February 1, 2007

The List Of India's First Incidents

This is a list of firsts in India.

Awards and Titles

  • Nobel Prize winner: Rabindranath Tagore for the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1913. He was also the first Asian to get the prize.
  • Nobel Prize in Physics: C. V. Raman in 1930.
  • Nobel Prize in Medicine: Har Gobind Khorana in 1968.
  • Nobel Peace Prize: Mother Teresa in 1979(However, Mother Teresa was an Albanian nun, settled in India)
  • Nobel Prize in Economics: Amartya Sen in 1998
  • Miss World: Reita Faria in 1966
  • Miss Universe: Sushmita Sen in 1994
  • Booker Prize: Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things in 1997
  • Bharat Ratna: Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, and Dr C.V. Raman in 1954
  • Dadasaheb Phalke Award: Devika Rani in 1969

Exploration

  • Woman to scale Mount Everest: Bachendri Pal on May 23, 1984. She was the 5th woman in the world to scale the peak.

Film and TV

  • Oscar winner: Bhanu Athaiya for Best Costume Design for Gandhi (film) in 1982
  • Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film: Mother India in 1957
  • Sponsored TV serial: Hum Log, started in 1984

Governance

  • President: Rajendra Prasad (1950-1962)
  • Prime Minister: Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964). The first term lasted till 1952 after which he was re-elected
  • Prime Minister to be voted out of office: Indira Gandhi (1977) when the Indian National Congress lost to the Janata Party
  • Non-Congress government: by Janata Party with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister (1977-1980)

Science

  • City to have electricity: Bangalore, in 1906 (it was in fact the first city in Asia to have electricity)
  • Man in space: Rakesh Sharma aboard Salyut 7, on April 03, 1984. He was the 138th man in space world-wide.
  • Woman in space: Kalpana Chawla aboard Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, on November 19, 1997. She was a naturalized United States citizen, and represented the US during the event.
  • Test-tube baby: Durga Agarwal, born 1978

Sport

  • Olympic team medal: Gold for Hockey at the 1928 Summer Olympics Amsterdam, beating the Netherlands.
  • Olympic individual medal: Bronze by K. D. Jadhav for wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki.

Tennis

  • Tennis Grand Slam title: Mahesh Bhupathi (partnering with Japanese Rika Hiraki) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 1997 French Open.
  • Tennis Grand Slam win by a woman: Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italian Gloria Pizzichini in the first round of the 1998 Australian Open
  • Woman in the 4th round (highest so far) of a tennis Grand Slam event: Sania Mirza in the Singles category of the 2005 US Open.
  • Tennis Grand Slam junior title: Leander Paes in the Singles category of the 1990 Wimbledon Championship.
  • Tennis Grand Slam junior title by a woman: Sania Mirza (partnering with Russian Alisa Kleybanova) in the Doubles category of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.

Cricket

  • Cricket tournament: The Bombay Triangular which later became the Bombay Quadrangular (1912-1936)
  • Cricket test match: Against England at Lord's, June 25, 1932
  • Cricket captain: CK Nayudu for the 1932 tour of England
  • Cricketer to score a century: Lala Amarnath in 1933 against England in South Bombay
  • Cricketer to score a triple century: Virender Sehwag against Pakistan at Multan, March 29, 2004
  • Test cricket hat-trick: Harbhajan Singh against Australia in March 2001
  • Cricket World Cup championship win: At the 1983 Cricket World Cup, England beating West Indies.
  • Batsman to complete 10,000 runs: Sunil Gavaskar (he was first in the world to achieve this feat)

Others

  • Wax statue of a living Indian: Amitabh Bachchan at Madame Tussaud's
  • Bharat Samachar - India's First Exclusive Internet Magazine

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