal?
A)   Warren Hastings
30) Which was the first South Indian city to be electrified?
A)   Bangalore
31) The only Indian leader to have attended all the Round Table Conferences?
A)   B R Ambedkar
32) What is known as the Magna Carta of Indian Education?
A)   Wood's Despatch
33) The city to host the first conference of All India Trade Union Congress?
A)   Mumbai
34) The Father of Local Self Administration in India?
A)   Lord Rippon
35) The book 'Unhappy India' was written by?
A)   Lala Lajpat Rai
36) Who did bestow the title Sardar upon Vallabhbhai Patel?
A)   Mahatma Gandhi
37) The first coal mine in India was at?
A)   Ranighanj
38) Where was the first Art Gallery in India established?
A)   Kolkata
39) The first budget in British India was presented by?
A)   Sir James Wilson
40) Who is known as the Joan of Arc of India?
A)   Queen of Jhansi
41) Who was the British Prime Minister during the revolt of 1857?
A)   Palmer Stone
42) Who was elected as the Chairman of Allahabad municipality in 1923?
A)   Jawaharlal Nehru
43) Muslim League was founded in the year of?
A)   1906
44) The first woman Law graduate in India was?
A)   Cornelia Sorabji (1894)
45) The first trade union in India was?
A)   Madras Labour Union
46) The first census in India was conducted in?
A)   1881
47) Who was the political mentor of Subhas Chandra Bose?
A)   C R Das
48) The last act passed by the British Parliament for India?
A)   Indian Independence Act
49) Who wrote the book 'India Wins Freedom'?
A)   Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad
50) The father of Indian Railway?
A)   Lord Dalhousie

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Encyclopaedia Britannica: History and Facts

The Encyclopædia Britannica was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh.

The Encyclopædia Britannica was founded by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell from Ireland.

The present owner of Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. is Jacqui Safra , a Swiss billionaire and actor.

The Britannica was dedicated to the British monarch from 1788 to 1901 and to both the British monarch and the President of the United States then onwards.

In 1933, the Britannica became the first encyclopædia to adopt "continuous revision", that is it is continually reprinted and every article updated on a schedule.

Great people including Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, James Maxwell, Lord Kelvin and Leon Trotsky have served as the authors of Britannica articles.

The Britannica Junior edition was first published in 1934 as 12 volumes. It was withdrawn from the market in 1984.

The first Children's version of Britannica was issued in London in 1960. It was edited by John Armitage.

The longest article in Britannica is about the United States, which spans 310 pages.

Christine Sutton of the University of Oxford is the most prolific contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica with 24 articles on particle physics.

Time magazine called the Britannica the "Patriarch of the Library" at the release of its 14th edition.

Since the first release of 15th edition, Britannica has been organised into three parts: the Micropædia, Macropædia, and Propædia.

The first CD-ROM edition Britannica was issued in 1994.

The online Britannica won the Codie award for "Best Online Consumer Information Service" in 2005.

The final print edition of Britannica was in 2010, a 32-volume set.

On, 13 March 2012, it was announced that Encyclopædia Britannica will be publishing no more print editions.

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Olympic Games: Basic Information

The Olympic games is the largest sporting event in the world with the participation of thousands of athletes from over 200 countries. The history of Olympics traces back to 776 BC. The first Olympics took place in Greece. Later, it was abandoned but was brought back by in 1896 to revive the history. Greece, the birthplace of the games, also witnessed the dawn of the modern Olympics that unites the different countries under one roof. Frenchman Pierre de Cubertin is regarded as the father of modern Olympics.
Olympic Symbol
The symbol consists of five interlinked rings to represent the friendship of all people. The rings also represent the 5 continents. Blue- Europe, Yellow- Asia, Black- Africa, Green- Australia and Red- America.
Motto
The Olympic Motto is 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' meaning 'Faster, Higher, Stronger' in Latin. The motto was coined by Father Didon, a French priest in 1895.

Flag
The Olympic Flag consists of the five rings of Olympic symbol in a plain white background.
Flame
The Olympic Flame represents the continuity between the ancient and modern games. It was adopted in 1936. The flame is kindled by the Olympic torch. It is lit by the sun rays at Olympia, Greece and is then carried to the games venue by a relay of runners.
Oath
The Olympic oath should be taken by an athlete during the opening ceremony. It reads "In the name of all name of all the competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams". It was composed by Pierre de Cubertin, the founder of modern Olympics.
Creed
The Olympic creed was also composed by Pierre de Cubertin. It is that the most important thing is not to win but take part in the Olympics. The primary thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

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American Presidents: Facts and Trivia

George Washington

George Washington is the first US President. He is also known as the Father of Nation.

