In 1570, Francis Drake, a Devon seaman, sailed to South America and sacked the Spanish town of Nombre de Dios. Later he climbed a tree on the Isthmus of Panama and saw, away in the distance, the shimmer of the Pacific Ocean. He swore that one day he would return and sail an English ship on that great ocean. It …

Sir Isaac Newton is often considered to be the world’s finest scientist. Born in Lincon in 1642, he studied at Cambridge and went on to discover the law of gravitation, and invent the first reflecting telescope. He was knighted n 1702 and died in 1727. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. He wrote his masterpiece, Principia, in 1687.

In 1800, Matthew Flinders was a young naval lieutenant with a passion for exploring. He sailed around the Australian coast with a friend called George Bass in a small boat they named ‘Tom Thumb’. Once, on going ashore, they were menaced by hostile natives but Flinders won them over by trimming their hair and beards! Later, in 1801, finders sailed …

Coeur de Lion, the Lion Heart, was the nickname of King Richard I of England (1157-99). From his youth he was engaged in almost constant war against his father, his brothers, or the king of France. Richard became king on his father’s death in 1189. He went off on the Third Crusade, and, captured on his way home, was imprisoned …

In 1827 a railroad was built from Baltimore to Ohio to counteract the prosperity that canals were bringing to Philadelphia and New York. It was originally intended to use horse power. But in 1830 a cheap, though not very reliable, method of propelling trains was tried out. The Baltimore and Ohio’s sailing car ‘Aeolus’ made its maiden voyage in the …

Whilst shopping in Athens, Arthur Evans saw some small stones on which was an unusual style of writing. Learning that these stones came from Crete he went to the island and, in 1893, began digging. In time he unearthed a great city that had been ruled by the legendary King Minos. Evans had, in fact, discovered the remains of a …

Radio and radar waves, microwaves, infrared rays, light rays, ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma rays all form what is called the electromagnetic spectrum. They are all various kinds of radiant energy and they differ only in their wavelength of frequency. Those with long wavelengths are generally called waves and the shorter ones rays. Before 1800, only light was known, as …

Malvika Iyer is the essence of courage and optimism. At 13, a freak accident caused her to lose both her hands and severely damaged her legs, raising serious doubts about whether she would ever walk again. But young Malvika braved the odds and emerged victorious. Today she is a dedicated social worker, a motivational speaker and model for accessible clothing …

Narendra Jadhav — Growing up in the heart of a Wadala slum, eight-year-old Narendra Jadhav knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: a gangster. Somewhere along the way he changed course and ended up as chief economist of the Reserve Bank of India and then vice-chancellor of Pune University, a chair he currently holds. This prestigious post …

Nandini Satpathy (born: 9 June 1931 – 4 August 2006) was an Indian politician and author. She was the Chief Minister of Odisha from June 1972 to December 1976. Nandini Sathpathy Nee Panigrahy was the daughter of Oriya writer, Kalindi Panigrahy. Her father, an influential writer, had founded the socialist Samajbadi Society and started the Oriya daily Dharitri in 1974. She …