16 March 1926. The world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket lifts off at Auburn, Massachusetts, paving the way for an era of space flight and innovation. And the man behind the feat is the American engineer and founding father of modern rocketry Robert H. Goddard (1882–1945). As a child Robert drew fascination from science around him in various forms. He was greatly inspired by H.G….
The word ‘quidnunc’ first appeared around the year 1710, in Irish writer and politician Sir Richard Steele’s journal The Tatler: ‘The infignificancy of my manners to the reft of the world, makes the laughers call me a quid-nunc, a phrafe which I neither underftand, nor fhall ever enquire what they mean by it.’ Since then, several writers…
The history of commercial and civil aviation in India dates back to 18 February 1911. Frenchman Henri Pequet flew a biplane from Allahabad to Naini with about 6,500 letters to deliver. He covered the 10-km distance between the two cities in 13 minutes. This is considered the world’s first official airmail service. In 1912, Indian Air Services Ltd collaborated with…
Africa is home to two species of rhinoceros – the hook-lipped or black rhinoceros and square-lipped or white rhinoceros. The white rhino is the largest existing species of rhinoceros and the second largest animal after the elephant. An adult male rhino can weigh as much as 3.6 tonnes. Female rhinos are comparatively less heavier, but can still weigh up to 1.7 tonnes….
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries released by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières in French), a Paris-based organization that defends and promotes freedom of information and freedom of the press, based upon the organization’s assessment of press freedom records of the countries in the previous year. It measures the degree of freedom…
The word ‘pip’ means a ‘spot’ or a ‘speck’. The markings on dice and dominoes are also called pips. The word also refers to the symbols on playing cards that give it a specific value, the small seeds of some fruit, the image of an object on a radar screen, each of the stars on the shoulder…
