100 Amazing Facts

# Our eyes remain the same size
from birth onward, but our nose and
ears never stop growing.
# The Barbie doll’s full name is
Barbara Millicent Roberts.
# The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
# Ants never sleep!
# When the moon is directly
overhead, you will weigh slightly
less.
# Alexander Graham Bell, the
inventor of the telephone, never
called his wife or mother because
they were both deaf.
# An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its
brain.
# “I Am” is the shortest complete
sentence in the English language.
# Babies are born without knee caps
– actually, they’re made of cartilage
and the bone hardens between the
ages of 2 and 6 years.
# Happy Birthday (the song) is
copyrighted.
# Butterflies taste with their feet.
# A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time
for 1/100th of a second.
# It is impossible to sneeze with
your eyes open.
# Leonardo Da Vinci invented the
scissors.
# Minus 40 degrees Celsius is
exactly the same as minus 40
degrees Fahrenheit.
# No word in the English language
rhymes with month, orange, silver or
purple.
# Shakespeare invented the words
“assassination” and “bump.”
# Stewardesses is the longest word
typed with only the left hand.
# Elephants are the only animals
that cannot jump.
# The names of all the continents
end with the same letter that they
start with.
# The sentence, “The quick brown
fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses
every letter in the English language.
# The shortest war in history was
between Zanzibar and England in
1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38
minutes.
# The strongest muscle in the body
is the tongue.
# The word “lethologica” describes
the state of not being able to
remember the word you want.
# Camels have three eyelids to
protect themselves from the blowing
desert sand.
# TYPEWRITER is the longest word
that can be made using the letters
on only one row of the keyboard.
# You can’t kill yourself by holding
your breath.
# Money isn’t made out of paper.
It’s made out of cotton.
# Your stomach has to produce a
new layer of mucus every two weeks
or it will digest itself.
# The dot over the letter “i” is called
a tittle.
# A duck’s quack doesn’t echo. No
one knows why!
# The “spot” on the 7-Up comes
from its inventor who had red eyes –
he was an albino. ’7′ was because
the original containers were 7
ounces and ‘UP’ indicated the
direction of the bubbles.
# Chocolate can kill dogs, as it
contains theobromine, which affects
their heart and nervous system.
# Because metal was scarce, the
Oscars given out during World War
II were made of plaster.
# There are only two words in the
English language that have all five
vowels in order: “abstemious” and
“facetious.”
# If one places a tiny amount of
liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly
go mad and sting itself to death.
# Bruce Lee was so fast that they
actually had to slow film down so
you could see his moves.
# The original name for butterfly was
flutterby.
# By raising your legs slowly and
laying on your back, you cannot sink
into quicksand.
# Dogs and cats, like humans, are
either right or left handed.
# Charlie Chaplin once won the
third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-
alike contest.
# Sherlock Holmes NEVER said
“Elementary, my dear Watson”.
# The Guinness Book of Records
holds the record for being the book
most often stolen from Public
Libraries.
# Bats always turn left when exiting
a cave.
# The shortest English word that
contains the letters A, B, C, D, E,
and F is “feedback.”
# All Polar bears are left-handed.
# In England, the Speaker of the
House is not allowed to speak.
# “Dreamt” is the only English word
that ends in the letters “mt.”
# Almonds are a member of the
peach family, and apples belong to
the rose family.
# Peanuts are one of the ingredients
of dynamite.
# The only 15 letter word that can
be spelled without repeating a letter
is “uncopyrightable”.
# In most advertisements, the time
displayed on a watch is 10:10
# Tigers have striped skin, not just
striped fur.
# Alfred Nobel, in whose name the
Nobel prizes are instituted, was the
inventor of dynamite.
# The planet Venus does not tilt, so
consequently, it has no seasons. It
is the only planet that rotates clock-
wise.
# Honey is the only food that
doesn’t spoil.
# The word “set” has more
definitions than any other word in
the English language.
# Molecularly speaking, water is
actually much drier than sand.
# Human tonsils can bounce higher
than a rubber ball of similar weight
and size, but only for the first 30
minutes after they’ve been removed.
# US President John F. Kennedy was
an accomplished ventriloquist.
# Coca-Cola was originally green.
# Moths are unable to fly during an
earthquake.
# Contrary to popular belief, the
white is not the healthiest part of
an egg. It’s actually the shell.
# Nearly three percent of the ice in
Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.
# Hot water will turn into ice faster
then cold water.
# “Rhythm” is the longest English
word without a vowel.
# Like fingerprints, every person’s
tongue print is different.
# No piece of normal-size paper can
be folded in half more than 7 times.
# The tongue is the only muscle
that is attached from one end only.
# Pumice is the only rock that floats
in water.
# Camel’s milk does not curdle.
# Your foot is the same length as
your forearm, and your thumb is the
same length as your nose. Also, the
length of your lips is the same as
the index finger.
# Natural pearls melt in vinegar.
# Buttermilk does not contain any
butter.
# The human brain is 80% water.
# Men’s shirts have the buttons on
the right while women’s shirts have
the buttons on the left.
# Human fingernails grow nearly 4
times faster than toenails.
# The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt
holds a constant temperature of 68
degrees Fahrenheit.
# The liquid inside young coconuts
can be used as a substitute for
blood plasma.
# Oak trees do not produce acorns
until they are fifty years of age.
# It takes approximately 2 million
flowers for a bee to make 1 pound of
honey.
# Human saliva has a boiling point
three times that of regular water.
# It is physically impossible to
urinate and give blood at the same
time.
# The letter J does not appear
anywhere in the periodic table of
the elements.
# The right lung of a human is
larger than the left one. This is
because of the space and placement
of the heart.
# Watermelons, which are 92% water,
originated from the Kalahari Desert
in Africa.
# The hair of some cancer patients
treated with chemotherapy can grow
back in a different colour, and
sometimes even be curly or straight.
# The markings that are found on
dice are called “pips.”
# 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 =
12,345,678,987,654,321
# The cigarette lighter was invented
before the match.
# Leonardo Da Vinci never signed or
dated his most famous painting, the
Mona Lisa.
# The ampersand (&) was the last
letter of the Latin alphabet.
# The palms of your hands and the
soles of your feet cannot tan, or grow
hair.
# Dolphins can swim and sleep at
the same time, as they sleep with
one eye open.
# Each nostril of a human being
registers smell in a different way.
Those by the right nostril are more
pleasant than the left.
# The longest single-syllable word in
the English language is “screeched.”
# The word “Checkmate” in chess
comes from the Persian phrase
“Shah-Mat,” which means “the king
is dead”.
# Each king in a deck of playing
cards represents a great king from
history: Spades – King David, Clubs
– Alexander the Great, Hearts –
Charlemagne, and Diamonds – Julius
Caesar.
# In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan
Swift described the two moons of
Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving
their exact size and speeds of
rotation. He did this more than 100
years before either moon was
discovered!
# If a statue in the park of a person
on a horse has both front legs in the
air, the person died in battle; if the
horse has one front leg in the air,
the person died as a result of
wounds received in battle; if the
horse has all four legs on the
ground, the person died of natural
causes.

