Historical Trivia

Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi: (1836-1910) Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi also known as Deputy Nazir Ahmad is a pioneer in many fields: he is the first Urdu novelist and also the first visionary who created a respectable storehouse of literature for women. He is also the person who visualized a manifesto for feminism, apart from translating the Indian Penal Code into Urdu called ' Taazeerat-e-Hind ' for the first time. This book was too well received both by the British administration and judiciary. Nazir Ahmad was born on December 06, 1936, in Bijnaur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. He received his early education from his father, 'Maulvi Saadat Ali', who was a teacher himself. After this, he joined Delhi’s Aurangabadi Madrasa where he was taught by Maulvi Abdul Khaliq. During his stay in Delhi, he used to live in a mosque located in Punjabi Katra. During those days, students had to collect their daily meals from different families in the locality. Nazir Ahmad also followed this exercise a

The Woolpit Children: The legend of the green children of Woolpit concerns, in 12th century, two children, brother and sister, having unusual green skin suddenly appeared in the village of  Woolpit in Suffolk, England perhaps during the reign of King Stephen . The children, brother and sister, were of generally normal appearance except for the green color of their skin. They spoke unknown language, and their clothing was uncommon and ate nothing except the raw broad beans only. Soon, they learned the English language and started to eat other foods. The green color of their skin also gone away with time. The young boy was sick and died, soon after his sister was baptized. The girl adjusted to her new life, but she was considered to be ' rather loose and wanton in her conduct '.  According to one version of the story, she said that from where she has come everything there was green and the sun never shone there. According to another, the girl claimed they came from a place calle

ROBERT HERRICK: (1591-1674) English poet Robert Herrick was born in 1591 was the 7th child and 4th son of a goldsmith, Nicholas Herrick, and Julian (or Juliana or Julia) Stone Herrick. When he was 14 months old his father anonymously committed suicide falling from an upper story window of his house in Cheapside on November 9, 1592.  He was an abashed sensualist although a parson by profession. He was not a profound thinker but had a perfect mastery of lyric meter. He was among the half dozen finest lyric poets in English. Herrick started his career as an apprentice to his rich goldsmith uncle. He worked in this capacity for about 10 years. He then joined Cambridge University in 1613 and graduated in 1617 and in 1623 he took Holy Orders. He became parson of Dean Prior in Devon in 1629 but lost his living in 1647 for refusing to subscribe to the Solemn League and Covenant. He then lived in London until 1662, when Dean Prior was restored to him. Herrick published his secular poetry in 16

 The Real Story of Paul Revere’s Ride: In 1774 and 1775, the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety waged ' Paul Revere ' as an deliverer to carry news, messages, and copies of important documents to New York and Philadelphia. On the evening of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren called Paul Revere and gave him the task of riding to Lexington, Massachusetts, with the news that British soldiers based in Boston were about to march into the countryside northwest of the town. According to Warren, these troops planned to arrest ' Samuel Adams ' and ' John Hancock ', the  two leaders of the 'Sons of Liberty', who were staying at a house in Lexington . It was believed that they would then continue to the town of Concord, to seize or ruin military stores gunpowder, ammunition, and several cannons that had been stocked there. In fact, the British troops had no orders to arrest anyone  Dr. Warren’s intelligence on this point wa

HOOD, THOMAS: (1799-1845) Thomas Hood English poet and writer was the son of a publisher and bookseller whose death in 1811 led to his education being curtailed. Thomas Hood worked as an engraver. In 1821 he got a job in London Magazine as an editorial assistant, the owners of which were old friends of his father's. He thus found himself at the heart of the literary scene. His first volume, written in collaboration with his friend Joshua Reynolds was ' Odes ' and ' Addresses to Great People ' published in 1825. From that book, he gained fame as a satirical poet. Two more collections of magazines and articles followed it entitled ' Whims ' and ' Oddities ' in 1826 and 1827. He edited and published his work in a number of periodicals including ' The Gem ', ' Comic Annuals ', ' New Monthly Magazine, and finally Hood's Own '. Despite the fact that Hood was favorite family reading for years, he was always short of money. He

