First in World

 

56 Votes

1. Chairman of Peoples Republic of China - Mao-Tse-Tung
2. President of the Chinese Republic – Dr. Sun Yat Sen
3. President of U.S.A – George Washington
4. Chinese Traveller to India – Fahein

5. Foreign Invader to India – Alexander the Great

6. Person to reach South Pole – Amundsen
7. Person to reach North Pole – Robert Pearey
8. Person in Space – Yuri Gagarin
9. Person on Moon – Neil Armstrong
10. Lady to climb Mount Everest – Junko Taibei
11. European to visit China – Marco Polo
12. Place where atom bomb was dropped – Hiroshima
13. Man to walk in Space – Alexei Leonov
14. Woman cosmonaut in Space – Valentina Tereshkova
15. Woman Prime Minister of a country - Mrs. Srimavo Bhandarnaike
16. Woman President of a country - Maria Estela Peron
17. Woman to Command a Space Mission - Colonel Eileen Collins (U.S.A.)
18. The first residents of International Space station - Bill Shepherd (USA),Yuri Gidzanko and Sergei Krikalev (Russia)
19. The first blind man to scale Mt. Everest - Erik Weihenmayer(USA, May 25, 2001)
20. The first Muslim woman to become the Secretary General of Amnesty International lrine – Zubeida Khan
21. The first space astronaut to go into space seven times till date - Jerry Ross (U.S.A.)
22. The first South African to become the second space tourist - Mark Shuttleworth

23. The first woman Prime Minister of South Korea - Ms. Chang Sang

24. The first youngest grandmaster of the world in chess - Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine)
25. The first adventurer flying successfully across the English Channel without aircraft - Felix Baumgartner (July 2003)
26. China’s first man in space - Yang Liwei
27. The first Muslim woman to receive Nobel Prize - Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Peace Prize 2003)
28. The woman with the highest individual Test score making a new world record - Kiran Baloch (Pakistani cricketer, scoring 242 runs playing women’s cricket test against West Indies in Karachi in March, 2004)
29. The first woman of the world to climb Mt. Everest four times - Lakpa Sherpa (Nepali)
30. The first woman to cross seven important seas of the world by swimming - Bula Chaudhury (India)
31. The first aircraft pilot to round the entire world non-stop by his 2 engine aircraft in 67 hours - Steve Fossett (March 2005)
32. The first woman to be appointed as a Governor of a province in Afghanistan - Habiba Sorabhi
33. The first woman of the world to swim across five continents – Bula Chaudhury (India) (April 2005)
34. The first woman athlete to touch 5.0 meter mark in pole vault - Ms. Yelena Isinbayeva (Russian, July 2005)

35. The first Hindu Chief Justice of Pakistani Supreme Court Justice – Rana Bhagwan Das

Ancient India

The Indus Valley Civilization existed in between 3000-1500 BC while the earlier Kot Diji cultures, of the pre-Indus period, existed in the period of approximately 3300-2800 BC. Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-Daro were the greatest achievements of the Indus valley civilization. These cities are well known for their impressive, organized and regular layout.
Then came Aryans who composed these evocative hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly referred to themselves as Aryas usually anglicised as Aryan meaning 'noble'. The 6th Century B.C. was the period of Magadh Kingdom. Chandragupta Maurya ousted the oppressive ruler of Magadh to find his own dynasty that existed from 322 - 298 B.C.
The most famous Maurya King Ashoka the Great ruled from 273 - 232 B.C over a large kingdom stretching from Kashmir and Peshawar in the North and Northwest to Mysore in the South and Orissa in the East. He after witnessing the carnage at the battle field of Kalinga (269 B.C.) in Orissa, dedicated himself to Dharmma ( righteousness ).
In the subsequent centuries, after the Ashoka empire disintegrated, India suffered a series of invasions, and often fell under the spell of foreign rulers - Indo Bactrians, the Sakas and others. After the next 400 years of instability the Guptas established their kingdom.
Kalidas, the famous Sanskrit poet and dramatist, author of Abhijnana Shankuntalam, Kumarsambhavam and Meghadutam is believed to have adorned the Gupta court. Also the great mathematicians like Aryabhatta and astronomers like Varahmihir lived during this period. The dazzling wall paintings of the Ajanta caves too are traced back to this era.
Cholas, Pandayas and Pallavas ruled over the southern part of India during the medieval period of India�s history. Cholas ruled the territory of Deccan (today the districts of Thanjavur and Tiruchirapally) while the Pandyas reined around present day Tirunelvelli and Madurai.
Pallavas of Kanchi rose to prominence in the 4th Century A.D. and ruled unchallenged for about four hundred years. The Nayanar and Alvar saint poets belong to this period. The gemlike shore temples at Mahabalipuram date to this period. The Cholas overthrew the Pallavas were in the 9th Century and regained political primacy in south India. The 15th Century saw the decline of the Pandyas.

Medieval India

The Rajput period was an era of chivalry and feudalism. The Rajputs weakened each other by constant fighting. This allowed the foreigners (Turks) to embark on victorious campaigns using duplicity and deceit wherever military strength failed against Rajputs.
Mohammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan, the Tomar ruler of Delhi, at the battle of Tarain in 1192 and left the Indian territories in the charge of his deputy, Qutubudin (reign - 1206 - 1210), who had started life as a slave. Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids and Lodis followed and this period is known as the Sultanate. When the power of the Sultans declined, the outlying provinces once again became important and the process of Hindu Islamic synthesis continued almost without any interruption.
Babur (reign - 1526-30), the founder of the Mughal Empire in India, was the descendant of Timur as well as Changez Khan. Ousted by his cousins, he came to India and defeated Ibrahim, the last Lodi Sultan in 1526 at the First Battle of Panipat. There was a brief interruption to Mughal rule when Babur's son Humayun (reign - 1530-40) was ousted from Delhi, by Sher Shah, an Afghan chieftain.
Sher Shah (reign - 1540-55), assumed power in the imperial capital for a short while. He is remembered as the builder of the Grand Trunk road that spanned the distance from Peshawar to Patna and also one who introduced major reforms in the revenue system, gratefully retained by the Mughals.
It was Babur's grandson Akbar (reign - 1556-1605), who consolidated political power and extended his empire over practically the whole of north India and parts of the south. Jahangir (reign - 1605-27) who succeeded Akbar was a pleasure loving man of refined taste. Shah Jahan (1628-58) his son, ascended the throne next. Shah Jahan's fame rests on the majestic buildings he has left behind - the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid. Aurangzeb (reign - 1658-1707) was the last Mughal ruler.
In western India, Shivaji (1637-80) had forged the Marathas into an efficient military machine and given them a sense of national identity. They adopted guerrilla tactics to maul the Mughals and put a severe drain on their economic resources.
The contenders for political supremacy in the 17th and 18th Centuries included besides the Marathas, the Sikhs in Punjab and Hyder Ali (reign - 1721 - 1782) in Mysore. Tipu Sultan (reign - 1782 - 1799) - Hyder Ali's son and successor allied himself with the French against the British and strove to introduce the latest technical knowledge from Europe.