• the Oriental Seminary, established in 1829, was the earliest privately run modern school in Kolkata?
• the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata - the seat of the Governor-General during the Raj - was built on the lines of Kedleston Hall,Derbyshire?
• the graphic novel The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers combines Kolkata's Babu culture and the legend of The Wandering Jew?
• despite operating a charity that has set up four clinics in the city of Kolkata, British doctor Jack Preger has been ordered to leave India on at least one occasion?
• a tiger-haunted jungle was cleared to make way for the wide grassy stretch of the Maidan park of Kolkata?
• the Stoneman serial murders of thirteen homeless people in the summer of 1989 in Kolkata remain unsolved?
• 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?
• 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?
• 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?
• tradition has it that Warren Hastings hunted with elephants in the jungle in Chowringhee, now a business district in Kolkata, India?
• there is a plan to shift Kolkata's traditional wholesale market in Posta (pictured) to the newly developed New Town?
• the unimportance and consequent emptiness of Kalikata afforded the British room to settle there and establish Calcutta?
• a three-horse omnibus plied briefly between Dharmatala, a neighbourhood in Kolkata, and Barrackpore in November 1830?
• 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?
• Bidhannagar College, a government college in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, had to move out of its old premises because of student overpopulation?
• Burrabazar, in Kolkata, expanded from a yarn and textile market into a large wholesale market?
• Adwaita, the reportedly 255-year-old Aldabra Giant Tortoise that recently died in Kolkata zoo, was a pet of Robert Clive, the Commander-in-Chief, India of British East India Company?
• 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?
• human sacrifices were once offered in Chitpur, now home to Kolkata’s latest railway passenger terminal?
• the Charnockite in St. Thomas Mount, Chennai got its name from Job Charnock, the founder of Kolkata, whose tomb was made of rocks quarried from St. Thomas Mount?
• Entally was home to the poor and the depressed, and a neighbourhood where Mother Teresa started her active life in Kolkata, India?
• 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?
• Rickard D. Gwydir, an early settler of Washington state, was born in Kolkata and served in the Confederate army before being named Indian agent of the Colville Indian Reservation?
• 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?
• Ganendranath Tagore established the Jorasanko Natyasala, a private theatre in his own household, in Kolkata in 1865?
• Brahmo social reformer Dwarkanath Ganguly served a girls' boarding school in Kolkata, India as headmaster, teacher, dietician, guard, and janitor?

Facts on topics related to Kolkata

Delhi

• Aurangzeb, apart from imprisoning his brother Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort in Delhi for 21 years till her death?
• Bahadur Shah Zafar II who wished to be buried at a burial ground in Zafar Mahal precincts in Delhi was deported to Rangoon after the Sepoy Mutiny where he died without honour?
• Coronation Park was the site of the 1911 Delhi Durbar that marked the shifting of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi?
• Hijron Ka Khanqah (pictured) is a pre-Mughal period monument of the fifteenth century where some Hijras (eunuchs) of Delhi were buried during the Lodi dynasty's reign?
• Kirori Singh Bainsla leads a protest movement that recently attempted to bring Delhi to a standstill?
• Mehrauli, a neighbourhood of Delhi housing the famous Qutb complex, was the capital of the Slave dynasty from 1206 to 1290?
• Moth Ki Masjid (pictured) was a new type of mosque built in 1505 by Miya Bhoiya, Prime Minister during Sikander Lodi's reign in the fourth city of medieval Delhi of Delhi Sultanate?
• Sahu Mewalal scored the only goal in the final of the first Asian Games football competition held at Delhi, India, in 1951?
• Sultan Ghari (pictured), built in 1231 for Prince Nasiru'd-Din Mahmud, eldest son of Iltumish, was the first Islamic mausoleum in the "funerary landscape of Delhi"?
• Mubarak Shah, founder of the lost city of Mubarakabad, was buried in Delhi's Kotla Mubarakpur Complex in 1434?

