First Miss World |
Reita Faria in 1966 |
First Miss Universe |
Susmita Sen in 1994 |
First Booker Prize |
Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things in 1997 |
First Bharat Ratna |
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishan, C. Rajagopalachari, and Dr. C.V. Raman in 1954 |
First Foreigner to receive Bharat Ratna |
Khan Abdul Ghaffar |
First Person to receive Stalin Prize |
Saifuddin Kitchlu |
First Chevalier |
Sivaji Ganesan |
First Person to receive Jnapith Award |
Shri Shankar Kurup |
First Dadasaheb Phalke Award |
Devika Rani in 1969 |
First Ashoka Chakra Award to a civilian (posthumous) |
D.K. Jatar, captain of the sabotaged plane Kashmir Princess, for "most conspicuous bravery, daring and self-sacrifice." |
First Magsaysay Award |
Vinoba Bhave |
First Winner of a major literary award in the United States |
Dhan Gopal Mukerji |
First Ford Supermodel of the World(contest) |
Bipasha Basu, 1996 |
First Indian recipient of 'Oscar Award' |
Bhanu Athaiya |
First Chess Grandmaster |
Viswanathan Anand in 1988, at the age of 18 |
First FIDE World Chess Champion |
Viswanathan Anand in December 2000 |
First Undisputed World Chess Champion |
Viswanathan Anand in September 2007 |
First Cricket tournament |
The Bombay Triangular which Later became the Bombay Quadrangular (1912-1936) |
First Cricket Test Match |
Against England at Lord's June,25, 1932 |
First Cricket Captain |
CK Nayudu for the 1932 tour of England |
First Cricketer to score a century |
Lala Amarnath in 1933 against England in South Bombay |
First Cricketer to score a triple century |
Vijay Hazare |
First ODI cricket hat-trick |
Harbhajan Singh against Austrlia in March 2001 |
First Cricketer World Cup Championship Win |
At the 1983 Cricket World Cup |
First Batsman to complete 10,000 runs in Test Cricket |
Sunil Gavaskar (he was the first in the world to achieve this feat.) |
First Batsman to complete 10,000 runs in ODI Cricket |
Sachin Tendulkar (he was the first in the world to achieve this feat.) |
First Cricketer to score 75 Test and ODI centuries |
Sachin Tendulkar |
First Commander-in-Chief of Free India |
General Sir Roy Bucher |
First Indian Commander-in-Chief of Free India |
General Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, 1949 |
First Chief of Air Staff |
Air Marshall Sir Thomas Elmhirst |
First Indian Chief of Staff |
Air Marshall Subroto Mukerjee, 1954 |
First Chief of Naval Staff |
Vice Admiral R D Katari |
First Field Marshall of India |
S.H.F. Manekshaw |
First Person to receive Paramvir Chakra |
Major Somnath Sharma |
First Cosmonaut |
Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma, 1984 |
First Atomic Submarine of India |
INS Chakra |
First Medium Range Missile |
Agni |
First Indian Missile |
Prithvi (Striking range - 250 kms) |
India's First Nuclear Centre |
Tarapur |
The first lady to become Miss World |
Rita Faria |
The first woman judge in Supreme Court |
Mrs. Meera Sahib Fatima Bibi |
The first woman Ambassador |
Miss C.B. Muthamma |
The first woman Governor of a state in free India |
Mrs Sarojini Naidu |
The first woman Speaker of a State Assembly |
Shanno Devi |
The first woman Prime Minister |
Mrs Indira Gandhi |
The first woman Minister in a Government |
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur |
The first woman to climb Mount Everest |
Bachhendri Pal |
The first woman to climb Mount Everest twice |
Santosh Yadav |
The first woman President of Indian National Congress |
Mrs Annie Besant |
The first woman pilot in Indian Air Force |
Harita Kaur Dayal |
The first woman Graduates |
Kadambini Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu, 1883 |
The first woman Airline Pilot |
Durga Banerjee |
The first woman Honours Graduate |
Kamini Roy, 1886 |
The first woman Olympic medal Winner |
Karnam Malleswari, 2000 |
The first woman Asian Games Gold Medal Winner |
Kamlijit Sandhu |
The first woman Lawyer |
Cornelia Sorabjee |
The first woman President of United Nations General Assembly |
Mrs Vijaya Laxmi Pandit |
The first woman Chief Minister of an Indian State |
Mrs Sucheta Kripalani |
The first woman Chairman of Union Public Service Commission |
Roze Millian Bethew |
The first woman Director General of Police |
Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya |
The first woman Judge |
Anna Chandy (She became judge in a district court in 1937) |
The first woman Cheif Justice of High Court |
Mrs Leela Seth (Himachal Pradesh High Court) |
The first woman Judge in Supreme Court of India |
Kumari Justice M. Fathima Beevi |