India's Only

• India’s Only coal museum-------
Margherita, Assam
• India’s Only glass mosque-------
Shillong, Meghalaya
• India’s Only active volcano-------
Barren Island, Andaman and Nicobar
Island
• India’s Only Floating National
Park------- Keibul Lamjao National
Park, Manipur
• India’s Only Floating Lake-------
Loktak Lake, Manipur
• India’s Only Symphony
Orchestra------- Symphony Orchestra of
India, Mumbai
• India’s Only Female Wildlife
Photographer------- Vasudha
Chakravathi
• India’s Only two F1 Driver-------
Narain Karthikeyan and Karun
Chandhok
• India’s Only Aircraft carries-------
INS Viraat
• India’s Only overseas Military
Base------- Farkhor Air Base, Tajikistan
• India’s Only licenced production
and supply Unit for National
Flag------- Karnataka Khadi
Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha
• India's Only Satellite Launch
Center------- Sriharikota, Andhra
Pradesh
• India’s Only River Island-------
Majuli, Assam
• India’s Only Stadium with Student
Gallery------- Green Park Stadium,
Kanpur, UP
• India’s Only Handwritten
Newspaper------- The Musalman
• India’s Only district borders with
four States------- Sonbhadra District,
UP
• India’s only tobacco free
village------- Shankarpura, Haryana
• India’s Only Cattle Fair-------
Sonepur Mela, Bihar

The Universe

Copernicus in 1543 A.D. proposed
the heliocentric view, which states
that the Sun is the centre of the
Universe instead of the Earth.

