The World’s best General Knowledge Questions

We are used to seeing cars on the roads and planes in the sky. But these were not so common at one time. In a bid to do what others had not managed to do till then, certain enterprising people took up the challenge and designed and developed these wonderful transportation machines, which we now take for granted. Read here about the first steps in the development of these, now common, machines.

First Bicycle Prototype

John Kemp Starley built an earlier model of the cycle in 1870 and subsequently designed a number of safety bicycles. He finally built the Rover model with equal-sized wheels. This bicycle improved the performance of racing bicycles that had reached their maximum speed by 1884. The saddle, handlebars and crank axle were well balanced and logically placed, and this established the shape of the bicycle as we know it today. Two or three years thereafter, the bicycle's components such as the frame material, tyres, variable speed gears, saddle and chain were rapidly made practical.

First Self-powered Vehicle

The first vehicle to move of its own power, for which there is a record, was designed by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot and constructed by M. Brezin in 1769. The model on its first drive around Paris hit and knocked down a stone wall. It also had a tendency to tip over frontwards unless it was conterweighted with a canon in the rear. The purpose of the vehicle was to haul canons around town. This was the prototype for more refined self-powered vehicles to come.

First Controlled Aircraft

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were Americans generally credited with engineering controlled, powered, heavier-than-air human flight for the first time on December 17, 1903. In the two years thereafter, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical fixed-wing aircraft. The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of ‘three axis-control’, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method has been used ever since by all fixed-wing aircrafts. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on unlocking the secrets of control to conquer ‘the flying problem’ rather than developing powerful engines as some other experimenters did.

LONGEST MOVIE TITLE

India has the distinction of producing a feature film with the longest title. At Chennai in December 1994, a Telegu-film (Telegu is the state-language of Andhra Pradesh, a state in south India) was released with 20 words in its title: Shree Shree Rajadhiraja Shree Shree Madana Kamaraja Shree Shree Vilasa Raja Shree Shree Mahdubana Raja Shree Shree Krishnadeva Donda Raja. Lets see if you can memorize this one!

THE HIGHEST JUMPER

You won’t find them at the Olympics, but if they were allowed to participate, they would surely be the ones taking the gold medal in the high jump. We’re talking about fleas. The average flea can jump 200 mm (or 8 inches) into the air. For its size and weight, that’s amazing. To put things in perspective, the flea’s jump is equivalent to a human being jumping 130 metres (or 400 feet) high! Now that would be some world record!

THE LONGEST NAME FOR A PLACE

We’ve told you the longest name for a feature film before. If that was tough to remember, try this: `Taumatawkakatangihakoauauotanenuiarangikitanatahu.’ Well, that’s the longest name you will ever find for a place and its that for a nine hundred-foot hill in New Zealand. This 52-letter name is in the Maori language and means `the hill upon which Rangi sat and played the flute to his lady love.’

WHAT ARE DOGFIGHTS?

Dogfights were mid-air fights between single-seat scout planes in World War I. These planes usually had just one fixed forward-facing machine gun. This meant that the pilot had to aim the whole aircraft at the enemy to shoot, so flying skill was vital. Pilots who excelled were called “aces.” Aces such as Baron von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, became famous for their exploits during World War I.

APPEARANCE OF WRISTWATCHES

The exact time of the appearance of the wristwatch is unknown. But in the early twentieth century women's pocket watches started appearing attached to leather and steel bands. These were worn on the wrist and were an immediate money-spinner as their utility was established. Their usage peaked during the World War I when the time could be seen without unbuttoning the coat or jacket. The first self-winding watch was invented by John Harwood an Englishman in 1924. He patented the design and marketed it with chutzpah. Today the largest and by far the best watch industry is concentrated in the Jura Mountains and the Aar valley of Switzerland.

BADMINTON ORIGINATED IN INDIA

Many believe that the badminton game originated in England, and that it is in fact an offshoot of tennis. But while the game's name certainly sounds very British, as does shuttlecock, badminton is an ancient game that originated in India, where it was called Poona! British army officers who played the game there in the nineteenth century brought it back to Great Britain. In 1873, the Duke of Beaufort entertained his guests with the game at a party he hosted in his home that was in Badminton, England. That's how Poona received its badminton name.

A MUSEUM OF TOILETS

While visiting a museum you may have felt the need to and thus may have visited the toilet. But here is a museum that showcases toilets itself. This unique museum is in Delhi's Mahavir Enclave, on the Palam Dabri Road. It has been set up by Sulabh International, an organization that is associated with pay and use toilets. Its museum of toilets traces the history of toilets over the last 4500 years. On display is a rare collection of privies, pots, bidets, water closets and the like dated from 1145 AD to the present day stylish ones!

