Thread by @IWTKQuiz

A racehorse must be medically examined and certified to ensure that it is in good health for the race to follow.

The horse had to be cleared by a vet or vetted.

This is how 'Vetted' came about - which is now used in politics and business.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

On 15 December 1944 after the defeat of the invading Japanese forces, Viceroy of India Lord Wavell flew to Imphal and decorated 2 British Indian officers at that ceremony.

One was Major Sam Manekshaw of the Frontier Force, the other was Lt. A.A.K Niazi.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Mr. Potato Head is an American toy consisting of a plastic model of a potato, owned by Hasbro. They have produced sets on other media properties under license.

The name for the Iron Man edition Potato Head is.....
.....
.....

Tony Starch. 😎

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Mike Quigley introduced a legislation to ensure that Presidential tweets are documented and preserved for future reference.

He named it Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act.

Or Covfefe Act.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

During the American Civil War, this Tavern was a popular hangout for Union soldiers and Confederate spies - an ideal place to spread gossip about war and politicians. Name of the tavern 'The Old Grapevine'

Hence the phrase - Heard it through the grapevine.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

John Pemberton was injured during the American Civil war and got addicted to morphine. He then made an alternate painkiller using Coca leaf (Cocaine) and Kola nuts (Caffeine).

Hence the name Coca-Cola.

Current version has neither of the ingredients.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sometime in 2014, fashion brand @gucci named Jessica Springsteen (now an Olympic silver medalist medalist🥈🥈) as one of their "equestrian ambassadors". No prizes for guessing that she was Born in The USA #RandomFactOfTheDay

During the 93 Women's World Cup, permission was given to umpires to delay start of the post lunch session due to the provision of female toilets at some venues was 'lamentably inadequate'.

The start could be delayed if there weren't enough bathrooms.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

At the 1952 Olympics, Josy Barthel surprised a strong field by winning the gold at the 1500m.

Not sure if he cried as he was Luxembourg's Only gold medalist or because the organizers played a random tune as nobody had the sheet music for Luxembourg's anthem. #RandomFactOfTheDay

During Japanese occupation of China, some nationalists were able to promote nationalism and patriotism through this 1 Yuan note.

Confucius on the 1 Yuan note had his hands clasped in prayer, but in these special notes he is making an obscene gesture.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1935, a wealthy Romanian woman called Maria Farcasanu was found murdered.

In 1950, a US naval attaché, Eugene Karp was assassinated by a Soviet agent.

What connects them - They were real murders on the Orient Express.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Addicts who try to give up opiates go through 3 stages. The third stage, which is the toughest, involves extremely painful cramps and severe tremors.

These cramps and tremors make them kick out involuntarily..

Hence the phrase "Kicking the Habit"

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The image in the tweet is a significant picture. It shows Mahatma Gandhi exiting the former Viceroy's house aka Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

Gandhi in this image has been cropped and used in all our notes.

Nobody knows who has taken this image.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Haiti and Liechtenstein's flag had two equal-sized horizontal bands of blue and red colors.

It was during the 1936 @Olympics where they discovered that they shared the flag.

The two countries decided to modify their flags by adding some symbols. #RandomFactOfTheDay

This is an image of the Long Room at the Lord's cricket ground.

The first row of chairs is reserved for the oldest members of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

This row is called 'the Death Row'.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Coffee is a big deal for Italians.

A machine was produced for the International Space Station. On 3 May 2015, Italian astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti drank the first espresso in micro-gravity conditions.

Name of the machine - ISSPresso. Bellisima .

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Jaisalmer has many interesting traditions - One of them is the practice of painting wedding invitations on the walls of the house.

The walled fort city of Jaisalmer has this way of inviting the whole city for its weddings.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Taj Mahal is built on a foundation of Ebony Wood which requires constant moisture so that it does not contract or expand.

They could not imagine the source of water, Yamuna, to the ebony would ever dry up.

This has led to fears that the Taj will sink.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

This humble cottage in Madanapalle is where our National Anthem was composed. Tagore, who had written the anthem in 1911, was staying with Irish poet James Cousins and his wife Margaret.

Margaret Cousins gave the tune, in this house, that we all sing today.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Rev. Jesse Wayman Routté managed to circumvent segregation laws in Southern states and ate in the poshest restaurants.

He did it by wearing a turban and passing off as an Indian Royal.

The famous Sanskrit poem "Shishupalavadhanam" contains many super-palindromes "Sarvatobhadra", that read the same in any direction.

-- Left, right, top or bottom!

sakāra-nānāra-kāsa-kāya-sādada-sāyakā
rasāhavā vāhasāra-nāda-vādada-vādanā.

#RandomFactofTheDay

In order to maintain secrecy for Pokhran II, all involved wore army fatigues and had different names.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was quite appropriately called Major Prithviraj. He was famous, at that time, for being the team leader of the Prithvi missile project.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Norway recently redesigned its passport. They come in a range of colors, much like the new iPhones.

But the most kickass feature, when a UV light is shone on the mountains in the passport, the Northern Lights appear.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

There is a programming style where the two sides of a conditional statement are written in the reverse order.

if(1 == x) then..
instead of if(x == 1) then..

This is done to avoid accidentally assigning X to 1.

Such style is called Yoda Conditions.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The only reason we have Jio today is because despite all the riches, the internet inside Antilia building was really bad and Isha Ambani couldn't submit her Yale School assignments.

She is said to have told Daddy Mukesh - Father, your internet is a sux!

#RandomFactOfTheDay

India A took on Australia A in Alur, outskirts of Bangalore, in 2018. The morning session of Day 1 was extended by half an hour.

The reason - A very Bangalore cause -> traffic jam.

The food hadn't arrived in time leading to an extended morning session.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the 50's, Dalmia took over Times of India. Goenka owned Indian Express and had shares in the Statesman. The Birlas took over Hindustan Times.

They were mostly Jute barons who took over Newspapers.

Nehru govt. punned it and called it 'Jhoot Press'.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Tarantino's films have people smoking Red Apple Cigarettes.

In Navdeep Singh's films we see @AbhayDeol and @AnushkaSharma smoking Ramadoss cigarettes.

It was named in honor of Anbumani Ramadoss, as a mark of protest against curbing of artistic expression.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Singles Day began as a joke when Nanjing University students in 1993 wanted to push back against pressure to be in a relationship.

To symbolize this, they chose the date 11/11.

Singles Day is today’s the world’s largest shopping event for @AlibabaGroup

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The famous song 'Chikni Chameli' was a reworking by Ajay-Atul of their Marathi hit - Kombadi Palali from the film Jatra.

The interesting bit - the lyricist for the Marathi original is Jitendra Joshi, who famously played Katekar in season 1 of Sacred Games.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sardar Udham Singh once acted as an extra in the film 'The elephant boy'.

He also acted as an extra in the film 'The four feathers' - which was nominated for the Palme D'Or.

He split the money he received from the roles between the Ghadar party and the IRA.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Laussane scientists produced this image.

A Laser was fired at a nanowire which added energy to charged particles and caused them to vibrate.

Electrons were then fired at the wire to image the process.

This photo shows light both as a wave and as a particle.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Until 2016, the union budget of India was presented on the last day of February.

In 1964 and 1968, Morarji Desai presented it on his birthday. The only Finance Minister to do so.

Born on the 29th of February.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the mid 1980s, Coors breweries ran a campaign against drunk driving.

Aim of the ads was to encourage people not to indulge in drunk driving, but rather call their family for help and have them come pick them up.

They chose ET to Phone home this point.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

There is a format of cricket called indoor cricket with slightly different rules to traditional cricket.

The men's World Cup has taken place 10 times and the women's world cup 9 times.

Australia has won every single edition - men and women. @CA_Indoor

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Canaan Banana was Zimbabwe's first President. Though largely a ceremonial role, he was deeply unpopular and his surname didn't help his cause.

In 1982, he got a law passed that banned Zimbabweans from cracking jokes with his name.

Insecure much.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1898, an escalator was installed at the Harrods store.

Men, who were traumatized by the ordeal of taking the escalator, were offered Brandy. Women were given Smelling Salts.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

VK Krishna Menon in 1957 gave a ~8 hour speech in the UN on the Question of Kashmir.

During the marathon, Menon collapsed midway and had to be hospitalised.

The transcript of the speech is about 160 pages.

It is considered the longest speech at the UN

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the film 'Kissa Kursi Ka', @AzmiShabana plays the role of an innocent mute young girl, who's taken advantage of by the politicians.

Her character's name is 'Janta'.

Symbolism.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@AzmiShabana Anna Hazare wanted to start his anti-corruption movement in March 2011, but ultimately decided to launch it only on April 5, 2011.

Reason - India was in the midst of a good run at the World Cup and the public would only care after the tournament got over.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@AzmiShabana The well known Spanish surname Iglesias means churches.

The English words ecclesiastic and ecclesiastical, which means 'relating to the church or clergy' has the same origin. @enriqueiglesias

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Did you know that the actor who played "The Undertaker" in the 1996 @akshaykumar movie Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi is Brian Lee? He is the real life cousin of Mike Callaway who happens to be the OG @undertaker?? 🤯🤯🤯 #RandomFactOfTheDay

On April 18, 1930, people tuned in to listen to the news on @BBCR1. The news reader had nothing to communicate and said the words "There is no news" and the station proceeded to play 15 minutes of piano music.

A day with no news is the news of the day.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@BBCR1 In 2002 @World_Wildlife sued successfully against @WWE, which was then known as WWF for wrongful use of the acronym.

@WWE changed their name from WWF to WWE with a campaign that was called 'Get the F out'.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@BBCR1 @World_Wildlife @WWE This is not India on Diwali night by @NASA.

It is a composite of pictures of India created by the @NOAA in to highlight population growth.

