On 13 March 2017, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) stripped Durban of the right to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games. This decision was taken after a trail of missed deadlines and financial problems were unearthed. The daunting burdens faced by the host cities were a major factor in this decision.

It was India’s first President, Rajendra Prasad who established the Bharat Ratna award on 2 January 1954. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the recipient of the Bharat Ratna in the year 1954. Subsequently, in 1962, Rajendra Prasad was the recipient of the award which was given for his commitment to serving the people of India. He was presented this award by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was serving as India’s President.

In 1933, Nobel laureate Sir CV Raman, became the first Indian director of IISC. The institute introduced two more departments – biochemistry and physics. Later, in collaboration with Hindustan Aircraft Limited, the institute repaired British and American warplanes during WWII. The institute’s first director was an English Chemist named Morris Travers. With only two academic departments — electrical technology and general and applied chemistry, and 24 students, the institute carried out studies of immediate importance to the country.

The Tashkent Declaration was a peace agreement signed between India and Pakistan to resolve the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 (5 August 1965 – 23 September 1965). It was signed at Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan which in turn was a part of one of the republics that comprised the USSR. India's then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan's President Ayub Khan, signed the accord. It was Premier Aleksey Kosygin who represented the Soviets and mediated this signing.

While in Murshidabad, in 1804 Raja Ram Mohan Roy wrote Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheists) in Persian with an introduction in Arabic. Bengali had not yet become the language of intellectual discourse. Raja Ram Mohan Roy is called the father of the modern Indian Renaissance due to the remarkable changes he instituted in 18th and 19th century India.

The world's largest glacier is the Lambert glacier in Antarctica, according to the United States Geological Survey. The glacier is more than 60 miles (96 km) wide at its widest point, about 270 miles (435 l) long, and has been measured to be 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) deep at its centre. Often described as a continent of superlatives, Antarctica is not only the world's southernmost continent. It is also the world’s highest, driest, windiest, coldest, and iciest continent.

Mir Taqi Meer, the great 18th-century poet is also known and acknowledged by centuries of poets after him, as Khuda-e-Sukhan – the God of poetry. His complete work, Kulliyat, consists of six diwans, containing 1916 ghazals and 13,585 couplets comprising all kinds of poetic forms: ghazal, masnavi, qasida, rubai, mustezaad, satire, etc.

Begum Hazrat Mahal was one of the few women who challenged the British during the revolt of 1857. Her maiden name was Muhammadi Khanum. She was born at Faizabad, Awadh. Begum Hazrat Mahal, or ‘Begum of Awadh’, was one of India's first female freedom fighters. She finally found asylum in Nepal where she died in 1879.

On 29 January 1780, India’s and Asia’s first printed newspaper ‘Hicky’s Bengal Gazette’ started its publication in then Calcutta. It was a weekly English newspaper started by an Irishman named James Augustus Hicky. Hicky’s Bengal Gazette was also known as the Original Calcutta General Advertiser.