QWERTY or DVORAK – WHICH DO YOUR FINGERS PREFER?

Does QWERTY sound familiar? Look down at your keyboard and find it there, all these are alphabets arranged in the top row on the left side of your keyboard. QWERTY is the name given to your keyboards. There is another one known as the DVORAK keyboard, which is considered to be more efficient. Yet QWERTY continues to be the popular keyboard (since it has already been around for a long time) and therefore is more commonly used.

LITTLE BOY OR BIG BOMB!

They say `little boy’s don’t cry.’ But this `Little Boy’ made millions of others cry. On August 6, 1945, what could have been a regular Monday morning this `Little Boy’, a rather unusual nickname for an atom bomb, was dropped from Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber that flew over Hiroshima.

`Little Boy’ exploded at around 8.15 a.m Japan time, about a minute after he was dropped. The blast occurred at an altitude of 2000 ft above the building

that is today called the "A-Bomb Dome."

ALL SPICE? OR ONE?

Take a sniff of ‘all spice powder’, a common ingredient called for in many a recipe. The sniff will remind you of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Well, all spice powder is not prepared by mixing all these three spices together, but is prepared by powdering the dried berries of the West Indian pepper tree. It is known by another name too – the pimento tree

DRESSING UP THE HUMBLE CABBAGE

Read through a story based in Russia and you will certainly find a mention of Sauerkraut. This is a delicacy prepared by paying a lot of attention to the humble cabbage. A huge wooden container is layered with shredded and salted cabbage and left to ferment for a month. It is often seasoned with fragrant spices like caraway seeds, peppercorns and juniper berries. It has been known to have been prepared in ancient Rome and China also. The fermenting enhances the nutritive value of cabbage and makes it rich in Vitamin C. Captain James Cook, the famous British Explorer ensured that sauerkraut was a part of his crew’s diet so that they would not fall prey to scurvy, a disease caused by the deficiency of Vitamin C.

WHEN PARROTS WENT TO WAR!



Did you know that parrots are not only good talkers, they are great listeners too. So sharp is their hearing that they can hear the most softest and distant of sounds and noise. It was thanks to their superb hearing powers that parrots actually came to play a dominant role in World War II. Employed by France, a part of the Allies, parrots were made to perch atop the Eiffel Tower and sound an alarm when they heard an approaching jet.


ON YOUR TOES!



Ballet is a form of dance that evolved in the Renaissance period in Western Europe. Several steps, movements and positions have been standardized and codified and formed into a well-defined system that is followed worldwide. Toe dancing is at times considered synonymous with ballet however it is only one of the several techniques in ballet. Ballet can also be performed without toe dancing. The earliest ballet performances were held in Italy. Later France gained prominence and ballet enjoyed royal patronage there. Then Russia emerged as another center for ballet and gradually it became popular worldwide, spawning in its wake various regional styles.


THE ILL-FATED TWINS – WTC



• The two towers of the World Trade Center stood tall at a height of 417 and 415 meters.
• The port authority of New York and New Jersey owned them.
• The architect who designed the buildings was Minoru Yamasaki, who is believed to have studied more than 100 different configurations before deciding on the twin tower and three lower rise structure design.
• The engineers in charge of the project were John Skilling and Leslie Robertson.
• The project was started in August 1966 and formally inaugurated in April 1973.
• The first tenants occupied the building even as work on the upper storeys was going on.
• The WTC (World Trade Center) was a complex of seven buildings built on a 16-acre plot.
• The two WTC towers were more than 100 feet higher than the silver mast of the Empire State Building.
• The core and elevator system were unique to the Towers, as they had to handle unprecedented heights.


RAVANA, NOT THE BAD RAKSHASA



King Rama I who ruled Thailand in the late eighteenth century is believed to have composed the Ramakian -- an adaptation of the Ramayana tailored to incorporate Buddhist ideas. King Rama encouraged the representation of the Ramakian as a dance drama and is even believed to have chalked out a curriculum to be followed for systematic training. Several years of rigorous training are required for the body to become supple and graceful. Ravana, known as Tosakanth in the Ramakian is not depicted as the bad rakshasa. Tosakanth, according to Ramakian did evil things because he was under the influence of bad emotions! A profound truth in keeping with Buddhist values -- Hate the evil, not the evildoer.


THE WORLD’S LARGEST PIZZA



The world’s largest pizza was ‘baked’ on October 11, 1987 in Havana, Florida and measured 140 feet across. That makes it a scrumptious 10,000 square feet of luscious pizza. Wonder how many people it would have taken to lift it. It weighed a whopping 44,457 pounds. And if you are wondering how much and what all ingredients went into its making, here’s the list.

