1-10
1. The game of snooker (Billiards) was invented in Ooty – Source
2. In 1948, the Nobel Prize in Peace was not awarded. The Nobel Foundation’s website suggests that it would have been awarded to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, however, due to his assassination earlier that year, it was left unassigned in his honor. – Source
3. Nehru and Indira Gandhi awarded Bharat Ratna to themselves. (The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister of India). Sardar Patel was only given this honor 1991 and Mahatma Gandhi has still not been awarded one.
4. The world’s biggest manuscript by a single person has been written by SwamyRanganathacharya on 3,80,000 pages over a period of thirty five years and has been made available online by Andhra Pradesh Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute. – Source
5. ‘Butter chicken’ was first introduced by a restaurant called Moti Mahal in New Delhi. –Source
6. The 1936 Berlin Olympics was slated by Hitler to unveil the Aryan Supremacy. The black US athlete Jesse Owens won 4 gold & became an icon, while Indian field hockey led by Dhyan Chand was the only one to defeat Germany 8-1 in the finals of a contact team sport. – Source
7. In fact, a new book suggests that India was one of the only two contingents, America being the other, which refused to salute Adolf Hitler during the opening ceremony of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. – Source
8. “Anandamide”, a cannabinoid neurotransmitter, which works similar to Δ9-THC (the primary psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis), is named after from the Sanskrit word ananda, which means “bliss, delight” – Source
9. India shared a land border with Antarctica 200 million years ago – Source
10. Indian constitution has provisions for citizen’s arrest. According to section 43, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 of India, “Any private person may arrest any person, who in his presence commits a non-bailable and cognizable offence.” – Source
11-20
11. A Zero rupee note which was unveiled by an NGO in India to fight corruption. – Source
12. The Most lengthy law suit ever in India was a mahant (temple keeper) filed a lawsuit in Pune in 1205 AD and the case was decided in 1966, 761 years later. – Source
13. Thums-Up’s first slogan “Happy days are here again” in 1980s was coined by the famous Indian thinker U.G.Krishnamurti’s son. It was later changed to “I want my Thunder” and subsequently to “Taste the Thunder!” – Source
14. As per a legend, the Sinhala people of Sri Lanka are originally from Bengal. – Source
15. The co-inventor of the USB is an Indian, Ajay Bhatt. – Source
16. When Jai Singh, Maharaja of a princely state of India, visited the Rolls-Royce showroom in London, he was affronted when the salesman implied that he couldn’t afford to purchase the car. He purchased ten, shipped them to India, and ordered to use them for collecting and transporting garbage. – Source
17. In 1957, V. K. Krishna Menon gave an 8 hour long speech in U.N. Security Council to buy time for other leaders to consolidate Indian power in kashmir. The speech ended with him collapsing on the floor and it is still the longest speech in United Nations history.
18. Thanks to Tsunami, existence of 6 temples dated 7th century AD in Mahabalipuram were discovered in 2005 – Source
19. The South American Country of Guyana has Indians as the largest ethnic group, the descendants of indentured laborers from India, who make up about 43.5% of the population of Guyana – Source
20. An actor from South India by the name Prem Nazir holds four acting record in the Indian film industry. He was lead actor for nearly 610 movies, played opposite the same lead actress in 107 movies, was lead actor of 39 movies which were released in a single year, and was paired alongside almost 80 actresses in his career – Source
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21. There are groups of men who commute by train in and out of Mumbai up to three hours each way, who play devotional music to pass the time. Some of these “bajan groups” have been together for 25 years. – Source
22. Most trees planted in 24 hours is 611,137, a record currently held by the small village of Khemaru in Rajasthan.- Source
23. People have made a tourist attraction out of the Jarawa People (world’s previously most-isolated culture) of the Andaman Islands near India, where you literally board a safari bus and drive through their lands/territories to “observe” them. – Source
24. Sanal Edamaruku, an Indian skeptic was forced into exile to Finland after being charged with blasphemy for proving that a weeping Jesus statue in Mumbai was the result of faulty plumbing. He also challenged an Indian tantric to kill him on live television using nothing but his mystical powers. – Source. Here is the video of it.
25. The gunmen involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks were high on a cocktail of Cocaine, steroids, and LSD. – Source
26. The British East India Company purchased the city of Mumbai from Charles II of England for an annual rent of £10 (equivalent of £1,226 in 2007) – Source
27. Delhi ridge is a northern extension of the ancient Aravalli Range, some 1500 million years old (Himalayas are just 50 million years old). It is also responsible for earning Delhi the tag of the World’s Second most bird-rich Capital city after Kenya’s Nairobi. – Source
28. The deputy mayor of New Delhi died in 2007 when he fell from his balcony after being attacked by a group of monkeys. – Source
29. There are mango varieties named after Aishwarya Rai, Nargis, Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and the Delhi rape victim, ‘Nirbhaya’ – Source
30. The Howrah Bridge of Calcutta has suffered major structural damage from people spitting on it. – Source
