In Assam, the popular ‘Me-Dam-Me-Fie’ festival of the Tai Ahom community is being celebrated across the State with religious fervor and traditional gaiety today. On this day, the Tai-Ahoms offer oblations to their ancestors and sacrifices to gods in traditional manner. The Tai-Ahom belief is that their worthy ancestors are still living in the Heaven. The then Ahom Kings, who ruled Assam for around six hundred years till 1826, performed this annual 'ancestor worship' initially at Charaideo, the erstwhile capital of the Ahom Kingdom, now in Sibsagar district of the State.

1. In 1930, the cities of Constantinople and Angora changed their names to…?

Istanbul and Ankara

2. Who or what is a ‘mouse potato’?

An addictive computer user

3. The structure in the cells of plants and algae where photosynthesis takes place is/are called…?

Chloroplasts

4. On March 28, 1987, the world lost the Austria-born singer on whom the character of Julie Andrews was based in the classic “The Sound of Music”. Name her.

Maria von Trapp

5. Which is the only recognised natural predator of the polar bear?

Man

6. Which astronaut is the only person to fly on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions?

Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. He flew on the Sigma

7. What distinction does Victoria Woodhull have in America politics?

She was the first ever woman candidate for President of the U.S.

8. What would an entomophagist prefer in his/her food?

Insects

9. Which essential organic compound gets its name from the Greek for ‘primary’?

Protein (from ‘proteios’)

10. Which American legend has the most career men’s singles tennis titles with 109 titles?

Jimmy Connors

11. What is a ‘flex-cuff’?

 A plastic strip that can be fastened around one’s wrists as a restraint

12. In which country is the Atacama Desert?

Chile

13. Which of these natural phenomena is said to cause the most fatalities: floods, heat wave or hurricanes?

Heat wave

14. From whose neck did the winged horse Pegasus spring?

Medusa

15. What type of a firearm is a SLR?

Self Loading Rifle

March 24, 1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.

March 25, 1807 - The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, became the first passenger carrying railway in the world.

March 25, 1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

March 29, 1857 - Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry revolts against the British rule in India and inspires a long-drawn War of Independence of 1857 also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.

March 29, 1886 - Dr John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.

March 29, 2004 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

March 30, 1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

1. We should thank Fraunhofer Gesellschaft for creating and patenting which popular music format?

MP3

2. Fill in the blank: “Sea gull, sea gull, sit on the sand; It’s a sign of _______ when you are at hand.”

Rain

3. To which European leader is the term ‘axis’ as used in the WWII alliance popularly attributed?

Benito Mussolini

4. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is considered as an inventor/pioneer of which ‘visual’ activity?

Photography

5. If either Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gama had ‘thalassophobia’, they would not have done what they did. What is ‘thalassophobia’ a fear of?

The sea

6. Which animal is also called sand rat or desert rat?

Gerbil

7. India won the Olympic gold in men’s hockey uninterrupted from 1928 to…?

1956. It lost in the 1960 final

8. The legislative capital of South Africa is…?

Capetown

9. In which part of the brain is the cerebrum?

Forebrain

10. Which type of coffee is usually served in large mug or bowl filled with coffee and steamed milk?

‘Café au lait’ (sometimes café latte also

11. What was the nationality of the astronomer Tycho Brahe?

He was Danish

12. What five-lettered word is used for a vault beneath the main level of a church and normally used as a meeting or burial place?

Crypt

Common date of the Equinox. In astrology, March 21 the day of the Equinox is the first full day of the sign of Aries. It is also the traditional first day of the astrological year; and International Astrology Day.

March 21, 1970 - The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.

March 21, 1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

March 21, 2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

1. Name the Senator who is assured of the Republican nomination for the Presidency of the U.S.

John McCain

2. Name the Roman leader who was assassinated during the "Ides of March" in 44 B.C.

Julius Caesar

3. Which batsman had the most runs in the recently concluded Commonwealth Bank Series?

Gautam Gambhir (440 runs)

4. Farmer Grey was the first owner of which literary equine?

 Black Beauty

5. The "last human on the moon" celebrates his birthday on this date. Name him.

Eugene Cernan

6. The only ballroom dance written in 3/4 time and performed primarily in closed position is called..?

Waltz

7. The migration of Prophet Muhammad and his followers to the city of Medina in 622 (Common Era) is called?

Hijra

8. Which celebrated Nobel Laureate was born on March 14 in 1879 at Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany?