Acc to @NASA, light produced during Diwali is so subtle that it is likely imperceptible when seen from space.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@BBCR1 @World_Wildlife @WWE @NASA @NOAA Only player to take a wicket with his 0th ball in T20 international cricket is @imVkohli.

His first ball in T20 internationals was a wide, off which @KP24 was stumped by MS Dhoni.

The game is also famous for being Rahul Dravid's only T20 international.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The country with the most number of pyramids is... not Egypt but Sudan.

Red sandstone pyramids of a region once known as Nubia, now in Central Sudan, were built about 800 years after their more famous Egyptian cousins.

Sudan has 200+ pyramids, Egypt 130+.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Jai’s coin-flipping trick in Sholay was directly adapted from Gary Cooper in Garden of Evil.

In that film, Cooper and Widmark drew cards to decide who leaves and who stays behind to fight off the Apaches.

Check the original scene -

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The role of Paresh Rawal (Baburao Ganpatrao Apte) in Hera Pheri, was inspired by a music director in Gujarati theater, Rajat Dholakia, who was known as Juku.

@SirPareshRawal & Neeraj Vora met Dholakia over many lunches to study him.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Kids - Singers singing for Actors
Men - Actors singing for themselves
Legends - Actors singing for Singers.

Dr Rajkumar provided the vocals for a song pictured on SP Balasubrahmanyam.

Song - Deepavali Deepavali
Film - Muddina Mava.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A dish from Chattisgarh called “Chaprah” which refers to how the key ingredient is found.
This is crushed and ground, then tomatoes, Dhaniya, garlic, ginger, chili, salt are added to create a smooth, orange paste.

The main ingredient - Red Ants.

Delicious

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A 'Baan Stambh' was installed sometime in the 7th century at the Somnath Temple.

The inscription reads "आसमुद्रान्त दक्षिण ध्रुव पर्यंत अबाधित ज्योतिर्मार्ग“ - there is no hindrance in the straight line from this point to the south aka no land in this path.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A church in The Hague had a non-stop service for over 100 days.

It used a law that bars police from entering churches during services to prevent the deportation of a family of asylum-seekers.

They stopped once authorities allowed the family to get asylum.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In a nod to the original Ashes, the women's Ashes trophy was created on July 20, 1998 at Lords where a bat signed by Australian and English teams along with a copy of the Women’s Cricket Association (WCA) constitution and the rules book were burnt.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The legendary @DrBrianMay completed the research on his PhD in 1974, but was 'Under Pressure' and probably told his advisors 'Save Me' before submitting it in 2007.

Title of his thesis was catchy - 'A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud'
#RandomFactOfTheDay

A Pie chart is a common visualization technique to represent data.

The French call it 'le camembert' after the cheese and the Brazilians call it Pizza charts.

Frankly cheese and pizza are better than pies.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Complications during the birth of Sylvester Stallone, forced obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps during delivery.

The misuse of these severed the baby's facial nerve and caused paralysis on one side.

Snarl and the slurred speech is a result of that.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 are two galaxies that were discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

The 2 systems are in a constant process of collision and merger, giving the appearance of being linked to one another.

They were nicknamed 'Siamese twins' due to this.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the 19th century, among the wealthy, sugar consumption was on the rise leading to dental problems.

The demand for false teeth was growing.

Solution - Dentists took teeth for dentures from the bodies of dead soldiers on the battlefield of Waterloo.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Parliament House or Capital Hill in Canberra is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia.

It was the Central Vista of its time and the new Parliament building design is based on the shape of 2 boomerangs and is topped by a 81m flagpole.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The country with the most time zones is.... France.

Apart from Metropolitan France (The France we know), the country has 12 other overseas territories all over the world including Antarctica - each with its own time zone.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Matha Gellhorn, didn't get accreditation to cover the war. She then hid herself on a Red cross ship meant for medical staff, hiding in a toilet.

Thanks to this act, she is the only woman known to have witnessed the D-Day landings in Normandy.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The 1994 Miss India contest saw a tie breaker for the first time ever.

"Would you prefer a husband like Ridge Forrester from The Bold & Beautiful or in Mason Capwell from Santa Barbara?" was the tie break for Aishwarya Rai. Answer was bad enough to come 2nd.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Shyam Negi became the first person to vote in an election in India from Chini constituency on Oct 25, 1951. Now 104, he is India's oldest voter as well.

1951-52 elections were held in 68 phases. HP and J&K voted early in Oct, to avoid election in winters.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Vicky Kaushal assisted Anurag Kashyap as an AD in the film Gangs of Wasseypur.

He also had a cameo as a Silhouette behind the window grill in Manoj Bajpai and Richa Chadda's scene at the brothel - one of his earliest film appearances.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

What is the cost of 2 pizzas?

On May 22, 2010, now known as ‘Bitcoin Pizza Day’, Laszlo Hanyecz traded 10,000 bitcoins for 2 Papa John Pizzas. He effectively paid $572 million for 2 pizzas. (Today's exchange rate)

Hopefully he got the thin crust.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Donald Trump is a key part of a museum - museum of failure. Prominently featured for the failure of Trump The Game apart from airlines, steaks, Magazine.

Wonder if a Trump presidency will find a permanent exhibit along with a person, woman, man, camera, TV.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

New Zealand Sports teams are nicknamed the Black Caps (Cricket), All Blacks (Rugby) etc.

For some publicity, @NZBadOpen tried to nickname themselves Black Cocks. The name was too much to swallow for the @bwfmedia who asked them not to use it.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the climactic scene of Sarpatta Parambarai, Kabilan played by Arya defeats Vembuli played by John Kokken.

This scene is a tribute to Mohammed Ali knocking out Sonny Liston.

The movie Sarpatta Parambarai is also dedicated to the memory of Mohammed Ali.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ponds most famous tagline was ‘Googly Woogly Woosh’.

The tagline was a result of a romantic moment between newly weds Piyush Pandey and his wife Nita Pandey - when she pulled his cheeks and said Googly Woogly Woosh.

Awww ❣

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1982, Gandhi film released, which saw an unknown British actor Sir Ben Kingsley play the titular role.

Manoj Kumar jokingly suggested that he would have Nirad C. Chaudhuri play Churchill in a film as revenge for a British actor playing an Indian icon.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Women feel more colder in offices as buildings set the temp. according to an old formula, which accounts only the metabolic rate for men.

If temperatures could be set taking woman’s metabolic rate, we would save energy and emit less greenhouse gases.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Between 1795 and 1814, million gallon of lemon juice were issued to Royal Navy ships. Thomas Trotter and Gilbert Bane, made lime juice compulsory for the Sailors.

Lime juice helped in decreasing the cases of scurvy and that helped them defeat Napoleon.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

New Moore island aka South Talpatti aka Purbasha Island, in the Sunderbans was the area of intense diplomatic talks between India & Bangladesh.

The issue was resolved by.... Global Warming as the island has disappeared due to rising sea levels.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Richard Stokes was a 10 year old boy when his father took him to watch a test match. He watched Jim Laker take all 10 wickets.

In 1999, he was visiting Delhi on a business trip and watched Anil Kumble take all 10 wickets. He is the only person to watch both.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Words such as

China
Arabic
Lent
Polish
March
Natal
Tangier etc.

are called Capitonyms.

Capitonyms are words which change their meaning if the first letter is capitalised.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the lead up to Quit India movement, many titles were suggested.

"Get Out" was rejected as it was too rude. Even while asking our intruders to leave, we have to be polite.

"Retreat or Withdraw" - was rejected.

Wonder if F Off was considered.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Japanese Golfers pay an annual insurance of ~$65 for a hole-in-one.

After hitting a hole-in-one in golf, you are expected to treat other golfers - gifts, food and drinks and this can be expensive.

This insurance pays out about $3500 covering such expenses.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Skylab was the first NASA space station. After a few years in operation, it's orbit decayed, and it disintegrated on July 11, 1979.

It made an appearance on stage at the 1979 Miss Universe competition.

For once the competition showcased 'World Piece'.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

To promote Finland’s image abroad, the Finnish govt. introduced a set of emojis.

The set, including ones on metal music and sauna bath, also include an object of national pride, regarded as ‘the Unbreakable’.

The Nokia 3310.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Graham Green’s Stamboul Train was released in the US as Orient Express.

So when Murder on the Orient Express was released, the US title was Murder in the Calais Coach to avoid confusion with Graham Greene's book.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 2019, Lux launched ‘The Soap with a Lump’ an initiative to help detect breast cancer in its infancy.

The iconic soap was redesigned with a visible lump on it. It encouraged women to examine their breasts for any abnormality, while in the shower.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

You have heard about Glass Ceiling.
But have you heard of Glass Cliff?

Glass cliff refers to a phenomenon wherein women are promoted to positions of power during times of crisis when the chance of failure is more likely.

Like Theresa May after Brexit.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the Paulista Championship final game, when Corinthians took the lead against Sao Paulo, the scoreboard read 'Corinthians 0.8-0 Sao Paulo'.

The score read '0.8' to highlight recent research showing women in Brazil earn 20% less than men for the same work.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

J. Jayalalithaa’s name comes from the names of the two houses where she stayed in Mysore.

One was “Jaya Vilas” and the other was “Lalitha Vilas”.

The name given to her at her time of birth was Komalavalli after her grandmother.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1984, Illayaraja was in a hospital when a producer informed that one song for the film 'Thambikku Entha Ooru' was left.

Since he was lying on the bed, he whistled the tune to his team and composed this song from his hospital bed.



#RandomFactOfTheDay

Much before being adopted as India's National Anthem in 1950, 'Jana Gana Mana' was the school song of Doon School Dehradun.

Bimal Roy even used it in full in his 1945 film 'Hamrahi'.