 Martin Luther King, Jr.  (1929 – 1968)  Michael King, Jr  famously known as Martin Luther King,   was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience, based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D. and a pastor, King is sometimes called the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. (abbreviation: the Rev. Dr. King), or just Dr. King. He is also known by his initials MLK. King worked hard to make people understand that not only blacks, but that all races should always be treated equally to white people. He gave speeches to encourage African Americans to protest without using violence. Led by Dr. King and others, many African Americans used nonviolent, peaceful strategies to fight for their civil right. These strategies included sit-ins, boycotts, and protest marches. Often, they were attacked by white police officers or people who did not w

Hakim Momin Khan: (1800-1852) Momin Khan Momin, whose father and grandfather were court physicians, was born, educated, and settled in Delhi. He received his education at the famous Shah Abdul Qadir’s school under the coveted guidance of Shah Abdul Aziz, a celebrated theologian and reformer of his times. Momin had a wider exposure to a variety of disciplines and languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu; medicine, mathematics, and astrology. Music and chess were the other areas of his keen interest which he cultivated with care. Momin was essentially a poet of the earthly love which he expressed best in the form of ghazal. The lover in his poetry is one of amorous disposition; he represents love along with lust, and lust as a part of life’s romance. As Momin dwelt upon the psychology of the lover, he explored his moods and reflexes, as also his erotic tendencies. In celebrating romantic love in all its manifestations, he drew upon the purity of diction, deeply nuanced phrases, and indirect

Shakeel Ahmed (1916-1970) Shakeel Badayuni was born in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, in 1916. His father, Mohammed Jamaal Ahmed Sokhta Qadri, wanted him to have a good career, thus he arranged Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and Hindi tuition for Shakeel at home. Shakeel was initially interested in poetry like every other poet his relative ' Zia-ul-Qadri ' was a religious poet. Shakeel was influenced by him and the synchronous led him to write poetry. In 1936, he joined Aligarh college and participated in inter colleges Mushairas and won frequently. In 1940, he married ' Salma ', who was his relative and had been living in a common house with his family since childhood. After completing his BA, he moved to Delhi as a supply officer, but continued participating in mushairas, earning fame nationwide.  After graduation, he got a clerical job in the Supply department and started living in Delhi. Meanwhile when working in Delhi, he continued to participate in mushairas happening near by th

Shabbir Ahmad Hasan Khan (1898-1982) Shabbir Hasan Khan, famously known as Josh Malihabadi, was born in a family of Pathans at Malihabad near Lucknow. After receiving his initial instructions in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English at home, he continued his education in snatches at several places like Sitapur, Lucknow, Agra, and Aligarh. He had to discontinue his education, after his father’s death and the attendant issues emerging thereafter, . In 1924, he left for Hyderabad to join Dar-ul-Tajuma, Osmania University’s bureau of translation. Following a controversy, he had to leave this institution and return to his native place. In 1936, he started publishing a journal called 'Kaleem' from Delhi which ran for three years.   Carrying forward the legacy he inherited from his great grandfather, grandfather and father, Josh started writing poetry at an early age. He was labelled as a poet of revolution because of his thematic concerns and his declamatory. He is notable among the Urdu

Ismail Meerthi: (1844–1917) Maulvi Ismail Meerthi born on 12 November 1844 in Meerut, was an Urdu poet, Schoolteacher, and Educationist. He was home-schooled by his father Sheikh Piir Bakhsh., later he received his higher education in the Persian language from Mirza Rahim Baig, who replied Ghalib's Qati-e-Burhan by writing Sati-e-Burhan. At first Ismail was not interested in poetry but his contemporaries, especially Qalaq's companionship, attracted him to poetry. Initially, he wrote some ghazals which were published under pseudonyms. After that he turned to Nazms. Later, he had a long and strong acquaintance with Munshi Zakaullah and Muhammad Hussain Azad. And thus, his poems became popular in Urdu. Due to his ability and literary services, the government of the time gave him the title of " Khan Sahib ". Ismail Meerthi had a important place among those who introduced Urdu literature to modern Nazm-composition. The books written before the failed war of  Independenc

