Important Days & Dates Mixed Quiz: Set 5

The correct answer is A, 8 September. International Literacy Day was declared by UNESCO in 1966 and has been observed every year since to remind governments of the work left in teaching people to read and write. Each year the day is kept with a theme chosen by UNESCO.

Option B, 8 October, is Indian Air Force Day, which marks the raising of the force in 1932. Option C, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace, observed by the United Nations. Option D, 11 October, is the International Day of the Girl Child. The literacy day and the air force day share the date of the month, which is the confusion this question is built on. The reason behind the date is worth noting as well: the observance came from a UNESCO resolution and not from any single country's decision, which is why it is called international.

The correct answer is B, Jawaharlal Nehru. India's first Prime Minister was born on 14 November 1889, and because of his known fondness for children, who called him Chacha Nehru, his birthday was adopted as Children's Day after his death in 1964.

Option A, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, was born on 3 December, a date now marked as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities rather than as any anniversary of his. Option C, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, was born on 5 September, which India observes as Teachers' Day, and swapping Teachers' Day with Children's Day is the commonest error in this pair. Option D, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was born on 11 November, observed as National Education Day, so his date falls in the same month and only three days earlier, which makes him the sharpest distractor here. The United Nations separately observes World Children's Day on 20 November.

The correct answer is B, Verghese Kurien. Born on 26 November 1921, Kurien is called the Father of the White Revolution in India. He built the Amul cooperative at Anand in Gujarat and led Operation Flood, the programme that made India the largest producer of milk in the world, and the day has been observed since 2014.

Option A, M. S. Swaminathan, is associated with the Green Revolution in wheat and rice, not with milk, and is remembered as the Father of the Green Revolution in India. Option C, Tribhuvandas Patel, founded the Kaira district milk cooperative that grew into Amul and brought Kurien into the movement, so his name belongs to the same story but not to this date. Option D, Norman Borlaug, was the American agronomist whose high yielding wheat varieties began the Green Revolution worldwide, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Only Kurien's birthday gives National Milk Day.

The correct answer is C, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. National Unity Day, or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, is observed on 31 October, the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, who was born in 1875 at Nadiad, Gujarat. The day was started in 2014 to honour his role as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister who brought more than 560 princely states into the Indian Union, earning him the title Iron Man of India. It is marked with a Run for Unity and a unity pledge, and on 31 October 2018 the 182-metre Statue of Unity was unveiled in his memory at Kevadia on the Narmada. A is wrong because Dr Ambedkar's birth anniversary, 14 April, is Ambedkar Jayanti. B is wrong because Indira Gandhi's birthday, 19 November, is observed as National Integration Day. D is wrong because Mother Teresa was born on 26 August, which is not a national day. Exam tip: 31 October means Sardar Patel, National Unity Day and the Statue of Unity.

The correct answer is C, 27 September. World Tourism Day has been observed on this date since 1980 by the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations body for tourism, and each year a member country hosts the main celebration with a chosen theme.

Option A, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace and also World Alzheimer's Day. Option B, 25 September, is observed in India as Antyodaya Diwas, the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Option D, 29 September, is World Heart Day, kept by the World Heart Federation to spread awareness about heart disease. All four dates fall in the same fortnight, so they are often placed together in the options. The safest way to hold this date is to remember that the World Tourism Organization chose the anniversary of the adoption of its own statutes for the observance.

The correct answer is B, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, born on 5 September 1888. He was a philosopher and a teacher who became the first Vice President and the second President of India, and when his students wished to celebrate his birthday he asked that the day be kept for teachers instead. It has been observed as Teachers' Day ever since.

Option A, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was the first President of India, born on 3 December, and no national day is tied to his birth. Option C, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was born on 15 October, which is observed as World Students' Day. Option D, Jawaharlal Nehru, was born on 14 November, which is observed in India as Children's Day. All three are Presidents or Prime Ministers, which is what makes the options look alike.