Mumbai

• Indian serial killer Raman Raghav targeted street urchins and beggars sleeping in the open on roadsides and slums in Mumbai?
• Indian trade unionist Dutta Samant led an estimated 200,000 workers on a year-long strike in 1982, causing the exodus of the textile mill industry from Mumbai?
• Bambaiya Hindi, a pidgin used in Mumbai, is a combination of English, Marathi, Gujarati and several other languages?
• Jinnah House was the Mumbai residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and is the centre of a property dispute?
• Ruparel College in Mumbai, India boasts nuclear physicist Anil Kakodkar and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai among its alumni?
• Vihar Lake, the largest in Mumbai, was created in 1860?
• Dr. Acacio Gabriel Viegas was credited with the discovery of the outbreak of bubonic plague in Mumbai in 1896, and later became the president of the Bombay Municipal Corporation?
• a private citizen, Avabai Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, entirely funded the construction of the Mahim Causeway, a major throughfare connecting the island city of Mumbai (Bombay) with its north-western suburbs?
• devotees across faiths swarmed St. Michael's Church, Mumbai, as news of a reported "bleeding" Jesus picture spread in June 2008?
• during the Great Bombay Textile Strike of 1982, nearly 250,000 workers and more than 50 textile mills went on strike in Mumbai, India?

Bangalore

• Kannada cinema star Dr. Rajkumar was buried at Kanteerava Studios in Bangalore?
• Sankey Tank in Bangalore is named after Sir Richard Hieram Sankey, an officer in the Royal (Madras) Engineers in British India?
• Bangalore Gayana Samaja, which celebrated its centenary in 2005, is one of the oldest cultural organisations in Bangalore?
• Bengaluru Pete, established by Kempegowda I in 1537 with roads laid in cardinal directions with entrance gates at the end of each road, is an integral part of the present-day Bangalore, India?
• Bugle Rock in Bangalore, India, is a peninsular gneiss formation from which warning bugle calls were made to alert citizens of intruders?
• Chitrakala Parishat, an art institution and a cultural organization in Bangalore, was the brainchild of famous Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich who used to reside in that city?
• Cubbon Park in Bangalore, India, has indigenous and exotic botanical species of 68 genera and 96 species with about 6,000 plants?
• Hesaraghatta Lake is a freshwater lake created from the Arkavathy River in 1894 to produce drinking water for Bangalore?
• due to its numerous attractions such as Lal Bagh (pictured), Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka, is known as the "Garden City of India"?
• in 1985, Texas Instruments became the first multinational to set up base in Bangalore?

Hyderabad, India

• the 2000-seater laser auditorium at Hyderabad's Lumbini Park is the first of its kind in India?

Chennai

• footballer Bud Houghton was born in Madras to an Anglo-Indian family who migrated to England in 1947 when India gained independence from British rule?
• Niels Bohr inspired Indian physicist Alladi Ramakrishnan to create the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai?
• A. P. Patro inaugurated the Loyola College in Chennai, India, in 1925?
• the Charnockite in St. Thomas Mount, Chennai got its name from Job Charnock, the founder of Kolkata, whose tomb was made of rocks quarried from St. Thomas Mount?
• a fire in Saravana Stores, Chennai, in 2008 burnt out most of the building and killed two people?
• the Chennai Book Fair is an annual event in Chennai, India, which takes place between the last week of December and the third week of January?
• the Church of Our Lady of Light in Chennai, India was built in 1516 by Portuguese missionaries?
• the Higginbotham's, based in Chennai, is India's oldest bookstore in existence?

Calcutta

• Job Charnock landed at Sutanuti on 24 August, 1690 with the objective of establishing the settlement, which is now Calcutta?
• Coronation Park was the site of the 1911 Delhi Durbar that marked the shifting of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi?
• Kumortuli neighbourhood of Calcutta supplies images of Goddess Durga to Indian communities in about 90 countries?
• 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?
• 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?
• 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?
• it has often been claimed that the 1948 Southeast Asian Youth Conference, held in Calcutta, marked the starting point for various armed communist insurgencies in different Asian countries?
• 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?
• 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?
• the Esplanade in Calcutta, which formed a favourite promenade for "elegant walking parties" in the eighteeth century, now sees some 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles pass through during rush hour?

City of Palaces

• Kolkota, India is called the City of Palaces because of its abundance of European-style buildings?