• the Ravi River was known as Paruṣṇī or Irāvatī to Indians in the Vedic period and as Hydraotes to the Ancient Greeks?
• 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?
• the Indian Railways Fan Club is the Internet's largest website devoted to the Indian Railways and rail transport in the Indian subcontinent?
• the Battle of Asal Uttar fought between India and Pakistan was the largest tank battle in the history of the Indian subcontinent?
• some liverwort species in the class Haplomitriopsida rafted from Gondwana to Asia via the Indian subcontinent?
• the British colonials employed Indian agents called gomasthas to obtain goods from local weavers and fix their prices?
• Hedley Howarth helped lead New Zealand to its first ever test cricket win on the Indian subcontinent with a five-wicket bag against India in 1969?

Facts on topics related to Indian subcontinent

Asia

• BoA's Best of Soul made her the first non-Japanese Asian singer to have two million-selling albums in Japan?
• Pushkar Fair—the largest camel fair in Asia—commenced on Kartik Ekadashi (29 Oct) and will end today on Kartik Poornima?
• Russian painter Alexandre Jacovleff (pictured) participated in trans-Saharan and trans-Asian (from Syria to China) expeditions organized by the French car manufacturer Citroën?
• San Sebastian Church, the only all-steel church in Asia, is threatened by rust caused by the salty sea breeze from nearby Manila Bay?
• France–Asia relations span more than two millennia, and have involved numerous alliances between France and Asian countries?
• Lion Beer was Asia's first brand of beer?
• bats on Madagascar colonized the island from Asia at least three times?
• Madame Tussauds Hong Kong is the oldest permanent wax museum in Asia?
• Queen Anula of Sri Lanka is believed to have been the first female monarch in Asia?
• Rev. Thomas Dyche is credited with writing the first book in English published in Asia?

Continent

• Polar dinosaurs could have walked to Australia, because during the early Cretaceous the continent of Australia was still linked to Antarctica?
• four different continents host red fox populations?
• the Coast Range Arc is the largest continental volcanic arc fossil in the world and the largest granite projection in North America?
• the design of Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne d'Enghien in Épinay-sur-Seine, France was inspired by the architectural styles of five continents?
• there are only a handful of true freshwater lakes in Australia because of that continent's minimal amount of glacial and tectonic activity?

Africa

• "Bitaqat Khub" is the first and only Eurovision Song Contest to have been performed in Arabic, and also the first and only entry to have represented an African country?
• 800 metres runner Andrew Hart was the fastest non-African in his event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games?
• advertisements featuring the character Michael Power doubled Guinness sales in Africa between 1999 and 2003?
• German philosopher Leo Frobenius thought that all non-European culture in Africa had to be the result of a white civilization which he called the African Atlantis?
• Safi Faye's 1975 film Kaddu Beykat was the first commercially distributed feature film made by a Sub-Saharan African woman?
• Anne-Marie Javouhey, the founder and abbess of a new religious order, was one of the first women to establish missions in Africa?
• Dowlish Wake was the home of John Hanning Speke who explored Africa in the mid–19th century in search of the source of the Nile?
• freak waves are common near Cape Algulhas off the southern tip of Africa?
  
• Gershom Sizomu of Uganda is the first native-born black rabbi in Africa?
• Halle Jørn Hanssen was Norway's first television correspondent stationed in an African country?

Arctic Ocean

• in 1937 a Soviet station became the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean?
• the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago collapsed in less than an hour in August 2005, setting a 66 km² (25 mi²) ice island adrift in the Arctic Ocean, but the collapse was only discovered during the recent analysis of satellite images captured by MODIS?
• the freshwater weed Azolla may have grown in the Arctic Ocean with enough vigour to plunge the world into an ice age?

Europe

• "Pink Fairhead" is a common name for Calocybe carnea, a small pink mushroom of grassy areas in Europe and North America?
• "experienced Euro watcher" Tony Connelly wrote Don't Mention the Wars: A Journey Through European Stereotypes, examining the stereotypical views of Europeans?
• blues singer Jesse Fortune, better known as the "Fortune Tellin' Man," passed on performing in Europe because he did not want to disappoint customers at his Chicago barbershop?
• Brazil has recently opened a commercial fishery targeting the Colares stingray, for export to Europe?
• Canadian-born Jim Koleff spent three decades in Europe as an ice hockey player, coach and manager after telling coach Dave Chambers that he would play in Italy for one year?
• Dorothea Mackellar wrote her patriotic Australian poem "My Country", which contains the line I love a sunburnt country, while she was homesick when travelling in Europe?
• Europe's most powerful supercomputer, MareNostrum, will be used in human genome research, protein research, weather forecasting and the design of new drugs?
• French geography professor Henri Enjalbert theorized that Albania, the Ionian islands and southern Dalmatia were the only European regions with grapevines following the last Ice Age?
• French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as V-E day in Europe?
• Germany is the European leader in Christmas tree production?

Central Asia

• Kazakhstan and Turkey have sought to promote closer bilateral relations and foster close ties between Turkic nations of Central Asia?
• Alliance for Open Society International, operator of drug rehabilitation programs for heroin addicts in Central Asia, sued the U.S. Government over the anti-prostitution pledge?
• Alpamysh, an ancient Turkic epic or dastan, is one of the foremost examples of the Turkic oral literature of Central Asia?
• Central Asia plus Japan is an ongoing dialogue between Japan and the Central Asian republics to promote regional cooperation?
• couching embroidery technique, in which yarn laid on top of fabric is held in place with small stitches, featured in the creation of the Bayeux tapestry (pictured) and Central Asian suzani rugs?
• Dzhigit is a reference to a skillful and brave equestrian in the Caucasus, and the derived term "Dzhigitovka" means the special style of trick riding, which originated in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and is also popular with Russian Cossacks?
• shartegosuchid crocodyliforms made up an endemic Central Asian Mesozoic fauna that existed after the breakup of Pangaea?
• chal is a traditional Turkic drink made from fermented camel's milk, which is popular in Central Asia, as well as in the Near East?
• Uzbekistani artist Nikolai Shin spent more than two decades working on his 44-metre-long painting Requiem, which depicts the 1937 deportation of the Koryo-saram to Central Asia?
• many villages in Tajikistan received only one to two hours of electricity per day during an on-going energy crisis in Central Asia?

Indian Ocean

• Commodore Josias Rowley's campaign to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius in 1810 was the source material for the exploits of Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's novel The Mauritius Command?
• Mayotte situated in the Indian Ocean, Kosovo and Montenegro in the Balkans, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, have adopted the euro as their national currency?
• East Wallabi Island has the highest number of plant species on any island of the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago in the Indian Ocean?
• Mittelafrika was a prospective colony of the German Empire, articulating their aim to annex the land area stretching across Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean?
• Niccolò Da Conti (1395–1469) was a Venetian merchant who traveled around the Indian Ocean for 25 years in the early 15th century, and was made to relate an account of his travels as a penance for converting to Islam?
• the Islamic prophet Muhammad, while in Mecca, was a merchant involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea?
• the first known specimen of the Soringa whiting was caught by accident in 1982 during a taxonomic survey of ladyfish in the Indian Ocean?