Video -

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The homeground of @AFCAjax in Amsterdam has this unusual typography.

In Dutch “IJ” is pronounced as “Y”, Hence Cruijff is spelled as Cruyff in English. The typography incorporates both spellings.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@AFCAjax Kakoos is a word that means toilet, in most South Indian languages.

Dutch term Kakhuis, literally means shit (Kakken) + house (Huis), gave the word Kakoos in these languages; from the settlements of the Dutch East India Company.

No Shit Sherlock!
#RandomFactOfTheDay

28 lakh Indian women couldn't vote in the first general election - these women simply refused to give their proper names in the electoral rolls and insisted that they be identified as “A's mother, B's wife etc”.

CEC Sukumar Sen did not allow them to vote.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A Clockwork Orange was written by Anthony Burgess, over three weeks after he was misdiagnosed with brain cancer and given a year to live.

He decided to spend that year writing five novels to provide for his wife after his death. Ironically, he outlived her.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the 90's, if you wanted to shoot a movie at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, there was an unusual cost involved - You had to give Donald Trump a guest role in the film.

He also had a walk-on part in Scent of a woman, which was cut.
classic.teamcoco.com/video/chris-od…

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Apt to his profession, @aleipus, the physio associated with Indian Team and later the Kolkata Knight Riders, wore the jersey 911 for KKR.

If he were to do it now, maybe 112 will be his jersey number.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In Cuba, home made wines are more affordable and the way to check if the wine is ready is indicated by Condoms.

The condoms inflate, indicating that the fruity mixture is still fermenting. Once the condom collapses, the wine is ready for bottling.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The maker of the film Tumbbad @BarveRahi wrote a 650 page graphic novel, where he basically storyboarded the entire film.

It took him over 50+ drafts, before he finally made the story 'Come Alive' in 2018.

The graphic novel though is yet to be released.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A young Atal Bihari Vajpayee got a scholarship to study at the DAV college in Kanpur.

His retired father also decided to pursue higher education at the same college and we had the unusual situation of a father and son in the same course, class and section.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Elliot Page wore a green carnation at the Met Gala this year as a tribute to Oscar Wilde.

The green carnation became a queer symbol in 1892 when Oscar Wilde instructed a handful of his friends to wear them on their lapels.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Stephen King's breakthrough novel was saved by his wife.

King wrote the first few pages and threw it away. His wife, Tabitha King, retrieved it from the trash, read it and asked Stephen to finish as she wanted to know the rest of the story.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The 2002 Tobey Maguire Spiderman film had an interesting scene.

After looting a bank, thieves escaped on a helicopter, but are finally trapped in a spider web put across the World Trade Center twin towers.

This was eventually cut.



#RandomFactOfTheDay

Gajanan Muktibodh was a poet who died in 1964.
MF Hussain was shocked that such a great poet died without his works being published as a book.

Hussain wanted to feel the pain of Muktibodh’s demise and removed his shoes & was barefoot for the rest of his life. #RandomFactOfTheDay

The Arctic Fox is an unusual creature.

During winters it has white fur and it scavenges off what's left from polar bear hunts.

During summers it has black & brown furs and hunts birds that migrate to the Arctic.

1 creature 2 behaviors 2 appearances.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sir Alex Ferguson got his International cap in.. 2021.

In the 60’s, only if you played for Scotland against the home nations, would you get your cap. Ferguson played against Israel and against Australia, finally getting recognized as an international striker.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

In Feb'21, Oxford Languages chose 'Aatmanirbhar' as the ‘Hindi Word of the Year’ for 2020 since it saw a significant increase in its usage following PM Narendra Modi’s address to the nation in May 2020.

Though some find it difficult to pronounce.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

This pond is surrounded by Shri Katas Raj Temples in Choa Saidanshah, present day Pakistan.

Hindus consider this pond sacred as it is believed to be the location of one of the earliest quizzes of all time - The Yaksha Prashna.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Kochi Tuskers Kerala used this color scheme as its jersey during its one season in the Indian Premier League.

The reason - it is a combination of Purple and Orange, the 2 caps that are presented for the highest wicket-taker and run-getter at the IPL.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

John Sheppard, a Shillong-born Englishman, came up with the idea when he realised that he could remember his 6 digit army number.

But he decided to check that with his wife, Caroline. She could only remember 4 digits.

Hence the ATM pin is 4 digits.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Indian cricketer Hanuma Vihari has 2 first names.

His father wanted to name him after Lord Hanuman.
His mother liked the protagonist 'Vihari' from the novel 'Aakhari Poratam' by Yandamuri Veerendranath and decided to name her son Vihari.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

For his birthday, Google as a tribute to Amjad Khan, hid an Easter egg in the search Bar.

If you typed the iconic dialogue 'कितने आदमी थे', the result is a calculator popping up with the answer 2 on display.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Lord Hanuman is not allowed here.

Dronagiri, Uttarakhand- because he stole the Sanjeevani mountain from here.

Daitya Nandur, Maharashtra - The village deity is a demon Daitya Namba, who was jealous of Hanuman being the right hand of Ram and fought with him.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Both @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris have a Chennai Connection.

Joe Biden's great, great, great..... great Grandfather Captain Christopher Biden, was for 19 years the 'Master Attendant of Madras'.

Kamala Harris' connection to Madras is more obvious.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A certain Rajiv Bhatia made his on-screen debut as a Karate instructor in this largely forgotten film called Aaj.

He then took his screen name Akshay Kumar after Kumar Gaurav's on-screen name in this film.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@akshaykumar Meghan Markle isnt the first 'royal of colour' or the first to face racism.

Gouramma from Coorg. After her father lost a battle, he begged Queen Victoria to secure his daughter's future, to which she agreed.

She later took up the name Victoria Gouramma.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

@akshaykumar This is a goddess of the Dalit community in some parts of UP. It is worshiped because they believe it will help them climb up the social and economic ladder.

She holds a constitution, which accords equal rights and her name is Angrezi Devi.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A group called Margi from Kerala presented a Kathakali performance called “Kijothe Kathakali“ in Madrid. It was an adaptation of Don Quixote.

It was done to commemorate the 400th death anniversary of Ceravantes in 2016.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Hyundai car company logo looks like the letter H - but it has a deeper meaning.

It's also a stylized representation of two individuals shaking hands, one being forward, one leaning back. One a company representative and the other a satisfied customer.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Traditional new year celebrated in countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and others is referred to as Songkran.

Songkran is derived from the Sanskrit word Sankranti, meaning astrological passage indicating change.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 2017, in order to protest the passing of a bill that prevented abortions, women dressed as Handmaids, inspired by the novel/show 'Handmaid's Tale' in the Texas Assembly.

Margaret Atwood commented - 'Just about everything is spooky for me these days.'

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The music bands R.E.M and Grateful Dead have interesting etymologies. Both take their names from the dictionary.

Micheal Stipe chose R.E.M at random from a dictionary.

Jerry Garcia chose the name 'Grateful Dead' from an old World Language Dictionary.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

There is a tiff between Indian Foreign Service and Indian Forest Service over the use of the abbreviation IFS.

Indian Foreign Service claims usage as it is older, Indian Forest says Indian Foreign is an oxymoron.

Officially both are allowed to use IFS.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

MLK delivered his iconic ‘I have a dream’ speech in 1963.

George Raveling, asked King for the speech afterwards. King handed him the papers.

Raveling skimmed through the speech and realized the words ‘I have a dream’ were not there and were ad-libbed.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

India became the first Asian team to win a test match at the Gabba. It also ensured Australia lost a match at the Gabba after 33 years.

Bowling line up in 1988 - Marshall, Patterson, Ambrose, Walsh
Bowling line up in 2021 - Siraj, Natarajan, Saini, Thakur
#RandomFactOfTheDay

This venue is Brescia, Italy has hosted important volleyball and handball matches.

It is called PalaGeorge in honor of India's greatest volleyball player - Jimmy George, who played in Italy for many years and passed away in an accident. @joybhattacharj

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The name 'Swiss Army Knife' now copyrighted by @Victorinox, was actually coined by American soldiers after World War 2. They couldn't pronounce the German name 'Offiziersmesser', meaning officer's knife.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The character Ariel in Disney's Little Mermaid - the body shape and personality were based upon that of Alyssa Milano, then starring on TV's Who's the Boss?

The effect of her hair underwater was based on footage of Sally Ride, when she was in space.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose declared the establishment of Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad-Hind or the Provisional Government of Free India in 1943 at Singapore's Cathay Cinema.

This picture of that rally is courtesy the National Archives of Singapore.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Art Galleries in Vienna posted nude & partially nude artworks on the site OnlyFans after being ‘censored’ by Facebook.

The museums turned to the platform to ‘beat the system at its own game.’

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In Varanasi, devotees of Lord Shiva celebrate 'chita-bhasma' Holi with ashes.

The story is Lord Shiva’s followers, which included ghosts, couldn’t go to Kashi Vishwanath temple to celebrate Holi. So Shiva himself came down to play holi with them at the Ghats.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Ashoka Chakra is India's highest peacetime military decoration awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice.

Neerja Bhanot was the first woman to receive this in 1987.

Here is a rare pic of her mother receiving the medal.
📷@CatchNews

#RandomFactOfTheDay

"Sweating like a pig" is not from pigs as they dont have sweat glands.
It is derived from smelting process in which hot iron cools & solidifies into pieces resembling piglets - pig iron.
As iron cools, and beads of moisture form on the surface of the "pigs".
#RandomFactOfTheDay

In an interview with mid-day, Bobby Deol revealed that Salman Khan was the one to take his first audition for Race 3 and all he needed was an answer to this question: "Shirt utarega?"