• It took 18,174 pounds of flour
• 1,103 pounds of water
• 6,445 pounds of sauce
• 9,375 pounds of cheese
• 2,387 pounds of pepperoni

All that would amount to quite a few slices wouldn’t it? Well, it totalled to 94,248 slices of pizza and more than 30,000 people relished it!

WHY DOES ‘MAYDAY’ SIGNIFY DISTRESS?

The first day of the month of May is referred to as Mayday and is celebrated as ‘Workers Day’ all over the world. Ships in distress send out distress signals with the words ‘ Mayday…. Mayday’.

Is there a connection? No. The two are entirely distinct.

The term ‘Mayday’ for use to signify distress has its origins in a French word m'aidez that means ‘help me’ or m'aider that means ‘render help to me.’ The accepted way to send a distress message is to repeat the word ‘Mayday’ three times and then give the name of the vessel and other specifications like radio call sign and whereabouts if possible. And then there should be a follow up message with the word ‘Mayday’ again followed by any other information that may be of assistance to the rescuers.
‘Mayday’ was adopted as the internationally accepted distress call in the year 1927.

WAR DOES HAVE A FEW BENEFITS


When a country goes to war its citizens have to make sacrifices of many kinds. America and her citizens were no different; there were several instances of ‘tightening the belt’ everywhere during the Second World War.

A few of the interesting ones were – slicing of bread was banned as the metal used for making bread slicing machines could be used to serve the country better by being used to make guns, tanks and the like. Food was rationed and meat was very dear.
Resourceful Americans devised the ‘Truman burger’- a burger that used a patty made of mashed beans instead of the usual meat. The name honored the President Henry Truman.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD’S EARLIEST VENDING MACHINES?

Today the most popular use of a vending machine is for quenching thirst. You drop a coin into the machine and out comes a beverage in one of its many branded avatars. Something not very different happened in the ancient times. In the 1st Century AD, you could stand in front of a machine and drop a coin into a slot provided, the coin would slide down its designated path strike a lever which in turn would allow a valve to open and allow a certain amount of holy water to be discharged from the machine. This was the world’s first vend0ing machine of which there is a written record. And we owe the record to a Greek scientist - the Hero of Alexandria who wrote several volumes on mechanics, mathematics and physics.

LET’S MEET BEFANA THE WITCH

In Europe, children follow an old tradition of hanging stocking from the ends of their beds on the eve of the 6th of January. January 6th is the epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the three magi who, according to legend, came by camel to the cave in Bethlehem, guided by the light of a brilliant star.

On the night before, Befana the witch flies around the sky on a broomstick, leaving lots of presents for the children: oranges, dates, small sweet cakes, and a tiny little toy.

In Spain, the magi are called Los Reyes. Spanish children write letters to them like the ones that other children send to the baby Jesus or Father Christmas! In France, Belgium and Switzerland, on the epiphany it is customary to eat la galette Des Rois, a biscuit in which three white beans and one black bean are hidden. The lucky child who gets the black bean in his piece of biscuit then becomes king at the party which follows.

POPE LAUNCHES THE FIRST CALENDAR

The calendar, which is now in use in India, Europe, in Australia, in America, and in many other countries of the world, was introduced in 1582 by a pope: Pope Gregory XIII, and it is called the 'Gregorian calendar'. But not everyone started using it immediately. In Austria, Germany and most of Switzerland, the new calendar came into effect after two years; in Denmark and Norway in the year 1700; in Great Britain in 1752; in the Soviet Union in 1918; and in Turkey not until 1927.

Calendar is a word which comes from the Latin. In the time of the Romans, the 'Ralendae' or 'calends' was the first day of every month.


LOST? FEAR NOT. THE CHINESE WILL LEAD THE WAY!

The Chinese were responsible for the invention of the compass. They can also boast of having invented paper and gunpowder.

The Chinese have been knowledgeable about the magnetic needle for over 4,500 years. The credit of introducing the compass in Europe goes to the seafaring sailors from Italy in 1200. They had seen it in Syria and Egypt.

The standard compass that was accepted worldwide was built by an Englishman Sir W. Thomson in 1877.

SMOG SAVES KOKURA FROM NUCLEAR ATTACK

Virtually everybody knows the name of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima - the Enola Gay - but how about the one that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, 3 days later? This B-29 was known as "Bock's Car", and Nagasaki was not its original target - the intended target city was Kokura, which escaped the scourge as the bomber was under orders to attack only a clear target and the city was shrouded in smog at the time. Nagasaki was the first alternative target city.

WHICH IS THE WORLD'S WORST NUCLEAR DISASTER?

On 26th April 1986 at 1.23 a.m.: The world's worst nuclear disaster took place at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the northern Ukraine. 190 tons of highly radioactive uranium and graphite were expelled into the atmosphere. The result was an international ecological calamity.

The people of Chernobyl were exposed to radiation 90 times greater than from the Hiroshima bomb.