The first woman Lieutenant General |
Puneeta Arora |
The first woman Air Vice Marshal |
P. Bandopadhyaya |
The first woman chairperson of Indian Airlines |
Sushma Chawla |
The first woman IPS officer |
Mrs. Kiran Bedi |
The first and last Muslim woman ruler of India |
Razia Sultan |
The first woman to receive Ashoka Chakra |
Nirja Bhanot |
The first woman to receive Jnanpith Award |
Ashapurna Devi |
The first woman to cross English Channel |
Aarti Saha |
The first woman to receive Nobel Prize |
Mother Teresa |
The first woman to receive Bharat Ratna |
Mrs Indira Gandhi |
The first woman to receive Jnanpith Award |
Ashpurna Devi |
First Sound Film |
Alam Ara, 1931 |
First Oscar winner |
Bhanu Athaiya for the Best Costume Design for Gandhi (film) in 1982 |
First Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film |
Mother India in 1957 |
First National Film Award for Cinema |
Shyamchi Aai in 1954 |
First Colorized Film |
Mughal-e-Azam in 2004(the original black-and-white version was released in 1960) |
First Sponsored TV Serial |
Hum Log, started in 1984, was also the first soap opera of India |
First Actor to entact 10 roles |
Kamal Haasan |
Chairman of Peoples Republic of China |
Mao-Tse-Tung |
President of the Chinese Republic |
Dr. Sun Yat Sen |
President of USA |
George Washington |
Chinese Traveller to India |
Fahein |
Foreign Invader to India |
Alexander the Great |
Person to reach South Pole |
Amudsen |
Person to reach North Pole |
Robert Pearey |
Person in Space |
Yuri Gagarin |
Person on Moon |
Neil Armstrong |
Lady to Climb Mount Everst |
Junko Taibei |
European to visit China |
Marco Polo |
Place where atom bomb was dropped |
Hiroshima |
Man to walk in Space |
Alexei Leonov |
Women cosmonaut in Space |
Valentina Tereshkova |
Woman Prime Minister of a country |
Mrs. Srimavo Bhandarnaike |
Women President of a country |
Maria Estela Peron |
First north-south crossing of Australia |
Burke, Robert O'Hana (1860-1861) |
First sea journey around the world |
Magellan |
First President of India |
Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1950-1962) |
First Prime Minister of India |
Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964). The first term lasted till 1952 after which he was re-elected. |
First Vice President of India |
Dr. S Radhakrishan |
First Deputy Prime Minister of India |
Vallabhbhai Patel |
First Prime Minister to be voted out of Office |
India Ghandi (1977) when the Indian National Congress lost to he Janta Party. |
First Sikh Prime Minister |
Manmohan Singh |
First Sikh President |
Giani Zail Singh |
First Non-Congress Government |
by Janta Party with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister (1977-1980) |
First Prime Minster of India resigned without completing his full term |
Morarji Desai |
First Prime Minister to lead a minority government for a full term(five years) |
P.V. Narasimha Rao, June 21, 1991 to May 16 1996 |
First Prime Minster from South India |
P.V. Narasimha Rao, June 21, 1991 to May 16 1996 |
First Governor-General |
Warren Hastings |
First British Governor-General |
Lord William Bentick |
First British Viceroy of India |
Lord Canning |
First Governor General of Independent India |
Lord Mountbatten, 1947 |
First and Last Indian Governor-General of Indian Union |
C Rajagopalachari, 1948 |
First Chief Justice of India |
Justice Hiralal J Kania |
First Indian to pass ICS |
Surendra Nath Banerjee |
First Indian ICS Officer |
Satyendranath Tagore, 1863 |
First Speaker of Lok Sabha |
Shri G.V. Mavlankar |
First Finance Minister of Independent India |
Shri R.K.Shanmukhan Chettys |
Presentation of First Budget after India's Independence |
Shri R.K.Shanmukhan Chettys on Nov. 26, 1947 |
First President to die in Office |
Dr. Zakhir Hussain |
First Prime Minister who did not face the Parliament |
Charan Singh |
First Chief Justice of Supreme Court to become President of India |
Justice M Hidaytullah |
First Education Minister |
Abul Kalam Azad |
First Home Minister |
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
First Chief Election Commissioner |
Sukumar Sen |
First Minister to regin from Union Cabinet |
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (1950) |
The first President of the USA |
George Washington |
The first Prime Minister of Great Britain |
Walpole |
The first President of the Chinese Republic (1912) |
Sun Yat-Sen |
The first Chairman of the Central Government of the People's Republic of China formally established in Peking in October, 1949 |
Mao Tse-tung |
The first Governor-General of Pakistan |
Mohammad Ali Jinnah |