Albert Einstein

9. In scrabble, how many letters have a value of 2?

Two (D and G)

10. Name the painter of such works as "The Potato Eaters", "Sunflowers" and "The Starry Night".

Vincent Van Gogh

11. The branches of which tree appear on the United Nations Flag?

Olive

12. What is the 1994 direct-tovideo sequel to the Disney classic "Aladdin" called?

 `The Return of Jafar'

13. Who created the characters of Captain Arthur Hastings and Colonel Race?

Agatha Christie

14. Which organ in the human abdomen functions in the destruction of old red blood cells and holds a reservoir of blood?

Spleen

15. If one was likened to "a bad penny", he or she would always.?

Turn up

March 12, 1993 - Several bombs explode in Bombay (Mumbai), India, killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.

March 12,1894 - Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.

March 16, 1872 - The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.

March16, 1926 - History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

March 16, 1966 - Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.

March 17 , # 1959 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.

1995 to 1998?: Fry goes roughly three years without getting time off

1997: Fry's dog, Seymour, is born.

1997: Applied Cryogenics experiences their most recent power failure.

circa 1997: date on the last existing can of anchovies ("Angry Norwegian Anchovies" brand)

August 1997: Fry meets his dog, "Seymour Asses"

July 1998: The summer from "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer". Seymour swims in toppings.

1999 or earlier: The evil brainspawn begin constructing the Infosphere. The Nibblonians forsee its completion and realise their need to cryogenically freeze Fry so that he can ultimately defeat them.

March 28, 1999: In real life, the first episode of Futurama is aired

1999: Fry spills a can of beer, disrupting the transmission of the series finale of Single Female Lawyer

Evening of December 31, 1999: Nibbler orders a pizza to be delivered to Applied Cryogenics, using the pseudonym I. C. Weiner.

11:35pm, December 31, 1999: Fry leaves on his last pizza delivery.

At this point the time-stream diverges. As is well recorded, Nibbler is hidden underneath the desk that Fry will sit at as the new millennium rolls in, intending to deliberately make Fry fall in the cryogenics tube, so that in the future (specifically, the episode "The Why Of Fry") he can defeat the brainspawn on behalf of all intelligent life. In one timeline (timeline A) this goes ahead as planned. In timeline B, a Fry arrives from the future, sent back in time by the brains, just in time to deliver to Nibbler the dire warning, "Scootie-Puff Junior sucks!" This will have significant consequences, as we shall see in the year 3002 or so. Either way, Nibbler's plan proceeds as envisaged:

12:00:0?am, January 1, 2000: Philip J. Fry falls backwards into a cryogenic chamber, which automatically freezes him for a thousand years

lunchtime, January 1, 2000: Fry's father calls him, wondering where he is.

July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin land on the Moon. The original landing site will have been lost for centuries by the year 3000.

1973: Computers will double in speed between now and 3000, according to Richard Nixon in 3000 - probably something of an understatement

1973: Muhammed Ali faces an 80ft-tall mechanical Joe Frazier. The entire Earth is destroyed, according to George Foreman, whose memory is not, apparently, what it was

1974: birth of Philip J. Fry

1975: In Leela's dream, the Yellow Brick Road is renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard

1984 or later: Stricken with incurable boneitis, "that guy" (Steve Castle) is frozen. We know he's from the 1980s, but he has also certainly seen Apple's "1984" advert

1985: The New York Mets win the World Championship. Shea Stadium has a banner proclaiming: "Home of the 1969 & 1985 World Champion Mets". Note: This obliquely suggests that the Mets won't win the World Championship again for over a thousand years!

1988: What Hermes Conrad will later describe as a "legendary Jamaican bobsled team" first competes in the Winter Olympics

between 1990 and 1996: Applied Cryogenics experiences their penultimate power failure

1994 or 1995: Fry scrawls a picture of himself on a rocket

1900s: Gwen's family starts making candy hearts from bone meal and earwig honey

20th century?: The Stupid Ages? Fry's era is referred to as the Stupid Ages more than once in the series. No dates are given, but the 20th century seems stupid enough to me.

July 9, 1947: Emerging from a time-warp, the Planet Express ship crash-lands near Roswell, New Mexico

July 10, 1947: Planet Express returns through the time-warp, leaving behind Bender's head

1951: Pete's TVs: "letting people watch news reports in our window since 1951"

August 9, 1960: David Duchovny is supposedly born; Duchovny is in fact the individual who will later be known as Calculon; his birth date might be a lie.

1960: The 1960 Presidential elections are fixed by John F. Kennedy, according to Richard Nixon

September 8, 1966: The first episode of the original series of Star Trek is aired

1969: The New York Mets win the World Championship.