Needless to say, he said yes and did remove his shirt in the film.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

An actual research study commissioned by @GuinnessGB found that an estimated 162,719 pints of Irish stout go to waste every year… via mustaches.

The study found that 0.56 milliliters of Guinness get trapped in the average beard or mustache with each sip.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@GuinnessGB The Oscar-winning actor shares the same birthday as former US vice-president Dick Cheney - also the subject of his Oscar nominated movie- "Vice". SO method.

Happy Birthday Christian Bale & er Dick Cheney.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Rafael Nadal is known to celebrate French Open wins by falling on the ground.

He didn't do it in 2008 - he beat Federer 6-1 6-3 6-0. It was one of the worst losses of Federer’s career.

“Given my relationship with Roger I didn't want to celebrate too much”

#RandomFactOfTheDay

James Wilson was the first Finance Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council from December 1859 till his death in August 1860.

Sent to India to put order into the chaos that followed the war of independence of 1857, he presented India's first budget in 1860.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In Sep 2016, the civil war ended in Columbia when the rebels and the government signed a peace treaty calling for an end to arms.

The treaty signed with pens made out of Bullets in a nod to the famous proverb - to signify pen is mightier than a sword.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

US Congress has Caucuses - A group of people forming a body within the Congress. Black Caucus, Freedom Caucus etc.

The Caucus formed by Indian Origin Americans is called Samosa Caucus.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1994, the KKK applied to sponsor a section of the Interstate 55 highway near St. Louis, Missouri. The Supreme Court ruled the state could not refuse the offer.

Missouri took revenge by renaming the entire stretch of highway the “Rosa Parks Freeway.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Peter Benchley wrote extensively about the sea and shark conservation. He was a member of the national council of Environmental defense and its spokesman.

All as a way to atone for his book, Jaws, which he regretted for the negative attitude towards sharks.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Le Corbusier, while designing Chandigarh was asked to avoid 13 while naming sectors.

He reluctantly agreed, but designed Chandigarh in such a way that Sector 11 is next to Sector 2, Sector 10 next to Sector 3...

All adding up to 13.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Where will you find 'Model Citizens'? Ans - Legoland

Employees at Legoland, are called Model Citizens.

Model - stands for Best and also they act as ambassadors for all guests.

MC, also stands for “Master of Ceremonies”, a role they are expected to play.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The cities of Ayutthaya in Thailand and Yogyakarta in Indonesia have one thing in common - they are both named after Ayodhya in India.

Ayodhya -> Ayutthaya

Ayodhya -> Nagyodya -> Ngayogyakarta -> Yogyakarta

#RandomFactOfTheDay

After winning the T20 world cup in 2007, the players were given an open-top bus ride in Mumbai.

The cavalry halted for a few minutes at Peddar Road, so that Lata Mangeshkar could wave to the victorious cricketers in jubilation.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Chappan Bhog is offered to the Lord Jagannath in the temple at Puri.

It is 56 items as Lord Krishna ate 8 items a day and when he lifted the Govardhan hill and saved the village from the wrath of Indra, he skipped his 8 items for 7 days. Hence 8 x 7 = 56.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The bridges on Euro Notes were supposed to be fictional. It was deemed a good idea to keep things generic and not show favouritism for any member country.

The Dutch town of Spijkenisse claimed them all for the Netherlands by building them on a waterway.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Simon Williams aka Wonder Man, attacked the Avengers, and then sacrificed his life to save them.

It had a lasting impact on a 11 year old GRR Martin.

"You could introduce a really cool character and kill him right away, and get a huge emotional reaction."

#RandomFactOfTheDay

At the 2016 Olympics, Matthew Centrowitz won the 1500m gold with a time of 3:50.00.

But Fouad Baka was 4th despite a time of 3:49.84. He was participating in the 1500m T13 Paralympic race and 4 racers in the Paralympic race had better times than the Olympics
#RandomFactOfTheDay

The spoons are an age-old tradition where Welsh men would carefully carve spoons and present them to the woman they were interested in on Valentines Day.

The designs they carved were symbolic and often had hidden clues.

Gives a whole new meaning to spooning.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ishikawa Yumi worked 8 hour shifts in a funeral parlour.

She began the #KuToo movement a pun on Japanese words for shoes (kutsu) and pain (kutsuu), with a nod to #MeToo - highlighting the fact that most working women in Japan have been forced to wear heels.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

George was 19 at the time and law stated that he needed a guardian to sign his contract. Jack Dunn, his employer, became his guardian and signed the papers.

Other 'employees' joking started calling George as ‘Jack's new Babe’ and hence George Babe Ruth

#RandomFactOftheDay

Manuel Santana became the first Spanish winner of @Wimbledon in 1966. At that time he asked Raimundo Saporta, vice president of @realmadriden, permission to use the team's shield in his shirt which was given.

Hence, Real Madrid have won Wimbledon as well.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Youtube started out as a dating website. Tagline 'Tune in Hook Up'.

Despite offering to pay women $20 to upload videos of themselves to YouTube, nobody came forward.

They allowed users to upload whatever they wanted and the rest is history.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

USA tried to infiltrate USSR intelligence agencies but were caught when they showed their passports.

USSR staples were made from cheap metal & almost immediately corroded. US used good steel for their staples and their fake passports did not have the stains.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Takao Shito’s family has been growing vegetables on the same plot of land for over 100 years, he refused an offer of over $1.7 million for his land, which would be used for the Narita Airport in Tokyo.

The authorities built the airport around his farm.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1988, Michael Jackson’s autobiography ‘Moonwalk’ was prepared for publication in extreme secrecy.

At the printing plant, the book was given the code name "Neil Armstrong", as he was the first "moonwalker".

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The image shows the Mumbai Indians jersey from 2010 season.

According to Delhi based designers Shantanu and Nikhil, the gold foil lines are supposed to represent the iconic Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ramanna and Papanna had successful football careers in the 60's & helped Mohammedan Sporting win the 1967 Calcutta League.

Supporters would chant this song in their honor -

'Saawan Ka Mahina, Pawan kare shor
Ramanna kare centre,
Pappana kare score!'

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Laika was a dog that was sent into space. The Soviets had no plan to bring her back to Earth, hence her food was poisoned.

Soviet scientists reassured the public that Laika had been comfortable, for much of her flight & that she had died painlessly.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the original cartoon Amazing Fantasy #15, Uncle Ben has only 2 lines and none of them have to do with power.

The line 'with great power...' actually appears as a caption in the final panel of the issue.

It was the first appearance of Spiderman.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Aditya Singh attended a marriage in a village in Haryana.

He saw an old lady feeling agitated. She requested the music arranger to play a rural Haryanvi song.

She addressed the arranger as "DJ Wale Babu".

And that is how Badshah got the title of his song.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1700s, strongmen in England would take large church bells and connect them with an iron rod. They would then remove the clapper from these bells.

The bell becomes silent if you remove the clapper, hence they were called Dumbbell.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In a match against Hyung-Taik Lee in the Samsung Open at Brighton in 2000, Goran Ivanisevic retired from the match with the score at 5-7, 7-6, 1-1 and thus got eliminated.

Goran Ivanesevic had to retire as he had smashed all his rackets!!

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Initially, there existed an India - Pakistan passport to allow people to visit families and ancestral homes across the border. This was discontinued.

Similar arrangements existed for India-Sri Lanka and India-Bangladesh, which have today been discontinued.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ahmad Musavi was an Shia scholar born near Lucknow. In 1830, to escape the British rule, he left India & finally settled in a village called Khomeyn in Iran.

His grandson - Ayatollah Khomeini, used Hindi as a pen name to indicate his Indian connection.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The first women's cricket world cup was held in 1973. England emerged winners of the tournament, but they also finished last!!

To make it a 7 team tournament, a 'Young England' team took part and they came last in the tournament.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

During the early 70's, lot of people mistakenly assumed that the prevalence of conjunctivitis in Eastern India was because of the immigrants fleeing from then East Pakistan.

Hence the disease was called 'Joi Bangla' disease.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ratna Pathak Shah hesitated to join a whatsapp group for the show 'Sarabhai vs Sarabhai', created by Rupali Ganguly because she wanted to avoid receiving 'Good Morning' messages.

After joining the group, she responds in character to all messages from Rupali.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Critics complained that @dalermehndi's music was only popular because his music videos featured beautiful women dancing.

In response, he created 'Tunak Tunak Tun' that featured only himself in multiple avataars. Superhit!!



#RandomFactOfTheDay

France may have gifted the Statue of Liberty, but the pedestal still needed to be built.

Joseph Pulitzer started one of the earliest crowdfunding campaigns to collect funds.

You would get replicas of various sizes depending on the amount you contributed.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Protul Chandra Sarkar changed his surname to Sorcar because it sounded more like the “sorcerer” in English to reflect his profession as a magician.

The next generation also use the surname Sorcar to highlight their continued connections with Magic.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The great @vishy64theking took on @Kasparov63 in the World Chess Championships in 1995 at the World Trade center.

Rudy Giuliani, played for Anand during the ceremonial opening, moved the wrong piece, much to Anand’s horror. The mistake was later rectified.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@vishy64theking @Kasparov63 In 1984 when South Africa was still under the Apartheid regime, Glasgow renamed a major road St George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place.

The South African consulate-general offices were on the road then and had to send out slightly awkward communication.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Dhirubhai Ambani named his textile brand Vimal Suitings after his elder brother Ramaniklal's son.
Watch King @ivivianrichards and Allan Border rocking in their Vimal suits here

Only Vimal, only Vimal.... Vimal

#RandomFactofTheDay

@ivivianrichards Yubi Lakpi is a game indigenous to Manipur, which translates to 'coconut snatching'.

Though resembles rugby, it is an individual sport.