The last king of France |
Louis Philippe |
The first ever woman Prime Minister of a country in the world |
Mrs S. Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka) |
The first woman to become Prime Minster of a country twice |
Mrs S. Bandaranaike |
The first European invader on Indian Soil |
Alexander the Great |
The first European to visit China |
Marco Polo |
The first Chinese pilgrim who came to India |
Fa-hein |
The first British Prime Minister to visit India |
Harold Macmillan |
The first President of the USA to visit India |
D. Eisenhower |
The first Soviet Prime Minister to visit India |
V.I. Bulganin |
The first President of Indian Republic |
Dr. Rajendra Prasad |
The first Prime Minister of free India |
Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru |
The first Indian to win Nobel Prize |
Rabindranath Tagore |
The first President of Indian National Congress |
W.C. Banerjee |
The first Muslim President of Indian National Congress |
Badruddin Tayyabji |
The first Muslim President of India |
Dr. Zakir Hussain |
The first British Governor General of India |
Lord William Bentinck |
The first British Viceroy of India |
Lord Canning |
The first Governor General of free India |
Lord Mountbatten |
The first and the last Indian to be Governor General of free India |
C. Rajgopalachari |
The first man who introduced printing press in India |
James Hicky |
The first Indian to join the I.C.S |
Satyendra Nath Tagore |
India’s first man in Space |
Rakesh Sharma |
The first Prime Minister of India who resigned without completing the full term |
Morarji Desai |
The first Indian Commander-in-Chief of India |
General Cariappa |
The first Chief of Army Staff |
Gen. Maharaj Rajendra Singhji |
The first Indian Member of the Viceroy's executive council |
S.P.Sinha |
The first President of India who died while in office |
Dr. Zakhir Hussain |
The first Muslim President of Indian Republic |
Dr. Zakhir Hussain |
The first Prime Minister of India who did not face the Parliament |
Charan Singh |
The first Field Marshal of India |
S.H.F. Manekshaw |
The first Indian to get Nobel Prize in Physics |
C.V.Raman |
The first Indian to receive Bharat Ratna award |
Dr. Radhakrishnan |
The first Indian to cross English Channel |
Mihir Sen |
The first Person to receive Jnanpith award |
Sri Shankar Kurup |
The firs Speaker of the Lok Sabha |
Ganesh Vasudeva Mavalankar |
The first Vice-President of India |
Dr. Radhakrishnan |
The first Education Minister |
Abdul Kalam Azad |
The first Home minister of India |
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel |
The first Indian Air Chief Marshal |
S. Mukherjee |
The first Indian Naval Chief |
Vice Admiral R.D. Katari |
The first Judge of International Court of Justice |
Dr. Nagendra Singh |
The first person to reach Mt. Everest without oxygen |
Sherpa Anga Dorjee |
The first person to get Param Vir Chakra |
Major Somnath Sharma |
The first Chief Election Commissioner |
Sukumar Sen |
The first person to receive Magsaysay Award |
Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
The first person of Indian origin to receive Nobel Prize in Medicine |
Hargovind Khurana |
The first Chinese traveller to visit India |
Fahein |
The first person to receive Stalin Prize |
Saifuddin Kitchlu |
The first person to resign from the Central Cabinet |
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee |
The first person to receive Nobel Prize in Economics |
Amartya Sen |
The first Chief Justice of Supreme Court |
Justice Hirala J. Kania |
The first Indian Pilot |
J.R.D. Tata (1929) |
First Noble Prize Winner |
Rabindranath Tagore for the Noble Prize in Literature, 1913.He was also the first Asian to get the Prize. |
First Noble Prize in Physics |
C.V. Raman in 1930 |
First Noble Prize in Medicine |
Har Gobind Khorana in 1968. (Indian Born US Citizen) |
First Noble Peace Prize |
Mother Teresa in 1979. (Albanian nun, Indian Citizen) |
First Noble Prize in Economics |
Amartya Sen in 1998 |
First Olympic team medal |
Gold for Hockey at the 1928 Summer Olympics Amsterdam, beating the Nethherlands. |
First Olympic individual medal (in British India) |
Norman Pritchard, 1900 |
First Olympic individual medal |
Bronze by K.D. Jadhav for wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympic Helsinki. |
First Person to swim across the English Channel |
Mihir Sen, |
First Women to swim across the English Channel |
Mihir Sen, 1958 |
First Formula I race driver |
Narain Karthikeyan |
First Formula I team |
Force India F1 |
First A1 GP race victory |
