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...that a fire that broke out a few days before Hiralal Sen died destroyed all his films including India's first political film?

...that Kadambini Ganguly was one of the first female graduates in the British Empire and the first female doctor (allopath) in South Asia?

...that the Partition of Midnapore to divide Midnapore, India's most populous district, was achieved 81 years after the first attempt in 1921?

...that Leela Majumdar, author of children's books, translated Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea into Bengali?

...that Gour Govinda Ray, Brahmo Samaj missionary and scholar specialising in Hinduism, attempted to compare Krishna with Christ?

...that the 1758 British construction of Fort William in the heart of populous Gobindapur incited the whole colony to migrate north of Calcutta?

...that Shyampukur was the site of one of the two tents Jamshetji Framji Madan set up to screen films when he entered the ‘bioscope’ scene in Kolkata in 1902?

...that social activists opine that the extension of the Kolkata Metro on pillars on the bed of Adi Ganga will destroy the waterway?

...that the Maratha Ditch was excavated around Calcutta, India, as a protection against attacks by Marathas, who, however, never attacked?

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...that a fire that broke out a few days before Hiralal Sen died destroyed all his films including India's first political film?
...that Russian Indologist Gerasim Lebedev was the founder of the first European-style drama theatre in India and also the first printing house in Europe equipped with Indic scripts of Bengali and Devanagari?
...that when John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune opened the first secular girls' school in Calcutta in 1849, outraged bystanders swore at the girls as they were carried to school in covered carriages?
...that the Mahishya caste is one of the predominant Hindu castes in West Bengal, India?
...that the Young Bengal leader Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee was largely ostracized for marrying the widow of Maharaja Tejendra?
...that the Mayurakshi River in India wreaks havoc with its floods even after the construction of a dam?
...that the Young Bengal leader Ramgopal Ghosh was threatened with ostracism for opposing the Hindu religion?
...that one person was killed and another injured when they entered a tiger's cage in Alipore Zoological Gardens, Calcutta, and tried to put a floral garland round his neck?
...that the tyranny and the perceived dread of Gobindram Mitter, a British deputy in Calcutta, earned him a place in a Bengali rhyme?
...that zookeeper Ram Brahma Sanyal's pioneering works on the scientific treatment of captive breeding led to his zoo's hosting the first live birth in captivity of a Sumatran Rhinoceros, a feat not replicated for 112 years?
...that after the Battle of Palashi in 1757, Nabakrishna Deb organised a Durga Puja where Lord Clive offered thanksgiving?
...that Brahmo social reformer Dwarkanath Ganguly served a girls' boarding school in Kolkata, India as headmaster, teacher, dietician, guard, and janitor?
... that human sacrifices were once offered in Chitpur, now home to Kolkata’s latest railway passenger terminal?
...that the Tagore family, with over three hundred years of history, has exercised the greatest influence on reawakened Bengali spirit?
...that Motilal Sheel, a Bengali merchant in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in British India in the early 19th century, donated the land on which the Calcutta Medical College was built in 1835?
...that Kadambini Ganguly was one of the first female graduates in the British Empire and the first female doctor (allopath) in South Asia?
...that Indian author and journalist Peary Chand Mitra played a leading role in the Bengal renaissance in the 19th century and became known as the "Dickens of Bengal" due to his clear Bengali prose?
...that Rasik Krishna Mallick, a student at Hindu College, Kolkata, a leading Derozian and journalist, shocked a court in British India in the 1820s when he stated that he did not believe in the sacredness of the Ganges?
...that Kallol was perhaps, the first conscious literary movement to embrace modernism in Bengali literature?
...that innovative Indian film director Ritwik Ghatak's first feature film Nagarik premiered after his death, twenty-four years after it was made?
...that Raj Bhavan was inspired by the Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire?
...that the British East India Company received the farman (permission) for trading in Bengal and fortification of Kolkata as a reward when the company surgeon William Hamilton treated suspected fistula of the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar?
...that the Stoneman serial murders of thirteen homeless people in the summer of 1989 in Kolkata remain unsolved?
...that Narayan Debnath made the comic-strip character Batul The Great a superhero when the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 flared up?
...that noted Bengali writer Rajnarayan Basu was a tutor of Asia's first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore?
... that the Chinese of Calcutta have established the only Chinatown in India?
...that a statue now stands where Matangini Hazra was shot in 1942 during the Quit India Movement?
...that a tornado that hit Dantan in West Bengal, India on March 24, 1998 killed over 250 people?
...that when Krishna Mohan Banerjee, a member of the famous Young Bengal group in Kolkata, in British India, converted to Christianity in 1832, he lost his job in David Hare’s school?
...that Mangalkavya depicted the social customs of Bengal in the middle ages?
...that the Partition of Midnapore to divide Midnapore, India's most populous district, was achieved 81 years after the first attempt in 1921?
...that the Sannyasi Rebellion was a series of clashes between Indian ascetics and the British East India Company during the eighteenth century in Bengal?
...that the British Indian Association played a catalytic role in building up Indian political consciousness?
...that Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan preferred to close down his weekly newspaper Somprakash rather than sign an undertaking for it?

