10 First Things on the Record Book

1.    10. Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr., the first black player to win The Wimbledon.

Born to Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe in Richmond, Virginia, US. Lost his mother at the age of six. Arthur was first black player to win The Wimbledon (1975), the Australian Open (1970) and the US Open (1968). He was also the first black player to get selected for the US Davis cup team in 1963. He remain only black player to win any Grand Slam singles title, until France’s Yannick Noah won the French Open in 1983, which Arthur couldn’t win. Ashe died on February 6, 1993, from HIV AIDS which he contracted during a heart surgery in 1983. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

2.    9. Dennis Anthony Tito, the first paying Space Traveler.

Dennis Anthony Tito is the founder of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. He was former scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He became multimillionaire with the success of his firm which he founded in 1972 and is the CEO and the Chairmen that in 2001 he became the first paying space traveler when he flew with a Russian crew abroad the Soyuz TM-32 to the International Space Station, he spend almost 8 days in the space station. He paid about $ 20 million for the trip, which was conducted by Russian Federal Space Agency. He also announced his intension to send a privately financed spaceflights to Mars by 2018 in February 2013.

3.    8. Italy, first European country to win FIFA World Cup.

Spain won the FIFA World Cup 2010 held in South Africa and became undisputed champions of world of football. But do you know which country bought the Football World Cup to Europe for the first time? It was Italy who won FIFA World Cup in 1934 held in Italy, by defeating Czechoslovakia by 2 -1 at the extra time in the final. And consecutively they won the 1938 FIFA World Cup held in France by defeating Hungary 4 – 2. The Italian National Team lost 10 of their 11 players in the Superga Air Disaster in 1949.

4.    7. Trygve Halvdan Lie, the first Secretary General of the United Nations.

Trygve was Norwegian Foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London (1940 – 1945). After formation of the United Nations in 1945, he served as the first Secretary General of the United Nations, head of the United Nations Secretariat, from 1945 to1952, until he resigned from his position. He was recommended by Soviet Union.

5.    6. Sir Robert Walpole, the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Sir Robert Walpole was the first Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1921, although the term Prime Minister was not use, Actually Walpole became the First Lord of the Treasury in 1921 and from then he was honored as the First Prime Minister of Great Britain. He held the position from 1721 to 1742. He is regarded also as the longest served Prime Minister of Great Britain. He served under two Kings of Great Britain, George I and his son George II.

6.    5. Viking I, the first spacecraft successfully land on Mars.

NASA launched two spacecraft, Viking I and Viking II on August 20, 1975 and September 9, 1975 respectively and within one year of time, the two spacecraft reached orbit of the Mars. After taking many pictures of the surface of the Mars by the orbiter, landing site was selected. The lander then separated from the orbiters which was attached to each other and then they soft landed. The Viking I lander touched down on the surface of Mars on July 20, 1976 and become the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars while the Viking II landed on the Mars soil on September 3, 1976. The Viking I held the record for the longest Mars surface mission until the Opportunity Rover broke the record in 2010.

7.    4. John King, the first European to cross Australian continent and survive.

When Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills left Melbourne on 20 August 1860 to lead an expedition of 19 men with intention to cross totally unknown the continent of Australia, they didn’t thought they would die. It had not been explored by non- indigenous people and was totally unknown to the Europeans. On that mismanaged expedition only one man returned and he was John King.

John King was found by a relief expenditure, near to death and bought back to Melbourne, where he got a warm welcome.

8.    3. Lady Gaga, the first person to pass 20 million followers on Twitter.

Yeah you heard it right! After Akon convinced his producers to launched Lady Gaga, she became overnight success by her debut album “The Fame”. She became first person to followed by 20 million people in August of 2010. The number of her followers doubled in 2013 and became about 41 million. Don’t count me.

9.    2. Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, first black to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Gwendolyn Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry book, Annie Allen in 1950 and became first African American to win the prize. She was born on 7 June, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, she was first child of her parents, who moved to Chicago shortly after her birth. This poet legend died of cancer at the age of 83 on 3 December, 2000.

10. 1. “Me at the Zoo”, the first ever video uploaded in YouTube.

Jawed Karim one of the three cofounders of the most popular video sharing website YouTube. On Saturday, 23 April, 2005 at 8:27 pm. The video was shot at the San Diego Zoo by Yakov Lapitsksy and is 19 seconds long. The video got about 14 million views and about Thousand comments. The feature Karim in front of the elephants. Wonder how YouTube got so famous, because we Indian believe Elephants as God of Luck.

