Facts of The World – 20 851. The ‘X-ray’ came to be so called under peculiar circumstances. Dr Wilhelm Roentgen, the scientist who discovered the x- ray process in 1895 , did not quite know what it was that made the x-ray pictures. Since the latter ‘X’ in science and math is often used to refer to the unknown, he called the process ‘x-ray’. 852. Reita Faria was the first India...

Facts of The World – 19 841. The most popular nursery rhyme, Mary had a little lamb’ is based on a true story. There really was a girl named Mary and she really had a lamb that was devoted to her. The lamb followed her to school at Redstone Hill in Boston, U.S.A. one day and the sight so amused a young man named John Roulstone that he immediately penned down...

Facts of The World – 18 831. The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during thymes of peace and of war; the blue portion is flown during peace and the red portion during wartime. 832. On a visit to London , the world – famous Charlie Chaplin received 75,000 letters in just two days. 833. The Petronas Towers are presently the world’s tallest twin...

Facts of The World – 17 821. The word ‘ballot’ comes from the Italian word ‘ballota’, meaning’ a little ball’. In ancient Rome and Greece, small balls were put secretly into boxes these were counted as votes. 822. ‘Love the word used for scoring in tennis, originated from the French word “I’ oeuf”, meaning ‘egg’. 823. The shortest will on record was written and dated on January 19, 1967 by Herr...

Facts of The World – 15 811. The word ‘ genie’ refers to a spirit or a goblin with strange powers. It comes from the word ‘jinni’, a type of demon in Arabian mythology. The Jinni was believed to be an invisible, intelligent being made form air or fire. It could take the form of a human or an animal. It could be good or bad. The jinni appears in many...

Facts of The World – 16 801. The banana is indigenous to the warm, moist parts of North- Eastern India , Burma and other South- East Asian countries. After a banana plant has borne fruit, it withers and another one grows right next to it rising from the underground stem called the sucker. Hindus consider the banana plant to be auspicious and during religious ceremonies and festivals, a pair of entire...

Facts of The World – 14 791. The river Ganga which rises in the Himalayan Uttaranchal and flows about 2,500 kilometers, serves the largest cultivable area. 792. Rima Dutta was the first woman to receive the Arjuna award in aquatics. 793. Om Agarwal was the first Indian to win the world Amateur snooker championship. 794. Every year some50 million cars are added to the world’s roads, making car- manufacture the largest...

Facts of The World – 13 781. ‘March’ comes from the Roman month of Maritus and is named after Mars, the god of war. 782. The word ‘April’ come from the Roman month Aprils and is possibly derived either from Aphrodite, the Greek equivalent of the Roman Goddess Venus, or from the Latin ‘aperire’, which means ‘to open’, in reference to the blossoming of spring. 783. ‘May’ comes from the Roman...