• the Madras Bank, India's oldest Western-style banking institution, was established in 1683 by William Gyfford, the Agent of Madras at the time?
• the day that British East India Company acquired a sliver of land to build Fort St. George is celebrated as Madras Day in Madras, India?
• the first organized postal system in India was established between the British East India Company factories at Madras and Calcutta during the tenure of Edward Harrison?
• the Church of South India, a union of Anglican, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches in South India, was inaugurated in 1947 at St. George's Cathedral (pictured) in Madras (now Chennai)?
• Sir William Langhorne, 1st Baronet established the Madras Record Office, the oldest record office of the British East India Company and one of the oldest archival institutions in the world?
• industrialist S. Anantharamakrishnan became the first Indian director of the British-owned Simpson's group of companies of Madras in 1938?
• Mahatma Gandhi stayed at the house of publisher and journalist G. A. Natesan during his first visit to Madras on returning from South Africa in 1915?
• Nathaniel Higginson (signature pictured), the first Mayor of Madras city and the second American-born President of Madras, was the son of Puritan minister John Higginson, a leading investigator in the Salem witch trials?
• Armenian merchant Coja Petrus Uscan built the first ever bridge across the Adyar River in Madras?

Facts on topics related to Madras

Madras Presidency

• British economist Gilbert Slater suggested in the Madras Legislative Council that a committee be appointed to investigate the introduction of a common script for the Madras Presidency?
• P. Munuswamy Naidu became the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency after the 1930 election?
• Nathaniel Higginson (signature pictured), the first Mayor of Madras city and the second American-born President of Madras, was the son of Puritan minister John Higginson, a leading investigator in the Salem witch trials?
• P. Munuswamy Naidu, senior leader of the Justice Party in Madras Presidency, British India, supported the inclusion of Brahmins in the party?
• Rettamalai Srinivasan, Dalit leader from the Madras Presidency, was a brother-in-law of famous Dalit activist Iyothee Thass?
• T. V. Sundaram Iyengar laid the foundation for the motor transport industry in South India, when he started a bus service in Madurai, Madras Presidency in 1912?
• Yakub Hasan Sait, who served as the Minister of Public Works for the Madras Presidency from 1937 to 1939, was a native of Nagpur and a former member of the All India Muslim League?
• Indian freedom fighter T. S. S. Rajan practised as a doctor in Burma and England before being appointed as the Minister for Health and Religious Endowments of the Madras Presidency?
• in 1844 Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty established the Crescent, the first Indian-owned newspaper in Madras Presidency?
• the Justice Party survived the no-confidence motion brought against it after the 1923 election in Madras Presidency?

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?