The correct answer is A, 1 December. World AIDS Day was first observed in 1988 and was the first global health day of its kind, set aside to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS and to remember those who have died of the disease. The same date in India is the Raising Day of the Border Security Force, which was raised on 1 December 1965.

Option B, 7 December, is Armed Forces Flag Day in India and International Civil Aviation Day. Option C, 10 December, is Human Rights Day, marking the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and it is also the day the Nobel Prizes are presented. Option D, 2 December, is National Pollution Control Day in India, observed in memory of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, and its nearness to 1 December makes it the most likely wrong pick. December's first ten days carry four separate observances, so they are best learnt as a block.

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, Mahatma Gandhi, born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat. India observes the day as Gandhi Jayanti, and the United Nations adopted the same date in 2007 as the International Day of Non-Violence in recognition of the method of non-violent struggle that Gandhi used.

Option A, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was born on 31 October 1875, a date observed as National Unity Day. Option C, Lal Bahadur Shastri, was born on 2 October 1904, and his birthday is indeed marked on the same day, but the United Nations observance is tied to Gandhi and not to him. Option D, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was born on 23 July 1856. Only Gandhi's birth is the reason for the international observance. The date is therefore asked in two different forms, as Gandhi Jayanti in an Indian list of days and as the International Day of Non-Violence in a United Nations list, and the answer to both is 2 October.

The correct answer is C, 31 May. The day closes the month and is meant to draw attention to the harm caused by tobacco in every form and to the policies that reduce its use. Being the last day of the month makes it one of the easiest dates in the chapter to fix.

Option A, 21 May, is Anti-Terrorism Day in India, kept on the anniversary of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Option B, 29 May, is Everest Day, marking the first ascent by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, and is also the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. Option D, 1 June, is World Milk Day, and it is the neighbouring date that most often draws a wrong answer here. Learning the end of May and the start of June as one short run protects you from all three distractors.

The correct answer is B, the Bhopal gas tragedy. On the night of 2 and 3 December 1984 methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal and killed thousands of people, in what remains the worst industrial disaster in India. The day is used to remember the victims and to press the case for industrial safety and for the enforcement of the pollution control laws.

Option A, the Chernobyl nuclear accident, happened in April 1986 in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, and is marked by the International Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl Disaster on 26 April. Option C, the Kyoto Protocol, was adopted in December 1997 and came into force in 2005, and it has no commemorative day of this kind. Option D, the Stockholm Conference of 1972, gave rise to World Environment Day on 5 June, a different observance altogether. Only the Bhopal disaster explains 2 December.

The correct answer is D, the Election Commission of India, which was constituted on 25 January 1950, one day before the Constitution came into force. National Voters' Day has been observed on that date since 2011, and it is used mainly to enrol young citizens who have just become eligible to vote.

Option A, the Supreme Court of India, began functioning on 28 January 1950, two days after the Constitution came into force, so the date is close enough to be a genuine trap. Option B, the Comptroller and Auditor General, is a constitutional authority whose office does not carry this observance. Option C, the Reserve Bank of India, began operations on 1 April 1935. The cluster of dates around the birth of the Republic is a favourite area, so keep 25, 26 and 28 January apart in your mind.

The correct answer is A. The Indian Air Force was raised on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary force, and that date is kept every year as Air Force Day, usually with a parade and a fly past at an air force station. The motto of the force, Nabha Sparsham Deeptam, is taken from the Bhagavad Gita.

Option B is wrong because no such event fixes this date; India's first jet squadrons came years after independence. Option C is wrong because Hindustan Aeronautics Limited began as Hindustan Aircraft at Bengaluru in 1940 and its founding is not the reason for this day. Option D is wrong because the 1971 victory is remembered on 16 December as Vijay Diwas, which is a separate observance of the armed forces.

The correct answer is B, Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacterium causing tuberculosis. He presented his finding to an audience of physicians in Berlin on 24 March 1882, and identifying the organism opened the way to diagnosis and eventually to treatment of a disease that was then a leading cause of death.