It is considered to be a re-enactment of the snatching of the pot of nectar after the Samudra Manthan.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@ivivianrichards The Buzkashi sequence in the film Khuda Gawah was shot in Mazar-e-Sharif during extremely troubled times.

The then President of Afghanistan, Najibullah Ahmadzai, a huge fan Big B, provided with half of the country’s Air Force for his security.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When Rahul Dravid and @VVSLaxman281 batted the whole day at Eden Gardens in 2001, Australia used 9 bowlers.

The only people who didn't bowl that day were @gilly381 and Steve Waugh.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

US President JF Kennedy, asked his press secretary Pierre Salinger to procure about 1000 Cuban made Petit Upmann cigars within 12 hours.

Once 1200 cigars were procured, JFK signed a paper - it was a decree banning all Cuban products from USA.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

During feudal days a rival Lord would try to break up a wedding ceremony and steal the bride.

To avoid any trouble, grooms would ask their best friends to stand next to them so they would help avoid kidnap. The man next to the groom, was named ‘Best Man’.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Kalpana was fondly called Monto as a kid. When it was her time to start her education, Monto was given the option to choose her own name by the school principal.

Monto chose the name Kalpana.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Puneeth Rajkumar's first appearance in a movie, is as a baby in his father's super hit film - Premada Kanike.

This film also marked the entry of @Javedakhtarjadu and Salim Khan to South Indian films as script writers.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

During the 1970 World Cup, Pele signed a deal with @PUMA for 120,000$.

Part of the deal was for him to delay the start of the 1970 World Cup final by a few seconds, so that the cameras would all pan down to him tying his Puma brand sneakers.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Raj Kapoor's Sangam and Mera Naam Joker were so long, both the movies had 2 intervals.

Inspired by the success of Sangam, it took Raj Kapoor 6 years to make a even longer film - Mera Naam Joker. But unlike Sangam, Mera Naam Joker tanked at the box office.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The highest grossing foreign film in USSR was Disco Dancer. It grossed over 60 million Soviet Roubles (today adjusts to roughly $190 Million).

Mithun Chakraborty still has a lot of fan clubs in Russia even today.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1893, Chicago hosted the first World Parliament of Religions.

What is often forgotten is that India sent 3 religious leaders and not just Swami Vivekananda.

Virchand Gandhi represented Jainism and Protap Chunder Mozoomdar represented the Brahmo Samaj.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Dominos stopped promising to deliver their pizza within 30 minutes in 1993, after a jury asked them to pay $78M in punitive damages compensation to a woman, struck by a Dominos driver in 1989.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

. @narendramodi ji, in his capacity as Gujarat Cricket Association President as well as chief minister of Gujarat, gave away the man of the match award to @YUVSTRONG12 after India's win in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

RRR wasn't the intended title.

It served as a placeholder and it was the names of Rajamouli, Ram Charan, & Rama Rao.

People loved it so much that they didn't want a new title.

PVR theatres has tied up with the movie and have changed their logos to PVRRR.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Kerala's Alappuzha lost its endearing name Allepey officially in 1957.

A combination of the words 'ala' and 'puzha' in Malayalam, the city's name literally means the strip of land between the sea and rivers.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The album "Meeting By The River" released in April 1993 by Vishwa Mohan Bhat and Ry Cooder won India's first Grammy award!

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The only Oscar to ever win an Oscar was this guy. He didn't win just once, he had two of them.

Oscar Hammerstein II (Name also says 2), part of the legendary Rodgers and Hammerstein combo, won 2 Oscars for Best Original Song in 1941 and 1945.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Recently @BTS_twt performed in Seoul. To comply with COVID protocols, attendance was limited to 15k.

Fans were prohibited from clapping, shouting, cheering or standing up, as a measure against COVID-19. So fans used clappers.



#RandomFactOfTheDay

@BTS_twt Mandira Bedi, in her individual capacity, got sponsors for the Indian women's cricket team between 2003 and 2005.

@mandybedi was the brand ambassador for jewelry brand Asmi and waived her fee for ads, so that it could be put into women's cricket team.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@BTS_twt @mandybedi Princess Catherine Duleep Singh, was a LGBTQ icon and a proponent of the Suffrage Movement in the UK.

At the height of Nazism, she helped helped Jewish families escape and housed them in her home in Buckinghamshire.

She is considered as 'Indian Schnidler'.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Gmail was introduced on April 1st, 2004 by @Google.

Given that it offered 1GB space (Hotmail offered 2MB then) and an ability to search emails, many thought it was an April Fool prank by Google.

It is estimated that over 2billion users use Gmail today.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@Google Indian tennis great @Leander is among the very few people to have a winning record against both @rogerfederer and Pete Sampras.

He beat Sampras in the New Haven tournament in 1998 and Roger Federer in an Indian Wells qualifying tournament in 2000.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The man in picture Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam led the independence movement in Mauritius. He later served as the first PM. And he was lovingly called 'Chacha Ramgoolam'.

Wonder if any other independence leading, first PM of a country is also called Chacha?

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When Raj Kapoor fell seriously ill, Hrishikesh Mukherjee feared he would die, leaving him friendless.

He then penned down the film Anand - when a friend is about to die.

Raj Kapoor used to call Hrishida - Babumoshai and that was used in the film Anand.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The biggest win for a team in hockey was when India beat USA 24-1 in the 1932 Olympics.

Legend has it that the one goal conceded by India was when the goalkeeper Richard Allen was busy signing autographs.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Spoiler Alert - If you are watching a murder mystery, one thing is sure - the killer will be someone who is not using an @Apple phone.

Apple does not let filmmakers show villains using iPhones on camera.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@Apple The Tamil film Vinodhan, directed by Victor Jayraj, has an interesting romantic song - 'Megharagame'.

Every line in the song is a palindrome.

The song was released on 7/1/17.



#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sachin Tendulkar does not have an official strike rate in tests as we do not know how many deliveries he faced in the test match, played at the Gandhi Stadium, Chandigarh between India and Sri Lanka in 1990.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@sachin_rt In 1998, PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan were awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize for -

"aggressively peaceful explosions of atomic bombs."

Neither went to collect the award in person.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@sachin_rt Oliver Sacks the neurologist, famous for books such as Awakenings, The man who mistook his wife for a hat etc. was also a top powerlifter.

He held the California state record by performing a full squat with 600 pounds across his shoulders.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This shade of blue is called MS blue, named after MS Subbalakshmi.

The name was given to this shade of blue, with black and green highlights, that was used in saris woven specially for MS by Kancheepuram Muthu Chettiyar, a fan who was also a sari merchant.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Chapati comes from the root word “chapat” meaning slap.

The traditional method of forming rounds of thin dough by slapping the dough between the wetted palms of the hands, before the introduction of the Belan or the Rolling Pin to flatten the dough.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Queen Elizabeth is a kidnapper.

Every time she goes to the parliament to give a speech, one MP is kept "hostage" as a surety for her safe return.

Wonder if any MP has filed a case of kidnapping against the queen.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

As a member in the viceroy’s council from 1942 to 1946, Dr Ambedkar was instrumental in bringing about several labour reforms.

He changed working hours from 12 to 8 in 1942. He also introduced DA, medical leaves & periodic revision of pay. #JaiBhim

#RandomFactOfTheDay

After bombing Hiroshima, the US had planned on bombing the city of Kokura, known for its military arsenal.

Due to poor visibility, the city was spared and Nagasaki was hit.

An expression 'luck of Kokura' is used in Japan to explain escaping from misfortune.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A.M.Naik received close to Rs.79cr, when he retired from @larsentoubro.

The biggest portion of this package is one single item worth Rs.32.2cr (much higher when compared to his salary of Rs.3.2cr and Rs.18cr as commissions) was encashing unused leaves.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Along with making Guide, Dev Anand acted in 'The Guide' - the english version of the film.

The screenplay for the English version was written by Pearl S Buck.

Checkout the sauve English accent spoken by Dev Sahab



#RandomFactOfTheDay

This animal gets its name because its stamps its forefoot and makes a sneeze like sound when alarmed. Hence Chinkara.

Nearly 85% of all Chinkaras in the world are found in Rajasthan.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Ukraine Russia war has brought bad news to Nepal.

Nearly 30% of mountaineers attempting Everest’s summit come from Ukraine, Russia and Poland. Most of them have cancelled their plans.

Each climber would typically spend between 60 to 100k usd.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This player was the first to score a goal for @FCPorto
when the Portuguese league returned after the pandemic induced break in 2020..

His name Jesus Corona.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Did you know that Narinder S. Kapany coined the term Fiber Optics for the field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design & application of optical fibers?

He is also considered as the father of Fiber Optics.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

With pressure to reduce costs due to the pandemic, @united removed the cocktail picks used for lemons and limes on board flights.

Just by removing the pick, United Airlines saves annually over 80,000$. That is some nitpicking.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@united In 1967, due to the war between Egypt and Israel, Egypt blocked the Suez Canal. 14 ships were stuck there for 8 years.

During the 1968 Olympics, the ships got together and hosted their own “Bitter Lake Mini-Olympics,” with many events.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@united Operation Diamond Racket - the title of the movie led to a hilarious confusion because in the Kannada script racket and rocket are written similarly.

Consequently, on the eve of the release Dr. Raj fans staged a large procession with a cutout of a rocket.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1981, a Soviet submarine hit a rock and surfaced in Swedish waters. The submarine was stuck for 10 days, before the Swedish authorities hauled it and handed it over.

As it was a whiskey class submarine, this is known as the 'Whiskey on the rocks incident'

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Had blues rock band Medicine Head's "Dark Side of the Moon" been a success, Pink Floyd's iconic album would've been named Eclipse.