Sayyed Khawaja: (1721-1785) Khawaja Mir Dard's poetry allows readers to express their inner feelings with the help of beautiful words, rhymes and expressions. Dard's shayari and ghazals is popular among people who love to read good poems. Dard  was born Syed Khawaja in Delhi, his date of birth is not confirmed. His ancestors had migrated from Persia to India as soldiers, but his father who worked as a royal mansabdar renounced his position to lead the life of a Sufi. Dard received his comprehensive religious education under the supervision of his father. He spent all his life in Delhi and observed the invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, as also the Maratha conquest of North-west India. He was, keenly interested in music, both vocal and instrumental and he held soirees of music, and mastered the art to perfection. As a Sufi, he was respected equally by the royalty and the nobility. This Sufi poet and theologian of the 18th Century Delhi is an important representative

Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi: (1923-2018) Humor and satire are important components of communication. Life changing messages can be conveyed through this genre in a very jovial manner. The problem, however, lies in the writers’ involvement in scurrilous sentences which might be offensive. Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi raised the Urdu humors-writing up to the apogee. Yusufi was born in a well-educated family of Jaipur (British India), born in Tonk, Rajasthan, India 1923.From his paternal side, he belonged to Pashtun of the Yusufzai clan, while from his maternal side he belonged to Rajput of the Rathore clan. His father Abdul Karim Khan Yusufi served as the was chairman of the Jaipur Municipality, and later Speaker of the Jaipur Legislative Assembly. Yusufi earned a B.A. from Agra University before coming to Aligarh. He completed an M.A. in Philosophy and LL.B from Aligarh Muslim University and joined the Indian Civil Service soon after. After partition, his family migrated to Karachi, Pakistan. In 1950,

Earth (4.5 Billion years ago) Earth and the other planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago. They were made of the leftover gas from the nebula that made the Sun. The Moon may have been formed after a collision between the early Earth and a smaller planet (sometimes called Theia). Scientists believe that parts of both planets broke off - becoming (by gravity) the Moon. Earth's water came from different places. Condensing water vapor, and comets and asteroids hitting Earth, made the oceans. Within a billion years (that is about 3.6 billion years ago) the first life evolved, in the Archaean era. Some bacteria developed photosynthesis, which lets plants make food from the Sun's light and water. This released a lot of oxygen, which was first taken up by iron in the solution. Eventually, free oxygen got into the atmosphere or air, making Earth's surface suitable for aerobic life (see Great Oxygenation Event). This oxygen also formed the ozone layer which protects Earth's su

Amelia Mary Earhart: (1897-1937) She was an American aviator, one of the first women to fly a plane long distances. She was the first woman to fly a plane by herself across the Atlantic Ocean. She broke many records and showed how air travel had moved forward. She earned the title of ' Lady Lindy ' because of her record-breaking aviation career and because her physical appearance was similar to pioneering pilot and American hero Charles Lindbergh. She also wrote books, most of them were about her flights. Earhart vanished over the South Pacific Ocean in July 2, 1937, while trying to fly around the world. She was declared dead on July 3, 1937. Many theories stand in place about Amelia’s end. Some believe she was a spy for the U.S government and was captured by the Japanese on Gardner Island, others say she faked her death. The most plausible though many researchers believe, which is that the Electra ran out of fuel and that Earhart and Noonan ditched at sea. The “crash and sink”

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918 – 2013) The South African politician and activist was born in the Madiba clan to a Thembu royal family, in the village of Mvezo , in the East of Cape, on 18 July 1918. In 1930, when he was 12 years old, his father passed away and Mandela became the ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni (African Village, Pronounced: Maa key zee when ee). He received his early education from primary school in Qunu, where according to the school's custom, he was given Christian name ' Nelson '. Later, he went to Clarkebury Boarding Institute to complete his Junior Certificate then to Healdtown to complete his matriculation. When he was studying  Bachelor of Arts from the University College of Fort Hare he was expelled because of joining student protest.  When he returned to the Great Place of  Mqhekezweni, the King was in anger and said if he and his cousin would not come back to the Fort the King will arrange wives for them. Instead of going to t

