Interesting facts

The first train in India ran on 16th April 1853 between Mumbai and Thane(the distance was 34km). The second train ran on 1854 from Howrah to Hooghly. The first electric train ran in 1929 from Mumbai to Pune. The longest platform of the world is in the Kharagpur, West Bengal, India(2733 ft).  The longest rail route is from Jammu-Tavi to Kanyakumari(3726km). Indian railway network is the fifth largest network in the world. IR is one of the largest employers in India and the world. It is the ninth largest employer in the world. On 24th Oct 1984, the first metro rail was started in Kolkata, West Bengal. The fastest train in India is the Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi express. Nehru setu on sone river is the longest railway bridge(10044ft in length). People employed in Indian railway are about 1.6 million.

First Indian test tube baby was born in 1987, her name is Harsha Indira. In 1988 Feb 25th Indian first surface to surface missile Prithvi launched successfully. Suhas Gopinath at the age of 17, is the youngest CEO in the world, managing an IT firm, global inc. One of the smallest dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic was hardly larger than a pet cat! Antarctica…Brrr! It's freezing and there are no flowers there!! Antarctica is the only continent where butterflies have not been found. Caterpillars have 4000 muscles-humans only have 629! Chickens are not the only birds who bob their heads while walking! Cranes and pigeons do it too! Chameleons can whip their long tongues out faster than our eyes can follow, moving 26 times the length of their own body in a second! Struggle is the sign of life.

The first telegraph line between Calcutta and harbour was opened for traffic in 1851. The first Indian postal stamp was issued in 1852 in Karachi. The first train in India steamed off from Bombay to thane a stretch of 34 km in 1853. The Indian postal department was set up in 1854 when nearly 700 postal offices were there. The first electric train started in 1907 form, Bombay. The first public sector fertilizer factory established Sindri(Jharkhand) in 1951. In 1974 may 18 India conducted first nuclear explosion at Pokhran. Aryabhata, the first Indian satellite was launched on April 19, 1975, from USSR into space. India launched its first satellite using slv on 3rd Sep 1980. Bachendripal, the first Indian women to scalee Mount Everest in 1984.

Louis Armstrong was a famous trumpeter and singer. 'Hello, dolly ' is one of his greatest hits. Armstrong won the Grammy award for song of the year in 1965. His life is chronicled in 'Satchmo: The life of Louis Armstrong ' which was directed by Gary Giddins. House flies find sugar with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive than our tongues. The bumblebee bat is the worlds smallest mammal. The eagle is the national bird of the US, but if Benjamin Franklin bad bat his way, it would have been the turkey. Grasshopper can leap as high as ten times its length. If a person could do that, he (or) she would be able to jump as high as a five-story building. Cows give more milk when they listen to music. The two-foot long bird called a kea that lives in a New Zealand, likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.