...that bridges carrying India's Grand Trunk Road over the Barakar River were washed away in 1913 and 1946?
...that Fort William College, set up for the training of British officials, fostered the development of Indian languages?
...that Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the second railway in the world that was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO?
...that in 1913, the Indian poet and philosopher Dwijendranath Tagore wrote the book Boxometry about the construction of boxes?
...that Gnanendramohan Tagore was the first Asian to be called to the bar in England in 1862?

...that the Chappell Ganguly controversy in Indian cricket resulted in fiery street protests in Ganguly's home town of Calcutta and then raised debate in the Parliament of India?
...that Satyendranath Tagore, the first Indian to join the elite Indian Civil Service, played a pioneering role in freeing women from being imprisoned in their homes?

...that unlike other Young Bengal members, Hara Chandra Ghosh refrained from involvement in religion and social reformation?
...that Kolkata West International City has one of the largest foreign direct investments in township projects in India?
...that when Indrajit Gupta, a Communist, became India's Union Minister for Home Affairs in 1996, he became head of a ministry 'which once policed the Commies'?
...that the graphic novel The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers combines Kolkata's Babu culture and the legend of The Wandering Jew?
...that Leela Majumdar, author of children's books, translated Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea into Bengali?

...that Bengali nationalism motivated the proposal for a united, independent Bengal as an alternative to the 1947 partition of Bengal?
...that Beighton Cup is the oldest field hockey tournament in the world?

...that the traditional Bengali panjika, the Hindu astrological almanac, has come out with an interactive CD version?
...that Pankaj Gupta was one of the earliest Indian sports administrators involved in football, hockey and cricket?
...that Annette Akroyd an orientalist, is remembered primarily for her early efforts at women’s education in India?
...that Banga Mahila Vidyalaya (Bengali Women’s College) was the first women’s liberal arts college in India?
...that Jyotirindranath Tagore played a major role in the flowering of the talents in his younger brother, the first Asian Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore?

...that Ganendranath Tagore established the Jorasanko Natyasala, a private theatre in his own household, in Kolkata in 1865?

...that Dwarkin developed the hand-held harmonium, a western instrument, to make it suitable for use with Indian music?
...that the Oriental Seminary, established in 1829, was the earliest privately run modern school in Kolkata?
...that Monomohun Ghose became the first Indian practicing barrister in 1867?
...that with the publication of Deepnirban in 1876, Swarnakumari Devi became the first woman novelist amongst the Bengali people?
...that a tiger-haunted jungle was cleared to make way for the wide grassy stretch of the Maidan park of Kolkata?

...that Job Charnock landed at Sutanuti on 24 August, 1690 with the objective of establishing the settlement, which is now Calcutta?
...that Gour Govinda Ray, Brahmo Samaj missionary and scholar specialising in Hinduism, attempted to compare Krishna with Christ?
...that Ghum is the highest railway station in India at 2,225 m (7,407 ft)?
...that Bidhannagar College had to move out of its old premises because of student overpopulation?
...that the staff of the mayor of Mirik, West Bengal vowed to spend a month's salary in SMS voting for Indian Idol contestant Prashant Tamang, the first finalist of Nepalese descent?
...that the Darjeeling Ropeway was stopped on 19 October 2003 after four tourists were killed in an accident?
...that Darjeeling's Rock Garden was built to re-attract tourists following the damage to the industry caused by the actions of the Gorkha National Liberation Front?
...that Observatory Hill, Darjeeling, the site of Darjeeling's oldest Buddhist monastery is now home to a Hindu temple?
...that through hundreds of his creations Trailokyanath Sanyal developed devotional songs of Brahmo Samaj as an art form?

