Important Days & Dates GK Questions with Answers – Page 10

The week is observed to strengthen national integration and communal harmony, with each day given a theme such as minorities welfare, linguistic harmony and women's day, and it closes on 25 November with Communal Harmony Flag Day.

The Central Vigilance Commission arranges the week around that date, and it opens with an integrity pledge taken in government offices and public sector undertakings; the same day is also observed as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, the national unity day.

The two dates were chosen for two events: on 4 October 1957 the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was placed in orbit, and on 10 October 1967 the Outer Space Treaty came into force.

Van Mahotsav was begun in 1950 on the initiative of K. M. Munshi, then the union minister for agriculture and food, and July was chosen because the monsoon has set in over most of the country by then and a sapling planted in wet ground has the best chance of…

Wildlife Week is observed in national parks, sanctuaries, zoos and schools across India with exhibitions, walks and competitions, and it is coordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The week is coordinated worldwide by the World Health Organization and UNICEF and argues for feeding a baby only mother's milk for the first six months, and for beginning that feeding within an hour of birth.

National Nutrition Week is observed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development through anganwadis, schools and health centres to spread the message of balanced diet, and the whole of September is separately kept as a nutrition month.

Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820 and became famous for organising nursing care during the Crimean War, where her rounds at night earned her the name the Lady with the Lamp.

Louis Braille, born in France on 4 January 1809, lost his sight in childhood and devised the system of raised dots that allows blind and partially sighted people to read and write by touch.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, born on 11 November 1888, was a scholar and freedom fighter who became independent India's first Minister of Education and set up the University Grants Commission and the early Indian Institutes of Technology.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, born on 31 October 1875 at Nadiad in Gujarat, was independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister and is remembered as the Iron Man of India for merging more than five hundred princely states into the Union.

Dr B C Roy was a physician who became Chief Minister of West Bengal and was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1961.

Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey player born on 29 August 1905, won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and was so skilful with the ball that he was called the Wizard.

The mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 at Erode in Tamil Nadu and grew up in Kumbakonam, and although he had almost no formal training in the subject, his results on infinite series, partitions and continued fractions astonished mathematicians in England.

On 28 February 1928 the physicist C V Raman announced his discovery that light changes its wavelength when it is scattered by molecules, an effect that carries his name, and for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, the first Nobel Prize in science won by an…

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15 September 1861 in Mysore state, and he is remembered for the Krishna Raja Sagara dam, the block system of irrigation gates and his years as Diwan of Mysore.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was born on 14 November 1889, and because of his affection for children, who called him Chacha Nehru, the date was adopted as Children's Day or Bal Diwas.

Dr Radhakrishnan, philosopher, professor and the second President of India, was born on 5 September 1888. When students wished to celebrate his birthday in 1962, he suggested that the day be kept for teachers instead, and it has been Teachers' Day ever since.

Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 January 1863 at Kolkata, and the Government of India declared his birthday National Youth Day in 1984, first observed in 1985, because his writings and his address at the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893 are held up as a model for young…

Bidhan Chandra Roy was born on 1 July 1882 and died on the same date in 1962, and since both fall on one day India keeps 1 July as National Doctors' Day; he was a distinguished physician, served as Chief Minister of West Bengal and was awarded the Bharat Ratna.