23rd August 2016
16 March 1926. The world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket lifts off at Auburn, Massachusetts, paving the way for an era of space flight and innovation. And the man behind the feat is the American engineer and founding father of modern rocketry Robert H. Goddard (1882–1945).
22nd August 2016
The word ‘quidnunc’ first appeared around the year 1710, in Irish writer and politician Sir Richard Steele’s journal The Tatler:
20th August 2016
The history of commercial and civil aviation in India dates back to 18 February 1911. Frenchman Henri Pequet flew a biplane from Allahabad to Naini with about 6,500 letters to deliver. He covered the 10-km distance between the two cities in 13 minutes. This is considered the world’s first official airmail service.
19th August 2016
Africa is home to two species of rhinoceros – the hook-lipped or black rhinoceros and square-lipped or white rhinoceros.
17th August 2016
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries released by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières in French), a Paris-based organization that defends and promotes freedom of information and freedom of the press, based upon the organization’s assessment of press freedom records of the countries in the previous year. It measures the degree of freedom enjoyed by the journalists, news organizations and cybercitizens in each country, and the efforts they make in respect of that freedom. The report is based on a questionnaire and certain observations carried out by Reporters Without Borders correspondents in the competing countries. The smaller the score, the greater the freedom of the press.
16th August 2016
The word ‘pip’ means a ‘spot’ or a ‘speck’. The markings on dice and dominoes are also called pips.
