Ricky Ponting — Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974), nicknamed Punter, is the current captain of the Australian cricket team. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He is regarded as one of Australia’s finest cricketers in the modern era. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic …

R Venkataraman — Shri Ramaswamy Venkataraman was the 8th President of the Republic of India, serving from 1987 to 1992. Before his election as President, he served nearly 4 years as the 7th Vice-President. A member of the Indian National Congress party, he held various ministerial positions in the course of his political career. His life train stopped on 27th …

In December 1831, HMS Beagle was sent by the British Government on a surveying expedition. Attached to this mission as naturalist was a young man, Charles Darwin. Born in Shrewsbury in 1809, he had disappointed his father by refusing to become a doctor or a clergyman. It was feared he would be a failure in life but he became interested …

Mahela Jayawardene — Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, known as Mahela Jayawardene (born 27 May 1977), is the former captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He is a specialist batsman who has a Test average of 53.82 and an ODI average 32.68. Despite his relatively low ODI average, Jayawardene is considered to be one of the best batsmen …

Kamla Kant Pandey — It was the agriculture science period for the ninth class at the Kshattriya High School at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh. The teacher, Thakur Bali Raj Singh, was examining the homework done by his students. The previous day he had asked them to write on “seeds dispersal”. What one boy had written amazed him. “Kamla Kant,” he …

In London a moment of historic pageantry was celebrated on this day-the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It was also the day when London heard the news of the conquest of Mount Everest’s 9,608 m by Edmund Hillary, a New Zealander, and Tensing, the famous Sherpa porter from Nepal. The London Times wrote: ‘Seldom since Francis Drake brought the Golden …

As a result of Tasman’s discoveries, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand were thought to be part of one enormous continental island. It was shown on maps of the time as Terra Australis Cognita (or Southern Known Land) separated from another to the south shown as Terra Australis Incognita (or Unknown). Captain Cook, however, proved that the former was not one …

In a way, this is true of the north and south polar regions, and is caused by the tilt of the earth in relation to the sun. In fact, summer at the north pole is a time when the sun never actually sets from March to September, because the earth does not tilt enough for it to disappear below the …

In several countries, people cannot bring in animals freely from abroad. Any animal that does arrive must go into quarantine and spend several months in a cage before being allowed to mix freely with other animals and people. There is a very good reason for this law. It is to prevent the spread of a terrible disease called rabies. People …

Hashim Mahomed Amla (born 31 March 1983) is a South African cricketer. Born to a South African Muslim family, Amla’s grandparents are originally from Surat, Gujarat (India), having emigrated to South Africa numerous years earlier. His elder brother, Ahmed, is also a professional cricketer, having made his debut two years earlier, and currently captains the Dolphins. Upon his Test debut, …