Dark Side of The Moon topped the US Billboard charts and engineering students' lives changed forever.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

These statues depict an ancient tale of an old man peeping into a room in his inn, where he saw a young woman changing her clothes. But all he could see was her navel. So he made something shaped like a navel.

That's one of the tales behind Tortellini.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

If you are a writer, on a tight deadline, you might want to go to Tokyo's "Manuscript Writing Cafe".

Customers enter, write down their writing goals and the time they plan to finish. Based on preference, they get asked a progress check as they work.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The iconic Vidyarthi Bhavan in Bangalore is named so because of its proximity to educational institutes and its early customers were students.

They are closed on Fridays as a tribute to the fact that India got its independence on a Friday (Aug 15, 1947).

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When the widely-distributed Sears and Roebuck catalog began printing in color on glossy paper, it received a lot of complaints.

People used the freely available catalog as toilet paper. When it was printed on glossy paper, people could no longer use it.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Originally, the area phone code 321 was meant for suburban Chicago. However, after a successful petition by Robert Osband, Brevard County in Florida got the area code of 321.

Brevard County is home to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. 321-liftoff!

#RandomFactOfTheDay

"Without knowing it, Satyajit Ray was India's first graphic designer" - Sandipan Deb.

He was the creator of the Wills Navy Cut cigarette packet and designed the posters of many movies. He also designed many book covers.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Kiev has a museum dedicated to the Chernobyl disaster.

This hallway is interesting - The names that have been struck out are names of villages and cities that were evacuated in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Michelin Mascot aka Bibendum is white in colour, because Michelin used to produce white tires.

The mascot is a representation of a stack of tires, with larger one forming the base and smaller ones at the top.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1893 Auguste Vaillant threw weak bombs into the French Chamber of Deputies, only to injure deputies.

In 1929, Bhagat Singh inspired by his act, threw a low intensity bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly to protest against the British atrocities.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The largest owner of contemporary South African art is..... Nandos.

Over 22,000 works are hung on the walls of Nando’s restaurants all over the world.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Madhubani, in Bihar, was considered to have one of the dirtiest railway stations in India. They transformed that by looking inwards and painting the entire railway station with Madhubani paintings.

More than 225 artists volunteered to paint the station.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist, who cared for the wounded soldiers on both sides of the US Civil War and created Work Clubs to address public health issues. She died in 1905.
Her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, pushed for a Mother's Day holiday to honor her.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ahead of the launch of Ocean’s 12, the promoters chose the Monaco GP and encrusted the 2 Jaguar F1 cars with.. diamonds worth $300K.

Christian Klien crashed his diamond-encrusted F1 car before he finished a lap.

The diamond wasn't recovered from the crash.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

The glasses worn by @juniorbachchan in the film 'Dhoom' were chosen by him.

He chose this particular frame as it was his homage to the Ali G character, portrayed by @SachaBaronCohen.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When @Apple opened its swanky new headquarters in Cupertino, several people were hospitalized in the first month.

This is because employees kept hitting the clean and clear glass walls.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1880, Ghazi Mohammad Ayub Khan was the leader of the Afghans who won the Second Anglo-Afghan War at Maiwand in 1880.

He was helped in his conquest by 'Malala of Maiwand', a national hero known as the Afghan Joan of Arc.

@Malala was named after her.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the film Zootopia, the lead pair's investigations lead them to an underground flower-harvesting operation whereby a ram in a yellow jumpsuit works meticulously to create a volatile blue serum that turns animals wild.

It was an homage to Breaking Bad.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Sanskrit work 'Sri Raghava Yadaveeyam' by the 17th century poet Venkatadhvari narrates the story of Rama.

But, when read in reverse it narrates a story of Krishna.

Such poems are called "anuloma viloma kavya" (two-way poems)

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Some instances of an art project called Paintback by activist-artist Ibo Omari.

What is common to them? They are painted art over Swastikas, painted by Neo-nazis, reclaiming the symbol for peace.

Check the video -

#RandomFactOfTheDay

It started in 1976 and initially was called Jaffe, after Jaffna mangoes.

After many years of losses and realizing that the quintessential Indian summer drink needed an Indian name - the term Rasna was coined.

Boom. Summer drinks sorted.

We 💕 you Rasna.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In October 2020, over 16000 covid cases in the UK were unreported.

The reason - they were saving the file as .xls instead of .xlsx.

.xls has a limitation of 65000 rows, whereas .xlsx can store over 1Million rows of data.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This temple in Goregaon has no deity.
This McDonalds in City of Industry, California has no menu or kitchen.

If you have seen a temple in Indian movies or a McDonalds in English movies, chances are that they have been shot here.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Indian Passport was valid to travel to all countries except South Africa till 1994.

India qualified for the Davis Cup finals against South Africa in 1974 & forfeited it.

When in 1992 India had tour SA for a test series, special exemptions were provided.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Musician Biddu composed 'Made in India' with Nazia Hassan in mind.

However, the singer refused to come out of retirement, unsure about whether the song might spark her fans in Pakistan.

The song was eventually sung by Alisha Chinai.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

A Sadie Hawkins dance is usually an informal dance sponsored by a high school, to which the women invite the men.

It is named after the Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins.

Bumble's idea of women making the first move is inspired by this.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

At age 40 Jawaharlal Nehru met yoga guru Swami Kuvalayananda and started practicing yoga seriously. As early as in 1952, Nehru moved a resolution in the Rajya Sabha to include Yoga as a part of India’s health education! #RandomFactOfTheDay

Dan Gorske, for some reason, decided to eat a Big Mac everyday since 1972.

He completed 50 years of eating a Big Mac a day last week and was greeted with a sign at his local McDonald's in Wisconsin where they removed d-o-n-s from the McDonald's sign.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Harel Hershtik started a company that allows diseases to be detected from a few breaths.

His company goes public soon and he will be millionaire.

He opened his company in jail, serving a sentence for murder. He is out on parole and wears an ankle bracelet.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

You might think DDLJ is the longest running movie in India. But a Hollywood film has been shown in multiple cafes since 1983.

Octopussy starring Roger Moore, Kabir Bedi & Vijay Amritraj is screened daily at about 25 cafes every evening in Udaipur.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 2013, @arrahman released an album called Raunaq.
The album depicts social issues in India by fusing Raja Ravi Varma imagery and poetry by @KapilSibal.

The music video featured @yamigautam in recreations of Raja Ravi Varma paintings.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Ancient Indians, suspected Diabetes and tested for the disease in a unique way - whether the urine attracted ants or not. The urine was called Madhumeha.

Diabetes means "To go through" in Greek. The most common symptom - frequent urination.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

There is one place where you would find a naked Bahubali and a naked Bharata.

Shravanabelagola, has the statue of Bharata Chakravartin after whom our country is named Bharat.

The more famous statue is of Gomateshawara aka Bahubali, the brother of Bharata.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Biju Patnaik, founded Kalinga Airlines, which later merged with Indian Airlines.

He has been conferred with 'Bintang Jasa Utama' (Star of Service) award in Indonesia, for his key role in helping Indonesia in its independence struggle against the Dutch.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Forrest Gump is based on a novel by Winston Groom. He was paid $350k for the rights and was to be given 3% of the profits.

Paramount claimed the film lost money.

The book sequel Gump&Co has the line "Don't ever let nobody make a movie of your life's story"

#RandomFactOfTheDay

If you want to win a @filmfare Award, the best chance for you is to play Chandramukhi.

Vyjayanthimala, @MadhuriDixit and @kalkikanmani have all won the Filmfare award for best supporting actress while playing the role of Chandramukhi in Devdas and Dev D.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sometimes referred to as 'Hot Lips', the logo of the iconic band Rolling Stones was inspired by the Goddess Kali.

Mick Jagger was inspired by the goddess for her never-ending energy.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When Rohan Bopanna emerged on the scene, he was renowned for his fast booming serve.

He was given the nickname 'Bofors' by the media for his explosive game.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Passionflix is an OTT platform that adapts best selling romance novels to movies and aims to release a new movie every 6 weeks.

The founder credits her family for the success as they supported her passion into arts.

Founder name - Tosca Musk.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Rakesh Sharma became the first person to do Yoga in space.

Everyday after breakfast on Soyuz T-11, he squatted like a sadhu with velcro zippers fastening him to the spacecraft. He did yoga for 10 min to test its efficacy for keeping fit in space.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Prime Minister of the Branga Kingdom in the Shiva Trilogy by @authoramish is named after Bappi Lahiri? He is called Bappiraj and is always decked in gold jewellery!

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A fire devastated the cloth business setup by Shyam Goenka. The only thing they could salvage was the computer.

The computer fell into the hands of Shyam’s son Bharat Goenka, a Maths graduate, who worked on creating @tallysolutions from that computer.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The ancient Greeks used to blame calamities on unfavorable planetary positions.

Hence, the word disaster comes from the Greek "dis" meaning bad, and "aster", meaning star.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When @M_Raj03 played her first game for India, no one knew they were playing an official game. That game was given international status much later.

For over 23 years, Indian women's cricket was Mithali and Mithali was Indian women's cricket. Thank you legend. #RandomFactOfTheDay

@M_Raj03 These type of ornamental bordering in carpets and clothes were called Frenge, which comes from the Latin Fimbriae meaning fibers or threads.

The English word Fringe comes from Frenge when referring to someone who is on the edge or periphery.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

CV Raman struggled to get approvals & funding for Platinum for his experiments.

In a fit of rage and growing frustration, he smashed the 'Bharat Ratna' that he had received with a hammer.

To his surprise, he found the Platinum he needed for his experiments.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Roger Federer equalled Bjorn Borg’s Open Era record, winning 5 consecutive trophies at Wimbledon in 2007.