The Origin of the Universe
Big-Bang Theoery: By E. George
lamantor . According to him, 15
billion years ago there was a big
heavenly body, made up of heavy
matters. Due to sudden explosion
(Big Bang) of this heavenly body,
normal matters came out of it. And
many celestial bodies were created
as a result of aggregation of these
normal matters. Gradually their size
increased due to continuous
accumulation of normal matter
around them. In this way, galaxies
were created. Stars were formed due
to re-explosion of these galaxies. In
course of time, the planets were also
formed in the same process.
Galaxy
A Galaxy is a large constellation of
stars in which there is a central
bulge and three rotating arms. Every
galaxy is composed of about 100
billion stars. Our own galaxy is
known as 'Mandakini ' which has
spiral shape. A group of stars known
as ' Milky Way ' seen in the night, is
a part of our galaxy. Orian Nebula is
the brightest and the coldest group
ofstars of our galaxy.
Life Cycle of a Star
Rotation of the galaxy causes the
gaseous clouds present in the
universe to become compact and due
to the gravitation the process of
nuclear fusion starts at the centre of
this gaseous mass, converting
hydrogen into helium. This process
liberates an enormous amount of
energy in the form of heat and light.
At this stage the gaseous mass
becomes a star. When star expands
to a large size the temperature of
the star at this stage also falls down,
so it appears red. This is the Red
Giant Star.
Supernova :
The helium starts
converting into carbon and carbon
into heavy metal like iron in the
core. This results in a massive
explosion in the which is known as
supernova .
Chandrasekhar Limit : If the initial
mass of the star is less than 1.4
times the mass of the sun, then it
ends its life as a white dwarf star,
which is also known as a Fossil star. White dwarf ultimately turns into a Black dwarf . The limit 1.4 of solar mass has come to be known a
Chandrasekhar Limit .
Neutron Star:
Unlike above, if the
mass of the star is much more than
the mass of the sun then it became
Neutron Star.
Black Hole:
A Neutron Star remains
contracting and, thus, mass in a
large quantity, concentrates on one
point. Such body with high density
is called Black Hole. It does not
allow anything to escape, including
the light due to which it can be
seen. It is John Wheeler who
propounded the concept of Black
Hole