...that the unimportance and consequent emptiness of Kalikata afforded the British room to settle there and establish Calcutta?
...that Sabarna Roy Choudhury sold to the British, for Rs. 1,300, the land rights of Sutanuti, Kalikata and Gobindapur, that ultimately merged to become Calcutta?

...that Kumortuli neighbourhood of Calcutta supplies images of Goddess Durga to Indian communities in about 90 countries?
...that Bhudev Mukhopadhyay taught at Hindu, Muslim and Christian schools?
...that construction of ‘Tagore Castle’ in Pathuriaghata, a Calcutta neighbourhood, was modelled on that of an English castle, a departure in the way of building residences in India?
...that the Esplanade in Calcutta, which formed a favourite promenade for "elegant walking parties" in the eighteenth century, now sees some 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles pass through during rush hour?
...that the proposed underground car park at the northern end of Lal Dighi will be the biggest in Calcutta and is located in a heritage zone?
...that the 1758 British construction of Fort William in the heart of populous Gobindapur incited the whole colony to migrate north of Calcutta?

...that the title of ‘Raja’ was bestowed on Subodh Chandra Mullick by the people after he donated Rs. 100,000 in 1906 for the National Council of Education which later became Jadavpur University?

...that the Bagbazar neighbourhood in north Kolkata has long been a citadel of the Bengali aristocracy?
...that the once flourishing Indian port of Saptagram faded out as a result of river silting?
...that Jatindramohan Tagore, a theatre enthusiast, music and art-lover, and philanthrophist, was the first Indian to be a member of the Royal Photographic Society in 1898?
...that with Calcutta developing in the 18th century, the Janbazar neighbourhood was gradually taken over by the Portuguese, Armenians, half-castes and others, to become a grey area between Black and White Towns?
...that a ditch excavated to fend off marauding Maratha soldiers, was filled up when the city was never attacked, to form a road from Shyambazar's five-point crossing?
...that Nayachar Island in the Hooghly River was chosen as the location for a major chemical hub based on experience in developing Jurong Island in Singapore?
...that Deganga, in West Bengal, where ground water is affected by arsenic contamination, will have to wait until 2009 for a supply of piped arsenic-free water?
...that the neighbourhood of Bowbazar was the site of Calcutta's first horse drawn tram line, opened in 1873?
...that in 2006, nearly 50,000 people were marooned in Labhpur and surrounding areas of Birbhum district in West Bengal because of floods?
...that the Ghurni clay dolls of West Bengal have been inaugurated by Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev?
...that poet, film producer and journalist Pritish Nandy is credited with opening India's first cyber cafe in 1996?
...that the hearing for the Nanoor massacre case has stalled because of the defendants' repeated failure to appear in court?
...that although in present-day India the former Princely states and their princes have lost that status, the Raja of Rajnagar still wears his ancestors' tattered royal attire twice a year?
...that in the Sandeshkhali region of West Bengal more than 100 women get trafficked to red-light areas in Mumbai and Pune each year?

...that from 1985 through 2004, about seventy-five honey collectors from Gosaba and the surrounding areas of West Bengal were killed by tigers in the forests of Sundarbans, but none since?

...that the residents of Basanti and other deltaic islands in the Indian part of the Sundarbans thanked the French author Dominique Lapierre for the floating dispensaries he had provided?
...that the legislator from Kultali was sentenced by the Kolkata High Court, in 2005, to life imprisonment in a case where a mob dragged two persons out of their house, and tortured and killed them?
...that Lord Canning wanted to build a port at Canning, now in West Bengal, that could rival Singapore but gave up when the Matla River surged its fury on the new port town in 1867?
...that Rizwanur Rahman was charged with abducting his wife by West Bengal police after her father disapproved of the marriage?

...that a three-horse omnibus plied briefly between Dharmatala, a neighbourhood in Kolkata, and Barrackpore in November 1830?

...that Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya has won the Ananda Purashkar and the Rabindra Puraskar, prestigious awards for Bengali literature, for his writing on insects and popular science?

...that Shyampukur was the site of one of the two tents Jamshetji Framji Madan set up to screen films when he entered the ‘bioscope’ scene in Kolkata in 1902?