Narain Karthikeyan, Zhuhai, China, 2007 |
First Asian Games organised |
Delhi (1951) |
First Wax statue of a Living Indian |
Mahatma Gandhi at Madame Tussaud's in 1939 |
First Chinese pilgrim to Visit India |
Fa-hien |
First Exclusive internet magazine |
Bharat Samachar |
First Miss India to participate in Miss Universe |
Indrani Rehman |
First President of Indian National Congress |
W.C. Bannerjee, 1885 |
First Muslim President of the Indian National Congress |
Badruddin Tayyabji |
First Judge in International Court of Justice |
Dr. Nagender Singh |
First Graduate in Medicine |
Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chukerbutty |
India's First University |
Nalanda University |
India's First Open University |
Andhra Pradesh Open University |
India's First Lok Sabha Member to be elected with a record maximum number of votes |
P.V.Narasimha Rao |
First Indian to reach Antarctica |
Lt. Ram Charan |
First British to Visit India |
Hawkins |
First Test tube baby of India |
Indira (Baby Harsha) |
First Post Office Opened in India |
Kolkata(1727) |
First Hydroelectric Plant |
On the Ganganachukki waterfall of the Sivasamudram Falls, Karnataka, built in 1902 |
First City to have electricity |
Banglore, in 1906 (it was in fact the first city to have electricity) |
First Man in Space |
Rakesh Sharma aboard Salyut 7, on April 03, 1984. He was the 138th man in space world-wide. |
First Women in Space |
Kalpana Chawla aboard Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, on November 19,1997. She was a naturalized United States citizen, and represented the US during the event. |
First Test-tube baby |
Durga Agarwal, born 1978 |
First Scienfific Expedition to Antarctica |
1981 |
First Nuclear Reactor |
Tarapur, Maharashtra |
First Genetically Modified Food Product in India |
Bt. Egg Plant Hybrid |
First Satellite |
Aryabhatta, launched on April 19, 1975 |
First Satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services |
EDUSET |
First Successfully Indigenous Launch Vehicle |
SLV-3 |
The first person in the world to land on the moon |
Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E Aldrin Jr of USA (Armstrong was the first to set foot on the moon followed by Aldrin) - July 21, 1969 |
First man to enter space (or the world's first cosmonaut) |
Yuri Gagarin (Russian) |
The first returnable space shuttle |
Colombia |
The first disabled satellite repaired in space |
Solar Max |
The first unmanned moon-buggy to explore surface of the moon |
Lunokhod-I (Russia) |
The first unmanned spaceship to have soft-landed and lifted off from the moon to return to earth. |
Luna - 16 (Russia) (Sept. 21, 1970) |
The first manned space vehicle to land on the moon |
Lunar Exploration Module (LEM) nick named "Eagle" |
The first country to send men on the moon |
USA |
The first to launch earth satellite or "artificial baby moon" |
Russia |
The first woman cosmonaut of the world |
Valentina Tereshkova (Russian) |
The first person to float in space |
Alexei Lenov (Russian) |
The first American astronaut (and second person in the world) to float in space |
Edward White |
The first country to launch a cosmic space rocket towards moon |
USSR |
The first space rocket to hit the moon |
Lunik-II |
The first spaceship in the world to sample moon's crust |
Surveyor-3 (USA) |
The first space vehicle to soft-land on Moon |
Luna-9 (Russia) |
The first space vehicle to orbite the moon |
Luna-10 (Russia) |
The first space-craft to leave solar system |
Pioneer II |
The first American manned spaceship to perform crew transfer in space |
Apollo-9 (USA) |
The first manned spacehip to perform space flight round the moon |
Apollo-8 (USA) |
First Tennis Grand Slam title |
Mahesh Bhupati (partnering with Japanese Rika Hiraki) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 1997 French Open |
First Tennis Grand Slam win by a women |
Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italian Gloria Pizzichini in the First round of 1998 Australian Open First Women in 4th round (higest as of 2008) of a tennis |
Grand Slam event |
Sania Mirza in the Singles Category of the 2005 US Open |
First Tennis Grand Slam Junior title |
Leander Paes in the Singles category of the 1990 Wimbledon Championship. He is also the only medal fetcher for India in the Atlanta Olympics. He won a bronze medal, the only medal that put India in the medal tally. |
First Tennis Grand Slam Junior title by a women |
Sania Mirza (partnering with Russian Alisa Kleybanova) in the Doubles category of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships. |