India's first

•Governor-General of Independent
India—Lord Lewis Mountbatten
• Indian Governor-General of
Independent India—Chakravarti
Rajgopalachari
• Indian Commander-in-Chief of
Free India —General Kodandera
Madappa Cariappa, 1949
• Field Marshall—General S. H. F.
J. Manekshaw
• Speaker of loksabha—Shri G.V.
Mavalankar (15 May 1952- 27
February 1956).
• President—Dr. Rajendra Prasad
• Vice-President—Dr. Sarvapalli
Radhakrishnan
• Prime-Minister—Pt. Jawahar Lal
Nehru
• Home Minister—Sardar Vallabh
Bhai Patel
• Finance Minister of India—R. K.
Shanmukham Chetty
• Auditor General of India—V.
Narahari Rao
• Director of CBI— DP Kohli
• National Security Adviser—
Brijesh Mishra
• Governor of RBI— Sir Osborne
Smith
• Non-Congress Prime-Minister—
Morarji Desai from Janata Party in
1977-79.
• British Governor-General of Bengal
—Warren-Hastings
• Space traveller—S. Leader-Rakesh
Sharma
• C. S.—Satendra Nath Tagore
• Woman IAS—Anna Ranjan George,
1950
• Swimmer who crossed over the
English channel by swimming—
Mihir Sen
• Woman to swim across the English
Channel—Arati Saha, 1959
• Raman-Magsaysay awardee—
Acharya Vinoba Bhave
• Novel prize winner—Rabindra
Nath Tagore
• Nobel Prize in Physics—C. V.
Raman in 1930
• President of National Congress—
Vyomesh Chand Banerjee
• Chairman of Lok Sabha—G. B.
Mavlankar
• First Woman Chief Minister—
Sucheta Kriplani
• Woman Speaker of Lok Sabha—
Smt. Meira Kumar, 2009
• Chief Election Commissioner—
Sukumar Sen
• Indian Chairman in International
Court—Justice Dr. Nagendra Singh
• Foreigner awardee of Bharat
Ratna—Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan
• Leader of the Indian Antarctica
Mission—Dr. Syed Zahuv Quasim
• Chief Justice of Supreme Court—
Justice Hiralal J. Kaniya
• Awarded with ‘Bharat Ratnas’—
Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan,
Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, Sir C. B.
Raman
• Woman Awarded with ‘Bharat
Ratnas’— Indira Gandhi
• Commandeur of the Order of Arts
and Letters— Mrinal Sen
• Chevalier of the Order of Arts and
Letter—Sivaji Ganeshan
• Posthumally Bharat Ratna
Awardee—Lal Bahadur Shastri
• Person awarded Bhartiya-Gyan-
Peeth Purskar—G. Shankar Kurup
(Malayalam–1965)
• Woman awarded with Bhartiya-
Gyan-Peeth Purskar—Ashapurna
Devi, 1976
• Woman Sahitya Akademi Award
Winner—Amrita Pritam, 1956
• Woman Honours Graduate—
Kamini Roy
• Woman Director General of Police
—Kanchan C Bhattacharya
• Successful Surgeon who
transplanted heart—Dr. P.
Venugopal
• Woman to received Nobal Prize—
Mother Teresa
• Woman Governor—Sarojini Naidu
• Licensed Pilot— J R D Tata
• Woman Air Pilot—Durba Banerjee
• Woman Teacher—Savitribai Phule
• Successful heart transplanted
person—Devi Ram (1994)
• President of National Human
Rights Commission—Justice
Rangnath Mishra
• Hindi Literature person-awarded
Bhartiya Gyan Peeth Purskar—
Sumitra Nandan Pant (1968)
• Indian who won the World
Billiard award—Wilson Jans
• Indian who won the Grammy
award—Pt. Ravi Shankar
• Person delivered the Lecture in
Hindi in U.N.O.— Atal Bihari Bajpai
(1977)
• Indian member in British House
of Commons— Dada Bhai Naoroji
(1892)
• First President of Indian Science
Congress—Sir Asutosh Mukherjee
• Mountaineer who scaled Mount
Everest 8 times—Sherpa-Augarita
• Writer who was awarded ‘Vyas
Samman’—Ramvilas Sharma
• Indian Managing Director of
World Bank—Gautam Kazi
• Player awarded ‘Padam Bhusan’—
C. K. Naidu
• Actress to win Padma Shri Award
—Nargis Dutt, 1958
• Indian players played Davis Cup—
M. Salim and S. M. Jacob (Singles),
A. A. Faiyaz and L. S. Dare
(Doubles) (1921)
• Tennis Grandslam title winner—
Mahesh Bhupati
• Indian player who played the test
cricket—K. S. Ranjeet Singh (from
England)
• Scientist elected for Lok Sabha—
Dr. Meghnad Saha
• Scientist awarded Ghanshyam Das
Birla award—Prof. Ashish Datta
(1991)
• Literature who was awarded
Murti Devi Purskar—C. K. Nagraj
Rao (1993)
• Person, who became High
Commission in Great Britain—V. K.
Krishna-Menon
• Indian who was awarded the
Lenin Peace Prize—Dr. Safuddin
Kichlu (1952)
• First Indian who contested the
election for British Parliament—Lal
Mohan Ghose
• Woman Graduates—Kadambini
Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu,
1883
• Woman Chief Justice of High
Court—Leila Seth, Himachal
Pradesh, 1991
• An Indian, appointed the judge of
High Court, during the British
period—Ram Prasad Ram
• Indian member of Viceroy
Executive Council—Sir. S. P. Sinha
• Leanin Peace Prize— Saifuddin
Kitchlew
• Chairman of Finance Commission
—K. C. Niogi
• Woman Doctorate of Science—
Asima Chatterjee (1944)
• Woman IPS—Kiran Bedi
• Woman Supreme Court judge—
Kumari Fathima Beevi
• Indian member of American
Congress—Deleep Singh
• Editor of Time Magazine—Bobby
Ghosh
• Director of CBI becoming Governor
—Ashwani Kumar
• Person to reach the North Pole—
Squadron Leader Sanjay Thapar
• Person to reach the South Pole—
Col Jatinder Kumar Bajaj
• Nishan-e-Pakistan—Morarji Desai,
1990
• Magsaysay Award—Vinoba Bhave,
1958
• Miss World—Reita Faria in 1966
• Miss Asia Pacific—Zeenat Aman in
1970
• Miss Universe—Sushmita Sen in
1994
• Miss Earth—Nicole Faria in 2010
• Place to get electricity—Darjeeling
in 1897
• Sound film—Alam Ara (1931)
directed by Ardeshir Irani
• Colour film—Kisan Kanya (1937),
directed by Moti B. Gidvani
• Oscar winner—Bhanu Athaiya for
Best Costume Design for Gandhi
(film) in 1982.
• Dadasaheb Phalke Award—Devika
Rani in 1969
• Chevalier of the Order of Arts and
Letters—Sivaji Ganesan
• Test-tube baby—Durga Agarwal,
born 1978
• Newspaper—Hickey's Bengal
Gazette started in 1760
• First Lady Doctor—Anandibai
Joshi
• Satellite—Aryabhata, launched on
19 April 1975
• Man to climb Mt Everest—Tenzing
Norgay
• Man to climb Mt Everest without
oxygen—Phu Dorjee, 1984
• Woman to climb Mt everest—
Bachendri Pal
• District to achieve 100% literacy
rate—Ernakulam district, Kerala,
1990
• Captain in Tests—C. K. Nayudu
for the 1932 tour of England
• ODI captain—Ajit Wadekar
• Bowler who made hat-trick in
Test Cricket—Harbhajan Singh
• Batsman who made 300 runs in
test Cricket—Virendra Sehwag
• First Marshal of Indian Air Force
—Arjan Singh
• Individual Medal in Olympic
games—KD Jadhav
• Grandmaster— Viswanathan Anad
• Woman Grandmaster—Koneru
Humpy
• First Indian who individually won
the Gold medal in Olympic games—
Abhinav Bindra
• First Indian who won the Bronze
medal in Boxing in Olympic games—
Vijendra Kumar
• Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge—Srinivasa Ramanujan
• Fellow of the Royal Society—
Ardaseer Cursetjee

