Important Days and Dates GK Questions

Notes:
The UN International Day of Friendship is celebrated across the globe every year on July 30 to observe the importance of friendship in promoting peace in many cultures. The day is based on the recognition of the relevance and importance of friendship as a noble and valuable sentiment in the lives of human beings around the world. However, India celebrates Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August.

Notes:
The National Sports Day (NSD) is celebrated every year in India on 29th of August to mark the birth anniversary of legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, who was known as ‘The Wizard’ or ‘The Magician’ of hockey for his superb ball control. He won gold medals in Olympics for India in the years 1928, 1934 and 1936. He scored over 400 goals in his career, from 1926 to 1948. It is believed that after India defeated Germany in the 1936 Olympics final by 8-1, Adolf Hitler offered him a senior post in the German Army, to which Chand refused. His autobiography “Goal!” was published by Sport & Pastime (Madras) in 1952. The Government of India (GoI) awarded him the 3rd highest civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 1956. Beside this, the most noted memorial for him is the Major Dhyan Chand Award, which is the highest award for lifetime achievement in sports and games in India. It has been awarded annually from 2002 to sporting figures that not only contribute through their performance but also contribute to the sport after their retirement.

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Lucknow-based City Montessori School (CMS) has won the Guinness World Record for becoming the ‘world’s largest school’ in terms of strength of students.
City Montessori School (CMS) has won the global award for having largest number of students in 2019-20. At present, the CMS has 18 branches and approximately 56,000 students all over the city.

Notes:
The National Milk Day (NMD) is celebrated every year on 26th of November to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of India’s White Revolution. The White Revolution (also known as Operation Flood) was launched in 1970. It is considered to be world’s biggest dairy development programme which transformed India from a milk deficient nation to the one of the largest producers of milk in the world.

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The Indian Railways is conducting a ten-day long campaign from March 1 to 10 to celebrate the International Women’s Day (March 8).
The theme of the campaign is ‘Each for Equal’, representing the gender equality. The Indian Railways is also focussing on #SheInspiresUs, which highlights the inspiring stories of women achievers. Under this campaign, the steps taken to provide exclusive facilities to women passengers and to empower the women employees working in Indian Railways.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight in the year 2011.
12 April 1961 was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who was the first person to fly in space. The day is celebrated to commemorate this historic event which opened the way for space exploration across the globe.

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Rabindranath Tagore, also called as the ‘Gurudev’ wrote the ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ song during the first partition of Bengal, announced by Lord Curzon in 1905. The song later led to the uprising of the freedom movement of the present Bangladesh and became their national anthem.
Tagore is the only known person who had composed national anthems for two countries, including Jana Gana Mana of India. The Sri Lankan national anthem was also inspired from Tagore’s work, as per some historians. His 159th birth anniversary was observed on May 7. National Gallery of Modern Art organised a virtual tour to commemorate the birth anniversary of Tagore.

Notes:
International Sex workers day is celebrated on June 2, every year across the world, to highlight the plight of sex workers.
On the same day in the year 1975, hundreds of sex workers gathered in the Church Saint-Nizier in France, to sensitise people about their exploitative living conditions and to demand an end to police harassment. The Odisha Human Rights Commission has directed the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation commissioner to provide ration and other assistance to sex workers in Bhubaneswar.

Notes:
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to land on the surface of the Moon.
To commemorate the historic achievement, it is celebrated as the Space Exploration Day, which is also called as the Moon Day. US President John F. Kennedy had set a goal of ‘landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth within a decade.’ After Armstrong’s feat, the US launched six Apollo missions to the moon from 1969 and 1972.

Notes:
15 October is celebrated as World Students Day and is declared so by the United Nations based on the birthday of former Indian President A.P.J. Kalam.