Top 10 Word of the Year From Modern Oxford Dictionary

Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary and many other dictionaries, announces an Oxford Dictionaries UK Word of the Year and an Oxford Dictionaries US Word of the Year every year. It is the largest dictionary of English Language. Sometimes these are the same word. The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months but it does need to have become prominent or notable during that time. There is no guarantee that the Word of the Year will be included in any Oxford dictionary. The Oxford Dictionaries Words of the Year are selected by editorial staff from each of the Oxford dictionaries. The selection team is made up of lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, and editorial, marketing, and publicity staff.

          According to the online Oxford Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word, or expression, that we can see has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date. Every year, candidates for Word of the Year are debated and one is eventually chosen that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year and to have lasting potential as a word of cultural significance.

10. Omnishambles, the UK Word of the Year 2012.

          Omnishambles means a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, and is characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations. This word was coined by writer Tony Roche of the satirical television program, “The Thick OF It”. The word came from the Latin prefix “omni”, meaning "all", and the word “shambles”, meaning a situation of total disorder.

It gain popularity in 2012 after sustained usage in the political sphere of UK by  Labor Party leader and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband MP, in a speech to the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions on 18 April 2012, criticizing the government's 2012 budget and the resulting public image. On 13 November 2012, Omnishambles was named Word of the Year by the Oxford English Dictionary. Lexicographer and judge on the panel Fiona McPherson remarked that: "It was a word everyone liked, which seemed to sum up so many of the events over the last 366 days in a beautiful way.” The word was formally added to the online editions of the Oxford English Dictionary in August 2013. The US Word of the year was “GIF” (verb).

9. Refudiate, the USA Word of the year 2010.

          If you are a follower of Sara Palin on Twitter since 2009, then we will undoubtedly recognize the word “Refudiate”, New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2010.

            Refudiate is a verb which means refuse to accept or deny the truth or validity. The word derived from Latin word “Repudiatus”. The word was first coined by the Vice President nominee in the 2008 US presidential election from the Republican Party, Sarah Palin on her twitter account in 2010. Critics pounced on Palin, lampooning what they saw as nonsensical vocabulary and speculating on whether she meant “refute” or “repudiate.” The word soon become an unquestionable buzzword in 2010.  

Vuvyzela, the annoying long horn blown by fans at FIFA World Cup 2010 was also shortlisted by the editorials staff of the Oxford Dictionary. The UK word of the year 2010 was “big society”.

8. Bovvered, the UK Word of the year 2006.

          This word was made famous by Catherine Tate as the character Lauren Cooper in The Catherine Tate Show. Used as part of her catchphrases when she was angry or embarrassed.

            "Am I bovvered? Am I bovvered though? Look at my face. Is it bovvered? Arks me If I'm bovvered! Look, face, bovvered? I ain't bovvered!"

            Bovvered refers to show sarcastically that you don’t care about something. This word became the UK Word of the Year in 2006. The US Word of the Year in 2006 was “carbon- neutral”.

7. Chav, the UK and US Word of the Year 2004.

             “Question: My neighbor has become a chav, what should I do?

            Best Answer: Shoot him or change the room and go to uptown before it is too late.”

“Picture this a young lad about 12 years of age and 4 ½ feet high baseball cap at ninety degrees in a imitation addidas tracksuit, with trouser legs tucked into his socks (of course, is definitely the height of fashion). This lad is strutting around, fag in one hand jewellery al over the over, outside McDonalds acting as if he is 8 foot tall and built like a rugby player, when some poor unsuspecting adult (about 17/18) walks round the corner wanting to go to mcdonalds for his dinner glances at the young lad, the young lad jumps up in complete disgust and says “Whats your problem? Wanna make sommin of it? Bling Bling” when the adult starts to walk towards the young lad, the young lad pisses himself and runs off to either his pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend or his brother in the army crying his eyes out.” – Urban Dictionary.

            “Chav” refers to an informal British derogatory meaning a young lower class person who displays brash and loutish behavior and wears real or imitation designer clothes. It was designated as the Word of the Year in 2004 Oxford University Press not only in the UK but also in US also. So beware of chavs.

6.  Selfie, the UK and US Word of the Year 2013.

          On 19 November, 2013 Oxford Dictionaries announced that their Word of the Year for 2013 is “selfie”, which means "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."

According to Oxford research, the use of the word “selfie” has increased by 17,000% since this time last year. “Selfie” can actually be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum.  The word gained momentum throughout the English-speaking world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph. “Selfie” was added to online Oxford Dictionary in August of 2013.