India at a glance

Capital:
New Delhi
Area:
3.3 Million sq. km
Latitude:
6° 44' and 35° 30' north latitude
Longitude:
68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude
Official Language:
Hindi
Total Recognized Languages: 22
Total Coast Line:
7,516.6 km
Area covered by Forest: 68
million hectares
Population:
1,210,193,422 Billion
Male:
623.7 million
Female:
586.4 million
Population Growth Rate: 1.64
per cent during 2001-2011
Density of Population:
370.8/km2
Sex Ratio:
940
Literacy Rate:
74.04%
Male:
82.14%
Female:
65.46%
State:
28
Union Territories: 7
Largest State:
Rajasthan
Smallest State:
Goa
National Park:
102
Wildlife Sanctuaries: 441
Largest City:
Mumbai
Calling Code:
+91
National Motto:
Satyameva Jayate
National Song:
Vande Mataram
National Anthem:
Jana Gana Mana
Highest Point:
Mount Godwin-Austen, 28,251 ft
Currency:
Indian Rupee
Time Zone:
GMT + 05:30
Life Expectancy Rate
Male:
65.8 years
Female:
68.1 years
Ethnic Groups:
Australoid, Mongoloid, Europoid,
Caucasian, and Negroid
National Days:
26th January (Republic Day)
15th August (Independence Day)
2nd October (Gandhi Jayanti;
Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday )
National Bird:
Indian peacock
National Flower :
Lotus
National Tree:
Banyan Tree
National River:
The Ganga
National Aquatic Animal:
River Dolphin
National Animal:
Tiger
National Fruit:
Mango