Important Days & Dates Quiz: Important Days in July and August

The correct answer is A, 1 July. National Doctors Day is observed in India on 1 July because that date is both the birth anniversary and the death anniversary of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the physician who became Chief Minister of West Bengal and received the Bharat Ratna.

Option B, 7 April, is World Health Day, which marks the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948, and it is an international observance rather than an Indian one. Option C, 12 May, is International Nurses Day, held on the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, so it honours a different profession. Option D, 11 July, is World Population Day, fixed by the United Nations, and it appears in the options only because it is the other well known July date in this list.

The correct answer is B, 11 July. World Population Day is observed on 11 July, a date chosen by the United Nations because the population of the world was estimated to have crossed five billion on that day in 1987. The observance draws attention to family welfare, reproductive health and the pressure of numbers on resources.

Option A, 5 June, is World Environment Day, first held in 1974 and associated with the Stockholm Conference of 1972. Option C, 12 August, is International Youth Day and also World Elephant Day, both of which fall in the following month. Option D, 15 July, is World Youth Skills Day, another United Nations observance in the same month, which makes it the closest distractor in the set and the one candidates most often pick by mistake.

The correct answer is B, Operation Vijay. Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on 26 July because the Indian armed forces completed the recapture of the heights in the Kargil sector under Operation Vijay on that date in 1999. The day honours the soldiers who fought at extreme altitude in that conflict.

Option A, Operation Meghdoot, was the 1984 operation by which India secured the Siachen glacier, a different place and a different year. Option C, Operation Parakram, was the mobilisation of forces along the border after the attack on Parliament in December 2001, and it did not involve the Kargil heights. Option D, Operation Cactus, was the 1988 Indian intervention in the Maldives to reverse an attempted coup, so it belongs to an entirely different theatre.

The correct answer is C, Swadeshi Movement. National Handloom Day falls on 7 August because the Swadeshi Movement was formally launched on that date in 1905 at a meeting in Calcutta, in response to the partition of Bengal. The movement urged the boycott of foreign cloth and the use of Indian made goods, which makes the date a natural one for honouring handloom weavers.

Option A, the Quit India Movement, was launched on 8 August 1942 and its anniversary is observed on 9 August as August Kranti Diwas. Option B, the Non-Cooperation Movement, was begun by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920 and was withdrawn after the Chauri Chaura incident of 1922. Option D, the Civil Disobedience Movement, began with the Dandi March of March 1930, so none of these three matches the August date.

The correct answer is B, Major Dhyan Chand. National Sports Day is observed on 29 August, the birth anniversary of the hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, who was born in 1905 and was part of the Indian teams that won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936. The national sports awards are traditionally presented on this day.

Option A, Milkha Singh, was the sprinter who finished fourth in the four hundred metres at the Rome Olympics of 1960, but no national day is named for him. Option C, K. D. Jadhav, was the wrestler who won India's first individual Olympic medal, a bronze at Helsinki in 1952, again without a day of observance. Option D, Balbir Singh Senior, was a hockey centre forward of the same golden era, and his presence among the options is meant to test whether the candidate knows which hockey player is meant.

The correct answer is B, 29 July. International Tiger Day, also called Global Tiger Day, is observed on 29 July every year to draw attention to the conservation of the tiger and of its habitat, and it is a date on which tiger range countries report on their efforts.

Option A, 28 July, is World Nature Conservation Day and also World Hepatitis Day, so it falls on the day before and is the closest trap in this set. Option C, 3 March, is World Wildlife Day, declared by the United Nations to mark the adoption of the convention on international trade in endangered species. Option D, 12 August, is World Elephant Day and International Youth Day, which belong to a different month and a different animal.

The correct answer is B, Quit India Movement Day. The ninth of August is observed as Quit India Movement Day, or August Kranti Diwas, because the movement launched at the Bombay session of the Congress led to mass action from that date in 1942. The same date is also Nagasaki Day and the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

Option A, Hiroshima Day, falls three days earlier, on 6 August, marking the first atomic bombing of 1945, and the two bombing dates are the commonest pair to be mixed up. Option C, National Handloom Day, is observed on 7 August after the Swadeshi Movement of 1905. Option D, Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, is observed on 14 August, the day before Independence Day, in memory of those displaced and killed during the partition of 1947.

The correct answer is A, 6 August. Hiroshima Day is observed on 6 August, the date in 1945 on which the first atomic bomb used in war was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The day is marked worldwide with appeals for nuclear disarmament and for peace.

Option B, 9 August, is Nagasaki Day, when the second bomb was dropped three days later, and swapping these two dates is the mistake the question is built to catch. Option C, 15 August, is the Independence Day of India and also the date on which Japan announced its surrender in 1945, which adds to the confusion. Option D, 2 September, is the date on which the formal instrument of Japanese surrender was signed, ending the Second World War.

The correct answer is C, the soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 near the lunar south pole. The Vikram lander of Chandrayaan 3 touched down near the south pole of the Moon on 23 August 2023, making India the first country to land in that region, and the date was declared National Space Day in memory of the achievement.

Option A, the launch of Aryabhata, India's first satellite, took place in April 1975 and is remembered but has no day of observance. Option B, the Mars Orbiter Mission, entered Martian orbit in September 2014 at the first attempt, a major achievement on a different date. Option D, the first flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, took place in 1993, and the vehicle became the workhorse of the Indian space programme thereafter.

The correct answer is B, Chartered Accountants Day. The first of July is observed as Chartered Accountants Day because the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established on 1 July 1949 by an Act of Parliament. The same date is also observed as GST Day, since the goods and services tax came into force on 1 July 2017, and as National Doctors Day.

Option A, National Statistics Day, falls on 29 June, the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. Option C, National Technology Day, is observed on 11 May, marking the Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998 and the first flight of the Hansa aircraft. Option D, National Science Day, is observed on 28 February, the date on which C. V. Raman announced the discovery of the effect named after him.

The correct answer is B, 14 August. Partition Horrors Remembrance Day is observed on 14 August, the day before Independence Day, in memory of the millions who were displaced and of those who lost their lives during the partition of 1947. The observance is meant to remind later generations of the human cost of that division.

Option A, 9 August, is August Kranti Diwas for the Quit India Movement, and is also Nagasaki Day. Option C, 15 August, is Independence Day itself, on which the Prime Minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort, so it marks the freedom rather than the suffering that accompanied it. Option D, 26 August, is Women's Equality Day, an observance of a completely different kind that belongs to the same month.