Almost 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the nuclear power plant explosion. An area the size of England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined - over 160,000 square kilometers - is estimated to have been contaminated by the disaster. Chiefly affected are Northern Ukraine, Western Russia and the Republic of Belarus.

Over 1.8 million people, including 500,000 children, live in radioactive zones in Belarus. Between three and five million people, including two million children, in the Ukraine live in radioactive zones. In the radioactive zone areas there are bans on children walking in forests or in rain, playing in the parks, and picking wild berries or flowers due to the high levels of radiation.

“The splitting of the atom has changed everything except our way of thinking and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.”
- Albert Einstein


ORIGINS OF THE BBC

The British Broadcasting Company was formed on December 15, 1922, and received its licence on January 18, 1923. It was backed by six great firms and licensed by the Postmaster-General until the end of 1926. A chain of eight stations was to be maintained and advertising was forbidden; the service was to be 'to the reasonable satisfaction of the Postmaster-General' "

The British Broadcasting Company became the British Broadcasting Corporation on January 1, 1927. The Crawford Committee, who were appointed by the government to advise on future management and control of the BBC recommended that broadcasting should be run by a public corporation 'acting as trustee for the national interest. They suggested the governors of the BBC should have the maximum of freedom within this framework. Broadcasting had become a monopoly, financed by licencing fees on radio receivers, and administered by an independent public corporation.

It was on this, that the present structure of the British Broadcasting Corporation is based.


LOST? FEAR NOT. THE CHINESE WILL LEAD THE WAY!

The Chinese were responsible for the invention of the compass. They can also boast of having invented paper and gunpowder.

The Chinese have been knowledgeable about the magnetic needle for over 4,500 years. The credit of introducing the compass in Europe goes to the seafaring sailors from Italy in 1200. They had seen it in Syria and Egypt.

The standard compass that was accepted worldwide was built by an Englishman Sir W. Thomson in 1877.

SMOG SAVES KOKURA FROM NUCLEAR ATTACK

Virtually everybody knows the name of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima - the Enola Gay - but how about the one that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, 3 days later? This B-29 was known as "Bock's Car", and Nagasaki was not its original target - the intended target city was Kokura, which escaped the scourge as the bomber was under orders to attack only a clear target and the city was shrouded in smog at the time. Nagasaki was the first alternative target city.

WHICH IS THE WORLD'S WORST NUCLEAR DISASTER?

On 26th April 1986 at 1.23 a.m.: The world's worst nuclear disaster took place at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the northern Ukraine. 190 tons of highly radioactive uranium and graphite were expelled into the atmosphere. The result was an international ecological calamity.

The people of Chernobyl were exposed to radiation 90 times greater than from the Hiroshima bomb.

Almost 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the nuclear power plant explosion. An area the size of England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined - over 160,000 square kilometers - is estimated to have been contaminated by the disaster. Chiefly affected are Northern Ukraine, Western Russia and the Republic of Belarus.

Over 1.8 million people, including 500,000 children, live in radioactive zones in Belarus. Between three and five million people, including two million children, in the Ukraine live in radioactive zones. In the radioactive zone areas there are bans on children walking in forests or in rain, playing in the parks, and picking wild berries or flowers due to the high levels of radiation.

“The splitting of the atom has changed everything except our way of thinking and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.”
- Albert Einstein

THE WAR OF ROSES

Flowers have always symbolized nature’s expression of endearment. Be it a rose on Pandit Nehru’s Sherwani or “Daffodils” of

William Wordsworth, flowers are timeless and a joy to behold.

However, the symbol of flowers is not without its sense of irony.

The famous War of Roses evidences this irony. The English aristocracy destroyed itself in a civil war called the War of the Roses, 1455-1485. Two factions fought for the throne of England. A White rose symbolized the House of York and a Red rose symbolized the house of Lancaster.

The war ended when Henry VII, the first Tudor king, ascended the throne.

ORIGINS OF THE BBC

The British Broadcasting Company was formed on December 15, 1922, and received its licence on January 18, 1923. It was backed by six great firms and licensed by the Postmaster-General until the end of 1926. A chain of eight stations was to be maintained and advertising was forbidden; the service was to be 'to the reasonable satisfaction of the Postmaster-General' "

The British Broadcasting Company became the British Broadcasting Corporation on January 1, 1927. The Crawford Committee, who were appointed by the government to advise on future management and control of the BBC recommended that broadcasting should be run by a public corporation 'acting as trustee for the national interest. They suggested the governors of the BBC should have the maximum of freedom within this framework. Broadcasting had become a monopoly, financed by licencing fees on radio receivers, and administered by an independent public corporation.

It was on this, that the present structure of the British Broadcasting Corporation is based.