5. Hypermiling, the US Word of the Year 2008.

              Considering how much we wrote about “hypermiling” in the past year, it's no big surprise that it has been picked as the Word of the year in 2008 by the New Oxford American Dictionary. The word “hypermilling” is a noun which refers to the practice of making adjustments to a vehicle or using driving techniques that will maximize the vehicle’s fuel economy. The word “hypermiling” has been around since 2004. The people who do the activity of hypermiling are called as hypermillers. The word, “credit crunsh” was the UK Word of the Year 2008.

4. Podcast, the US Word of the Year 2005.

          The word “Podcast” became the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the year 2005. The word beat words like “bird flu” and “IED” in the race to reach the top.

            Podcast refers to a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player. The word comes from joining “broadcasting” and “iPod”. However, the term is a little misleading as Apple Computers, which makes the iPod, had little to do with the original podcasting technology. “Sudoko” became the UK Word of the year for year.

3. Locavore, the US Word of the Year 2007.

          The word "locavore" was the word of the year for 2007 in the Oxford American Dictionary. This word was the creation of Jessica Prentice of the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of World Environment Day 2005.

            The word “locavore” refers to a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food. The popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives, which popularized the word “locavore”. “Carbon footprint” was the UK Word of the Year of 2007.

2. Squeezed middle, the UK and US Word of the Year 2011.

           Squeezed middle was the Word of the Year 2011 for both UK and US. The term was originally coined by Ed Miliband when speaking to BBC Radio, where he failed to clearly define who the “squeezed middle” exactly included, saying it referred to people “around the average income, but below and above the average income.”

            But Oxford define it as “the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those on low or middle incomes”. Squeezed Middle beat word like “occupy”, “podcasting”, “hacktivism”, “Arab Spring”, and my favorite “bunga bunga”. Bunga bunga used in reference to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s scandalous parties.

1. Unfriend, the US Word of the Year 2009.

         In today’s world social networking means total connectivity. We all have used the popular social networking Facebook, there we can find “unfriend” button. But do you know that with the popularity of the Facebook, the word “unfriend” become so popular that it become the US Word of the year in 2009.

          Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook. In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Other words that deemed finalists for 2009 in technology are “hastag”, “intexticated” and sexting”. "Hashtag," which is the hash sign added to a word or phrase that lets the Twitter users search for tweets similarly tagged, "intexticated" for when people are distracted by texting while driving, and "sexting," which is the sending of sexually explicit SMSes and pictures by cellphone. The UK Word of the year 2009 was “simples”.

          

General 30: October 13

NASA logo

The General 30 is the miscellaneous list of 30 questions from science, world, sports, environment, history and many more important topics. This is the first edition of this list. This unique list is published once in a month with 30 different questions in different months. So enjoy the questions.

1. In which year NASA was established?

Ans: 1958.

2. Who was the president of the USA when NASA was established?

Ans: David Dwight Eisenhower.

3. What is the full form of ISRO?

Ans: Indian Space Research Organisation.

4. Who was the inventor of wireless remote control?

Ans:  Eugene Polley.

5. How many moons Uranus have?

Russian Timezone

Ans: 27 (Twenty Seven).

6. How many time zones are there in Russia?

Ans: 9 (Nine).

7. Name the capital of Vietnam?

Ans: Hanoi.

Brazilian Currency "Real"

8. Name the hill which is geographical center of Europe.

Ans: Krahule (Slovakia).

9. Which country has the bible on its national flag?

Ans: Dominican Republic.

10. Name the currency of Brazil.

Ans: Real.

Oscar Pistorius

11. Which was the first host country to win Copa America?

Ans: Uruguay (in 1917).

12. Name the first double leg amputee athlete to participate in Olympics?

Ans: Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius.

13. Who was the player of the match in the final of ICC under 19 cricket world cup 2012?

Ans: Unmukht Chand (India).

Big B in The Great Gatsby

14. Name the club which organizes the Wimbledon Championships?

 Ans: All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

15. Which cricket ground has hosted the most Test matches in India?

 Ans: Eden Garden, Kolkata.

16. Name the first Hollywood movie of Amitabh Bachchan.

Ans: The Great Gatsby.

17. Who was the director of the 1982 Oscar winning film Gandhi?

Ans: Richard Attenborough.

18. How many Grammy Awards did Michael Jackson won?

Ans: 13 Grammy Award as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jennifer Lawrence

19. Who won the best actress in 85^th Academy Awards?

Ans: Jennifer Lawrence.

20. Name the first Miss Universe.

Ans: Armi Helena Kuusela (Findland).

21. Name the first bank in India.

Ans: Bank of Hindustan (1779).

22. Which is the first tea museum in India?

Ans: Munner, Kerala, established by the Tata Tea (2004).

23. When Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established?

Ans: 1963.

24. Name the biography on J.R.D Tata by R.M Lala?

Ans: Beyond the Last Blue Mountain.