He changed into a pristine white suit to go receive the trophy - and when he tried to put his hands in his pockets, realized he had worn them backwards.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Norway's women's beach handball team was fined 1,500 euros after players opted to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms at a European championship match in Bulgaria.

After widespread outrage, female players now will no longer have to compete in bikinis.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Clinical trials to treat hypertension were taking place. A nurse saw that the men were lying on their stomachs instead of on their backs whenever she visited.

The men were embarrassed.

This was how the effect of Sildenafil aka Viagra was discovered.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This is Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She married the Duke of Edinburgh in 1874.

A London Bakery, Peak Freans created the Maria/Marie biscuit to commemorate their wedding.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Jawaharlal Nehru was a flag designer.. Unintentionally.

At the 1955 Bandung conference, the still not independent Sudan did not have a flag to mark its seat. Nehru,took a handkerchief, wrote ‘Sudan’ on it, creating a flag & reserving a place for the country.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The man responsible for Stallone's look in Rambo 3 is.... Kamal Haasan.

He was learning makeup from Oscar winner Michael Westmore at the time and assisted him during Rambo 3.

Kamal Haasan has also worked as a makeup assistant on Star Trek.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

To cut down on antibiotic use, farmers in Thailand have been giving their chickens cannabis.

No abnormal behaviour was observed in the chickens and no discernible change in taste and quality was seen.

Grass is certainly greener on the other side.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi club is a Dhaka based football club and among the more successful Bangladeshi clubs of all time.

Their home kit is yellow and blue, the away kit is sky blue and white to reflect the primary international choice of their supporters.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Yash Johar was an associate producer of Walt Disney's 94 film The Jungle Book and for the 98 movie Armageddon. While we couldn't confirm it in credits, Encyclopaedia Britannica lists him as a producer of the 96 film Last Dance. Can @DharmaMovies confirm this?

#RandomFactOfTheDay

When Boris Johnson became PM, the Turkish media proclaimed him as "Ottoman grandson".

This is because he is the great grandson of the Ottoman Empire's last interior minister, Ali Kemal.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Yehudi Menuhin, the legendary violinist, was suffering from grave muscle trouble.

He met BKS Iyengar. BKS made a 7hr trip for what was to be a 5min Yoga session.
The class *stretched* to 4 hrs.

Following BKS' programme, the violinist’s pains disappeared.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Salvador Dali designed 500 ash trays for Air India. The body of the ashtray was shaped like a shell and was draped by a serpent. It stood on 3 legs and there was a swan, flanked on each side by an elephant head.

Dali requested a baby elephant as payment.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Chilkur Balaji Temple in Telengana is an ancient Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Balaji.

It attracts thousands of Visa aspirants who vow to circle the temple 108 times in return for their Visa being granted.

Hence called 'Visa Balaji' temple.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The first ever computer programmer might also be the first ever data scientist. Lady Ada Lovelace was a gambling addict and was in debt.

She tried to see patterns in horse racing and predict winners and bet on them. She failed and was even more in debt.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Olympic champion @Neeraj_chopra1's former coach Uwe Hohn is the only athlete in history to throw the javelin over 100m(104.8m)

Due to change in the design of the javelin, previous records were frozen.

@Olympics says he holds an ‘eternal’ world record!
#RandomFactOfTheDay

@Neeraj_chopra1 @Olympics Alan Greenspan, the former chair of the federal reserve, kept an eye on men's underwear sales.

He felt that men's underwear sales are generally stable, but if you see a dip - it means men are so pinched, they are not replacing underpants implying recession.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A tv series called CIF - Crime Investigation Force, was aired on Dangal TV in 2019.

Actors such as Aditya Srivastava, Dayanand Shetty, Ansha Sayed, Abhay Shukla, who all played key roles in the long running show CID, played important parts in CIF.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This man created a company and decided to name it after his own initials, his family farm called Elmtaryd, where he was born and a nearby village called Agunnaryd.

His name Ingvar Kamprad.

Hence we get IKEA.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The HAL Marut was a fighter bomber aircraft made in the 1960s.

It was designed and assembled at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facility in an area adjacent to its factory.

Hence the area gets its name - Marathahalli. (Marut + Halli (village))

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Four shelter dogs served as ball kids during an exhibition match at the Brazil Tennis Open in 2016.

The organizers hoped that it would help promote the adoption of homeless dogs.

Something @rakshitshetty would approve..

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In a legal battle over the name KSRTC, the Kerala government used an old Malayalam movie as one of the proofs.

Stills from 1969 film 'Kannur Deluxe' were used to show KSRTC (Kerala) existed before Karnataka was formed (1973).

Kerala won & can use KSRTC.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Montblanc launched a 'Mahatma Gandhi limited edition 241' series to honor Mahatma Gandhi.

241 because - 241 miles traveled by Gandhi at Dandi and priced at only Rs 14 lakh.

Exactly the way to honor someone who shunned luxuries of life.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Martin Luther King Jr and his wife Coretta Scott spent their first night as a married couple in a.... Funeral Parlor.

This is because they couldn’t find a hotel room that allowed African American couples, in heavily segregated Alabama in 1953.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

To unveil a Brazilian player named Jesus, Arsenal football club recreated Christ the Redeemer looking at Rio De Janeiro by asking footballer Gabriel Jesus to stand atop a ledge and look at the Emirates Stadium.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Red Fort in Delhi was originally... White and Red - based on Shah Jahan's favorite colors.

Conservationists believe its original plaster may have faded, or been painted red by the British.

The back of the Red Fort even today is white.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The first African American in space was Guion Bluford, when he went to space as a part of the STS-8 mission.

Bluford deployed the Indian National Satellite (INSAT-1B) while in orbit. It enabled the rapid expansion of TV to even the remote areas of India.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

MS Dhoni is one of 3 designated wicketkeepers to take a wicket in ODI cricket. He dismissed Travis Dowlin in a champions trophy match at Johannesburg.

He also dismissed @KP24 but the decision was overturned on DRS.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@KP24 Amrita Pritam's autobiography is called 'Raseedi Ticket' or 'Revenue Stamp'.

This is in response to a jibe by Khushwant Singh, who said Amrita's life is so inconsequential that it could be written on the back of a revenue stamp.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

At the Rio Olympics closing ceremony, Shinzo Abe emerged from a green pipe wearing a red cap along with a red ball to accept the Olympic torch as the next host of the Olympic Games.

This was a H/T to Mario.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the 1970's -

India chased 404 successfully at Port Of Spain

Were all out for 324 chasing 341 at Brisbane

Stranded at 429/8 chasing 438..

Sunil Gavaskar in these 3 chases - 102, 113, 221.

🙏🙏🙏

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The man in the pic is a Mid-Day Deputy Editor. He gave his name to an iconic character from Indian TV.

BP Singh was a regular reader of Mid-Day and wanted an uncommon name and decided to name his main character after Pradyuman Maheshwari from Mid-Day.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

There is a brand called TJ's that produces soaps, shampoos, detergents, eatables like snacks, cookies, pickles etc.

All of these are made by the inmates of the Tihar Jail, hence TJ's.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

After the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, India were tottering at 146/5 while chasing 326.

Mohammed Kaif joined Yuvraj Singh to help India win one of its most memorable finals.

His family decided to watch Devdas instead after Tendulkar's dismissal.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Dinanath Bhargava, a student of Nandlal Bose, designed the emblem that adorns the constitution.

He commuted from Shantiniketan to Kolkata zoo daily, to study lions as Bose was very particular about them - The emblem lions had to look exactly like live ones.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Nazrana, Shukrana, Mehrana, Hakrana, Jabrana… this might sound like the words in a Gulzar song.

But these are in fact the classifications of the types of bribes that Income Tax officials take.

Source - Prof Pradeep K Chhibber from @UCBerkeley

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The supreme deity, among the Gonds in Odisha, is the Jangha or thigh.

They believe that in the fight for owning the God, the others got the upper portion & they got the lower part from naval down to the knees of Lord Jagannath which they worship as Jangha.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 2021,@emilymbender @timnitGebru @mcmillan_majora & Shmargaret Shmitchel highlighted risks of AI Language models that took training data from the web &``parroted'' these biases in predictions.

They termed this “Stochastic Parrots”. An apt contender for #RandomFactOfTheDay

@emilymbender @timnitGebru @mcmillan_majora Shravan Mandhana was a left handed batter and his sister Smriti Mandhana copied his stance, backlift and grip.

Hence a natural right-hander Smriti became a left handed batter.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

One97, the parent company of @Paytm was named because 197 was the helpline number on BSNL/MTNL to enquire about a phone number.

Source: AMA by @vijayshekhar on reddit back in 2015.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@Paytm @vijayshekhar Australia won its first men's world cup in 1987. But majority of Australia only saw the first innings of the final live.

During the 2nd innings, @Channel9 decided to show 'Unfaithfully Yours' denying the Aussies a chance to see their team win the world cup.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The sport seen in the images is called *QuadBall*.

It was initially called Quidditch, but the governing bodies don't want to be associated with the creator J.K Rowling anymore.

Also Quidditch is a brand name trademarked by Warner Bros.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This actor got his peculiar name 'Tiku' because of his Grandfather, who used to love writing with a fountain pen called 'Tiku' made by the Rotring company.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Govindaraju Gangaraju's friend presented him with a pen that had an ivory-coloured cap with a swan on it.

Gangaraju wrote pems with the pseduonym 'Hamsalekhani' because of that.

His teacher changed that to Hamsalekha.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

37 candidates filed nominations for the 1977 Presidential election, but 36 were rejected.

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy is the only Indian to have won the Presidential election unopposed.

When the time came, Neelam was Reddy to serve as the president.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Why ‘Bruce Wayne’?

Well Bill Finger, co-author of Batman, chose this name from 2 real life heroes.