Industrialization: (STARTED: 1780s) Industrialization (or Industrialisation) is a process that happens in countries when they start to use machines to do work that was once done by people. Industrialization changes the things people do. Industrialization caused towns to grow larger. Many people left farming to take higher-paid jobs in factories in towns. Industrialization is part of a process where people adopt easier and cheaper ways to make things. Using better technology, it becomes possible to produce more goods in a shorter amount of time. More things can be produced by fewer people. After industrialization people also do more specialized jobs. For example, before industrialization, a cobbler made the whole shoe. He worked on one pair of shoes, finished that, and then did the next pair of shoes. With industrialization, there are many people involved in making shoes. An individual shoemaker has a smaller task, however. There is one person that cuts the sole of the shoe. Another per

Birth of the Sun (4.6 Billion years ago) The Sun in the center of our solar system is a yellow mighty star. It gives off energy as light. That includes light, infra-red energy (heat), ultraviolet light and radio waves. It also gives off a stream of particles, which reaches Earth as "solar wind". The source of all this energy is the reaction in the star which turns hydrogen into helium and makes huge amounts of energy. Scientists think that the Sun started from a very large cloud of dust and small bits of ice about 4.567 billion years ago. At the center of that huge cloud, gravity caused the material to build up into a ball. Once this got big enough, the huge pressure inside started a fusion reaction. The energy this released caused that ball to heat and shine. The energy radiated from the Sun pushed away the rest of the cloud from itself, and the planets formed from the rest of this cloud. The Sun is a star like many others in our Milky Way galaxy. It has existed for a little

Big Bang Theory: (13.8 billion years ago) The Big Bang model is that the universe begun in an extremely dense and hot condition and has expanded. The theory suggests, and measurements show, that the universe is still expanding today. The Big Bang is a scientific theory about how the universe started, and then made the stars and galaxies we see today. The universe began as a very hot, small, and dense superforce (the mix of the four fundamental forces), with no stars, atoms, form, or structure (called a "singularity"). Then about 13.8 billion years ago, space expanded very quickly (thus the name " Big Bang "). This started the formation of atoms, which eventually led to the formation of stars and galaxies. It was Georges Lemaitre who first noted (in 1927) that an expanding universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point. The universe is still expanding today, and getting colder as well. As a whole, the universe is growing and the temperature is

Black Death:  (Occurred: 1347) The Black Death was an outbreak of disease that killed millions of people across Europe and Asia. Almost one out of every three people in Europe died from the disease, and was at its worst between 1347 and 1351 . The disease may have started in Asia. Most people think that the disease was the bubonic plague. This disease is carried and spread by fleas living on rats. Traders from the Silk Road may have brought the infected fleas to Europe. Fleas started the problem; the infected fleas were carried by black rats. Rats that were carrying the fleas would go into cities. When the fleas bit somebody, they would inject a little bit of the bacteria into the wound. This would cause the person to be infected. Rats were often on ships. This meant the disease spread extremely quickly, all over Europe. In humans, the disease caused swelling in the groin, under the arms and behind the ears. These swellings were a black and purple color, hence the name 'The Black D

Syed Hussain Jaun Asghar Naqvi: (1931-2002) Syed Hussain Jaun Asghar Naqvi, commonly known as Jaun Elia, was born in Amroha, Utter Pradesh on   14th  of   December 1931 . He was the son of  Allama Shafique Hassan Elia who was a scholar of Astronomy and literature. He had four elder siblings, brothers, Rais Amrohvi, Syed Muhammad Taqi, Mohammad Abbas, and sister, Syeda Shahazanan Najafi Naqvi. He was born in a Shia Muslim family but didn't believed in religion and identified himself as an agnostic. He received his early education under the guidance of his father, Shafiq Hasan Elia in Amroha. He acquired the degrees of Adeeb Kamil (Urdu), Kamil (Persian), and Fazil (Arabic), apart from this he mastered himself in English, Persian, Sanskrit, and Hebrew. He also attained knowledge of  Philosophy, Logic, Sufism, Muslim religious tradition, Western Literature, and Kabbala. He wrote his first poetry at the age of 8 but published his first work when he was 60. Jaun's view about religio