25. Where the first oil well and oil refinery in India was established?

Ans: Diboi, Borbil (1890).

26. Who were the three sun Gods of the ancient Egyptians?

Greenpeace

Ans: Re, Amon and Aton.

27. Who was the 13^th and the last emperor of the Incas?

Ans: Mayan civilization.

28. When Greenpeace was founded and where?

Ans: 1971 in Vancouver, Canada.

29. Which is the strongest muscle of the human body?

Ans: Masseter muscle (located in jaw).

30. Which is the deepest point in the world?

Ans: Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, Western Pacific Ocean (35,840 ft).

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Mohenjo Daro

Indus Valley Civilization is one of the four earliest civilization of the world along with Mesopotamia civilization (Tigris and Euphrates), Egypt (Nile) and China (Hwang Ho). The civilization forms part of the proto- history of India and belongs to the Bronze Age. The most accepted period is 2500 – 1700 BC. The first city to be discovered by excavation (digging up) was Harappa and therefore this civilization is also known as 'Harappa Civilization'. The Indus Civilization may have had a population of well over five million at its peak. The city Mohenjo-Daro is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

RD Banerjee

1. Who first described the ruins of Harappa in 1842?

Ans: Charles Masson.

2. The Indus Valley Civilization extended west to the Makran coast of Baluchistan, east to Uttar Pradesh, the north to northeastern Afghanistan and south to Maharashtra.

3. Who discovered Mohenjo-Daro?

Ans: RD Banerjee (1922).

4. Over 1056 and settlements have been found out of which 96 have been excavated mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar- Hakra rivers and its tributaries until 1999. The most settlements founded were the major urban centres of Harappa, Lothal, Mohenjo-Daro, Dholavira, Kalibanga and Rakhigarhi.

5. What is the other name of Mohenjo-Daro?

Ans: Mound of the Dead.

Jewels of Indus Valley Civilization

6. They were first to produce cotton in the world. Greek called the cotton as “Sindon” derived from Sind. A fragment of woven cotton cloth was found at Mohenjo-Daro.

7. In April 2006, the scientific journal Nature announced that the oldest evidence for the drilling of human teeth in a living person was found. Where?

Ans: Mehrgarh.

The Great Bath

8. The world’s first known urban sanitation system was included in the urban plan of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi. Among other things, they contain the world's earliest known system of flush toilets.

9. Who proposed that decline of the Indus Civilization was caused by the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia called the Aryans but later rejected by scholars?

Ans: Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1953).

10. On 11 July, heavy floods hit Haryana in India and damaged the archaeological site of Jognakhera, where ancient copper smelting were found dating back almost 5,000 years. The Indus Valley Civilization site was hit by almost 10 feet of water as the Sutlej Yamuna link canal overflowed.

The Firsts

Arthur Ashe 

1. First black man to win singles in Wimbledon.

Ans: Arthur Ashe in 1975 (USA).

2. First space tourist.

Ans: Dennis Tito in 2001 (USA).

3. First American President to visit India.

Ans: Dwight David Eisenhower in 1959.

4.  First successful scuba dive at the North Pole.

Ans: Brett Cormick (UK), Michael Wolff (Austria) and Bob Wass (USA) in 1999.

5. Which country launched first radio telescope satellite into space?

Ans: Japan in 1997.

6. Who was first Indian to win Noble Prize?

Ans: Rabindranath Tagore in 1913.

Marco Polo

7. First European to visit China.

Ans: Marco Polo in 13^th century.

8. First country to send human to moon.

Ans: United States of America in 1969.

Viking I on Mars

9. First Space-ship to land on Mars.

Ans: Viking-I in 1976.

10. First European country to win football world cup.

Ans: Italy in 1934.

11. First country to issue paper currency.

Ans: China in 11^th century.

Chinese paper currency, present days

12.  First cloned human baby.

Ans:  Eve in 2002.

13. First Indian pilot.

Ans: JRD Tata in 1929.

14.  First city to be attacked with atom bomb.

Ans: Hiroshima in 1945.

The First woman in the Space, Valentina Tereshkova

15. First woman cosmonaut in space.

Jacobus Henricus

Ans: Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.

16. First Secretary General of UN.

Ans: Trygve Lie of Norway from 1946 to 1952.

17. First Indian prime minister to resingned before the full term.

Ans: Moraji Desai (24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979).

18. First to win Nobel Prize for Chemestry.

Ans: Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff Jr in 1901.

19. First Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Ans: Robert Walpole (4 April 1721 – 11 February 1742).

20. First woman Prime Minister of a country.

Ans: Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (1960-1965).