Bruce from a Scottish national hero - Robert the Bruce and Wayne from Mad Anthony Wayne - a hero of the American Revolution.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Keshav Panvelkar was enrolled in school as Keshav Thakre.

He was a big fan of the Victorian novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and decided to change his surname to Thackeray as a tribute.

Hence they are the Thackeray's of Shiv Sena.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

An old church located in the Suurhusen, is said to be built in the 14th century on marshy lands. Post 19th century, it began to tilt.

The Suurhusen steeple remains the world's most leaning tower that is unintentionally tilted beating Pisa by 1.22°.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This song by Lata Mangeshkar gave the names to 2 journalists @BDUTT and @bahardutt.

Both their names are taken from the lyrics of this song - 'O Sajana Barkha Bahar Aayi'



#RandomFactOfTheDay

In the film Parasite, we see the character Mrs Kim making Ram-don.

The term “ram-don” was invented for the film, as the actual Korean name for the dish, 'jjapaguri' was too difficult to translate for an English-speaking audience.

Ram-don = Ramen + Udon

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The shortest war in the world lasted ~38 minutes. The Anglo Zanzibar war started on 27th Aug 1896 at 9AM.

After about 30 minutes of shelling, the Sultan of Zanzibar's palace caught fire and was destroyed. The Sultan fled and the war was declared over.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Ram Raja Temple in Orchha, MP is unique because it is the only temple where Lord Rama is worshiped as a king.

A Guard of Honour is held every day and armed salutation is provided to Lord Ram every day.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Godrej Group was founded in 1897 and they focused on making locks with lever technology.

When they diversified to making soaps in 1918, they named their soap 'Chavi' or key in a nod to their lock making legacy.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The way to test the freshness of Cranberries is to bounce them.

When cranberries are firm and fresh, they bounce like rubber balls, due to microscopic air pockets that they contain.

Farmers of cranberries frequently bounce them as a quality control method.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Back in the early 1800's, there were mercenaries who would fight for whichever nation or person paid them the most.

These self-employed, sword-wielding mercenaries were called "Free lances", hence the term today Freelancers.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The present United States flag was designed by a 17 year old teenager Robert Heft as a part of a history project at school in 1958.

He got a B- grade for his efforts which later turned to A, when it was adopted as the official flag.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Macintosh series by @Apple was named by Jef Raskin, a human-computer interface expert after his favorite apple variety called McIntosh.

The spelling was changed to avoid issues with McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., an audio equipment manufacturer.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The relatively small population in Iceland means there are high chances that you might be dating your cousin.

The ÍslendingaApp, with its catchy slogan-Bump the app before you bump in bed, helps to confirm if you are dating a cousin or not.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Bangalore won world war 2 for the Allies.

They landed at Normandy & were confronted by the Germans as they couldn't get past the double barbed wire.

The Bangalore torpedo was used to clear barbed wire, booby traps which helped the allies defeat the Germans.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Dum Laga Ke Haisha is unique among Yash Raj films.

It is the only film where the Yash Raj films logo is not introduced with the voice of Lata Mangeshkar. Instead the Yash Raj logo was introduced by Kumar Sanu.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This iconic scene from the film Padayappa, where @rajinikanth draws a swing for himself to sit on, wasn't written in the script but planned on the sets.

It was inspired by Hanuman figuring out a chair for himself after being insulted at Ravana’s palace.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

There exists a flight between the two islands of Westray and Papa Westray in Scotland operated by @FlyLoganair.

The duration of the flight is 57 seconds making it the shortest commercial flight in the world.

No drinks are served as far as we know.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A lot of things got split during partition. Among them were artifacts from Mohenjo-daro.

Pakistan got the Priest King, whereas India got the Dancing Girl.

Some politicians have subsequently demanded that the Dancing Girl be returned to Pakistan.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

English singer Lily Allen could have been the richest artist ever.

In 2009, she was offered 200,000 bitcoins in lieu of cash for a gig and promptly turned it down.

What did she lose? $4.7 billion as of today.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Savio Mascarenhas took over the "management" of the @TinkleMagazine character Shikhari Shambu in 1998-99

He introduced 2 changes:

1: Savio transformed Shambuji into an animal conservationist from a hunter

2: Savio removed the dominating wife stereotype.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Until June 1948, Pakistan considered its independence day as Aug 15. Early Pakistan stamps commemorate Aug 15, 1947.

It was later found that Aug 14, was the 27th Ramadan of the Islamic calendar, a sacred day. Hence changed to Aug 14.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The original choice to play Gabbar Singh in Sholay, was Danny Dengzonpa.

Here is a pic of the launch party at GP Sippy's house announcing the cast of the movie.

He had to let go off the movie to shoot in Afghanistan for Dharmatma.

📷@anupamachopra

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Astronaut Sunita Williams had qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2007 but had to go on a space mission.

She instead ran the Boston Marathon from space wearing a 14000 bib. Her time - 4 hrs, 24 mins.

In that time, the space station traveled 77,000 miles.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The state bird of Mizoram is called Mrs Hume's pheasant.

Mrs Hume is Mary Hume, the wife of AO Hume aka the founder of the @INCIndia party back in 1885.

AO Hume was a noted ornithologist and has been called "the Father of Indian Ornithology".

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The name for the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark index SENSEX stands for SENSitive indEX — comprising 30 largest & most actively traded stocks on BSE.

Stock market expert @deepakmohoni coined the term SENSEX sometime in 1989.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Puducherry celebrates independence day on August 15th & De Jure Day on August 16th.

On August 15, 1947, Puducherry remained a French colony.

15 years later, it was liberated on August 16, 1962 when Puducherry was officially merged with the Indian Union.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This man was the target of social ostracism organized in 1880.

He tried to evict tenants from the land, after they refused to pay higher rents. Other tenants refused to work on his land - he was isolated.

His name was Charles Boycott, hence the term Boycott.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Dr Zhivago was Jennifer's favourite film. She named her daughter Lara, after the heroine of the film Lara.

Hence her name is @LaraDutta.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1903, a cricketer caught fire while playing at Lords in London, when the ball thudded into a box of matches in his pocket which set the matches ablaze.

The cricketer also happened to be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

A Buddha statue and a Nazi ship were discovered recently in similar ways - drying up of rivers.

This 600 year old Buddhist statue was discovered at the bottom of the Yangtze river.

The Nazi ship was discovered at the bottom of the Danube.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Indian nuclear scientist Homi J. Bhabha is responsible for the naming of the Meson -- a subatomic particle.

Meson was originally called Mesotron, but Bhabha in a short article in @Nature suggested the name to be changed to Meson.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

@Nature The iconic red dot in the NDTV logo is a tribute to Radhika Roy's (wife of founder Prannoy Roy) characteristic Red Bindi.

In this image she is seen taking the Bindi from her forehead and sticking it on the mike.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The Punjabi word for the little finger is chichi.

Superstar Govinda’s mother was a devotee of Lord Krishna. She called Govinda “chichi” since he would control the entire family like Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhan mountain -- with his little finger.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Sony VAIO has an interesting logo.

It consists of two parts - VA and IO where VA forms an analogue sine wave and IO represents the 1 and 0 of the digital binary code.

Vaio also sounds like bio, which is symbolic of life and the product's future evolution.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Liaqat Bagh in Rawalpindi has an unusual distinction - 2 Pakistani prime ministers were assassinated there - Liaqat Khan and Benazir Bhutto

It was known as Company Bagh, but was renamed Liaqat Bagh in honor of Liaqat Ali Khan, after his assassination.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1978, Jimmy Carter and his family visited the village of Daulatpur Nasirabad along with the CM of Haryana Devi Lal.

The village changed its name to Carterpuri in the honor of the US President.
#RandomFactOfTheDay

Employees of Amazon are called "Amholes" in the Seattle Tech circuit.

It is said that they are pugnacious and work obsessed. And also because they are seen to be rude to waiters..

#RandomFactOfTheDay

In 1997, the former USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev appeared in a 60-second commercial for Pizza Hut. In good taste, he didn't eat the pizza.

He didn't profit from the ad as his appearance fee went directly to his non-profit.

The ad was not shown in Russia.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Alia Advani, changed her first name to Kiara (@advani_kiara) prior to the release of her first film, Fugly, in 2014 to avoid confusion with @aliaa08.

Her choice of the name was inspired from @priyankachopra's character Kiara in the film Anjaana Anjaani.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

India’s most iconic drink Thums Up has the famously misspelt name because back in 1978 when it was introduced, FMCG products were not allowed to have dictionary words as product names.

Hence they dropped the ‘b’ and tasted the thunder.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

The national animal of Scotland is the completely real animal.... the unicorn.

It is a symbol of purity, innocence and power.

Unicorns are fiercely independent and famously difficult to capture or conquer and hence were adopted as the National Animal.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Impressed by Sunil Gavaskar's wonderful debut series against West Indies in 1971, @BishanBedi named his first son Gavasinder Singh Bedi.

Sunil Gavaskar named his son Rohan after the legendary West Indian cricketer Rohan Kanhai.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

If you want to adopt one guinea pig as a pet in Switzerland, it is illegal.

If you want to adopt 2 guinea pigs, then it is legal.

Guinea Pigs are social animals and if they cannot regularly interact with others of their species, it is considered abuse.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

This man is David, founder of the European and Anglo Indian Association in Bangalore. He was given 4000 acres of Land from Mysore Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar in the 19th century.

His full name David S White - hence the area is called White Field in Bangalore.

#RandomFactOfTheDay

Legend says that Ram stopped at Malabar Hill during his pursuit of Raavan. He is said to have constructed a linga of sand, after getting tired of waiting for Lakshman to bring an idol.

Valuka Iswar is Ishwar made of sand, hence we get the name Walkeshwar.

#RandomFactOfTheDay