The first US Vice President and 2nd President was John Adams.

John Adams was the first US President to reside in White House.

The official airplane of the US President is known as Airforce 1.

George Washington is the only US President who won getting 100% electoral votes.

Franklin D Roosevelt was the US President to serve for the longest time. He was the only person to be in the chair for more than two times as well.

The youngest person to be the US President was Theodore Roosevelt. He was 42 when he took charge in 1901.

Ronald Reagen was the oldest to be the US President. He was 69 when he was elected in 1981.

Abraham Lincoln is the US President who abolished slavery.

Four US Presidents have been assassinted in office. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William Mckinely and John F Kennedy are them.

Abraham Lincoln was the first US President from Republican Party.

George Bush and George W Bush are the only father and son to have been US Presidents.

A presidential term is 4 years.

The official room of US President in the White House is called Oval Office.

The world famous toy Teddy Bear got its name from Theodore Roosevelt.

Harry S Truman was the US President who ordered the Atom bomb attack at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Four US Presidents have won the coveted Nobel Peace Prize. They are Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama.

The summer residence of the President is known as Camp David.

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The Mayan Calendar and World's End: Things to know

Author: Krishnanjan Pramanik

The Mayans were the civilization inhabited in South America. They and the calendar devised by them, the 'Mayan Calendar' have been on headlines for a while. Non-senses are in the air about it and its connection with an another non-sense (End of world in 2012). But I really have doubt regarding the number of persons who really know about the Mayan way of counting days. Let me explain it for those who don't.

First of all, the Mayans had two basic way of counting days, namely Tzolkin and Haab. Tzolkin is a 260-day ritual count. This 260-days were counted with 13-cycles of 20 days each. Haab was a 365-day solar count. This 365-day were calculated with 18-cycles of 20 days each. Research workers sometimes call the Haab as the ' Vague Year ' because Mesoamericans did not take account of the fact that a solar year lasts slightly more than 365 days and add an extra day every four years. So, overtime, their solar years must have dragged behind the movements of stars ans sun. There used to have a 'unlucky period' of five days period at the end of each year.
There are conflicts about why the early Mesoamericans first fixed on 260-days count as a useful unit for measuring time. Some have argued that it was based on observation of the movements of Venus and of the Sun because 260-days period roughly corresponds to the gap between the appearance of Venus as the evening star and its emergence as the morning star. There is also an interval of 260 days between the sun's annual southward movement and its northward return when viewed from latitude close to Copan.
Most modern researchers argue thet the 260-days cycle is based on counting forward 260 days from the date of a woman's last menstrual period, to predict when a baby is likely to be born, as do the modern Maya still living in the mountains of southern Guatemala.

The Mayan Long Count

In addition to the twinned 260-days and 365-days calendars, the Maya people greatly refined a much longer running measuring system, the 'Long count', which is known to have been used in many parts of Mesoamerica at the beginning of the first millennium BC. Researchers found that during the Classical period, the Mayans dated their monuments using the Long Count to record births, deaths, royal accessions and anniversaries, the dates of ritual sacrifices and battle triumphs. This system counted forward from a Zero date of 4 Ahua 8 Cumku, equivalent to 11 August 3114 BC in the Gregorian calendar.
The Maya Long count counted days in units of 20 and used 360 days as a 'Year'. Its five units were the 'Baktun' (144,000 days), the 'Katun' (7,200 days), the 'Tun' (360 days), the 'Uinal' (20 days), and the 'Kin' (1 day). Dates were carved in this order, with units separated by full points. For example, the date 3.3.2.1.1 would be 3 Baktuns, 3 Katuns, 2 Tuns, 1 Uinal and 1 Kin, making a total of 454,341 days after the Zero date of 11th August 3114 BC.
The misinterpretation of this Long count calendar is the basis for the popular belief that a cataclysm will take place on 21st December of 2012 .
But actually 21st December, 2012 is the day that the calendar will go to the next 'Baktun'. The foresaid fact is what inspired many prophecies and the exploitation of people in the name of World's End.

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