Option A, the founding of the World Health Organization, belongs to 7 April 1948 and is the reason for World Health Day, a different date in this same chapter. Option C, the first vaccination against tuberculosis, came decades after Koch's announcement and has no day named for it. Option D, the opening of a sanatorium, is not the basis of any international observance. The safe pair to remember is Koch on 24 March and the World Health Organization on 7 April.

The correct answer is B, Operation Trident. On the night of 4 December 1971 Indian missile boats attacked Karachi harbour, sank Pakistani vessels and set the fuel installations ashore on fire, without losing a ship. The Navy observes 4 December as Navy Day in memory of that action.

Option A, Operation Vijay, is the name used for the liberation of Goa in December 1961 and again for the Kargil conflict of 1999, and the Goa action gives Goa Liberation Day on 19 December. Option C, Operation Cactus, was the Indian intervention in the Maldives in 1988 that put down a coup attempt. Option D, Operation Meghdoot, was the occupation of the Siachen Glacier in April 1984. All four are genuine Indian military operations, which is what makes the question testing; the one tied to 4 December is Trident, and the same war gives Vijay Diwas on 16 December.

The correct answer is B, 11 November. The date is the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, born in 1888, who was independent India's first Minister of Education and the moving spirit behind the founding of the University Grants Commission and the Indian Institutes of Technology. The Ministry of Human Resource Development began observing the day in 2008.

Option A, 5 September, is Teachers' Day, the birth anniversary of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, and it belongs to a different month altogether. Option C, 14 November, is Children's Day, the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, and its nearness to 11 November is what makes it a trap. Option D, 26 November, is Constitution Day and also National Milk Day. Fixing the three November dates in order, 11 for education, 14 for children and 26 for the Constitution, keeps them apart in the hall.

The correct answer is B, the Food and Agriculture Organization, which was founded on 16 October 1945 and has its headquarters at Rome in Italy. World Food Day is kept on the anniversary of that founding, and it draws attention to hunger, nutrition and the security of the world's food supply.

Option A, the World Health Organization, was founded on 7 April 1948, a date observed as World Health Day, and it works from Geneva. Option C, the World Trade Organization, came into being on 1 January 1995 in place of the GATT and is also based at Geneva. Option D, the United Nations Development Programme, was set up in 1965 and publishes the Human Development Report. None of these three is connected with 16 October.

The correct answer is B, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The General Assembly adopted the Declaration in Paris on 10 December 1948, and the date has been observed as Human Rights Day since 1950. India observes its own National Human Rights Day on 12 October, the day the National Human Rights Commission was set up in 1993.

Option A is wrong because the United Nations Charter was signed in June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945, which is United Nations Day. Option C, the Human Rights Council, was created in 2006 and replaced the older Commission on Human Rights; no separate day marks it. Option D, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, was adopted on 20 November 1989, and that date is World Children's Day. The Nobel Prizes are also presented on 10 December, the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, so the date carries two facts.

The correct answer is A. The Charter of the United Nations, signed at San Francisco in June 1945, came into force on 24 October 1945 after it had been ratified by the required number of states, and the United Nations counts that day as the day it came into being. The week from 24 to 30 October is also observed as Disarmament Week.

Option B is wrong because the Second World War ended earlier in 1945, in Europe in May and in Asia in September. Option C is wrong because the first session of the General Assembly met in London in January 1946, a few months after the Charter took effect. Option D is wrong because India was among the original signatories of the Charter in 1945 and its membership is not the reason for the day.

The correct answer is B, Srinivasa Ramanujan. The largely self taught mathematician was born at Erode in Tamil Nadu on 22 December 1887, worked with G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of thirty-one. The Government of India declared his birthday National Mathematics Day in 2012, on the hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of his birth.

Option A, Aryabhata, was the fifth century mathematician and astronomer who gave the value of pi and the rules of the place value system, and India's first satellite of 1975 was named after him, but he has no national day. Option C, C. V. Raman, was a physicist and not a mathematician; his discovery of the Raman effect on 28 February gives National Science Day. Option D, Brahmagupta, the seventh century mathematician who set out rules for working with zero, also has no day. Only Ramanujan explains 22 December.