...that Asit Kumar Haldar was the first Indian fellow at the Royal Society of Arts?
...that a possible local subsidence forced the Jalangi River, in West Bengal, to flow in a south westerly direction, reverting the earlier trend of rivers in the region flowing in a south easterly direction?
...that Shamsunnahar Mahmud and Roquia Sakhawat Hussain were Muslim feminists of the Bengal renaissance?
...that the Saraswati River, a distributary of the Bhagirathi in West Bengal, is now dead but was active till around the 16th century AD?
...that boats crammed with people from both India and Bangladesh, flying the flags of their respective countries, converge on the Ichamati River, the international border, to immerse the idols after Durga Puja?
...that social activists opine that the extension of the Kolkata Metro on pillars on the bed of Adi Ganga will destroy the waterway?

...that in Hindu mythology, after Lakshmindara, son of Chand Sadagar, died of snakebite on his wedding night, his bride Behula accompanied his corpse on a raft floating in a river?
...that Azizul Huque gave up his Knighthood after the Calcutta Riots in 1946?
...that Job Charnock landed at Jorabagan, Sutanuti ghat in 1690, which is believed by many to be the starting point of the metropolitan growth of Kolkata?
...that Abani Mukherji, co-founder of the Communist Party of India, died in Soviet captivity in the 1930s?
...that dhakis (pictured), traditional Bengali drummers, kill more than 40,000 egrets, pheasants, herons and open bill storks every year to decorate their instruments with feathers?
...that the more than two centuries old Gun and Shell Factory at Cossipore, a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, is the oldest surviving factory in the Indian subcontinent?
...that there is a plan to shift Kolkata's traditional wholesale market in Posta (pictured), to the newly developed New Town?
...that Entally was home to the poor and the depressed, and a neighborhood where Mother Teresa started her active life in Kolkata, India?
...that tradition has it that Warren Hastings hunted with elephants in the jungle in Chowringhee, now a business district in Kolkata, India?
...that with the 2008 bird flu outbreak in West Bengal, 16,000 birds were destroyed in Itahar, but health workers retreated from villages that refused to kill their birds?
...that every year 70,000 to 80,000 migratory birds visit Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary, an artificially created forest in West Bengal, India?
...that when Shiv Chowrasia, a former caddie, won the 2008 Indian Masters golf tournament, he became the third Indian to win a European Tour event?
...that Burrabazar, in Kolkata, expanded from a yarn and textile market into a large wholesale market?
...that in the 250-year old Durga Puja of Shobhabazar palace, the goddess (statue pictured) was offered homemade sweets because non-Brahmin patrons were not allowed to offer rice in any form?
...that the Maratha Ditch was excavated around Calcutta, India, as a protection against attacks by Marathas, who, however, never attacked?
...that hawkers in Kolkata, numbering 275,000, occupy pavements and generate annual business worth around 2 billion dollars?
...that Banduan and Manbazar in West Bengal, India, are located in an area of violent political activities by Maoists?
...that there are hints of political opposition to the land acquisition for the Special Economic Zone and industrial hub at Saltora in the "neglected" Bankura district in India?
...that traditional artisans in one village in the Bagmundi area of Purulia district in West Bengal make the masks used in Chhau dance?
...that Mahendranath Gupta (pictured) was closely associated with two notable figures in Hinduism—as a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and as a teacher to Paramahansa Yogananda?
...that Haraprasad Shastri discovered the Charyapada, poems written in the earliest-known precursor to the Indo-Aryan languages?
...that the Maitreyi Express was launched on Pohela Baisakh in 2008 to revive the railway link between India and Bangladesh that had been closed for 43 years?
...that a proposed strategic road link through Bangladesh and its capital Dhaka will reduce the travel distance between the Indian cities of Agartala and Kolkata from 1,700 kms to 400 kms?
...that villagers in the drought-prone Ranibandh area in West Bengal’s Bankura district migrate to neighbouring districts in the harvesting season?
...that Jamshedji Framji Madan was a pioneer of Indian cinema, whose film production company Madan Theatres Limited once controlled half of British India's box office?
..that Mahendralal Sarkar, an allopath-turned-homeopathic physician, was the founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, the first national science association of India?
... that Oladevi, a deity whose worship may have originated in the Indus Valley Civilization, was honoured and feared as the goddess of cholera in rural Bengal?
... that Indian film director Nitin Bose, who directed the blockbuster Ganga Jamuna in 1961, had introduced playback singing in Indian cinema in 1935?

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